Yeah that may be the most likely (and two changes there probably isn’t great for the attack).  There’s also Moxham who I think has played centre, but not recently.  On the plus side Carson did very well last week.

The 42 is saying that O’Toole will be available ( which surprises me).  They also say “Cormac Izuchukwu, James Hume and David Shanahan are all undergoing return to play protocols following their removal from the game due to head knocks while Jude Postlethwaite has a suspected broken hand and Charlie Irvine may also be a doubt.”

Connacht have a worse injury list than us; on the other hand I would think all of their internationals would be back available.  It’s not good that Izzy has another head injury following another one recently.  They need to be careful with him.

I wonder if Harry Sheridan is likely to get a suspension for the red card.  It was far from the worst such incident we’ve seen but he couldn’t really complain.  Also the Edinburgh player that fouled Izzy needs to be sat down for a good while; that was awful stuff.

Yeah good point about Sheridan.  Regarding the red on Izzy,  I have seen some complain that Izzy feet was on the ground when he committed himself to the tackle, and should not have been a red,  but then if you take that point of view, Izzy didn’t have the ball when he committed himself to the tackle so was “Illegal” at that point anyway ( if he got his timing right and him Izzy as he hit the ground with the ball it would have been a “great” tackle, but thats always doing to be a risk when you try to make a hit like that) 

Offical update from Ulster Rugby:

David Shanahan, James Hume and Cormac Izuchukwu all sustained concussions in the game and will follow the World Rugby Graduated Return to Play Protocols.

Jude Postlethwaite suffered a hand fracture and will have surgery this week to stabilise this injury. He will be sidelined for a number of weeks.

Jake Flannery sustained a shoulder injury and he will also be unavailable for the coming weeks.

Charlie Irvine suffered a soft tissue injury to his lower leg and his availability for selection will be monitored through training this week.

Ireland internationals Tom O’Toole, Tom Stewart, Nathan Doak and Jacob Stockdale have all returned and are available for selection.

Edit: and now:

The United Rugby Championship has confirmed that Ulster forward, Harry Sheridan, has received a three game suspension following the disciplinary review process as a result of his red card against Edinburgh in the rescheduled Round 2 fixture at Hive Stadium….Should the Player complete the World Rugby Coaching Intervention Programme then the sanction will be reduced by one week.

Head Coach, Richie Murphy, has named his match day squad to take on Connacht tomorrow evening at Affidea Stadium in Round 13 of the BKT United Rugby Championship. (KO: 7.45pm)

1. Angus Bell (9)

2. Tom Stewart (68)

3. Scott Wilson (49)

4. Iain Henderson (Capt) (171)

5. Joe Hopes (8)

6. David McCann (83)

7. Marcus Rea (57)

8. Juarno Augustus (9)

9. Nathan Doak (101)

10. Jack Murphy (27)

11. Zac Ward (21)

12. Ben Carson (17)

13. Jacob Stockdale (142)

14. Werner Kok (27)

15. Michael Lowry (130)

Replacements:

16. Rob Herring (266)

17. Sam Crean (13)

18. Tom O’Toole (135)

19. Matthew Dalton (21)

20. Bryn Ward (11)

21. Conor McKee (14)

22. Jonny Scott

23. Ethan McIlroy (70)

Jacob at 13?   Jonny Scott on the bench ( I thought  De Klerk would have been next in line)

It’s interesting how they are managing the introduction/first caps of the academy lads.  There are several others (Kenny, Graham) that haven’t played yet: maybe they’ve another year in the academy.  Then there are Arenzana-King and Berman who don’t seem even to be playing AIL (maybe long term injured?)  Anyway Richie is a lot more trusting of the young fellas than Dan McFarland was.

I’m a bit nervous about this one after seeing the team sheet.  i’ve been very impressed by Jonny Scott when I’ve seen him play and would have expected/felt more comfortable seeing him start with Carson.  It seems that Murphy is trying to get his best players onto the pitch, but I’ve never seen Stockdale play in the centers before and 13 is such a critical position for the defensive structure.  Hopefully Jacob plays a blinder though and proves me wrong.  Aside from that it looks to be a very strong team, given who we’re missing, hopefully Marcus Rea can put in a strong showing, after he fell from favour under Dan McFarland he seemed to regress a fair bit.

Yeah getting nervous too.  I’m bringing my eldest son to this game, and the last game he went to ( which was his first Ulster game) was the zebra game last year!  😭 
Ulster can’t lose again or he will not want to go back! 🤣 

I was at the infamous quarter-final defeat to Connacht at Ravenhill 3 years ago so they always make me nervous. Hopefully our new-found forward power from Edinburgh will be continuing tonight.

Well that was disappointing, I was at the match, and from what I could see we were good in the first half but just could not score and then not scoring during the yellow card I felt I was only a matter of time before Connacht would get a purple patch.  Live That really looked like a high tackle in the first half just under the Connacht posts in the first half but they didn’t show a replay of it in the stadium.  2nd half Connacht were much better, while its seemed that ulster were just going side to side without going forward alot of the time,  could really have done with Stu punching a hole in the center.  Missed the last 10mins because he was sick, but I heard Ulster getting a try so a least we got the loseing bonus point.

I fell sorry for my son,  he’s been to 2 Ulster games now and they lost both 😥 he thinks hes back luck for them!

Edit: OK just watched that bit again and it wasn’t a high tackle at all, funny how different it can look live

That was a bitterly disappointing result,  on paper it was maybe the easiest of the games we had left on paper, but Connacht really turned up and played with an intensity we couldn’t match,  In the end I think the combination of our weakness at center and poor set piece gave us a hill we couldn’t really climb. 

We lost three absolutely key lineouts, it’s an area of our game that used to be a strength and I suspect it’s why we’ve signed a big tall random lock as an NIQ for next year.  Sam Carter used to cop a lot of flack for being soft, and truth be told he didn’t offer much around the park, but he was a top tier lineout forward and I’d contend I key reason that the likes of Herring and Stewart used to score so much from the maul.  It’s an area of our game that’s been a bit of a mess since he left, maybe the impending opening for a forwards coach gives us an opportunity to do something to address it too.

The only other positive from the match I thought was McIlroy looking back something close to his best after his injury last year.  With Bobby out for the season and a question mark over when we’ll see Lowry again having him back could be key.  

At center I thought we looked a bit more coherent when Jonny Scoot came on in the second half, but he was at fault for the last Connacht try, did fairly well for his debut mind.  As our only fit front line center, we really needed a great game from Carson, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be  

The only sour grapes from the game maybe relate to Finlay Bealham.  I’ve just watched his high shot again, as it’s hard to completely rely on my beer soaked first impressions on the night, but I can’t understand how his shot was worse than what Sheridan got sent off and suspended for last week.