Ulster vs London Irish - Match Preview

By BrianC
August 27 2003

Despite the fact that the our club has strong roots in and ongoing connections with the province, London Irish have never played against Ulster. On Friday this will change when when we take them on at Ravenhill in the last pre-season friendly for both teams before the season proper gets underway.

Friendly aside, this match is important to both teams. Having beaten Munster and Leinster in previous years and Connacht on Tuesday evening only Ulster now stand in the way of London Irish achieving a grand slam of victories, all away, against all four Irish provinces.

The team playing against Ulster on Friday, players committed to International duty and injuries aside, looks to be the strongest that we can field. With Ryan Strudwick injured it would appear that Neal (Beefy) Hatley is captain although this is not confirmed on the official Website. The Ulster team, captained by Tony Ward contains our ex-player Kieran Campbell at scrum-half.

On Friday afternoon from 3pm onwards, supporters will be gathering in the Crown Bar, Belfasts 'must see' pub. The bars at Ravenhill open at 6.30 which gives us an hours drinking/assembly time before kick off. Post match may well depend on where the team are going and if they want us to join them, failing that one suggestion that has been made is the Botanic Inn. Thus does food at very reasonable rates and is open until 1 a.m. 

 

London Irish team

1 - Neal Hatley, 2  - Naka Drotske, 3 - Rob Hardwick,  4 - Kieran Roche, 5 - Nick Kennedy,  6 -  Declan Danaher, 7 - Michael Haslett, 8 - Chris Sheasby,  9 - Darren Edwards, 10 - Mark Mapletoft, 11 - Delon Armitage, 12 - Nick Greenstock, 13 - Geoff Appleford, 14 - Paul Sackey, 15 - Michael Horak.

Ulster Team

1 - Ronan McCormack, 2 - Matt Sexton, 3 - Simon Best, 4 - Matt Mustchin, 5 - Rowan Frost, 6 - Andy Ward (Captain), 7 - Neil Best, 8 - Roger Wilson, 9 - Kieran Campbell, 10 - Paddy Wallace, 11 - Andrew Maxwell, 12 - Shane Stewart, 13 - Ryan Constable, 14 - Tyrone Howe, 15 - Bryn Cunningham.

Replacements: 16 - Nigel Brady, 17 - Bryan Young, 18 - Matt McCullough, 19 - Tim Barker, 20 - Neil Doak, 21 - Seamus Mallon, 22 - Scott Young, 23 - Adam Larkin