Rugby Union: CARLOW ON A HIGH

CARLOW zoomed to the top of the AIB All-Ireland league with an 18- 11 victory over Terenure College on Saturday.

The new boys in the top division may only be sitting pretty overnight, however, since powerful Munster kingpins Garryowen and Shannon are both in action this afternoon.

Winning at Lakelands Park is a great boost to little Carlow, and they had tries from Mark Buckley and David Cox to thank at the end of a tough day.

Cormac Egan crossed the line for Terenure's only try of the game.

At the other end of the table, Clontarf grabbed a 34-13 win over Ballymena, and tries from Daire Higgins, Ollie Winchester, Ben Gissings and Edon Burns helped gain them a bonus point.

Steve McConnell gained Ballymena's solitary try, in what was a disappointing visit down to Castle Avenue in Dublin.

Garryowen will have their unbeaten AIB All-Ireland League record tested to the limit when they travel to meet Buccaneers today.

The Limerick side are seven points clear of Buccaneers at this early stage of the competition.

But Ericsson Park has been a graveyard for teams with big reputations in the past and Buccaneers go into the game on the back of a battling draw against Carlow last weekend.

Buccaneers are unlikely to challenge for the title at the business end of things, but they can put a dent in Garryowen's prospects of returning to the head of the table.

St Mary's suffered their first defeat to Cork Constitution last weekend.

They have a bad record in Limerick and that could be their downfall again when they travel to Shannon.

Cork Con must be feeling good after their win over Mary's, but their home record makes dismal reading and they can take nothing for granted when they play host to second from bottom Galwegians.

Galwegians will be boosted considerably by the return of much of their Connacht contingent.

UCD will hope to keep up their good away run when they travel to mid-table side Lansdowne.

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