FREEZING conditions forced the postponement of the last three matches in the Senior Interprovincial Championship in Belfast on Saturday. The original venue for the interprovincials was Lisnagarvey but, because the water on the astra turf pitch was frozen, the venue was changed to Queen's University.

Three matches out of the six scheduled were played before heavy snow prevented the championships from continuing. Leinster played two matches, one against Connacht and the other against Munster, and in both they came out on top and seem poised to reclaim the title they surrendered to Munster last year. Indeed, in the last 10 years Leinster have the best record of the four provinces with four victories.

One potential obstacle to gaining another overall victory is their lack of goals. They only scored once against Connacht, a tally which, with all due respects to Connacht, seems dangerously low, but they did score twice against Munster. To beat Ulster they will having to be far more telling up front.

Goals is what Ulster produced in the only other game played when they beat Munster 3-1.

Munster had a disappointing series, they failed to win a match and only scored one goal. However, Bernie Heffernan, Munster's coach, did warn that their achievement of last year would be hard to recreate. Connacht also went home empty handed alter failing to score against Leinster.

Meanwhile, dates for the postponed matches have still to be finalised. "Dates have been pencilled in but we are unable to confirm a date before we check the availability of grounds," said Jaon McClory, honorary secretary of the Ulster Branch.

A similar fate befell the Under 16 Interprovincial Championship. However, only one match needs to be played to decide the title - the game between Ulster and Leinster.