Will Stuart McCloskey stay as the starting center or will he be given a break now that Aki is back?
Will Stockdale get in now that Lowe is injured or will an out of position Tommy O’Brien take that place.
Surely Baloucoune keeps his place
Is it too early for Bryn Ward to get his first cap? but would that be at Timoney’s expense?
Looks like Izuchukwu is out with a head injury
Does Doak get a look in?
McCloskey is a cert to start.
Doak has a chance of starting, mostly because I don’t rate Casey as highly as others. Very one dimensional.
dont think Ward will be involved either
Some of the journalists (Gerry Thornley in the IT for example) are posting projected teams with O’Toole, Timoney, McCloskey, Stockdale and Baloucoune starting; Stewart and possibly Doak on the bench. We’ll see for sure tomorrow but it’s a long time since there were that many Ulstermen in an Ireland 23!
@forestial I forgot about Stewart, he generally played well on Saturday. If thats correct I can’t remember the last time there were so many in a match day 23 against a tier one… 🤔 team
15. Jamie Osborne
14. Robert Baloucoune
13. Garry Ringrose
12. Stuart McCloskey
11. Jacob Stockdale
10. Jack Crowley
9. Jamison Gibson-Park
1. Tom O’Toole
2. Rónan Kelleher
3. Tadhg Furlong
4. James Ryan
5. Tadhg Beirne
6. Jack Conan
7. Nick Timoney
8. Caelan Doris (captain)
Replacements:
16. Tom Stewart
17. Michael Milne
18. Thomas Clarkson
19. Joe McCarthy
20. Josh van der Flier
21. Nathan Doak
22. Tom Farrell
23. Ciarán Frawley
5 ulster players starting , 2 on the bench
Is that the most Ulster players ever in a match day squad in the 6 nations?
I think there were also 7 Ulster players selected against Scotland in 2013. According to Wikipedia, one of them Declan Fitzpatrick was an unused sub.
I think all the ulster players put in a decent shift. When Doak first came on I think he played well, even better than GP had played up to that point. Stockdale did fine, took his try well, but I fear it wasn’t enough to put himself ahead of Tommy O’Brien for the Scotland game ( maybe it being is natural position vs Tommy might swing it to him. Shame Ireland didn’t pull ahead sooner Tom Stewart and Doak might have gotten a bit more game time to see what they can do.
