CIT plant one foot in semi-finals

Cork Institute of Technology have one foot in the semi-finals of the Mauritius Cup intervarsities after disposing of Ulster Elks and Queens University Belfast in Kilkenny yesterday. Alastair Smith’s double gave them a vital 2-1 win over title-holders the Elks, who were missing their Irish internationals Eugene Magee and Geoff McCabe. Later in the day, John Hobbs and Stephen Parker both claimed braces as CIT routed Queens 5-2, ensuring that barring an unlikely collapse against UL this morning, they will make the last four. UCD put themselves in pole position to advance from the other side of the draw, racking up 17 goals in two games in wins over the Royal College of Surgeons (12-0) and UCC (5-1), with Robbie McFarlane and Luke McSharry sharing nine of the Belfield side’s strikes. UCC bounced back admirably from that defeat to grab a 1-1 draw with Trinity, with Richard ‘Dickie’ Barrett cancelling out Henry Butler’s opener. But unless they can post a shock win over DCU — who welcome back Irish international trio Conor and David Harte and Alan Sothern today — progression looks unlikely. The Mardyke outfit’s female counterparts — who are gunning for their third Chilean Cup title in a row — are well on their way to the last four after two wins yesterday, with Áine Connery grabbing two on her return from a hand injury.

They posted a 2-0 defeat of NUIG thanks to goals in each half from Connery and Fiona O’Connell, before easing to a 3-0 win over UL with goals from Connery, Eibhlín O’Donoghue, before Audrey O’Flynn roofed a drag. Their most vital game arrives today when they take on UCD, who they defeated 2-1 in last year’s final, in what is likely to be a straight shoot-out for top spot in the pool. However, CIT are already out of the running, with the Bishopstown college — who saw a plethora of players withdraw due to injury and unavailability during the week — suffering heavy defeats to UL (3-0) and UCD (9-0), though they improved significantly in a 2-1 loss to NUIG. But UL are by no means out of it yet. If they can defeat NUIG tomorrow morning, they will go into their evening game against UCD knowing exactly what they need to do to qualify, irrespective of the result of the earlier UCC/UCD clash. That the Belfield girls will be playing their third match of the day, may also count in the Limerick university’s favour. In the other women’s pool, favourites Ulster Elks lead the way with two wins from two, while Trinity and Queens, with three points apiece, are likely to be fighting it out for the second qualification spot. Meanwhile, Three Rock Rovers moved to the top of the table in Leinster despite looking anything but impressive in a 2-0 win over Kilkenny.

Rovers now have ten points from four games, with perennial rivals Pembroke Wanderers still stuck in mid-table after they were held 1-1 at Fingal, for whom Adrian Sweeney was on target for the fifth game running. Monkstown captain Gareth Watkins was forced to serve a team sin-bin after his side got their substitutions in a muddle and ended up with 12 players on the pitch against Glenanne. But Watkins had the last word when he cancelled out Stephen Butler’s opener to secure a 1-1 draw for the Glenageary outfit, who could have won had Ian Allen’s penalty stroke not hit an upright. In the women’s league, Railway Union stayed top despite having the weekend off, after champions Hermes and Pembroke played out a 3-3 draw, while Irish international forward Cathy McKean bagged a hat-trick in Loreto’s facile 8-0 defeat of Corinthians. In Ulster, Banbridge drew for the third successive game, though they will be the happier given the 2-2 result halted champions Cookstown’s early march. Instonians’ woes continued with a 3-2 defeat to Bangor, but Ian Hamilton’s triple gave Annadale a 3-1 win over Raphoe, while Lisnagarvey were 2-0 winners at Mossley. Ballymoney were the big losers in the women’s league, going down 2-1 at Ards, while Pegasus routed Victorians 6-1. Intervarsities, Kilkenny (Day 1) Mauritius Cup (Men) Pool A: RCSI 0 Trinity 8; UCC 1 UCD 5; DCU 11 RSCI 1; Trinity 1 UCC 1; UCD 12 RSCI 0. Standings 1 UCD 2-6 (+16) 2 DU 2-4pts (+8) 3 DCU 1-3pts (+10) 4 UCC 2-1pt (-4) 5 RCSI 3-0pts (-30) Pool B: Queens 2 CIT 5; UL 1 Ulster Elks 7; CIT 2 Ulster Elks 1; 1 CIT 2-6pts (+4) 2 UU 2-3pts (+5) 3 QUB 1-0pts (-3) 4 UL 1-0pts (-6) Chilean Cup (Women) Pool A: Ulster Elks 2 Queens 1; DCU 1 RCSI 0; Trinity 0 Ulster Elks 1; Trinity 8 RCSI 0; DCU 0 Queens 4. 1 UU 2-6pts (+2) 2 DU 2-3pts (+7) 3 QUB 2-3pts (+3) 4 DCU 2-3pts (-3) 5 RCSI 2-0pts (-9) Pool B: CIT 0 UL 3; CIT 0 UCD 9; CIT 1 NUIG 2; UCC 2 NUIG 0; UCC 3 UL 0. 1 UCC 2-6pts (+5) 2 UCD 1-3pts (+9) 3 NUIG 2-3pts (-1) 4 UL 2-3pts (0) 5 CIT 2-0pts (-10)

Today Men’s Pool A: DCU vs Trinity (Kilkenny College, 8.30am); RCSI vs UCC (Kilkenny College, 9.45am); Trinity vs UCD (Loreto Kilkenny, 11am); DCU vs UCC (Kilkenny College, 1.30pm); DCU vs UCD (Loreto Kilkenny, 4pm). Pool B: CIT vs UL (Kilkenny College, 9.45am); UL vs Queens (Loreto Kilkenny, 12.15pm); Ulster Elks vs Queens (Kilkenny College, 5pm). Women’s Pool A: Trinity vs Queens (Loreto Kilkenny, 8.30am); DCU vs Ulster Elks (Loreto Kilkenny, 8.45am); RCSI vs Ulster Elks (Kilkenny College, 12.15pm); DCU vs Trinity (Kilkenny College, 4pm); RCSI vs Queens (Kilkenny College, 5pm). Pool B: NUIG vs UCD (Kilkenny College, 8.30am); CIT vs UCC (Kilkenny College, 11am); NUIG vs UL (Kilkenny College, 1.30pm); UCD vs UCC (Loreto Kilkenny, 1.30pm); UCD vs UL (Loreto Kilkenny, 5pm).