Ireland internationals Ian Henderson and Jacob Stockdale available for Ulster – Irish Times

Ulster will be given a boost ahead of their return to action against URC this weekend with Ireland squad Ian Henderson, Jacob Stockdale, Nick Timoney and Tom Stewart available for Sunday’s game against the Ospreys at Swansea. It will be.

All four have been brought back to the Northern Province by manager Andy Farrell, with only Stuart McCloskey, who played the full game in last Sunday’s big Ireland win, and substitute Tom O’Toole left out of future transplants. this weekend.

Henderson could also have been rested after coming off the Ireland bench for 20 minutes, but Dan Mc Farland was able to send a captain.

Stockdale, Timane and Stewart were always likely to feature for Ulster as they had not been selected in the matchday squad through the first two rounds of the Six Nations. The state game was their first since last month’s disastrous European competition at Harlequins, and the defeat meant McFarland’s side qualified for the last 16 of the Challenge Cup, with a trip to Montpelier in April set to take place. decided.

Ulster assistant coach Dan Soper said: “Everyone wants to keep getting back to Harlequins’ performance because it was such a disappointing performance.”

“break [in games] “It came at a good time,” he stressed, “and everyone could take a step back and reevaluate and really dig into what’s working, what’s not working, and how we’re going to approach Part 2.” Ta” [of the season].

“That’s exactly what we’ve been doing and we’re really confident in the parts of our game that are going well and the parts that we know we need to chase.”

Soper continued: “We’re in a good position in the league, we can be better and we’ll definitely move up the league once the second half of the season is over. [hopefully] Enter the home playoff range.

“That’s our goal. There was obviously a disappointment with our performance in Europe, but we have to accept that and move on,” he added.

Ulster have suffered a damaging losing streak in Europe, losing at home to Toulouse and Cans, but the last two times they have played for the URC they have won against Leinster and Connacht as they tried to get past them. Both teams have a point difference. It was just a lonely spot during the festival.

Ulster currently sit fifth in the URC standings, but are just four points behind Munster in 11th place, while Sunday’s opponents, the Ospreys, are three points behind Northern Province in eighth place, with only four points separating them from the competition. They have won their last four games.

“As you can see in the league table, every game is extremely important right now. It’s a close battle from second to 11th,” Soper said.

“Performing weekly through this backend is going to be very important.” [of the season]”

In addition to the injured O’Connor and Treadwell, Ulster will also be without Rob Herring, Stewart Moore, Ben Moxham and Callum Reid.

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