Best and Ferris miss out for Ulster

ULSTER COACH Brian McLaughlin will be without internationals Rory Best and Stephen Ferris for Saturday’s RaboDirect Pro 12 match against the Scarlets at Parc y Scarlets. The pair are rested as part of an IRFU player management programme implemented post-World Cup.

The province is able to call upon six players who played in the World Cup – Irish internationals Andrew Trimble, Paddy Wallace and Tom Court, Springboks Johann Muller and Ruan Pienaar and Scotland’s Simon Danielli.

The Irish triumvirate enjoyed limited game time during the tournament and that was the case too for the South Africans – the two countries were knocked out at the quarter-final stage – especially Muller, who is happily recovered from the hamstring injury that he suffered early on in New Zealand.

Centre Luke Marshall is not considered after fracturing his jaw two weeks ago, while prop Jerry Cronin has suffered a neck injury and is due to get a scan. Recent signing Jared Payne (Achilles) is a long-term casualty. New Zealand’s World Cup winning prop John Afoa is expected to arrive shortly.

Ulster have lost their last three games but last season Ulster achieved the double over Scarlets for the first time. The Scarlets have a poor record against Irish provinces in recent times, losing all of their previous 10 matches.

Munster coach Tony McGahan has included their returning World Cup players in an enlarged squad for Friday night’s encounter against Aironi at Musgrave Park. Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan and Ronan O’Gara are just three of Ireland’s front-line players named but it would be a surprise if they see game time at the weekend. They’re more likely to return to competitive fare the following weekend against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.

Meanwhile, Ireland has climbed one place in the latest IRB World Rankings from seventh to sixth. Surprisingly their World Cup quarter-final conquerors Wales, drop from sixth to eighth following their defeat to Australia in the bronze play-off game.

World champions New Zealand remain on top after beating France 8-7 in the World Cup final, although their cushion at the top has been reduced slightly. The All Blacks would have surrendered that position to France had they lost to their final opponents.

France’s defeat means they remain third in the rankings behind Australia and just over three tenths above South Africa, a nation they climbed above last week.

Australia’s 21-18 victory over Wales in the bronze final improved their rating by nearly a point and as a result has reduced their deficit to New Zealand to 4.01 points. The defeat was costly for Wales as the points exchange meant they dropped below Ireland and Argentina to eighth.

ULSTER SQUAD:P McAllister, C Black, T Court, A Macklin, D Fitzpatrick, A Kyriacou, N Brady, L Stevenson, J Muller, D Tuohy, T Barker, N McComb, M McComish, P Wannenburg, W Faloon, C Henry, R Diack, P Marshall, R Pienaar, I Porter, I Humphreys, P Jackson, P Wallace, N Spence, I Whitten, D Cave, C Gilroy, S Danielli, A Trimble, C Gaston, P Nelson, A D'Arcy.

MUNSTER SQUAD:M Horan, W du Preez, J Hayes, BJ Botha, S Archer, D Varley, D Fogarty, M O'Driscoll, D Ryan, Donncha O'Callaghan, P O'Connell, B Holland, D Leamy, N Ronan, P O'Mahony, T O'Donnell, Dave O'Callaghan, J Coughlan, T O'Leary, C Murray, D Williams, P Stringer, I Keatley, R O'Gara, K Earls, D Barnes, L Mafi, W Chambers, D Howlett, D Hurley, J Murphy, S Deasy.