Waterford v Limerick

Limerick hurling continues to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons, and a failure to take any points on Sunday would have the Treatymen staring directly at relegation to Division 2.

And it appears that Justin McCarthy's role as Limerick manager came under more pressure last night as it became clear that a special county board meeting had been arranged.

The makeshift Shannonsiders are not disgracing themselves in the league, but they’re not picking up any points either and it seems inevitable that McCarthy – rightly, or wrongly – will be forced out of his position sooner rather than later.

But before that happens he face the county that turned its back on him during the 2008 Championship.

Waterford have been hit and miss thus far. Their excellent opening day win over Dublin was undone somewhat by their nine-point defeat to Galway last week.

The defeat was compounded by the broken arms suffered by centre-back Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh. The Déise are also waiting to hear from veteran Tony Browne on whether he will throw his lot in with them for one more year.

Waterford boss Davy Fitzgerald had given a number of his experienced players extra time off at the start of the year, but Dan Shanahan, Eoin Murphy, John Mullane and Seamus Prendergast are all back in the mix and in contention for starting places.

They couldn’t rally wish for a handier game to ease themselves back in.

Verdict: Waterford