Garda opener for Jordanstown

Damian Barton is Jordanstown's manager

Holders Jordanstown will begin the extended Heineken Sigerson Cup weekend with a clash against Garda College in Sligo on Thursday (1545 GMT).

UUJ manager Damian Barton was a relieved man on Sunday night when he learned that his squad had not picked up any additional injury worries in the weekend round of NFL games.

Full-back Gerard O'Reilly plus Paddy Bradley and Michael Walsh remain UUJ's main injury worries.

Bradley and Walsh picked up groin strains in Jordanstown's Sigerson first round win in Waterford on Friday while O'Reilly sustained a hamstring pull in the same game.

  Sigerson fixtures (Thursday)

(Kent Park 1100) UCC v Maynooth (M McGrath)

(Markievicz Park 1230) Sligo IT v DCU (P McEneaney)

(Grange 1430) UCD v Athlone (B Crowe)

(Institute Park 1545) UUJ v Garda College

If O'Reilly is ruled out, Loup lad Padraig O'Kane will probably line out for Jordanstown at full-back.

Philip Loughran (Armagh), John Toal (Armagh), Fergal Doherty (Derry), Kevin Brady (Antrim), Philip Jordan (Tyrone), Sean Cavanagh (Tyrone), Ronan Gallagher (Fermanagh) and Aidan O'Rourke (Armagh) all came through the weekend games unscathed.

Jordanstown are hoping to emulate their successes of 1986 and 1987 when the university won consecutive Sigerson Cups.

Those teams included DJ Kane, Barry Breen, Enda Gormley and Dermot McNicholl.

If UUJ win Thursday's match, they will face either UCC or Maynooth in Friday's semi-finals at Institute Park (1330).

The final takes place on Saturday at Markievicz Park (1430).