As last hurrahs go, the conclusion of the AIB League campaign could be quite something. Maligned though they are in some quarters, the top four play-offs have again generated wider interest than would otherwise be the case, and on the penultimate Saturday of the regular 15-match programme you could still pick any quartet from the top half of the first division.

At the other end of the table, at least four and possibly five or six clubs are fighting for survival. As Clontarf's defeat of Cork Constitution and DLSP's win over Terenure College showed last week, the top four candidates will pay for any complacency. Realistically therefore, only Terenure and Blackrock are drifting along in end-of-season mid-table anonymity but as has been demonstrated by their wins in the last week, especially Terenure's over Young Munster on Tuesday, they can also be dangerous.

Form has been utterly unreliable. Since last Saturday lunchtime, seven of the intervening nine games have gone against the bookies' odds. In most cases there's been scarcely a kick between any of them. The demands on amateur, semi-pro and professional players will be the same as the manic pursuit of points intensifies over the final eight days (10 of the 16 clubs face three games in that time).

With the professional players largely starved of representative rugby, the clubs have benefited and, ironically, the AIB League has probably never had it so good in terms of standard.

Alas, it is not set to last and the upshot of the representative inactivity these past few months will be a hectic autumnal itinerary from which the clubs will suffer the most. So, viewed in this light, tomorrow's Garryowen-Young Munster encounter might one day be nostalgically looked upon as one of the last great Limerick derbies. The game will be a win-or-bust mission for both sides, and the same applies to the game between Ballymena and Shannon at Eaton Park today. "It's as big as any game we've had in three years," claims Shannon team manager Niall O'Shea. "If we win we've a great chance of making the top four. If we lose the lads can go on holidays."

Such sentiments can just as readily be applied to the others in these showdowns, and most probably to champions St Mary's with regard to their televised visit to Buccaneers.