Devine was injured and unavailable last week, but this week he could have played.
Colm Reilly, who is 26, had barely featured for Connacht. He has 32 career games, 7 starts (including this weekend) for 874 mins. He had played exactly once this season (11 mins off the bench in December) before it was announced in Feb that Devine was leaving.
Now he's been in the last two match squads despite there being no mention of Devine being on the injury list.
It's possible they've just decided Reilly is the better player, but given how vocally frustrated they were with Devine opting to leave, it certainly looks like they've decided to back the guy who's staying instead (and I don't have a problem with that).
You put your best players on the pitch regardless of where they are going.
Gilbert out is a loss, but mitigated somewhat by the quality of Naughton's goalkicking.
Colm Reilly definitely looks to have had a bit of a career revival under Lancaster, or maybe they're just thinking it's not worth giving minutes to Matt Devine when he's bailed out at the end of the season. Reilly is the guy who'll be there so more value in giving the minutes to him.
Ulster Rugby vs Connacht Rugby Friday 20th March, 19:45 @ Affidea Stadium
Number/Name/Caps 15. Sean Naughton (10) 14. Shane Jennings (30) 13. Cathal Forde (66) 12. Bundee Aki (159) 11. Finn Treacy (17) 10. Jack Carty (230) 9. Colm Reilly (31) 1. Billy Bohan (6) 2. Dave Heffernan (228) 3. Finlay Bealham (226) 4. Joe Joyce (50) 5. Darragh Murray (51) 6. Josh Murphy (54) 7. Cian Prendergast (97) (C) 8. Sean Jansen (39)
16. Matthew Victory (3) 17. Peter Dooley (59) 18. Sam Illo (41) 19. Niall Murray (91) 20. Paul Boyle (129) 21. Ben Murphy (29) 22. Josh Ioane (26) 23. John Devine (2)
Unavailable: Caolin Blade, Shayne Bolton, Denis Buckley, Oisín Dowling, Sam Gilbert, Hugh Gavin, David Hawkshaw, Mack Hansen, Temi Lasisi, Byron Ralston, Dylan Tierney-Martin, Harry West.
Hang on, I'm looking forward to him leading us to our fourth Champions cup win in 2036.
Looking forward to Lancaster leading the Irish team to victory in 2031
7 games to go and not one is impossible in my eye. And no matter what happens an incredible improvement from the Wilkins era.
More to the point it's an incredible achievement in such a short time by Lancaster
I think I'd have him ahead of all you mention there, even SHL.
I think Conan is the one blocking his path. As soon as Conan slows up or retires I expect to see him in the 23. Problem is Doris is the starting 8 most of the time and he's not getting in ahead of him.
I tend to agree but its contingent on a healthy body and style of play is pretty attritional. I tend to go with the idea that the best ability is availability, hope thats ghe case for Jansen.
Jansen is a step above all the players at No8 you mention there Shiney, fine players as most of them are.
Very abrasive style, hope his body stands up because he is an absolute weapon the way hes playing at present.
8 is tough in Ireland because we have a lot of options. Look at how good a club player Coombes, Deegan and McCann are not to mention Culhane, Gleeson, Kendellan, Boyle, SHL, McNabney. Tough competition, on current form hes certainly in the conversation.
I'd say Jansen will play for Ireland as soon as Conan goes. There's a lot of similarities in how they play.
Of all our players I think he's the best in his position.
For me the worry would be that he'd go to France, not back to NZ, so being captured wouldn't really be that relevant. Hopefully he's in Andy Farrell's plans. I'd be surprised if he wasn't, although playing 8 only might count against him.
Yep, but I would say he will be around for a few years from the sound of that. His renewal should be the first bit of business they sort next year.
won’t be tied down after playing for Ireland XV?
both games i seen him play this season, both yellows and 2nd best in his position on the night.
Great servant, but at some stage a line must be drawn.
RTE news : 'That's the dream' - Jansen targets full Irish cap
http://www.rte.ie/sport/united-rugby-championship/2026/0317/1563876-thats-the-dream-jansen-targets-full-irish-cap/
Well that's a positive update on his thinking.
That is true eagle eye. While I may not be his biggest supporter simply put he did play well
To be fair he played well when he came on against Scotland.
Considering we have the most bonus points within the Top 16 I'm hopeful we will take another and indeed maybe more. I agree that Ulster is on an upwards spiral but to be fair so is Connacht. Which is why I'm in-between on this game.
Central contracts are my pet hate. And this news sums up everything I hate about these contracts. It's just confirms more of the same when if we are to achieve the last thing we need is more of the same.
Indeed I think to the Jordi Barrett signing at Leinster as an example of how the IRFU policy will never work. In this case you sign a quality NIQ centre who clearly will block IQ development in this area. And then to add insult to injury you don't allow players impacted to move outside Ireland to develop their game unless they give up the right to selection on the Irish team
Would be a decent addition.
Jimmy Duffy leaving Ulster to be closer to his family in Galway. Could he be Tuckers replacement?
Watching bundee for the last 6 months i beleive his age is starting to catch up with him and he may struggle to hold his connacht spot in the 26/27 season
Savage news
Aki signs an extension with Ireland and Connacht
Edit the extension is for 1 year
On the Craggy podcast Lancaster said that he's expecting Gavin, Bolton, West and Blade back around the time of the mini tour to SA. If that materialises we're going to have a strong squad there.
Lots of injuries and Ulster are in a good vein of form at the minute. A win isn't out of the question but it will take our biggest performance of the season.
You'd expect Ulster will be without McCloskey, Ballacoune and possibly O'Toole due to the amount of rugby they played over the 6N, whilst we should have our full Irish contingent available. If Jansen isn't available we lose our single biggest threat, Moose back in training but doubt he'd be available to come straight back in.
Hard to see past an Ulster win but if we can play well and get a bonus point or two that would be a huge positive.
Ulster are in good shape, we are behind them in the rebuild process and beset by injuries. Our defence is transformed so I'd be confident we won't fold. We lost narrowly to them at Xmas and have made progress since then, so I see it as a free shot with tempered expectations.
Our early season lapses make top 8 a huge challenge - we still have to go to SA to face the Stormers and the Lions - so if we can get something here it would be an important contribution.
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