Ulster Rugby Coach Brian McLaughlin has named his side for the final pre-season friendly match which takes place tomorrow night at Ravenhill. Kick off 7:30.
It’s pretty much as predicted yesterday here the only differences being Adam D’Arcy starting ahead of local youngster David McIlwaine and my typo of Shiels in for Seymour.
I still expect D’Arcy and McIlwaine to get a half each and it looks like 40 minutes is all that Ferris and Best are going to get as well according to IRFU rulings.
Ulster have opted to start with, what could be, a very destructive back row of Ferris, Faloon and Wannenburg and I expect Daick to come on at 8 at half time with Wannenburg moving back to 6.
Best will also get a 40 minute work out with Brady coming on in the second haldf and it’s good to see youngster Paddy McAllister back in the match squad after his injury against Bath.
Barker and Muller have looked the best second row paring so far but I expect Caldwell to be given plenty of game time though perhaps for Barker as opposed to Muller as the Bokke may be required to stay on as captain in Rory’s absence.
In the backs Ulster have stuck with Porter and O’Connor and this paring certainly seemed to gell well in the Harlequins game. Whitten and Cave keep their centre paring and the impressive Gilroy starts on the left wing with Seymour on the right.
All in all plenty of interesting options to have a look at and good to see that there is still a fair sprinkling of local youngsters still in the mix at this stage of the pre-season.
Tickets for the match are still available and you can purchase them at the gates which open at 6pm on match night – go early and sample the atmosphere in the new food village.
ULSTER: (15-9) Adam D’Arcy, Craig Gilroy, Darren Cave, Ian Whitten, Tommy Seymour, Niall O’Connor, Ian Porter. (1-8) Bryan Young, Rory Best (Captain), Declan Fitzpatrick, Johann Muller, Tim Barker, Stephen Ferris, Willie Faloon, Pedrie Wannenburg. (16-25) Nigel Brady, Paddy McAllister, Adam Macklin, Ryan Caldwell, TJ Anderson, Robbie Diack, Michael Heaney, Ian Humphreys, Jonny Shiels, David McIlwaine
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