INTERNATIONAL NEWS ROUND-UP:SHANE HORGAN will captain the Irish A side against the full Tongan international team at Ravenhill on Friday night. With one eye on the 2011 World Cup, this is not a second-string outfit per se, although Horan is still one of a sprinkling of established Test players in the line-up.

Between them, Horgan, Peter Stringer, Andrew Trimble, Neil Best and Gavin Duffy have 207 caps to their names, while there are a further three capped players on the team in Darren Cave, Mike Ross and Donnacha Ryan.

For them and others in this team, unlike the seven players called up to the senior squad last Friday, opportunity knocks in that this game affords them the chance to press their claims for inclusion in the full squad to play Fiji at the RDS on Saturday week.

Needless to say, there is nothing like the same continuity which will apply in the Test team to play Australia which will be announced today.

Nonetheless, drawing on their experience of coaching both the tour to Canada and the USA as well as the Churchill Cup, the Irish management have retained Fergus McFadden, Ryan, Devin Toner, Best and Chris Henry from the starting line-up that beat the English Saxons 49-22 in the final of the latter competition in Colorado last June, with Denis Fogarty, Bryan Young, Isaac Boss and Johne Murphy also surviving from the 22.

Furthermore, several others appeared in the Irish teams that played Canada and the USA in May, namely Stringer, Duffy, Darren Cave, Ian Keatley, Ross and, possibly Sean Cronin.

Viewed in that light, this selection marks a promotion of sorts, and recognition of improved form this season, for Andrew Trimble and Ian Humphreys, while the newly qualified Connacht prop Brett Wilkinson wins his first A cap and Sean O’Brien is also recalled to this level.

Only Wilkinson has not played at Test or A level before, although there are a further five players yet to be capped at full international level, namely McFadden, Humphreys, Toner, O’Brien and Henry.

A vacancy has been left at hooker pending today’s announcement of the team to play Australia. Presuming Jerry Flannery is selected and passed fit to play, then the likelihood is that John Fogarty will be on the bench against the Wallabies, with Cronin starting against Tonga.

In that scenario the starting team would be drawn liberally from all four provinces, with five from Leinster, four from Ulster (plus Neil Best), three from Connacht and two from Munster. The team is being coached by Michael Bradley.

With Marcus Horan and Dave Ryan ruled out through injury until after Christmas and Darragh Hurley also unavailable with a shoulder injury, Munster yesterday confirmed the signing of Cheetahs loose head prop Wian du Preez on a three-month contract.

The 27-year-old du Preez was called into the Sprinboks squad over the the weekend and will join Munster – subject to obtaining release from the South African Rugby Union, a valid work permit and passing the normal medical examinations – once his commitment to the Sprinboks European tour is complete.

The dates and kick-off times of the four rounds of Magners League fixtures before, during and immediately after the Six Nations have been confirmed.

All told, 17 of the 20 fixtures between January and March will be live on the tournament’s extensive TV platform on BBC Wales, S4C and Setanta Ireland.

IRELAND A (v Tonga, Friday, Ravenhill, 19:35): Gavin Duffy (Galwegians, Connacht); Shane Horgan (Boyne, Leinster, capt), Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins, Ulster), Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere, Leinster), Andrew Trimble (Ballymena, Ulster); Ian Humphreys (Ballymena, Ulster), Peter Stringer (Shannon, Munster); Brett Wilkinson (Galwegians, Connacht), AN Other, Mike Ross (Clontarf, Leinster), Devin Toner (Lansdowne, Leinster), Donnacha Ryan (Shannon, Munster), Sean O’Brien (Clontarf, Leinster), Neil Best (Northampton Saints), Chris Henry (Ballymena, Ulster).

Replacements: Denis Fogarty (Cork Constitution, Munster), Bryan Young (Ballymena, Ulster), Dan Tuohy (Ballymena, Ulster), Kevin McLaughlin (UCD, Leinster), Isaac Boss (Ballymena, Ulster), Ian Keatley (Galwegians, Connacht), Johne Murphy (Leicester Tigers).

Tickets for the game against Tonga are available online from www.ulsterrugby.ie.