{"id":319583,"date":"2025-12-16T19:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/319583\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T19:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:28:09","slug":"united-rugby-championship-ulster-boosted-by-midfield-returns-of-stuart-mccloskey-and-jude-postlethwaite-for-derby-date-with-leinster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/319583\/","title":{"rendered":"United Rugby Championship: Ulster boosted by midfield returns of Stuart McCloskey and Jude Postlethwaite for derby date with Leinster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Centres Stuart McCloskey and Jude Postlethwaite are set to feature when Ulster travel to Leinster on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The United Rugby Championship (URC) fixture at the Aviva Stadium (19:45 GMT) will be Richie Murphy’s side’s first interprovincial derby of the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

Ulster, who are fourth in the URC table with four wins from five games, will also welcome back Ethan McIlroy for what would be his first game in 11 months after an ACL injury.<\/p>\n

McCloskey started twice for Ireland during the autumn series, against the All Blacks and Australia, but left both games with a groin problem. <\/p>\n

Fellow centre Postlethwaite, who has been in impressive form for northern province this season, missed the European Challenge Cup defeat by Cardiff<\/a> through concussion but has returned to full team training. <\/p>\n

Loose-head prop Callum Reid also missed that reverse in the Arms Park through illness but is “expected” to be available in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Tight-head Rory Maguire, however, sustained an ankle injury in the game and joins the likes of Iain Henderson (back), Matthew Dalton (knee), Rob Herring (knee), James McNabney (knee) and Michael Lowry (ankle) on the injured list. <\/p>\n

Leinster have confirmed that Ireland number eight Jack Conan is fit to return against Ulster<\/a>, while the availability of Tadhg Furlong, Will Connors and Jimmy O’Brien will be assessed as the week progresses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Centres Stuart McCloskey and Jude Postlethwaite are set to feature when Ulster travel to Leinster on Friday night.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-319583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}