SCHOOLS KEEP NEW MOVES UNDER WRAPS

As you may have noticed, the Leinster Senior Schools Cup is in full swing once more and so are the stories surrounding it. Word has reached Against The Head that before the start of the competition, a Setanta Sports "lm crew had particular trouble getting some shots for the opening sequence of their coverage of the competition. At one southside school, the crew were warned not to "lm any line-outs, back-row or backline moves while they were watching training.

International teams often resort to such drastic censorship in times of deep paranoia but schools teams?

It must surely be a first.

MY MONEY ON HOOKER TO SCORE FIRST TODAY

Fancy a flutter this afternoon? The first-try scorer is always worth a punt and there's a couple of interesting odds out there.

Shane Horgan and Denis Hickie are both quoted at 7/1 by Paddy Powers. But if Against The Head had a spare few euros to place we'd be putting it on Shane Byrne at 25/1. We can just see it now:

line-out to the corner, Paul O'Connell take, and the Leinster hooker coming in at the tail of the maul to crash over from six inches. Don't say we didn't warn you.

CLOCK COUNTDOWN FOR INTERNATIONALS

It was in operation during the World Cup, and on occasion during last year's Six Nations Championship, but now all international rugby games will be using the stadium clock countdown method. So basically, any time the referee calls "time-off" to his television of"cial the clock is stopped and it resumes when play starts again.

When the clock reaches 40 or 80 minutes, the half will finish when the ball goes dead, bar an attacking mark, free-kick or penalty of course. All of which means the rugby world will never have its own Willie Barretttype figure. What a shame.

Compiled by Ciaran Cronin