Ulster Rugby vs Newport Dragons

ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN FREELANCE JOURNALIST AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST @RODNAWN1

Tommy Bowe has had his demons to deal with regarding serious injury, but only last week he was ‘purring’ at his team-mate’s and friend’s active return to the fold. “It’s said too easily, but we have watched Stuart work his way back from two cruciate injuries – things which would have done for many a lesser character – and I know that I have just found his recovery truly inspirational. “Whatever ‘face’ you manage for the public, no matter how positive you are naturally, we all have our ‘moments’, dark thoughts when not involved in playing, often having to rest and wait for the healing process to take grip. “Stuart Olding available and firing for Ulster, ready to fight for an Ireland place again, that’s just a good news story, period,” says the hugely intelligent Bowe, for once that endearing laconic delivery steeled by unmistakeable admiration. Of course, rugby and any other sport is dotted with instances of early, sad retirements or fading powers because of injury, in Ulster’s European Cup-winning season another blond-haired centre, Mark McCall, was reluctantly forced from the game he adorned by a chronically-timed problem. His success as English club rugby’s most successful coach, at mighty Saracens, is deserved reward for a rugby brain which might have been too easily lost to the game. At every school, at every club, there are instances of careers – high-flying or not – which have been cut short, enjoyment of the sport curtailed through unfortunate happenstance. But for Stuart Olding there is a redemptive quality to his very welcome return to arms, but he shortened the odds against that by his own character, hard work and bloody-mindedness, helped immeasurably by the expert medical guidance of the Kingspan team. Tonight, perhaps, the Dragons might feel the fire of his undiminished flames on their necks when a rejuvenated Ulster starts a series of three home games in a fortnight. A win is critical to the Ulster side’s PRO12 ambitions, for Stuart Olding there’s victory in being involved again.

it happens it must be addressed. Darren Cave, Jared Payne, Andrew Trimble, Peter Nelson and Luke Marshall are just a few of the Ulster squad who have demonstrated – unsurprisingly – the self-belief and application to return to fitness, talents undimmed and ambition burning even more fiercely. Most recently there was the heart-warming sight of a 22-year-old back returning to the Ulster jersey, his enthusiasm for the battle certainly unaffected, his abilities undiluted. But Stuart Olding wasn’t just coming back from a dreaded cruciate injury picked up nine months ago, the likeable young man had just come back from a long ‘rehab’ for the same problem when, minutes into his comeback for the senior side, he was being wheeled back into the Kingspan Stadium treatment room knowing he would be facing another long, gruelling series of operations and physical and mental concentration to take his place again amongst the veritable galaxy of midfield talents Ulster can call its own. For Olding, his family and his friends inside and outside the game, his is a story of remarkable stoicism, of course, but also of an indefatigable spirit and single-minded belief that the last two years have been but the accepted contrast to the rewards he had won for his talents: a professional career and, by 20, international recognition. Les Kiss, the Director of Rugby at Ulster, took particular pleasure in the last fortnight when Olding tested himself, first, for Ulster ‘A’ and celebrated with a typically free-running try, and then he started for the PRO12 team against Treviso last weekend, scoring again in the bonus-point win. Kiss, when in charge of Ireland on the summer tour of North America, selected the youngster for the trip, then gave him his first Ireland ‘cap’. “I never doubted that Stuart would make it back to full fitness, he’s been great to have about even when he could only think about building up his physical work in the gym,” says a man delighted to have his backline wealth growing in interest! “What’s his best position? To be honest I don’t really know for sure, he’s that good. He can do a good job at ‘10’, he’s an intelligent footballer who’s impressed at full-back. Just to have him back is great, he offers so much and he deserves some good luck now.”

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