Men's Hockey: The under-21 tournament at Grange Road over the weekend will surely provide some of the players for next week's three match series against Scotland at Instonians new pitch in Belfast.

With Ireland disappointed in not getting an Olympic qualifier last week, the team nonetheless have an important year ahead with European Championships in Manchester next September and a training camp in South Africa earlier in the year as well as a trip abroad for the Olympic qualifier.

With the Irish men ranked at 18 in the world and Scotland ranked at 22 the two games will be hard-fought matches but with Ireland, if they field their strongest side, the favourites.

The nations have met a total of 96 times since their first meeting on March 8th, 1902. With 54 wins out of those 96 clashes the home team will again be looking to add to that tally.

At Grange Road Leinster under-21s opened with a win on Friday night over Ulster, Tim Lewis and Henry Micks hitting a goal a piece for Leinster and Dane Ward grabbing Ulster's only score.

Ulster, however, went out on Saturday and kept their hopes alive when they hit two against Munster to no reply, Fraser Mills and Michael Watt getting a goal each.

Yesterday all Leinster needed was the draw for a tournament win, however, they had a convincing 6-0 win over Munster to take the trophy.