Men's Hockey: With 10 Harlequins players on the men's Munster senior panel for the interprovincial tournament in Ulster on the weekend of the February 28th, there are few who would bet against the Cork club advancing in this weekend's Irish Senior Cup quarter-final match, when they travel to Dublin to face Glenanne.
Wesley Bateman, Jason Black, John Hobbs, Sean Nichloson, Philip Chambers, John Aherne, Paul Lombard, David Eakins, David Egner and David Lombard make up quite a considerable package against the team that will contest the Leinster Cup final against Three Rock Rovers on St Patrick's Day.
While Harlequins have a huge reservoir of talent, they will, however, face a team that is pretty expert in disrupting opponents and who are not shy around the goal. Paul Fitzpatrick and Alan Browne will make the Dublin side tick in various ways as Harlequins arrive as favourites but perhaps with a little trepidation.
Once again, as Munster and Leinster support the idea of investigating the possibility of an All-Ireland Hockey League, Harlequins may suffer from their lack of regular competitive fixtures at home. They arrive in Tallaght with their last league game against UCC finishing 6-0, David Egner grabbing four goals. That's not an unusual scoreline and if Glenanne can knock Harlequins out of that comfort zone in which they usually play their matches, they may upset one of the favourite teams for the trophy.
In Belfast the big game is Lisnagarvey's visit to Annadale at Lough Moss. The home side, which comprehensively beat Dublin's Pembroke in the last round, has been the form team in Ulster and their record in big events is good. In last season's club championship play-offs they defeated 'Garvey 4-2. Lisnagarvey are not the power they once were and came through the last round against Bangor only after extra time, 5-4. Again, a home win is likely.
Three Rock Rovers' plight at Instonians is more fraught, although they will take comfort from Railway Union's robust challenge in the last round where they lost only 1-0. While Rovers have blown the league somewhat, their run in the cups has been positive. A quarter-final this week and a Leinster final in three weeks' time should help fire them for this tough fixture.
Elsewhere Avoca, Ireland's regular contestants on the European circuit travel to Loughborough, England, this weekend for the 15th European Indoor Club Championships. The Dublin side play their first game today against hosts Loughborough before facing Swansea Bay in the last match of the evening session. They then play Slovakian champions SK Senkvice at midday tomorrow before going into the playoffs and final ranking matches.
FIXTURES - Saturday - Irish Senior Cup: quarter-finals: Annadale v Lisnagarvey, Lough Moss, 2.30; Cookstown v NICS, Cookstown High School, 2.30; Instonians v Three Rock Rovers, QUB 1.0; Glenanne v Cork Harleqiuins, St Marks 2.30. Leinster Senior League: Division One - Dublin University v YMCA 2.30, Santry; Monkstown v Corinthians 1.15, St Andrew's College. Division Two - Clontarf v St. James Gate 1.0, DCU; Skerries v Bray 12.0 Sportslink; Weston vs Suttonians 12.0 King,s Hospital. Sunday - Leinster Senior League: Division Two - St Brendan's v Naas 2.00pm DCU. Minor Cup - Quarter Finals: Naas v St Brendans 1:30pm Naas; Weston v Mullingar 4.30pm Kings Hospital; Suttonians v Pembroke Wanderers; Corinthians vs St James' Gate
