WARRIORS HEAD SOUTH AS INTERPRO MATTERS TAKE CENTRE STAGE

There's no Premier Division action in the Long's SuperValu league this coming weekend as Bobby Rao takes his North West Warriors team to Dublin tomorrow for the first game in this season's Interprovincial series against Leinster Lightning.

The Warriors finished on a high last September when they posted a very impressive win over the southerners at Strabane Park- a result that prevented Trent Johnston's side from completing a clean sweep of the three Interprovincial competitions.

Unfortunately that was the local team's only win of the summer but to his credit, Rao stuck with his original, inexperienced team from the outset and he may well reap the benefits of that over the next couple of seasons.

He also handed the skipper's armband to Andy McBrine ahead of the game in Strabane and the Donemana man has proven to be an ideal candidate for the role. McBrine has revelled in the additional responsibility and the fact that he, as well as North West colleagues Stuart Thompson and Craig Young have spent much of the winter playing and training with the full Ireland squad should give them an extra edge this summer.

Despite their difficulties last time, Rao and the squad retain the full backing of the North West and there will be no complaints that the 12-man list bears little change from last time.

Naming the squad, the Head Coach explained that continuity was the key and he felt it was important to acknowledge the amount of work that the players had put in. "Andy retains the captaincy and his desire to train hard and play hard rubs off on the team. The boys have put in a lot of work over the past 12 months and they have deserved better than the results we have had. We're now starting to get the balance right although we know we have to perform much better with the bat this time".

"We have tried to keep changes to a minimum but both Johnny Thompson and Ricky-Lee Dougherty come into the squad that won at Strabane Park to replace Ross Allen and Gareth Burns".

To be fair, the 12 is much along the expected lines with the return of Thompson a real boost. The Brigade man was in excellent form for his club at the weekend and both he and wicket-keeper Dougherty have shown enough to the Warriors' selectors in the run-up to the new season to warrant inclusion.

That however means no place for Coleraine duo Gareth Burns and Scott Campbell just yet, while Ross Allen is most definitely one for the future.

The squad in full is- Andy McBrine (captain), Iftikhar Hussain, David Rankin, Niall McDonnell, Johnny Thompson, Ricky-Lee Dougherty, David Barr, Andrew Riddles, Craig Young, Jason Milligan, Stuart Thompson, and Brian Allen.