Coaches keep them guessing

It's obvious that the four provincial coaches share a common philosophy, which might be distilled to the premise of 'tell 'em nothing' in terms of team selection. Declan Kidney (Munster), Mark McCall (Ulster), Michael Cheika (Leinster) and Michael Bradley (Connacht) have elected to announce extended squads in three cases and a match 22 in the other.

Ireland's provinces square off this weekend with Munster hosting Ulster in Musgrave Park on Saturday night while earlier in the day Leinster travel to the Sportsground to take on Connacht. The premise for the enlarged roll call is that Ireland's three-Test November series might have taken its toll on some players, threatening their participation at the weekend. That's the theory but the practice might prove a little more straightforward.

Given that the Celtic League now acts as a rankings system for next season's Heineken European Cup, it's doubtful if there'll be much largesse with all four coaches intent on fielding their strongest available sides to engineer a victory.

Munster are pretty much at full strength, their three long-term injury victims, Alan Quinlan, Paul O'Connell and Frankie Sheahan, not withstanding.

Kidney may opt to give Anton Pitout a run on the wing while up front Freddie Pucciariello will probably take one of the positions in the front row with either Marcus Horan or John Hayes starting on the bench.

David Wallace, Denis Leamy and Anthony Foley are the likely starting backrow. Their opponents Ulster have offered the closest approximation to a team, confirming the match 22. Second row Matt McCullough and hooker Rory Best, both of whom were ruled out of Ireland's recent victory over Romania through injury, have recovered sufficiently to be included.

Irish qualified scrumhalf Isaac Boss and Rod Moore have both shrugged off recent injuries but Justin Fitzpatrick is still out with a broken hand.

Connacht coach Bradley is awaiting a definitive medical verdict on several players before being in a position to announce a team.

Included are new signings Tongan international Andrew Mailei, who joins from North Harbour and Gavin Williams, a son of All Black legend Bryan, who has made the journey from Auckland.

The walking wounded includes Dan McFarland (back), Ronan Loughney (knee), Keith Matthews (groin), Brendan O'Connor (thigh) and Darren Yapp (calf). Former Ireland Under 21 centre John Hearty is now back to full fitness and available for selection but James Downey and Mark McHugh remain on the long-term injured list.

Leinster include Gordon D'Arcy, Shane Horgan, Girvan Dempsey and Felipe Contepomi, on their return from the Test match arena.

There were also recalls for Eric Miller and Adam Byrnes, both of whom have recovered from injury.

Niall Ronan is currently nursing an injury sustained in the thumping of Oxford University by Leinster A over the weekend, but Cheika is hoping he will be available for selection. Ciarán Potts will miss out after sustaining an injury in training.

Cheika is very keen to emphasise his desire for consistency, with attitude not contingent upon the relative merits of the opposition.

"We're more in a phase in our development that centres on self analysis. We have to decide if we can become the team that we want to be. It's about knowing our roles, knowing our plays, making an impact as individuals and collectively."

ULSTER (from): S Best, B Young, R Moore, R Best, N Brady, J Harrison, M McCullough, R Caldwell, N Best, N McMillan, R Wilson, S Ferris, I Boss, K Campbell, D Humphreys, A Larkin, P Steinmetz, K Maggs, A Trimble, J Topping, T Bowe, B Cunningham.

MUNSTER (from): S Payne, M Lawler, B Murphy, G Connolly, T Halstead, J Kelly, A Pitout, J Manning, R O'Gara, P Stringer, T O'Leary, F Pucciariello, J Hayes, M Horan, F Roche, J Flannery, D Fogarty, T Hogan, D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll, A Foley, D Wallace, D Leamy, J O'Sullivan, S Keogh.

LEINSTER (from): R Corrigan, R McCormack, B Jackman, B Blaney, W Green, E Byrne, B Gissing, B Williams, A Byrnes, C Jowitt, K Gleeson, N Ronan, E Miller, J Heaslip, G Easterby, B O'Meara, B O'Riordan, J Hepworth, R Kearney, S Horgan, G Brown, B Burke, F Contepomi, G D'Arcy, K Lewis, G Dempsey, E Hickey.

CONNACHT (from): D McFarland, R Loughney, R Hogan, S Knoop, J Fogarty, J Merrigan, D Gannon, A Farley (capt), C Short, M Lacey, M Swift, B O'Connor, C Rigney, J Muldoon, T Tierney, C Keane, P Warwick, D Slemen, C McPhillips, T Robinson, J Hearty, K Matthews, G Williams, A Mailei, D Yapp, M Mostyn.