Had things worked out differently, two members of the current Connacht squad could have ended up playing against each other in a bitter sporting rivalry ? in English soccer!

Adrian Flavin, who captained Connacht in the games against Glasgow and Llanelli over the past few weeks, was invited for soccer trials to Sheffield United when he was 14.

And scrum-half Tom Tierney went on trial across the Yorkshire city to the Blades' arch rivals Sheffield Wednesday when he, too, was 14.

But while both were promising players they turned their back on a soccer career ? with GAA also providing its distractions.

Tierney hurled with the Limerick minors before concentrating on rugby and going on to win eight caps with Ireland.

Flavin, who was born in Harrow-on-the-Hill, won two Great Britain Gaelic minor football medals with London but concentrated on rugby having joined London Irish when he was just five.

Spare a thought for the member of the extended Connacht party who arrived at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow last Thursday, a few hours after the team arrived.

Asked at reception for his surname and the initial of his first name, he was told the rest of his group had arrived and was given his room key. However, when he opened the door of his room he discovered a man in a bathrobe sitting on the bed reading!

Both, of course, presumed the other was in the wrong room but it then transpired that the Connacht man, a non-player, was in the wrong hotel. He had gone to a city centre Hilton where he had previously stayed with Connacht and by a remarkable coincidence a man with the same surname and initial, who was also part of a group, had booked in.

The Connacht team stayed in a Hitlon near to the Firhill ground on the west of the city where the match took place on Friday night.

Buccaneers and Corinthians are into the next round of the AIB Cup on Saturday but Connemara have been knocked out.

Corinthians, who travel to St Mary's College on Saturday, ran in three tries as they won 20-13 win over Barnhall.

Buccaneers won 36-7 away to Waterpark and will be on their travels this Saturday as well when they head north to play Ballymena.

Galwegians, who had a bye in the opening round, will entertain Ballynahinch at Crowley Park.

The conspiracy theorists on board the early morning Aer Arann flight from Cork to Dublin last Wednesday were certainly given food for thought. Given all the speculation following Ireland's dismal World Cup exit, the sight of Munster coach Declan Kidney and his Connacht counterpart Michael Bradley on board, both in something resembling their Sunday best, must have set tongues wagging.

Not least, as an eavesdropper might have discovered, they actually were on their way to meet the IRFU. But no, alas some would say, it had nothing to do with 'the blip' in France but rather a more mundane meeting that had been arranged some time ago for the management of all four provinces.

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