{"id":14079,"date":"2026-04-27T19:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T18:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=14079"},"modified":"2026-04-27T19:20:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T18:20:27","slug":"ulster-v-exeter-chiefs-irish-province-welcome-back-trio-for-european-challenge-cup-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=14079","title":{"rendered":"Ulster v Exeter Chiefs: Irish province welcome back trio for European Challenge Cup semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Ulster have received a boost with the news that Tom O&#8217;Toole, Nick Timoney and Jude Postlethwaite will be available after injury for Saturday&#8217;s European Challenge Cup semi-final against Exeter Chiefs at Affidea Stadium (17:30 BST).<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Timoney returns after recovering from a hip injury, while O&#8217;Toole and Postlethwaite are at head coach Richie Murphy&#8217;s disposal after overcoming hand problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A squad update issued by Ulster Rugby on Monday confirmed that the trio have &#8220;all reintegrated fully into team training and are available for selection&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Meanwhile, decisions on whether Angus Bell (foot), James Hume (neck) and Bryn Ward (shoulder) will be fit enough for selection for the encounter with the English Prem side will be made later in the week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">All three have resumed elements of team training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Callum Reid and Ben Carson will be unavailable for the last-four game as a result of foot and calf injuries respectively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Both players sustained their injuries during Saturday&#8217;s 41-14 United Rugby Championship (URC) defeat by Munster in Limerick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Eric O&#8217;Sullivan suffered a back injury during the match and will have his fitness monitored during the week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ulster are aiming to secure their first silverware for 20 years and the winner of their semi-final will face the winner of Sunday&#8217;s second semi-final between Montpellier and the Dragons in the final in Bilbao on 22 May. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ulster have received a boost with the news that Tom O&#8217;Toole, Nick Timoney and Jude Postlethwaite will be available after injury for Saturday&#8217;s European Challenge Cup semi-final against Exeter Chiefs at Affidea Stadium (17:30 BST). Timoney returns after recovering from a hip injury, while O&#8217;Toole and Postlethwaite are at head coach Richie Murphy&#8217;s disposal after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}