PAUL O’CONNELL is struggling with a groin injury, making him a serious doubt for tomorrow’s Magners League game against Leinster at Thomond Park. The Munster captain will be further assessed today but is unlikely to be risked ahead of the Northampton Saints return to Limerick for the Heineken Cup quarter-final on Saturday week.
Mick O’Driscoll would be favoured to come into the secondrow alongside Donncha O’Callaghan with the captaincy going to Ronan O’Gara.
Leinster will make a decision on the availability of Gordon D’Arcy and Nathan Hines (both knee injuries) with both line-ups to be announced this afternoon.
Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin has revealed very little by releasing a 29-man squad ahead of the second meeting with the Cardiff Blues in eight days.
They lost 19-9 in Cardiff last Friday when Tongan backrower Ma’ama Molitika went over for a 65th-minute try after Ulster were reduced to 13-men by the sin-binning of Ryan Caldwell and Darren Cave. That made it 16-6.
Besides the injured Tom Court, McLaughlin will select a full-strength line-up for what may turn out to be the defining match of the all indigenous coaching teams first season. Ulster currently lie in eight place on the Magners League table, nine points adrift of fourth-placed Glasgow, with a game in hand, and eight points clear of bottom-placed Connacht.
“On Saturday evening discipline will be key,” said McLaughlin yesterday. “We need to read the breakdown much quicker and make intelligent decisions as to how we defend or attack the opposition ball. We must keep the ball in hand and play some strong and smart running rugby. If we are going to come away with the win we really need, we’ll have to play out of our socks and be mentally prepared for a real fight.
“We were very disappointed with our performance last Friday so it is great to have this early opportunity to play Cardiff again. We have had plenty to work on from last week and have been in Jordanstown for the past two days which has been great.
“We must make sure that we make our home advantage count, and get our Ravenhill support behind us to get as much out of this game as we possibly can.”
Leinster-bound scrumhalf Isaac Boss is expected to return at scrumhalf after a hamstring problem, with Ian Humphreys to pressure Niall O’Connor for the outhalf berth.
Connacht, understandably still reeling from last weekend’s 17-14 defeat in Dublin, are hoping captain John Muldoon, Robbie Morris, Niva Ta’auso and Ronan Loughney can make it through late fitness tests ahead of Edinburgh’s visit to the Sportsground tomorrow evening.
George Naoupu, Ray Ofisa, Liam Bibo and Keith Mathews have already been ruled out. This is their last match before the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final against Bourgoin, also in Galway, on Saturday week.
Edinburgh are third in the table, level on 38 points with second-placed Munster and four points behind Leinster. Coach Rob Moffat is without veteran flanker Ali Hogg (hip), Chris Paterson (damaged kidney – sustained when winning his 100th cap against Wales) and Nick De Luca (groin), while Lions hooker Ross Ford is named on the bench.
EDINBURGH (v Connacht):J Thompson; M Robertson, B Cairns, J Houston, T Visser; P Godman, M Blair (captain); A Jacobsen, A Kelly, G Cross; S MacLeod, J Hamilton; A MacDonald, R Rennie, R Grant. Replacements: R Ford, K Traynor, S Turnbull, S Newlands, G Laidlaw, D Blair, S Webster.
CONNACHT (v Edinburgh):A Browne, F Carr, S Cronin, G Duffy, A Flavin, E Griffin, J Hagan, I Keatley, R Loughney, M McCarthy, M McComish, R Morris, J Muldoon, F Murphy, T Nathan, D Nolan, M Nikora, J O'Connor, C O'Loughlin, M Swift, N Ta'auso, B Tuohy, B Upton, B Wilkinson, A Wynne.
ULSTER (v Cardiff Blues): Forwards— D Fitzpatrick, B Young, BJ Botha, N Brady, A Kyriacou, E O'Donoghue, D Tuohy, R Caldwell, C Henry, P McAllister, S Ferris, R Diack, TJ Anderson, D Pollock, R Best. Backs:J Smith, P Marshall, S Danielli, D Cave, I Whitten, T Nagusa, I Humphreys, N O'Connor, I Boss, P Wallace, A Trimble, M Heaney, J Shiells, T Seymour.
