Best & Henderson are the only Ulster forwards starting that you'd really be excited about if they were signing for Connacht. Connacht's back three even with Kelleher in for Healy is a match for any in the league and could easily shade it tonight. Bundee is Bundee (nouf said) and Ronaldson is a class act on his day and a top notch kicker. We have the ability to overwhelm their scrum and hopefully with Browne back we can at the very least hold our own in the lineout. If so then Ronaldson's kicking could easily be the winning of it for us. It's Ulster coming down to pick a fight with the Pro 12 champions in our back yard. No pressure then.

I have an extra ticket for the Bohermore Terrace for sale. Face value (€27.50).
PM me if interested.

Podge57 wrote: Connacht +5.0 with the bookies

Not really familiar with the +5 terminology so I checked. It seemingly means that if Connacht get within 5 points of ulster you will get 10/11 odds. Anyway the simplest way of looking at it is ulster are 4/9 favourites with Connacht being 15/8. And paddy power tends to be closer with it's predictions than the indo normally. I guess it is their business

Connacht +5.0 with the bookies

www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/guinness-...harges-35111185.html

I see the Indo predicting that we will win tonight's match. Hopefully this is one article that he gets right!!!!

Ulster's front five is underpowered, Small Paul is a never-was, and Browne is back to call the lineout. Sure their backline is great but let's see how they go with no ball.

I'm really struggling to see a positive outcome. It's hard to see marshall/jackson vs blade/carty working in our favour. I also expect Craig to be seriously rusty after his layoff. Indeed the fact that Robb is not even on the bench suggests he is injured as had been suspected from last weeks game. So then i wonder is it a case of rushing Craig back into the action which could turn out to be disastrous.

Coupled with all this is the loss od Denis and tom from the pack and the communication issues visible from the first games which will likely not improve for the inclusion of new players.

I know this a terribly negative post but I have a bad feeling about this game later

sligsup wrote: I heard previously that Kerins had being escalated so to speak and training on a full time basis with the senior squad.

Don't all the academy guys train with the senior squad? Pretty sure Lam put that in place from the start.

I don't know what to think of this game. At the start of the week it was easy to write this game off because of the injuries but now that the teams are announced it looks close enough that we could start to imagine something could happen. Piatau has been more than half of their attacking strategy this year so that'll be a big change, but regardless of the team they put out Ulster always seem to outmuscle us (often illegally). No idea what to expect but I hope its a good game.

problem won't come from our sub SH, whoever he is, but the starting SH. The issue is Blade raising his standards or not. At least not toward Pieenar's but even Marshall's will be hard to reach

I heard previously that Kerins had being escalated so to speak and training on a full time basis with the senior squad.

I'm a bit surprised to see Kerins on the bench rather than Conor McKeown seeing as Kerins is in year one academy and McKeown is year three and has been converted to a scrumhalf. Doesn't send a very good message to McKeown.

I was fearing the worst when no Robb, Marmion or Roux in squad but Ronaldson coming back is massive and them having no Pienaar, Piatau, Van Der Merwe (or even O'Connor) is big plus for us

Even with all the injuries their back 3 is still ridiculous, and Lyttle on the bench has been impressive in his cameos for them

Ili chosen over Poolman is bit surprising, maybe he is a hidden gem.

Looking forward to seeing Kerins if he comes on, was impressive during u20s 6N and JWC

I'm quietly confident we can sneak it

It's going to be a lot clover than I had feared, if we can get an early lead then we can win this

Youhooo!
Pat listened to me about Bealham 1 Carey 3
happy Ronaldson is back to take the tee, will lighten Carty's burden
fell bad for Robb though

My god, Ulster have a serious amount of injuries also. I didn't think they had so many out.

This may be a lot closer than I feared. The Ulster bench isn't quite so frightening either.

Finlay v Rodney will be tasty.
Dillane v Henderson
TOH v Payne - Well back three v back three!!!!

I now think given we are at home and Ronaldson plays (and I hope kicks), we have a chance to take this.

Connacht website says he & Robb failed late fitness tests. Maybe off the original list in hopes he would recover.