The visit of the South Africans will give the Irish hierarchy a taste of what might have been. The visitors have named the uncapped Vernon Philander in their squad. The Western Province all-rounder was signed up to play for Ireland in the FPT but a stress fracture in his back ruled him out. It was a difficult winter for the 21-yearold, who will be 22 on the day Ireland play South Africa. In January he was a victim of an armed robbery and had a gun pushed in his face. He was dining in a restaurant with his Cobras teammates when armed robbers raided the outlet.

It is exactly 100 years since a South African side came to Ireland on tour and won both their games comfortably. At College Park in August 1907 Ireland bowled South Africa out twice, for 218 and 162. Bill Harrington and Tom Ross took 16 wickets between them but Ireland still lost heavily. The visitors' famous legspin attack of Vogler, Schwarz and Faulkner also took 16 wickets to riddle Ireland for 153 and 76. The South Africans then visited the Woodbrook ground of Sir Stanley Cochrane, a millionaire promoter of the game whose own side played dozens of games against counties and tourists in Co Wicklow.

Cochrane's XI were all out for 88 and 97 and lost by an innings.

A well-deserved return to the Irish fold today for Dom Joyce (right), who was unlucky not to make the World Cup squad. Joyce had played some fine innings for Ireland but a bad run of form this time last year coincided with the C&G Trophy and he was regularly found out by the county attacks. The one game he did make runs in was against Middlesex, and it is a happy coincidence for him that they are the opposition today. The resting of Jeremy Bray allows Joyce his chance, although there is plenty of competition for batting slots. Jason Molins made an unbeaten 140 during the week for Brondesbury just as the clamour for his return to the colours began.

The Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup game between Clontarf and Malahide next Saturday will be covered live on NEARfm (90.3fm). The north-east Dublin community station plans to broadcast the entire game between two of its local clubs. The broadcast begins at 1pm and will be preceded at noon by the weekly Saturday Sports Show programme which will come live from Castle Avenue. NEARfm will broadcast a number of League and Cup games during the year, with former Clontarf legend Fergus Carroll at the microphone.

The final stage of the Irish Universities championship takes place in Belfast this week, after the largest competition ever of 16 entries. Although not all sides took to the field, the colleges sector seems to be booming once again and some new powers are coming to the fore.

Recent champions UCC finished bottom of their group behind Waterford IT and DCU while DIT finished ahead of the University of Ulster. Monday's semifinals sees Queens take on UCD and Trinity play the winners of today's WIT v DIT clash. The final is on Tuesday.

The documentary of Ireland's World Cup adventure could see the light of day soon. Film-maker Paul Davey, who was there every inch of the way from Jamaica to Grenada, has had plenty of interest in his film. He is in negotiations with Screentime ShinAwil, makers of the You're A Star TV programme, and has had expressions of interest from an Australian production company and other production houses in Ireland. The BBC also took an interest in Davey's film and he hopes to start editing shortly.