Ulster Rugby v Racing 92

-|;u |_bv lom|_ķ ƒƏ|_ -m†-u‹ ƑƏƐƖķ ‰bѴѴ l-uh ƑƏ ‹;-uv vbm1; &Ѵv|;uĽv ]u;-|;v| 7-‹ bm †uor;-m †r _bv|ou‹ķ ‰_;m |_; uoˆbm1;Ľv _;uo;v v_o1h;7 |_; ‰ouѴ7 0‹ ‰bmmbm] †uor;-m u†]0‹Ľv ru;lb;u 1olr;|b|bomĺ MEMORIES OF

Ѵ;m|‹ o= =-mv ‰;u; vঞѴѴ lbѴѴbm] -0o†| o†|vb7; the stadium or in the concourses when the warm-ups began, even if there were already more than enough to make Colomiers aware that they weren’t in friendly surroundings. David Humphreys led his players around the touchline in what was to be one of their last acts before the biggest game in most of their lives. Like two cars in a game of chicken, it soon became clear that the teams were on a collision course. As Ulster circled around, Colomiers were running through some last-minute set- rb;1; ru-1ঞ1;ĺ "ol;|_bm]ķ ou vol;om;ķ _-7 to give. As Ulster neared, Marc dal Maso stepped back as if he were preparing to throw into an imaginary lineout. A collision with Duncan knocked him sideways. )_;m |_; u;m1_l-m |†um;7 |o Cm7 |_; culprit, he homed in on the wholly innocent Stanley McDowell. “Maybe I brushed him a bit on the way past,” v-‹v †m1-mķ _bv 7brѴol-ঞ1 7;Ѵbˆ;u‹ =-bѴbm] to mask the mischievous glint in his eye. “It was the maddest warm-up,” says Andy Ward. “I just remember thinking that we had to get this crowd pumping, I just knew that. Forty-odd thousand of them going mad, that would be the business. “It got everyone jazzed up. Whenever we just ran right through them, Dunky dropping |_; v_o†Ѵ7;uķ |_; 1uo‰7 ‰;m| o@ĺ $_;m the line, the salute to the crowd, to do vol;|_bm] Ѵbh; |_-| -v ঞ]_| - 0†m1_ -v ‰; were, that just showed the crowd that we were all in it together. You could just see

); -u; 7;Ѵb]_|;7 |o 0; _ovঞm] |_; _;uo;v of ’99 at today’s game, and they will be celebrated in front of the Grandstand before hb1hŊo@ĺ Below are some of the memories from |_; h;‹ C]†u;v ‰_o 1om|ub0†|;7 |o |_; momentous occasion… “Walking down those steps, walking into the foyer, you felt that sense of pride in where you’re from,” remembers Allen Clarke of the scene in the team’s Dublin hotel ahead o= |_; ƐƖƖƖ †uor;-m †r Cm-Ѵ -]-bmv| Colomiers. ľ$_;u; ‰-v 7;Cmb|;Ѵ‹ - |;-u bm |_; ;‹;ĺ +o† could taste the atmosphere. Where we’re from, what Ulster, what Northern Ireland and what Ireland had been going through, ‹o† u;1o]mbv;7 |_;u; ‰-v -m ;Šr;1|-ঞom =ou something special to happen. “It didn’t feel like a weight on the shoulders, it was like an energy in the body. It made me feel as if I could have run all day. In my head, we were never going to lose that game.” The last voice the players would hear before |_;‹ Ѵ;[ |_; 1_-m]bm] uool =ou |_; C;Ѵ7 |_-| 7-‹ 0;Ѵom];7 |o u;v;uˆ; Y-mh;u "|†-u| Duncan. “If we win today, for the rest of our lives we’ll be blood brothers,” he told them. “Nobody can do it for us. We are the 22 players who can go out there and create history. When we meet up in years to come, we’ll sit down and laugh and joke and remember this day as the one when we won the European Cup. Go out there and become a legend.”

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