Rugby: Ulster's push for a Magners League play-off place has been aided by the return of a number of frontliners to the starting line-up ahead of Friday night's game against the Scarlets at Ravenhill. Captain Rory Best is back in the XV, alongside BJ Botha and Ireland team-mate Tom Court in the frontrow.
Like Botha, outhalf Ian Humphreys has also recovered from injury to take his place, where he will dovetail with Ruan Pienaar, who moves back to scrumhalf.
Ireland wing Andrew Trimble also returns to the side after missing the last two games through injury, but Stephen Ferris remains sidelined with a knee injury sustained in January.
"Very disappointed to be out of action for another while with my knee injury," Ferris tweeted today. "Hopefully get it sorted once and for all tomorrow," he added, referring to scheduled surgery after an arthroscopy earlier this week.Trimble replaces youngster Conor Gaston and is joined in the back three by Scotland win Simon Danielli and fullback Adam D’Arcy.
Third-placed Ulster will be looking for their sixth win in a row tomorrow, with a last gasp 18-16 win at Parc Y Scarlets among the previous five. The Welsh side are still smarting from the late show and travel to Ravenhill in the mix for the play-off places, with a number of internationals back in harness.
Captain and Lions hooker Matthew Rees returns and believes Ulster might have one eye on the Heineken Cup quarter-final against Northampton.
“We put ourselves in a great position at the beginning of the season, we have played well in our home games – we made a statement and put ourselves in a very good position.
“A couple of games recently haven’t gone our way but now we have to concentrate on the remainder of the season. It’s a tough ask to get a result out there, but we have our best team out and we know Ulster will also be looking forward to a Heineken Cup quarter final.
“It’s in our hands – we have to win our four remaining games starting with Friday night. We’re in a dogfight now with the other teams around us. We got the victory against Treviso last weekend, it wasn’t the best of games but we have put things right this week.
“The conditions out there are going to be tricky, it will be an arm wrestle early on and we have to take the game to them. It all starts up front and delivering a set-piece for our backline to play off – and we know we’ve got some great players in our backline.”
Ulster (v Scarlets):A D'Arcy; A Trimble, N Spence, P Wallace, S Danielli; I Humphreys, R Pienaar; T Court, R Best, BJ Botha, J Muller (capt), D Tuohy, R Diack, W Faloon, P Wannenburg. Replacements: A Kyriacou, P McAllister, D Fitzpatrick, T Barker, C Henry, P Marshall, I Whitten, C Gilroy.
Scarlets (v Ulster):R Priestland, G Maule, R King, J Davies, M Stoddart, S Jones, T Knoyle, I Thomas, M Rees (capt), R Thomas, L Reed, R McCusker, J Turnbull, J Edwards, B Morgan. Replacements: E Phillips, R Jones, P Edwards, A Shingler, D Lyons, M Roberts, D Evans, S Williams.
