Lansdowne stick with winning combination

Lansdowne have named an unchanged side from that which beat Terenure College for Saturday's AIB League Division One final against St Mary's at Lansdowne Road (2.30). Coach Michael Cosgrave confirmed that they have no injury worries aside from the normal bumps and bruises.

St Mary's have delayed naming their team, not because of any medical concerns, but to allow coach Brent Pope to consider a couple of selection issues. Prop Emmet Byrne's return to full fitness - he came on as a second half replacement for David Clare in their semi-final victory over Ballymena - means that Pope must decide which of the trio of Byrne, Clare and Peter Coyle will join hooker Peter Smyth in the front row.

There is also the vexed question of what constitutes the optimum outhalf/midfield axis. Mark McHugh started at outhalf against Ballymena but at halftime with the introduction of Fergal Campion switched to the centre: Ray McIlreavy was the player who departed early. The latter has recovered from a knock received in that game and is available for selection.

Ironically, Alan Lewis who officiated at the league meeting between the two teams in which he sin-binned six players has been chosen to take charge of Saturday's game.

Clontarf and UCD meet in the second leg of their Division One/Two play-off at Castle Avenue on Friday night (7.30), having drawn the first encounter 4040. Clontarf have not finalised their team but report no injury concerns. The students have Des Dillon and Anthony Carroll, who missed the first game because of injury, available for selection.

Meanwhile, Munster continued their preparation for Saturday week's Heineken European Cup Final with a low-key training session yesterday. Keith Wood, John Langford and Peter Stringer took no part because of various ailments, the most serious being the calf problem that afflicts the talismanic hooker.

The Munster Branch has asked for an additional 4,000 tickets, a request granted, to satisfy the demand. European Rugby Cup Ltd (ERC) will make a decision today on whether to open the upper tier at Twickenham for the game.

As of now 50,000 tickets are in circulation and they must weigh up the option of opening up the top tier, giving a capacity of 74,500 against the possible return of tickets at a later date which would remove the need to do so.