Ulster Rugby v Benetton Rugby

R O D N A W N

What a fortnight it has been for Ulster fans, a quarter-final spot in Europe in March confirmed – and in some style.

ULSTER’S LEAGUE NOW TAKES PRIO

and Scarlets, the quartet separated by just two points. Edinburgh’s dramatic improvement under Richard Cockerill, and Benetton’s transformation under Kieran Crowley into a team to be reckoned with constitute the surprises of the season, but if McFarland’s squad is truly made of the ‘right stuff’, the target must be to bring the momentum from Europe into the crucial closing weeks of the PRO14. The festive period produced just one win from three Inter-Pro outings, and no matter what explanations are offered up in terms of player availability, they cannot allow themselves to be reprised as we anticipate the Guinness Six Nations and the absence of several big-name players on international duty. So we may pine for a team sheet featuring Best, Stockdale, Murphy, Addison and Cooney but the reality is that it is to the depth and quality of McFarland’s squad that supporters must look and lend their weight. This Head Coach has been unafraid to thrust the relatively untried into the fire of PRO14 and European competition, and Robert Baloucoune and Michael Lowry are just two youngsters to have played their parts in recent European adventures. Spare a thought – if not for too long! – for Benetton which contributed no fewer than 19 players to this week’s Italy training

The glamour of the Heineken Champions Cup is unique, and success in the competition has so many happy echoes, but Dan McFarland, his coaches and his players have perhaps provided really convincing evidence that this is an Ulster squad with enduring competitive and winning instincts. The glory trail to Dublin and the clash with Leinster is something to savour, certainly, but it must be set aside now – and especially this evening. The staple diet of the Guinness PRO14 is one on which supporters and players thrive. It offers the opportunity of ‘domestic’ league success and the path to those end-of-May play-offs and silverware. The Champions Cup has already guaranteed top-level rugby into the Spring, and it’s been a while since Ulster has been able to say that. The side has flattered only to deceive too often in the PRO14 and its previous incarnations, and if truth be told there is a considerable challenge to be faced down if a place is to be earned in those play-offs as one of the six best teams from the competition’s two-Conference structure. In Ulster’s division, runaway leaders Leinster have surely made sure of a PRO14 semi-final, so fifth-placed Ulster knows that it is in a battle for second spot – and a place in next year’s Champions Cup – with Edinburgh, this evening’s Italian visitors

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