Ulster Team Talk Thread IV... Go On My Henderson...

Quite simply, from Andy Farrell’s point of view, he has a starting pairing of Porter and Furlong, his subs are Healy and Bealham, his next in line are Jager and O’Toole at tighthead and nothing good enough at loosehead. So his best opportunity to replace Healy is to move Jager or O’Toole, and O’Toole is more mobile and younger so could give many years of service and then they’d be shored up for a few more years, Porter, O’Toole, Healy/another, and Furlong, Bealham, Jager.

Could Ulster’s best pairing be O’Toole loosehead and Moore tighthead anyway? Mightn’t hurt with Wilson coming through.

Laugh while you can, thanks to Humphries we’re scouting St Michaels. You’re all ulstermen now

Well, we've got Murphy, de Klerk and Berman coming up to the Academy, don't we? Although we've obviously had Mexicans come up here for the Academy before,it feels like a bit of a sea change for me. Three highly regarded U20s.

Not that highly regarded. Only 1 had a Leinster offer.

Leinster have about 162 players in their squad. Not getting offered an Academy spot by Leinster doesn't mean you're not capable of playing pro rugby. For a start there are two such Ulster players in the current Ireland squad in SA.

What I've seen of Berman in particular suggests he's a real prospect.

It also depends on the player and position, if Leinster already have a log jam in front of them, they will not sign them. It's not good for the player or for the province.

So players not picking up contracts can be for a number of reasons.

Hopefully these players will continue and become a huge success

Ulster U19s

FORWARDS

Aaron Caldwell(Belfast Royal Academy)
Blake McClean(Royal Belfast Academical Institution)
Bobby Newell(Portadown College)
Callum McKinney(Campbell College)
Conor Magee(Banbridge Academy)
Ethan Pavlovic(Belfast Royal Academy)
Harry Thallon(Sullivan Upper)
Hayden Hamilton(Regent House)
Jake Scott(Sullivan Upper)
James Clark(Royal Belfast Academical Institution)
Jed Dornan(Campbell College)
Joshua Dobbin(Cambridge House)
Justin Mark(Cambridge House)
Loughlin Sweeney(Royal Belfast Academical Institution)
Mathew Heasley(Dromore High School)
Oliver Hughes(Dalraida)
Rio McDonagh(Wallace High School)
Ryan Halpin(Down High School)
Ryan Hanna(Banbridge Academy)
Scott Gray(Campbell College)
Thomas Dougan(Royal School Armagh)
Toby Newman(Enniskillen Royal Grammar School)
Tyrese Abolarin(Methodist College Belfast)
Zak Molyneaux(Royal Belfast Academical Institution)

BACKS

Callum Soper(Royal Belfast Academical Institution)
Callum Irvine(Ballymena Academy)
Charlie Gray(Royal Belfast Academical Institution)
Daniel Green(IQ Rugby)
Eoin Ratchford(Enniskillen RFC)
Ethan Spratt(Regent House)
Evan McGonigle(Regent House)
Fraser Cunningham(Royal Belfast Academical Institution)
Henry Ralston(Campbell College Belfast)
Jacob Lennox(Coleraine Grammar School)
Joel Barron(Friends’ School Lisburn)
Josh Geddis(Wallace High School)
Josh Gibson(Royal Belfast Academical Institution)
Lewis Stevenson(Wallace High School)
Matthew Fox(Dalriada)
Michael McLean(Ballymena Academy)
Oliver Berry(Methodist College Belfast)
Quinn Armstrong(Wallace High School)
Rob Henderson(Friends’ School Lisburn)
Tom Wylie(Ballymena Academy)

I don't know how it will transfer to Ulster level, but some of those RBAI U18s never lost a game of rugby up to the end of their Medallion year, and that will have included games against Dublin schools. I think Ballymena Academy had a very good side as well.

Onviously there are different variables to consider such as players developing (or not) physically etc, but it will be interesting to see how they go.

I think most u18’s will have already played 1XV and will be going into lower 6th and RBAI were fairly well dealt with by most southern opposition. I remember watching the medallion final and thought they had some decent players, so it’s good to hear they match up well across the country.

I watched the schools cup semis and the final and I thought there was a clear gulf in class. It’s been talked at length as to why that’s expected so I’m not going to rehash it, but there was a noticeable difference in speed of play, intensity in defence and general back line play and handling.

Having said that, the u18 side played a game against Munster a few months ago and won by 50 points. Both sides were missing players due to the cups and Munster apparently put out a more experimental side so I’m not sure much can be made of that.

As you said there are other factors at play and realistically these teams are about finding and developing talent rather than winning games but the run we’ve been on the last couple of years doesn’t bode particularly well.