RUGBY:Matt Williams and Michael Bradley have named respective 25-man Ulster and Connacht squads ahead of their Magners League encounters away to Welsh opposition this Sunday.
Tom Court is the notable inclusion in Williams’ squad after the Ulster prop was temporarily released from the Ireland camp after making his debut in the win against Italy in Rome.
Carlo Del Fava and Simon Daneilli have also been released from respective international duty with Italy and Scotland for the Ulster game.
Rory Best, Stephen Ferris and Paddy Wallace have been retained by Declan Kidney and are not available. Wallace will need all the time he can get to recover from the two eye injuries he picked up in the opening two games of the Six Nations.
Darren Cave, Andrew Trimble, Mark McCrea, Isaac Boss, Ian Humphreys, Ryan Caldwell and Ed O’Donoghue are available to Williams following their time with the Ireland A squad.
Ulster are one bonus point ahead of Dragons in the league with both sides having won four and lost six games this season.
Bradley is without Michael McCarthy as he named his squad for Connacht’s trip to the Liberty Stadium to take on Ospreys.
Connacht are the league’s bottom side and they travel without McCarthy after the backrow was ruled out for up to 10 weeks having suffered a broken bone in his foot during training this week.
Daniel Riordan, Conor Muldoon, David Gannon and Mel Deane have all been called up since Connacht beat Dax last time out in January and Bradley is wary of the threat posed by the Welsh side.
“They’ve a lot of strength in depth and despite missing some players with the Six Nations underway they’ll still be able to field a very strong side,” he said.
“We’ve two matches during the Six Nations against the Ospreys and Cardiff and know that we’ll be facing some depleted sides and with that it mind it’s an opportunity for us to get some championship points.
“They’re currently lying in second in the table and they’ve shown some fine form in the Heineken Cup too which has got them to the quarter finals so we know we’ll have a very tough game come Sunday.
Kick-off at the Liberty Stadium on Sunday is 2.15pm while Ulster are in action at Rodney Parade from 4.10pm.
Ulster squad (v Dragons):
J Fitzpatrick, N Brady, T Court, B Botha, B Young, E O’Donoghue, M McCullough, K Dawson, C Del Fava, C Henry, D Pollock, S Phillpott, R Caldwell, S Daneilli, D Cave, A Trimble, C Willis, N O’Connor, C Schifcofske, I Whitten, I Boss, P Steinmetz, I Humphreys, M McCrea, B Cunningham
Connacht squad (v Ospreys):L Bibo, A Browne, K Campbell, F Carr, S Cronin, M Deane, A Dunne, G Duffy, A Farley, A Flavin, D Gannon, I Keatley, R Loughney, K Matthews, R Morris, C Muldoon, J Muldoon, F Murphy, T Nathan, R Ofisa, C Rigney, D Riordan, M Swift, N Ta'auso, B Wilkinson.
