Ulster Rugby v Leicester Tigers

Perhaps the most seminal moments in Ulster’s rugby history have occurred on autumn evenings, and on this patch of grass which has become Kingspan Stadium. R O D N A W N ULSTER PLANS TO STAY IN EUR

of sporting and social conversation well- lubricated. Tonight sees one of England’s most successful clubs come back to Belfast, itself under new management now that the imaginative Geordan Murphy is in interim charge after the years of flux under Richard Cockerill’s waning authority and then, briefly, Matt O’Connor. It’s an intriguing match-up between two youthful, innovative Head Coaches in their first terms in charge. Leicester arrives at Kingspan with a proud European record, with two Heineken Cups secured while in its ‘Noughties’ pomp. Martin Johnson led the side which mirrored his unforgiving, relentless approach to the game, around him a clutch of England players who would dominate the domestic competitions and achieve legendary status as World Cup winners in 2003. And just as Ulster’s rugby community will find time in the coming weeks to reflect on the adventure of 1998/99, its current staff and players have the daunting task of fashioning a game plan to start this season’s Champions Cup campaign in winning style. This will have been another week of intensive analysis and intense training as the weaknesses exploited so ruthlessly by Connacht are identified and resolved.

Certainly the most unlikely chapter in the club’s emergence from amateur innocence at the end of the last century is rooted in the humbling of European giants, often under the lights, of this splendid arena’s drafty, concrete but much-loved Ravenhill predecessor. Wasps returned to London vanquished, Northampton was humbled in the chill night air, and in that storied autumn of 1998, Toulouse provided us with startlingly unexpected, thoroughly deserved and memorably uplifting occasions. In the Guinness PRO14 evenings have so often been so atmospheric, the warm engagement of players and supporters at its most intimate and fond. But as time goes on, as the structures of clubs become more professional on and off the pitch, the demands made of players by their coaches is more than matched by the fans’ expectations, and with Ulster in a very definite and defining period of transition the frustrations which have accompanied the poor returns in Limerick and last week against Connacht have been obvious. The team still has fervent backing, and as Head Coach Dan McFarland sets about laying the very foundations of the rugby he wants to see played by a much- changed squad that support is vital, it should be unwavering. Not uncritical, of course, for opinion is the very oil of most post-match debates and keeps the wheels

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