With only 3 days left until the Leeds friendly that will kick off Ulster’s 2007/08 rugby season Ulster Coach Mark McCall, his Captain for the match Roger Wilson and new Assistant coach Steve Williams have spoken about the upcoming Leeds match and Ulster XV that has been selected.

The Ulster Coach said of Ulster’s pre-season training, “This is probably the longest preseason we’ve had, for some of the guys it’s been 10 weeks and it’s been an unusual one with the schedules of the Ireland players giving a number of younger players the opportunity to prove themselves whilst training with the Ulster XV.”Ulster Academy players Mark McCrea and Niall O’Connor are set to make their debut for Ulster XV against Leeds. Mark said of the selection “The team selected for the Leeds friendly will expose some of Ulster’s young talent and will be exciting to see how they perform. For this match 20 players were unavailable, 16 of whom are Internationals and we are still fielding a good side- I think that says a lot about the quality of out players.”

Some of Ulster’s more experienced players have been unavailable for selection for the match through injury, including David Humphreys, “Thankfully it’s not as serious as first thought,” said McCall “and the positive aspect is that Niall, who is a promising out half, will get a great opportunity. Everyone within Ulster Rugby have been impressed with Niall from the outset- from his attitude to his dedication to training. All he needs is an opportunity and some exposure and we are all very confident that he’ll do a great job for us on Friday.”

Another player given a great opportunity is Ulster number 8 Roger Wilson. Roger spent the most minutes on the pitch of all the Ulster players last season and has been named as Captain for the friendly. A delighted Roger said today “I’ve never captained a side before and it is an honour to be selected to captain Ulster against Leeds. I think I have enough experience at this level to take on the responsibility. The absence of some senior players and the debut of some younger members will put more pressure on me to perform but I think I’m up to the challenge.”

Ulster newcomer Steve Williams is also eager to see the teams performance on Friday. “Throughout training over the last number of weeks we’ve had the Ospreys match in the back of our minds. It will be interesting to see the performance against Leeds on Friday to see how far we’ve progressed,” said the new Assistant coach.

New faces coupled with an experienced Ulster side should make for an exciting match up- if you haven’t already got you pre-season friendly tickets and don’t want to miss out please CLICK HERE.