The UAFC

Will the Internationals travelling to USA the following week be withdrawn from both sides for this game? If so who do you think both teams will lose?

I don't care who we lose as we'll lose no matter what

Best, Payne, Jackson possibly Luke and Henderson if fit

Munster could be missing some/all of Kilcoyne, Ryan, CJ, POM, TOD, Murray and Zebo. Earls will be banned for his red card.

The fact players will either be way, or have extremely limited game time due to the internationals might be are only hope of a win this week. That and some of the Munster squad might be spent after the heroic efforts of last weekend.

We could be really light in the backline for this game. On the assumption Olding, Marshall, Bowe, Trimble and Payne all are selected, and with Ludik and McCloskey unavailable, we will be pretty stretched in the centres and back three. Gilroy could be selected too, but i'd be surprised

Could be something along the lines of:

McCall, Herring, Ah You, VdM, AOC/Browne, Ross, Reidy, Wilson; Pienaar, Herron, Piutau/Stockdale, Cave, Stockdale/Piutau, Lyttle, Gilroy (if available)

Not the worst side but the bench won't be great

scrum5 wrote:Best, Payne, Jackson possibly Luke and Henderson if fit

Bowe and Trimble for sure.

Doubt it, Trimble maybe.

scrum5 wrote:Doubt it, Trimble maybe.

Bowe will 100% be in the squad, he needs game time, i'd go as far as saying he'll be starting in Chicago most likely even if he only gets a half or 60 mins

scrum5 wrote:Doubt it, Trimble maybe.

Bowe will definitely be called up. He's centrally contracted to the IRFU earning big bucks, the bean counters will not let him sit at home during an Ireland test series.

I can't see Trimble or Bowe making the Irish set up just yet.....

UlsterAreBrill wrote:We could be really light in the backline for this game. On the assumption Olding, Marshall, Bowe, Trimble and Payne all are selected, and with Ludik and McCloskey unavailable, we will be pretty stretched in the centres and back three. Gilroy could be selected too, but i'd be surprised

Could be something along the lines of:

McCall, Herring, Ah You, VdM, AOC/Browne, Ross, Reidy, Wilson; Pienaar, Herron, Piutau/Stockdale, Cave, Stockdale/Piutau, Lyttle, Gilroy (if available)

Not the worst side but the bench won't be great

The players who Joe sees as his starting 15 will not play for their Province this weekend. So we will not have Best and Payne, Henderson ruled out through injury but we may have Jackson depending on Sextons fitness. The rest of our Ireland boys should be available to play for Ulster.

Both have had limited game time, if selected for Ireland they should be realeased back to Ulster for some much needed game time. Stockdale and Lyttle would be fine anyway.

Sad day when we're hoping Munster have their international players away, to help us to a victory

Bowe will be called up to the squad but released to play for us v Munster and Edinburgh before getting Irish game time v Canada is my bet.