Starting Team for Dragons game

[Ringer]

Ulster Team Named For Dragons At Ravenhill
Ulster Head Coach Brian McLaughlin today named his starting XV, plus replacements, for Friday's Magners League fixture against Welsh opposition Dragons, at Ravenhill, kick off 7.05pm.
Rory Best makes his Ulster return starting as hooker, after recovering from injury, in-place of Nigel Brady who starts this match on the bench. With Stephen Ferris away on international duty, TJ Anderson steps into the No6 jersey. Ian Humphreys returns to the starting line-up at out half. Chris Henry will once again captain the Ulster Team.
Commenting on the Magners League clash, Ulster Coach Brian McLaughlin said: "It's a vital game for us on Friday night. The Dragons are sitting on the same points as us in the Magners League, so it's a game that we must win.

"Whenever we played them at Rodney Parade, at the start of the season, they out-muscled us; they beat us around the contact area, so we have a few scores to settle. I'm hopeful on Friday night, at Ravenhill, that we can come out and show how much we've improved, as the season has progressed.

"We're looking forward to getting back out in-front of a home crowd, after the fantastic support we received away against Bath. At Ravenhill this season, the fans have been great every match we've played, so we're expecting the exact same this week. We're really hoping they'll get behind us, because it's going to be a very difficult game. The Dragons are a tricky side to beat, and they're coming here off the back of a great win over Saracens. They'll arrive very confident, so we've got to make sure that come Friday night we're hitting the pitch running and play a good game of rugby," continued McLaughlin.

Ulster Team
(1-8) Bryan Young, Rory Best, BJ Botha, Daniel Tuohy, Ed O'Donoghue, TJ Anderson, David Pollock, Chris Henry (Capt)

(15- 9) Jamie Smith, Andrew Trimble, Darren Cave, Paddy Wallace, Simon Danielli, Ian Humphreys, Isaac Boss


Ulster Replacements
(16 - 22) Nigel Brady, Declan Fitzpatrick, Ryan Caldwell, Robbie Diack, Ian Porter, Ian Whitten, Timoci Nagusa

[Jackie Brown]

Court must be in line for a start next week then?

[RedKC]

Court must be in line for a start next week then?

Think he's injured. he was a doubt

[ulsterrugby4life]

Court must be in line for a start next week then?

thats what i read from it also porter on the bench

hoping for a good atmosphere and a win

[notj]

He was pictured on the IRFU website training with the starting XV from last week in Cork on Wednesday.

[Off the Top]

That's strong team and a good bench.

Looking forward to seeing Diack back into the fray and really looking forward to see whether young Porter can cope with the step up to Magners League.

Roll on tomorrow night

[MightyRearranger]

Interesting to see that Rory hasn't been made captain for tomorrow. Suspect that'll be more down to the fact he'll only be allowed to play 40 mins than anything though. Would personally have moved Henry to 6 and given Diack the start, but other than that it looks like it's about as strong as it could be.

[Windeos]

I think the management want to give Anderson a run out, probably been performing well in training and they want to see how he performs in a big game. I still would've got with Henry at 6 and Diack at 8 as said above but hopefully Anderson puts in a good shift.

Will be good to see Rory Best in an Ulster shirt again, hopefully we get a big win because we need it to push onto getting into the top 4.

[bogboy]

my read would be that Diack is considered as not fully fit for an 80 min run and it would be better coming on from the bench than starting

surprised that Trimble is allowed to start and would expect him to be subed early with Best and Wallace

[Ardglass2]

Anderson is also champing at the bit - as he told me the last time we chatted. He has played next to no rugby this year.

[cables]

surprised that Trimble is allowed to start and would expect him to be subed early with Best and Wallace

Unless he is injured, I don't see Wallace being replaced.

Were he to be replaced however, who would slot in at 10 and take kicks should IH have to then come off?

Equally, if IH was injured before any planned time for replacing Wallace then the Wallace replacement plan would be scrapped surely - unless we already had a bonus point win in the bag. I do not envisage a BP win.

[WhiteKnightoftheWeld]

I do not envisage a BP win.

i would be willing to make a wager on this. i do anticipate a win with BP and will be lending skybet some of my money in anticipation of a winning return.

how about the loser of our wager takes the winner to pizza hut?
your reward (in addition to several hours in my company) will be to buy me as much grog as i can put away, and a large deep pan meat feast. i'll even wear a nice shirt!

[King Ding]

does TJ have a contract for next year??? DRagons aren't that strong away from home so this could be a decider for him, personally i would have liked to see diack et a start as i think TJ is poor at ML level and gets shown up too often. Good to see Humphs starting again (still think we would be in the amlin had he started at Bath) and i wonder has paddys good performance at 10 as such reinstated him as our back up 10, again a good move imo, as whitten offers more on the bench than NOC.

Also great to see porter on the bench, should he get on i wouldn't be surprised if he took the kicking duties, Ulster need to get him as much gametime as possible to see if he would be an option for next year.

[Ardglass2]

does TJ have a contract for next year???

TJ's contract is until 2011

[againstthehead]

Interesting to see that Rory hasn't been made captain for tomorrow. Suspect that'll be more down to the fact he'll only be allowed to play 40 mins than anything though. Would personally have moved Henry to 6 and given Diack the start, but other than that it looks like it's about as strong as it could be.

I think it's a nice call to keep Henry as captain for now. Henry has worked his ass off all season (as has Best) and has led Ulster magnificently. IMHO it would have been a tad unfair to change captain so sudden. A nice touch but no doubt Rory will make his presence felt