Ulster Rugby vs Ospreys

On the first weekend in October it truly can be said that the Guinness PRO12 campaign is underway, that sides have gradually gone through the gears and are fully-equipped for the most challenging weeks of the season. KEEPING THE FLYING OSPREYS GROUNDED

For Ulster, fresh from that fine win in Glasgow last week, the first month has gone well, the team sits atop of the early-season table and this evening hosts the Ospreys, the most prolific 15 in the competition but one which slipped up – and lost the leadership – at Leinster. Cardiff Blues, at last, is demonstrating a consistency its talented player roster has often lacked and, like Ulster, boasts a perfect winning record and sits second in the table, ready to pounce. Four games played and coaches and players alike hope to have built a platform for the relentless assault on the league and the European Champions Cup games, which all will have a key bearing on the prospects for the year. Ulster started with three solid if unspectacular wins, picking up a try-bonus point against the Dragons at Kingspan, navigating a tricky test at Treviso and despatching the Scarlets at home a fortnight ago, then had its most significant, hard- earned success in Scotland. International players were slowly re-integrated into the matchday panel and there were modest but robust signs that the strength in depth justified fans’ expectations for the long winter ahead. While the Irish contingent and the long-term injured slowly became available, others have more than proved a point or two about the competition for places at Ulster. Very often such talk has been seen as glib, but Rob Lyttle, Louis Ludik, Jacob Stockdale are just three players who will not just offer genuine cover but real selection options for Kiss, Neil Doak, Allen Clarke, Niall Malone and Joe Barakat. The much-anticipated arrival of All Black Charles Piutau can already be described a great success, his talents and presence making him an immediate favourite at Kingspan and he’s blended seamlessly into team awash with world- class quality behind the scrum. Coaches and pundits often speak of the ambition to select from a ‘full deck’, and though circumstances – notably injuries! – always intrude it is from a very gifted pool of players that Ulster’s fortunes are carried this 2016/17 season, and it’s not indulgent, nor does it tempt fate, to anticipate a very serious assault on silverware.

This evening’s opponents will be thinking along very similar lines because, like Ulster, the Ospreys have not consistently provided tangible rewards for the shrewd investment in, and development of, playing resources. It is the Welsh club with the most glittering array of stars in key areas of the pitch, and yet it has never dominated the league as many observers believed it should. Coach Steve Tandy, now in his sixth year in charge, has fashioned a squad which is the envy of most and only Ulster could rationally claim to have greater quality and strength in real depth at its disposal. Tandy was a more-than-useful open-side flanker with the club in the ‘noughties’ before he was asked to take charge of team affairs in 2012. That he has stayed in charge during a period of transition is testament to his character and the respect his coaching has earned him from a panel of players who share his determination to restore the glories of the early years of the new century. Three thumping wins to start the PRO12 season, accumulating no fewer than 21 tries in the process, created real history: the Ospreys became the first club to open its league campaign with three successive bonus-point wins. Top of the pile going into last weekend’s game with Leinster the players were determined to celebrate in Dublin with a win for skipper Alun Wyn Jones, that most redoubtable of Lions, on his 200th appearance for the club. But, just as Ulster was breaking its hoodoo in Glasgow with a gritty and often imaginative victory to chalk up a fourth successive win, the Ospreys faltered badly, going down 31-19 to a Leinster side now guided by Leo Cullen with the assistance of Stuart Lancaster. Two late converted tries showed a dangerous defiance and the attacking threat from Dan Biggar, Ben John, Rhys Webb and Jeff Hassler remains potent, while Justin Tipuric, Scott Baldwin and the inspirational captain Jones at lock are possessed of great character and international ability. So, tonight’s opponents swapped places at the top of the table, and at a stage of the season when many argue the template is set, the targets of pre-season become more precisely focussed

ROD NAWN

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