City of Armagh and Ballynahinch looking to create All-Ireland League momentum ahead of huge Ulster derby clash

​Hinch will look to consolidate their top four spot against Young Munster at Ballymacarn Park while Armagh, who slipped to eighth after last week’s defeat, travel to defending league champions Terenure looking to get back to winning ways.

Armagh coach Chris Parker knows his side will be firm underdogs going to Lakelands.

“It is an exciting two-week block to have the champions followed by the Ulster derby,” he said. “Whenever we looked at the fixture list that was the first one we looked for.

“These two weeks leading into Christmas are exciting and it is important that we start to pick up a few points now and get ourselves trying to go the right way up the table.

“The message to the boys has been very much the shackles are off this weekend.

"If Terenure beat us no one bats an eyelid, but there is that internal pressure and that internal expectance for us that we haven’t been rolled over by anyone – we have maybe left it late in a few games to get back into it like we did last weekend.

“We feel we have been competitive and we feel we can continue that this weekend – on our day if we can take the chances that we create we’ll give anyone a game.

“It is certainly shackles off and we’ll go down and have a crack and see what level we can pitch ourselves at.”

Parker was also full of praise for the qualities possessed by today’s opponents.

“They are a pretty good all-round side,” he added. “They have a very strong set piece and when they get on the front foot and can play ball, they will tear you apart in wider channels.

"We have got to slow down that ball and try not to give them that front foot possession that they can thrive and play off.

“If we can do that and look after the ball a wee bit better when we have it, we’ll certainly give ourselves a chance.”

Shea O’Brien is released by Ulster and Chris Colvin returns from injury, but Cameron Doak, Nigel Simpson Josh McKinley and Glen Faloon are missing.

Hinch coach Adam Craig was happy to leave UCD with a bonus point victory last week.

“I was pretty pleased with the performance and I think we executed the game plan pretty well,” he said. “They have a really good rush defence and we managed to get round it a few times which was pretty pleasing to see from a coaching point of view.

“The lads fought right to the end and it was great to walk away with a bonus point win.”

Craig is expecting a forward’s battle against the Limerick side.

“They are very strong, a good maul team and have been for years in the league,” he added. “That is where we need to be on the money this week and hopefully if we can do that and the weather stays nice we can move the ball a bit, but if not we’ll fancy taking them on up there.

“Home games are really important for us in this league and it doesn’t matter really matter about the opposition – we want to win those games and make sure we look after Ballymacarn.

“Then there is the small matter of the derby before Christmas to finish it off.”

Ulster’s James French, Cormac Izuchukwu, Greg Jones, Aaron Sexton and Ben Carson all start.

Elsewhere, Queen’s are decimated by injuries and representative call-ups as they travel to Old Belvedere in Division 1B.

Meanwhile, Instonians coach Paul Pritchard insists complacency will not be an issue as he takes his table-toppers to basement club Dolphin.

They lead Division 2B with a prefect 35 points from seven games while Dolphin have only won twice and trail their Belfast visitors by 27 points.

Inst have scored the most points across all five AIL divisions (319) and Dolphin have conceded the most (270).

“We’ll just treat it like every other week,” said Pritchard. “It is a game that we want to win and a game that we need to win.

“We’re not thinking about their league position or our own.

"Going down there it doesn’t really matter where they are in the league – we know they are going to put up a test and a tough battle against us.

“We’re not thinking about league position, we’re just thinking about doing our jobs really.”

Despite a 59-10 win over Malahide last week, Pritchard still thinks there is room for improvement.

“At our classroom session on Tuesday night we identified a lot of work ons where we weren’t happy,” he added. “We said to the boys ‘we don’t want this to be a negative meeting at all, but we are trying to get better and it is something that we can still work on’.

“I think we made a couple of defensive errors and we weren’t punished for them on Saturday.

"As we play better teams and progress, we’ll face tougher challenges and we’ll need to make sure that we are up to that challenge.”

"For us over the last few weeks the big work on has been defence and just trying to improve a few things there.

“We want to become a lot more aggressive in our defence and to do that we need a lot of clarity in what we are doing and a wee bit more confidence – that is something that hopefully we’ll take into this weekend.”