For leaders Banbridge the last weekend of Division Four competition promises to be an especially long one given they finished their programme a fortnight ago with a loss at Cork. The Ulster side sit nervously at the top of the table with 14 points, one ahead of Midleton and Ballina. Banbridge's missed opportunity to gain any points in Cork allowed Midleton and Ballina to place themselves in potential promotion-winning positions. A win for either Midleton or Ballina this weekend would allow them to leapfrog Banbridge and claim the two promotion positions in Division Three vacated by Trinity and Highfield.

Midleton travel to the already relegated CIYMS for their final match and should come away with a victory, while Ballina host relegation-threatened Collegians.

"When we joined the AIL we were out of our depth for a couple of seasons," says Ballina club secretary Derek Duffy. "But we've settled and built up the team quite a bit since.

Ballina hope that their former Irish schools second row Ray Sheehan will be back from injury, having been unavailable for the last few games. They report no other injury worries.

Midleton have no such problems, and are adamant that they will not be taking a cavalier attitude to Belfast. "The Banbridge game was the game of the season for us, and we knew that at the beginning, but we are not going to Belfast complacent," says club official John Colbert.

At the other end of the table in the danger zone, Bangor must be wondering where it all went wrong. The club face Suttonians in what is essentially a battle to avoid relegation. Old boys such as Ireland's Mark McCall, Jim McKoy, Davy Morrow and Don Whittle, as well as Ulster's Terry McMaster, find themselves in the position of needing to win and hoping that Collegians lose to Ballina to be sure of holding on to Division Four status.