Teams were announced yesterday for Saturday afternoon’s Academy grade interprovincial which will be played at Donnybrook. Kick of 12:30, behind closed doors.

This will be Ulster A’s fifth fixture in this topsy turvy season and if they play Connacht Eagles at home before the end of the season they will have completed home and away fixtures against the three other provinces, this match being classified as an away fixture.

Ulster A are the only undefeated side in the 8 fixtures played amongst the provinces at this level, a draw against Connacht Eagles at the Sportsground in December the only blemish to an all win campaign. However, I wouldn’t read too much into that with Ulster generally calling up a higher proportion of senior players for the games.

In this one they have Stewart Moore, Bill Johnston, Dave Shanahan, Bradley Roberts, Gareth Milasinovich, Matthew Rea, Marcus Rea and Kyle McCall from the senior side and a sprinkling of breakthrough players in Ethan McIlroy, Aaron Sexton, Ben Moxham and of course Ulster rugby’s “winningest” captain David McCann.

The squad features recent graduates from Wallace High (Carson, Crothers, Doak), Coleraine Grammar (Egan), Dalriada (McCormick), Sullivan Upper (Sheridan, Saunderson, McKee) and Ballymena Academy (Corr) and it’s refreshing to see the Academy’s reach extending beyond the Belfast Big Three.

The Munster side features graduates, back to 2016, from the Ireland U20 set up in Jake Flanery, Sean French, Liam Coombes, Jack Crowley, Jack Daly in the starting line up plus Diarmuid Barron, Josh Wycherley and Jonathan Wren on the bench, and I expect them to extend their squad with a few more “possibles” by the time kick off arrives.

You’ll find out more about all the players by clicking their tag at the bottom of the page or using the site search at the top of the page.

At the end of the day, the game is a squad hit out to give players some game time under the current restrictions, and that’s about it’s level of importance, but if you want to put some jeopardy into the game we’ve given you a prediction below.

The FRU Predicts. Munster’s only loss has been to the Ulster A side this season, though they have played one match fewer than the rest of the provinces, so this has the makings of an unofficial interprovincial decider. Ulster have by far and away the more experienced side and it should be a convincing win for the Belfast boys.

Teams

MUNSTER A		ULSTER A
Jake Flannery	15	Ethan McIlroy
Seán French	14	Aaron Sexton
Liam Coombes	13	Ben Moxham
Alex McHenry	12	Stewart Moore
Conor Phillips	11	Conor Rankin
Jack Crowley	10	Bill Johnston
Ethan Coughlan	9	David Shanahan
Jeremy Loughman	1	Callum Reid
Rhys Marshall	2	Brad Roberts
Keynan Knox	3	Gareth Milasinovich
Cian Hurley	4	Matty Rea
Paddy Kelly	5	Conor McMenamin
Jack Daly	6	Harry Sheridan
Scott Buckley	7	Marcus Rea
Alex Kendellen.	8	David McCann (C)
Diarmuid Barron	16	James McCormick
Josh Wycherley	17	Kyle McCall
Paddy Patterson	18	Oscar Egan
Jonathan Wren.	19	George Saunderson
	20	Reuben Crothers
	21	Nathan Doak
	22	Hayden Hyde
		Lewis Finlay
		Conor McKee
		James Humphreys
		Ben Carson
		Matthew Corr