Interprovincial: Teams up for Ulster A v Leinster A

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by

John McMurtry

The teams have been announced for the friendly match between Ulster A and Leinster A which takes place at Ravenhill this afternoon at 15:00 and will be shown on BBC iPlayer and/or BBC Sport.

The teams are a mix of recent Ireland U20, Ireland U20 hopefuls, a few “slightly” more experienced players looking for game time and a few club bolters who have managed to stay away from any COVID scares.

Primarily, I would guess it’s a chance for the new Ireland U20 coach to have a look at half a dozen hopefuls and swap notes with his predecessor, in the U20 set up, .

Wallace High School trio , and ; Dalriada’s ; Sullivan Upper’s and I believe Ben Moxham and are all still eligible should international U20 competition resume this season. They are all exciting players but, in my book, Carson is something special and will be worth keeping an eye on.

Outside of Ulster’s Adam McBurney, Bill Johnston, Ross Kane, Gareth Milasinovich and Marcus Rea the Leinster side appear to be a year or two older and, as you would expect from a Leinster side, the vast bulk have an Ireland U20 history with Max O’Reilly, , , and all familiar names from our coverage. Carson against Turner and Hawkshaw against Bill Johnston should be interesting head to heads.

However, our favourite Ireland U20 player of recent seasons, , starts on the bench but I would guess that he and Ulster’s will be brought on at the same time to diagonally oppose each other across the scrum. Two great prospects.

Ulster A have a had a few thrashings from their Leinster counterparts in competitive fixtures at this level, conceding 147 points in their last three meetings. However, there can be massive swings in performance and a quick glance down the team sheets makes me think Ulster are starting with an edge in the all important front five so we will tip the home side to edge this one.

ULSTER ALEINSTER A
Aaron Sexton15Max O’Reilly
Ben Moxham14Cian Kelleher
Hayden Hyde13Jamie Osborne
Ben Carson12Liam Turner
Conor Rankin11Niall Comerford
Bill Johnston10David Hawkshaw
Nathan Doak9Cormac Foley
Gareth Milasinovich1Marcus Hanan
Adam McBurney2Dan Sheehan
Ross Kane3Greg McGrath
Cormac Izuchukwu4Joe McCarthy
Conor McMenamin5Jack Dunne (C)
Harry Sheridan6Ryan Baird
Marcus Rea7Seán O’Brien
David McCann (C)8Alex Soroka
Bradley Roberts16Lee Barron
Callum Reid17Jack Boyle
Tom O’Toole18Tom Clarkson
Reuben Crothers19Mark Morrissey
James McCormick20Mark Hernan
Lewis Finlay21Patrick Patterson
James Humphreys22Tim Corkery

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