Buoyant Ulster's resources stretched

RUGBY NEWS:ULSTER AND Leinster will be without their international players for this weekend's Magners League clash at Ravenhill. The players will be resting under the IRFU's player welfare programme.

It has been a difficult week for both provinces to schedule training because of the snow, and Leinster’s session planned for yesterday at UCD was cancelled. Coach Joe Schmidt is trying to organise something for today or Friday before Monday’s match, which kicks off at 4pm.

With just a five-day turnaround ahead of the visit of Connacht to the RDS on New Year’s Day and Ulster travelling to Thomond Park to play Munster, there will be plenty of opportunities on both sides for youth to stake a claim.

Of that group, a question mark remains over lively centre Eoin O’Malley, who missed Leinster’s 24-8 victory over ASM Clermont Auvergne at the weekend because of a rib injury. His progress will be monitored over the coming days.

The province didn’t suffer any new injury concerns from the Aviva Stadium encounter.

Leinster face an Ulster side buoyant after their back-to-back wins against Bath in the Heineken Cup and big in confidence as they are still very much alive in the competition.

“I was interested to read Brian McLaughlin’s comments after their win over Bath last weekend, when he said he didn’t think they played that well,” Schmidt said.

“That’s a warning to us, and if they play better again they will definitely be a real handful.

“They have quality all over the park and the nature of these interprovincial derbies is special because there’s competition for places in the Irish squad as well as having important league points up for grabs and provincial pride to play for.

“They have recruited smartly and you can see that they’re gelling week to week.”

Ulster’s South African rump of BJ Botha, Johann Muller and Pedrie Wannenburg are all included in McLaughlin’s 30-man squad, with Paddy Wallace, Andrew Trimble and the injured Stephen Ferris rested.

The starting team will be named tomorrow afternoon and Ulster are expecting to be close to sold out for the game.

“Tom Court has done really well and obviously has the confidence of the national coaching panel, and, even though Rory Best may be missing, they have two good young hookers who have impressed me,” added Schmidt.

“BJ Botha is a quality performer, as is Johann Muller, and I’m well aware of his qualities and those of Ruan Pienaar from their time with the Sharks, when I was coaching in Auckland.”

Schmidt is still hoping Leinster can play for the full 80 minutes in the same way as they did for the first 50 minutes against Clermont.

“If I’m brutally honest, we know we let ourselves down a bit in the last half hour at the weekend,” said the coach.

“Our intensity dropped, allowing them back into the game, while we missed out on a bonus point.”

ULSTER: Forwards – D Fitzpatrick, P McAllister, B Young, BJ Botha, J Cronin, N Brady, A Kyriacou, T Barker, N McComb, J Muller, D Tuohy, R Caldwell, TJ Anderson, R Diack, C Henry, W Faloon, P Wannenburg. Backs – D McIlwaine, A D'Arcy, J Smith, S Danielli, T Seymour, C Gilroy, L Marshall, N Spence, I Whitten, I Humphreys, N O'Connor, P Marshall, R Pienaar.