The Clare team for the county’s first competitive senior hurling fixture of 2013 won’t be named until later this week but quite a number of the panel currently in training won’t feature.

University of Limerick will be Clare’s opponents in the Waterford Crystal quarter-final on Sunday following their 1-20 to 0-18 win over Waterford at the Déise venue last week. O’Garney Park in Sixmilebridge will host Sunday’s quarter-final at 2pm, with Cork’s John Sexton in charge.

A big number of Clare panellists will see action in the Waterford Crystal competition but it will be with their college sides, while injury will keep some players out of action for a further few weeks.

Six members of the current squad are attending UL and were listed on their panel for last week’s game. However, only Cratloe’s Conor Ryan saw action against Waterford.

Paul Flanagan, Paudge Collins, Seadna Morey, Cathal Malone and Darach Honan are all eligible to play with the students. Honan and Morey are on the injured list at present and aren’t expected to play this week for the students, who will have Shane Golden from Sixmilebridge at midfield.

Mary Immaculate College from Limerick bowed out of the competition last Saturday when they went under to Limerick. John Conlon, who scored 0-5 and his Clonlara clubmate Colm Galvin, who hit 0-2, played at full-forward and midfield respectively and are not eligible to play for Clare as a result. Their Clonlara clubmate Cillian Fennessy was at corner-back in Saturday’s game, which took place at Kilmallock.

Limerick IT, who are also managed by Davy Fitzgerald, will have a quarter-final game with Kerry this week and this will see Sean Collins unavailable to Clare, as he will be in the students’ line up.

Patrick O’Connor, Tubber and Stephen O’Halloran, Clarecastle will be in the Cork IT panel for this tournament, ruling them out of the Clare squad.

NUI Galway are participating in the Walsh Cup, a competition promoted by the Leinster council. They had a three-goal win over Westmeath last week and will be in action again this weekend. Their line-up includes Clare senior squad members Aaron Cunningham, Donal Tuohy and Liam Markham and they are expected to play with the students this week.

Amongst those who are ruled out because of injury are Cathal McInerney, Peter Duggan, Cian Dillon and Jamie Shanahan. Domhnaill O’Donovan is not available this weekend while Bran O’Connell is battling to shake off an injury and a final decision on his fitness won’t be made until nearer match time.

With the advantage of a competitive tie under their belts, UL, one of the favourites for the upcoming Fitzgibbon Cup, will be expected to make things difficult for the county side on Sunday.

Clare, who have been putting up impressive tallies in recent challenge games, will be looking to Pat Donnellan, Brendan Bugler, Enda Barrett, Colin Ryan, Nicky O’Connell, Fergal Lynch, Conor Cooney, Tony Kelly and Jonathon Clancy to give them the upperhand as they chase a semi-final date with either Cork or Waterford IT a week later.

A winning start for Kerry

Clarecastle’s Fergie O’Loughlin, who is coach/trainer to the Kerry senior hurlers, saw his side score an easy win, 6-17 to 0-12, over IT Tralee in a preliminary round Waterford Crystal Cup tie at the weekend.  O’Loughlin’s Clarecastle clubmate Tom Howard is the Kerry manager but he is currently serving a two-month suspension following the minor A hurling final last year.

Éire Óg’s Jack Walsh and Donal O’Halloran from Doora-Barefield played for the Kerry students.
Ruan’s Killian Ryan was introduced as a substitute for UCC in their game against Cork on Saturday.

NUIG 3-15  Westmeath  0-15

Six Clare players were in the NUI Galway line-up for their Walsh Cup tie against Westmeath.
Goalkeeper Donal Tuohy (Crusheen), Éire Óg’s Kevin Moynihan (corner-back), Cratloe’s Liam Markham (wing-back), Inagh-Kilnamona’s Eamonn Glynn (midfield), Ballyea’s Niall Deasy (wing-forward) and Wolfe Tones’ Aaron Cunningham (corner-forward) played key roles in the Galway side’s win.

Meanwhile, Eoin Troy from O’Curry’s was a member of the NUIG football side that lost to Sligo IT in the FBD Football League on Sunday.