Dennis Hickie has been added to the replacements' bench on the Irish A squad for their concluding championship fixture against their Scottish counterparts at Myreside, Edinburgh, on Friday (7.0).
Hickie fills the vacancy arising from Pat Duignan's promotion to the starting team following the withdrawal of Niall Woods. However, Guy Easterby's promotion to the A bench in place of the injured Tom Tierney has been forestalled because of an injury concern about the London Scottish scrum-half.
As for the Test team and replacements, an announcement will be made in the team hotel at Finnstown House this afternoon following the squad's only public session of the week, in King's Hospital school at 2.15.
Not unexpectedly, the Ireland under-21 team to play their Scottish counterparts on Friday evening in Bridgehaugh, Stirling, (6.30) shows no changes from the line-up which recorded their second win of the championship against England a fortnight ago.
The Irish Universities have made four changes from the selection which lost to England. The UCC trio of Aidan McSweeney, John Fitzgerald and Colin Healy all return from injury, while another UCC player, Aidan Kearney, who was a member of last year's Ireland FIRA World Cup under-19 winning team, has been chosen for the first time at number eight.
The schools' Senior Cup finals in Leinster and Munster take place tomorrow. The Leinster protagonists at Lansdowne Road announced their starting line-ups yesterday, and the only change in either starting XV sees the unfortunate Roscrea lock David Farrell, an early casualty of their semi-final comeback win over Newbridge, miss out. He is again replaced by Dan Cavanagh, whereas Blackrock are unchanged.
TnaG yesterday confirmed that they will be showing extended highlights of both schools' finals. Highlights of the Leinster final will be shown on the hour-long Sport TnaG programme at 7.0 tomorrow evening while highlights of the Munster decider from Thomond Park, between the holders CBC Cork and St Munchin's of Limerick, will be broadcast in Sport TnaG on Sunday evening, between 6.50 and 8.0.
Yesterday's draw for the Heineken-sponsored Leinster Senior Cup has sent holders Lansdowne into an opening clash with Blackrock. Lansdowne are looking to retain the cup for the third year in succession.
LEINSTER CUP DRAW (dates tbc): First round - Dublin University v Monkstown (A); Suttonians v UCD (B); second round - Barnhall v Bective; Old Wesley v Terenure; Old Belvedere v Greystones; Skerries v A winner; B winner v Co Carlow; Wanderers v Clontarf; DLSP v St Mary's; Lansdowne v Blackrock.
METROPOLITAN CUP DRAW: First round - Old Belvedere v Old Wesley; Suttonians v Monkstown; DLSP v CYM; Seapoint v Skerries; Terenure v Malahide; Dublin University v Blackrock; Greystones (V) v Garda (W); Second round - Railway Union v UCD; Coolmine v Barnhall; Winners V/W v Bective Rangers; St Mary's Lansdowne; Clontarf v Wanderers.
IRISH SQUAD (for Hong Kong Seven s, March 27th-28th): S Horgan (Lansdowne), J McWeeney (St Mary's), N Assaf (Blackrock), D Crotty (Garryowen), B Carey (Blackrock), D Wallace (Garryowen), B Everitt (Lansdowne), D Corkery (Cork Constitution), K Nowlan (St Mary's), J Topping (Ballymena). Manager: Alain Rolland. Coach: Denis McBride.
IRELAND UNDER-21: G Murphy (Leicester); D Quinlan (Blackrock) K Hartigan (Garryowen), B O'Driscoll (UCD), T Keating (Blackrock); J Staunton (Garryowen), P Stringer (UCC); M Horan (Shannon), P Smyth (St Mary's), J Campbell (Terenure), M O'Driscoll (UCC), R Casey (Blackrock), P Neville (Old Crescent), L Cullen (Blackrock) capt, R Woods (Dublin University). Replacements: J Ferris (Leicester), B Cunningham (Bective Rangers), C Dowling (Greystones), D O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution), S Best (Newcastle), S Baretta (Terenure), J Fogarty (Terenure).
IRISH UNIVERSITIES: C Healy (UCC); S Doggett (UCD), P Barry (UCC), S Moore (UCD), D Holt (UCC); M McHugh (Dublin University), C Curneen (Dublin University); A McSweeney (UCC), J Flannery (UCC), R McCormack (UCD), J Fitzgerald (UCC), C Keane (UCD), J Shine (UCD), A Kearney (UCC), G Cantwell (UCD, capt). Replacements: P Bredin (UCD), R Wallace (Dublin University), A Bainbridge (UCD), W Robb (Dublin University), F McKenna (UCC), G Murray (UCC), K Mur- phy (Dublin University).
SCOTLAND SQUAD: Backs: G Armstrong (Newcastle), capt, C Chalmers (Edinburgh Reivers), I Fairley (Edinburgh Reivers), J Leslie (Glasgow Caledonians), K Logan (Wasps), S Longstaff (Glasgow Caledonians), G Metcalfe (Glasgow Caledonians), C Murray (Edinburgh Reivers), A Tait (Edinburgh Reivers), G Townsend (Brive). Forwards: S Brotherstone (Edinburgh Reivers), G Bulloch (Glasgow Caledonians), P Burnell (London Scottish), S Grimes (Glasgow Caledonians), D Hilton (Bath), M Leslie (Edinburgh Reivers), S Murray (Bedford), E Peters (Bath), B Pountney (Northampton), A Reed (Wasps), T Smith (Glasgow Caledonians), P Walton (Newcastle).
SCOTLAND A: S Lang (Edinburgh Reivers); C Moir (Northampton), J Mayer (Edinburgh Reivers), D Officer (Harlequins), C Joiner (Leicester); A Donaldson (Currie), G Burns (Edinburgh Reivers); G Graham (Newcastle), R Russell (Edinburgh Reivers), M Proudfoot (Edinburgh Reivers), I Fullarton (Edinburgh Reivers), S Campbell (Glasgow Caledonians), C Mather (Edinburgh Reivers), S Holmes (London Scottish), S Reid (Leeds), capt. Replacements: K Milligan (London Scottish), R Shepherd (Glasgow Caledonians), B Bever- idge (Glasgow Caledonians), G Flockhart (Glasgow Caledonians), C Hogg (Edinburgh Reivers), W Anderson (Glasgow Caledonians), G Scott (Glasgow Caledonians).
BLACKROCK COLLEGE (v Roscrea, Leinster Schools' Senior Cup final): P Drew; C Buckley, G Brown, J Ronan, A Cahill; A Frame, J Walsh; P Dowling, D Laide, J Montgomery, J MacGovern, R Lacey, M Cooney, S Fallon, T O'Donohoe (capt).
CISTERCIAN COLLEGE ROSCREA: R Barry: E Fox, G Duffy, D O'Keeffe, B Phelan; N Moloney, S Connellan; S Byrne, J Phelan (capt), B Hall, D Cavanagh,, A Spring, P Corcoran, P McCarthy, B McCann.
