The UAFC

Watch Ireland A-Scotland A live

The BBC Sport NI website will have live coverage of the Ireland Wolfhounds, formerly Ireland A, against Scotland A at Ravenhill on Friday 5 February.

Just click on bbc.co.uk/nisport and the link to the match coverage will be at the top of the page.

Coverage begins at 1926 GMT, with kick-off 1930 and Jim Neilly on commentary.

Also, digital viewers (Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat) can press the red button and follow the links to the BBC Sport Multiscreen.

RTE also have similar (Ireland only) again with Jim Neilly on commentary.

Digital Freeview customers will NOT get the transmission. I believe this is something to do with BBC requiring to use bandwidth previously allocated to Freeview for HD programming.

If you're outside UK and you find yourself blocked by the BBC, you might be lucky to get coverage on the RTE website. Not sure if they block but they never used to a year or two ago.

Try here:

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/sixnation ... ylive.html

Agree mostly with what RHH said. Thought Caldwell was very good and perhaps time on the bench has focused him a bit, his carrying tonight I thought was superb so hopefully we'll see performances like that for Ulster again.

I'm sure Caldwell's time on the bench had him targeting this game to make a big impression and he certainly managed that. His ability has never been in question but his temperament has, and that's something that wasn't really tested against a Scotland A team who never seemed to be in the contest. If and when he turns in performances like that consistently against quality opposition he'll start to change peoples perceptions of him.

On another note there is no way Mike Blair is worth £350,000 a year on that showing. I know it wouldn't be popular, but if we don't manage to get a marque signing I think we could do worse at scrum half than Stringer. He's not been in the best form of late, but for the guts of his decade when he had a dominant pack in front of him he did the basics well for Munster. It looks like the pack we'll have next year would be able to do a similar job for him, he'd be on a central contract so shouldn't cost too much (possibly meaning we can get an NIQ fullback) and he might want to come here to fight for a place in the world cup squad. Him being here for a couple of years would serve as a decent stop gap while Porter is blooded into the first XV.

Another name which I'm suprised hasn't been mentioned is Frank Murphy. Does anybody know how he's been getting on at Connacht?

Score please somebody.
Mum

The newly-named Ireland Wolfhounds ran in five tries to complete a 34-19 victory over a Scotland 'A' side containing nine senior internationals at Ravenhill on Friday night.
'A' INTERNATIONAL MATCH: Friday, February 5
IRELAND WOLFHOUNDS 34 SCOTLAND 'A' 19, Ravenhill

Scorers: Ireland Wolfhounds: Tries: Chris Henry, Fergus McFadden 2, Isaac Boss, Johne Murphy; Cons: Ian Humphreys 3; Pen: Ian Humphreys
Scotland 'A': Tries: James Eddie, Mark Robertson, Penalty try; Cons: Ruaridh Jackson, Jim Thompson

Early scores from captain Chris Henry and Fergus McFadden, allied to three successful kicks from Ian Humphreys, pushed the hosts into a 17-0 break lead.

Man-of-the-match Henry was hugely influential for Michael Bradley's charges who had lock Devin Toner sin-binned after the restart.

Scotland 'A' closed the gap with three tries but touchdowns from McFadden, Isaac Boss and Johne Murphy sealed the result.

In front of a 2,746-strong crowd, impressive individual displays from Henry, centre McFadden, full-back Gavin Duffy, lock Ryan Caldwell and flanker Shane Jennings helped the ‘A’ side bounce back from last weekend’s defeat to England Saxons.

The Irish made most of the early running and quickly got on the scoreboard. Five minutes in, prop Tony Buckley, aided by Caldwell, ripped the ball free from a Scottish ruck, charged forward and flipped a neat pass away for Darren Cave to dummy his way up the right wing and pass back inside for his Ulster team-mate Henry to score to the right of the posts.

Humphreys added the conversion and Scotland ‘A’ were left frustrated when they had a try ruled out for a forward pass from John Houston, a late replacement for hamstring injury victim Simon Danielli.

Euan Murray caused problems for the hosts in the scrum but the Wolfhounds rallied and had the better of the closing ten minutes of the first half. The Irish cranked things up with a superb break involving nine players but a forward pass from Humphreys to Ian Dowling brought the attack to a premature end.

But the hosts' second try duly came off turnover ball. Toner did well to intercept a pass in midfield and maintain possession and Humphreys, Cave and Duffy passed well before the latter sent McFadden diving over for a score that exhibited Ireland's counter-attacking abilities to their fullest, with Humphreys adding the extras.

The Wolfhounds lost the services of Toner, three minutes into the second half, after he became entangled with Jim Hamilton and Scotland ‘A’ seized their opportunity to put points on the board.

