Rugby:Chris Henry has been included in an extended Ulster squad for Saturday's Heineken Cup against Leinster. The flanker, who trained fully this morning, has not featured since injuring his ankle in against Munster in the Pro 12 last month but the province are confident of his availability come 5pm on Saturday evening.
With no fresh injury concerns, Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin has kept his options open at this stage, selecting a 31-man panel for the match at Twickenham before naming his starting line-up at midday on Friday.
Leinster coach Joe Schmidt, meanwhile, knows whatever selection McLaughlin decides on will cause plenty of problems for the defending champions. "Ulster are another side we know really well,” he said. “A lot of the boys have played together in green jerseys but now they are in white or blue. They will combat each other to an extent.
"In last year's final, Northampton played superbly in the first half and we didn't take our opportunities. We made three clean line-breaks and gave the ball straight back to them. They dominated us in the first 40 minutes.
"We can't afford to do that with Ulster, especially when you look at their quarter-final victory over Munster. If it wasn't for a superb opening 20 minutes, Munster would have won comfortably. We can't let a team with that kicking ability, with Ruan Pienaar, Ian Humphreys or Paddy Jackson and Stefan Terblanche in their ranks, get a lead like that. Ulster are a team that can keep you under pressure because of their kicking game and they can also exert pressure on your platforms.
“John Afoa, Tom Court and Rory Best have done a great job for them in the front row; Johann Muller calls the line-outs and Stephen Ferris and Pedrie Wannenburg both add a lot. If we allow them to get a good start and build a lead it will be a pretty tough job for us to get back into the game.”
Ulster squad:Tom Court, Declan Fitzpatrick, Callum Black, John Afoa, Adam Macklin, Paddy McAllister, Rory Best, Nigel Brady, Johann Muller, Lewis Stevenson, Dan Tuohy, Iain Henderson, Chris Henry, Stephen Ferris, Willie Faloon, Michael McComish, Pedrie Wannenburg; Ian Porter, Paul Marshall, Ruan Pienaar, Ian Humphreys, Paddy Jackson, Nevin Spence, Ian Whitten, Darren Cave, Paddy Wallace, Luke Marshall, Craig Gilroy, Andrew Trimble, Adam D'Arcy, Stefan Terblanche
