Hall calling on ‘A’ team to make theirs a double
ULSTER ‘A’ begin their back-toback rounds of the British and Irish Cup with a trip to Gloucestershire for a first meeting with Hartpury College tomorrow (kick-off 2.30pm).
Ulster’s reserve side need to produce results in both games against the English side — who are bottom of Pool Five without a win and struggling in their domestic Championship — to mount a serious challenge to- wards making the knockout stages of the competition.
With two games gone, Ulster have one win under their belts and are in third, currently five points behind leaders Cornish Pirates, where they lost last time out.
As usual, the side is a mix of experience and youth, with lock Peter Browne and flanker Clive Ross being very much part of the former.
Also in the pack, flanker Aaron Hall, No.8 Greg Jones (below) and lock Matthew Dalton have all made their senior bows recently and ought to bring extra edge to proceedings. A notable selection for tomorrow is prop Tom O’Toole, who makes his debut for the A squad, while in the backline, Jonny Stewart and Johnny McPhillips are at halfback with the strong-running Rory Butler and Jack Owens at centre and full-back respectively.
Rob Lyttle and David Busby are on the wings and will bring decent pace and finishing power.
Hall has played in both B&I Cup rounds for Ulster and he is eager to keep the squad in the mix for a potential quarter-final.
“It’s an important game for us and we need to get the win,” he said. “So we’re hoping to beat them over there and then likewise next week.”
Ulster ‘A’: J Owens, D Busby, C Patterson, R Butler, R Lyttle, J McPhillips, J Stewart; T O’Hagan, A McBurney, T O’Toole, P Browne, M Dalton, C Ross, G Jones. Replacements: Z McCall, E O’Sullivan, J McCusker, M Rea, A Cairns, D Shanahan, A Kernohan. WHILE Harlequins’ European success has come in the Challenge Cup rather than the Champions Cup, they are still a relatively star-studded outfit.
Joe Marler and Kyle Sinckler will expect to dominate come scrum-time, while their sizeable back-row, including former England captain Chris Robshaw, Namibian Renaldo Bothma who is finally fit, and one-time New Zealand under-20 international Matthew Luamanu, will likely make Ulster miss Marcell Coetzee and Jean Deysel all the more.
Scrum-half Danny Care is a livewire of a player who is an expert at sniping around the fringes if Ulster don’t shore up their ruck defence well, while his eye for a cross-kick pass if teams get too narrow is something else that Ulster will have to watch. Despite their personnel being well suited to keeping things tight, Quins are also boosted by the return of huge attacking talent in the shape of number ten Marcus Smith A precocious talent, who has already caught the eye of Eddie Jones, he will look to release the likes of Mike Brown and Jamie Roberts.
(left).