The visitors mauled forward with great intent and the Irish defensive line eventually broke when James Eddie nipped over for an unconverted try. The Wolfhounds immediately got back on the try trail, though, as Duffy made a terrific break out of his own half and teed up McFadden for his second of the night.

Scotland ‘A’ also threatened out wide and replacement Mark Robertson was able to finish off some good work by Nick De Luca to touch down and keep his side in the hunt.

Ruaridh Jackson converted to close the gap to 24-12 but again the Wolfhounds responded in impressive fashion. Winger Murphy glided through on an excellent run and released replacement scrum half Boss for the hosts’ fourth try.

The margin was down to 10 points when referee Pascal Gauzere awarded the Scots a penalty try, after the Ireland Wolfhounds scrum had wilted under immense pressure and within a minute, prop Marcus Horan was sin-binned for persistent infringing in the scrum.

But Bradley’s men held on for a deserved win, tagging on a fifth a final try in injury-time - the late score rewarding Murphy for an energetic display on the right wing.

IRELAND WOLFHOUNDS: Gavin Duffy; Johne Murphy, Darren Cave, Fergus McFadden, Ian Dowling; Ian Humphreys, Peter Stringer; Marcus Horan, Sean Cronin, Tony Buckley, Ryan Caldwell, Devin Toner, Dan Tuohy, Shane Jennings, Chris Henry (capt).

Replacements used: Keith Matthews for McFadden (57 mins), Mike Ross for Buckley, Nigel Brady for Cronin, Isaac Boss for Stringer (all 63), Ian Keatley for Humphreys, Niall Ronan for Jennings (both 67), Ed O'Donoghue for Toner (76).

SCOTLAND ‘A’: Jim Thompson; Nikki Walker, Ben Cairns, Nick De Luca, John Houston; Ruaridh Jackson, Mike Blair (capt); Jon Welsh, Dougie Hall, Euan Murray, Scott MacLeod, Jim Hamilton, James Eddie, Roddy Grant, Scott Gray.

Replacements used: Craig Hamilton for MacLeod, Greig Laidlaw for Blair, Kyle Traynor for Welsh (all 57 mins), Mark Robertson for Walker (63), Rob Dewey for De Luca, Andrew Kelly for Hall (both 67), Fraser McKenzie for Jackson (74).

Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)

Very entertaining game; a good watch and lead in to today- I have to say three players who I(and others on here!) often slate had very good games; namely Buckley(if only someone could teach him how to scrummage!), Caldwell(cut the crap, looked intelligent!, and concentrated on playing the game) and Duffy(thought he was Rob Kearney for the night!).

Largely agree with comments above - I thought Caldwell played his best game of the season and that is the best I have ever seen Toner and Duffy play.

Positives: Caldwell, Toner, Touhy, Henry, McFadden, Cave, Duffy
Neutral: Horan, Jennings, Stringer, Humphreys, Murphy
Negatives: Cronin, Buckley, Dowling

I can see why Cronin is not in the main team - some of his throwing was awful
Again we witness the joke that is Buckley scrummaging
Dowling simple doesn't have the class necessary

What was interesting is we destroyed them with place but it came from 12,13, 15 not the wings
Touhy really showed his pace and he and Henry were outstanding
Flinger was much better tonight - only a couple of wild passes

Overall a very pleasing performance. The only real negative was scrum time - we were really bad

Thanks Cardoc. 2746 however seems like a very low turnout or is this a case of 'don't believe everything you read in the press'.
Mum

2BH the number could be close to the figure -- very few in the stand middle Terrace was comfortable and one end empty

Ireland "A" showed the benefit of the a game together Scotland on their first outing very disorganised and lacking coordination of effort .Murray was his usual disruptive self at scrum time and never penalised for illegal binding and bring the scrum down and when Horan finally complained tp the ref -- he got carded

The ref being french failed to referee the scrums period -- expecting and telling the players to sort it out --- sorry if --- if you fail to penalise illegal binding -- why should a player stop.

The suprise on the night was Duffy who given last weeks performance as well seems to have finally mastered the role of full back and starting to play with confidence --which was really lacking for a number of seasons.

If Mcfadden continues to show that form I can see a few GP clubs knocking at his door ( his prowess as a goal kicker has been so far hidden from view ) -- and GP teams love to have a goal kicker

IH was IH played well when passing but the boot from hand was iffy -- some penalties failing to fine touch on the full a couple sliced

Stringer was slight improvement on last week but -- only just he seems to lack the power in the pass and appears wind it up - with a double movement-- ie a serious lack of confidence