Talented young guns battle for Irish places

AN extremely talented gathering of the country's younger players will be involved in the under 21 Interprovincials at Harlequin…

AN extremely talented gathering of the country's younger players will be involved in the under 21 Interprovincials at Harlequin Park, Cork, this weekend. Primarily, there will be places at stake in the Ireland squad for a junior Four Nations tournament at Pwlhelli, North Wales, in five weeks' time and ultimately there will be participation in the newly formatted European under 21 championship in 1998.

Provincial pride, though, remains a most important element. Ulster will be favourites to retain the title, which they won handsomely at Stormont last season. Captained by senior panellist David Smyth, the side includes a host of players from the ranks of the successful under 18 team of recent years, notably Brian Waring, Kevin Lunn, Philip King, Clarke Kennedy and Colin Clarke.

But the other provinces, too, field leading figures from international youths level. Munster are bound to be sturdily served by John Ahern, Jason Black and David Enkins in particular, while Leinster will be spared by Graham Shaw, Chris Beere and David Hanna.

Leinster indeed indicated, in beating the accomplished current Ireland under 18 squad last weekend, that they might emulate their seniors. Encouragingly, the Combined Universities have also named a strong panel and may well stretch the provinces to the limit. Furthermore, Owen Butler, Gareth Kidd, Paul Lombard and Jason Milne will be among those challenging for international berths.