Wilson To Captain Ulster Against Leeds
Ulster coach Mark McCall has handed the captain’s armband to Roger Wilson for their pre-season warm-up game against Leeds Carnegie at Ravenhill.
Mark McCall today named his starting fifteen to take on Leeds Carnegie for the first fixture of the season. The friendly, which kicks off at Ravenhill on Friday night at 7.30pm, gives McCall a chance to give some of the younger squad members an opportunity to impress ahead of the new season.
With several senior players away at Ireland’s World Cup camp and a long injury list, McCall is calling upon some well known faces of his squad as well as some of the younger members of the squad and Academy for this fixture.
The back-line includes two Ulster Academy players who will be keen to impress on their debuts of the senior squad. Mark McCrea and Niall O’Connor were invited to train with the senior squad at the start of the summer and have been rewarded for all their hard work with a start for their province on Friday night.
O’Connor, who was part of the Ireland Under-20 squad that won the Six Nations and Grand Slam earlier this year, is very excited about the call up. He said: “I am really excited, it was a bit of a surprise to be named in the starting 15 but nonetheless I am very pleased and very much looking forward to Friday night and I just hope it all goes well!”
McCall has named Roger Wilson as captain for this game. The strong-running number eight did not miss a game last season and had the most minutes on the pitch of all the Ulster players. Wilson is joined in the back row by Ballymena clubmen Neil McMillan and Chris Henry.
Leeds Carnegie opened their season at the weekend by recording a win over Doncaster Knights in a friendly game and will be hoping for a big performance against Ulster on Friday. Tickets are still available and can be purchased online at http://www.ulsterrugby.com/
ULSTER (v Leeds Carnegie): Mark Bartholomeusz; AN Other, Darren Cave, Paul Steinmetz, Mark McCrea; Niall O’Connor, Kieran Campbell; Justin Fitzpatrick, Nigel Brady, Tom Court, Tim Barker, Ryan Caldwell, Chris Henry, Neil McMillan, Roger Wilson (capt).
Replacements (from): Jarlath Carey, Stuart Philpott, Mark Keyttle, Filo Paulo, Matt McCullough, Thomas Anderson, David Pollock, Paul Marshall, Adam Larkin, Seamus Mallon, Bryn Cunningham.