Ireland team for Barbarians

There are a few interesting head to heads from an Ulster point of view when an Ireland of variable levels of experience take on a reasonably serious Barbarians side.

Most notable is Chris Henry directly up against a lovelorn Xavier Rush with Henry having more than a little to prove against the apparent u-turning contract buster. It’ll be an interesting challenge for the young Ulsterman but if he can make an impact against what must be, with Quinlan and Smith joining Rush, one of the wiliest back rows around it should stand him in good stead for the tour proper.

Also delighted to see, even if it is by default, our old second row partnership of O’Donoghue and Tuohy (or Dan and Ed to their friends at the FRU Awards!) up against the formidable paring of Thion and O’Kelly. O’Kelly always impressed me in that he was consistently able to raise his game for the big occasion producing some outstanding displays for Leinster and Ireland and Thion is just a class act so it should be interesting to see how much change the (old) Ulster paring get from these two in the lineouts.

On another day Trimble up against Heymans would be another interesting encounter but I don’t think we’re going to be seeing that one on one too often as I suspect Trimble will be too busy covering midfield as the BarBars smash the ball up the 10, 12, 13 channels.

Court stands a good chance of making an impact when he comes on for either Horan or Buckley (please, please, please let it be Buckley after 5 mins) and Paddy will probably get a run out in the last half hour alongside Sexton as Ireland try to chase the game.

Hopefully it’ll be a bit of fun and it’s a pity it’s only going to be shown on RTE 2.

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