Ulster Head Coach Brian McLaughlin has named a 27 man squad ahead of Ulster’s Magners League fixture against Scarlets, to be played at Parc y Scarlets on Friday 5th March, kick off 7.05pm.
Commenting on his side’s crucial Magners League game, Coach Brian McLaughlin said,
“We have to go to the Scarlets really positive about our own ability to win away from home. There can be no doubt that we have been improving our away performances, it is something that we talked about at the beginning of the season, but we have to go to Llanelli and be accurate with everything we do.
It is going to be very, very tough, they have an experienced squad and we’ll have to be clinical with the chances we create and come away with the right result.”
Ulster currently sit in 6th place in the league table on 25 points with Scarlets in 9th place on 17 points.
The backline is bolstered with the return of Andrew Trimble and Paddy Wallace, both back from Ireland camp and Nevin Spence is also included in the squad, following his return from Ireland Under 20′s duty.
FORWARDS: Tom Court, Bryan Young, B.J Botha, Declan Fitzpatrick, Nigel Brady, Andy Kyriacou, Ryan Caldwell, Ed O’Donoghue, Dan Tuohy, Thomas Anderson, David Pollock, Willie Faloon, Chris Henry, Robbie Diack. BACKS: Cillian Willis, Isaac Boss, Paul Marshall, Ian Humphreys, Niall O’Connor, Paddy Wallace, Darren Cave, Ian Whitten, Timoci Nagusa, Andrew Trimble, Simon Danielli, Jamie Smith, Nevin Spence.
The team will be announced at 12 noon on Thursday.
I suppose the tactics for this game will depend on the availability of Stephen Jones as Scarlets are not the same team if he is missing. However if Ulster are to show real progress this year they have to take the attitude that other teams should worry about them.
The selections at No. 8 and out-half will really determine what sort of game Ulster are looking to play. The choices are Diack or Henry, Humphreys or O’Connor.
The safer selections would be Henry and O’Connor and this would indicate to me that Ulster are preparing to play a containment game, concentrating on pressure and field position whereas Diack and Humphreys would indicate a more attacking game is intended. You could also include Kyriacou and Brady in this selection with Kyriacou being slightly better with his hands than the reliable Brady.
Though Scarlets have improved dramatically of late my opinion is that we have enough grunt up front to win a plentiful supply of ball and my option would be to go with our most attacking options, giving a match day 22 as follows:
FRU Select: (1-8) Court, Kyriacou, Botha, O’Donoghue, Tuohy, Henry, Pollock, Diack. (15-9) Smith, Trimble, Cave, Wallace, Danielli, Humphreys, Boss. (16-22) Brady, Fitzpatrick, Caldwell, Faloon, Willis, Whitten, Spence.
More like this:
5 Responses to “Ulster squad for Scarlets”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Dewi ………. the fru traveling support have an odd number on our trip to LLanelli if any Ulster supporter is looking to share a twin room in the delux Premier Inn Llanelli on Friday night please contact the editor for further information.
Rate this comment. Like or dislike?
0 
0
Llanelli are something of a bogey team for us, can’t remember the last time we beat them in Stradey never mind Parc Y.
So is it Steady Niall or Unpredictable Humph. If that was the only choice McGlocks had to make it would be a simple game!!
How about Steady Eddie or Unpredictable Ryan for example!
Rate this comment. Like or dislike?
0 
0
Unpredictable Humph and Steady Eddie – no contest!!!
Rate this comment. Like or dislike?
0 
0
I think you are being a bit hard on O’Connor, who has certainly added a lot to his game this season.
Granted he doesn’t have the eye for a break like Humphreys but he does have a fantastically fast pass which is equally capable of opening up defences.
We tend to be overly critical of our out-halfs. If the front five perform then both are more than capable of doing a job.
Rate this comment. Like or dislike?
0 
0
I agree with you Dewi – Young O’Connor has improved immensely this season, however with the talent we have in the backs not to mention the speed they have we need the forwards to provide the ball and Hugo Boss to deliver FAST ball to the backline and the gaps will be there.
Rate this comment. Like or dislike?
0 
0