Waterford look for winning start under Niall Carew

Niall Carew will have his first competitive game in charge of Waterford this coming Sunday afternoon when they take on University of Limerick at the WIT Campus in Carriganore at 2pm.

The former Kildare selector was only appointed as Manager shortly before Christmas despite his predecessor John Owens standing down after a defeat to Wicklow in the All-Ireland Qualifiers at the end of June.

This is a competition that both sides would be hoping to improve their recent record in.

Since 2005 when the competition was revamped and the third level colleges in the province as well as Cork and Kerry were admitted to the competition the two sides have played twenty five games in the competition between them.

University of Limerick have played one more game than Waterford winning five of their thirteen games while Waterford have won just three of their dozen games.

For both sides, 2009 was their best year in the competition. Waterford played three games in that years competition reaching the semi final stages of the competition where they lost to the Limerick College side. The Shannon-siders played four games that year to reach the final where they suffered a 1-13 to 0-6 defeat to Cork.

The two sides have met twice since the competition was revamped and on both occasions the students came out on top.

The Waterford management team on Thursday night named the team that will play UL, but its fair to say by the time the game starts on Sunday afternoon, there will be some possible positional changes with maybe some changes in personal also in the starting XV.

Stephen Enright is set to start between the posts. Tadhg Ó hUallachain, Stephen Prendergast and Conor Phelan make up the full back line with Tony Grey, Shane Briggs and Ronan Cahill starting outside them.

In the middle of the field Tommy Prendergast makes a return to the Inter county Scene and will be partnered by Colligan’s Sean Dempsey.

In attack Conor McGrath, Paul Whyte and Maurice O’Gorman make up the half forward line while John Wall, Patrick Hurney and Gavin Nugent make up the full forward line.