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8
CRAIG GILROY
This is another must win game for Ulster?
Absolutely, we are at that point in the season now
where every game is a must-win for us. We want to
strive to perform the best we can to finish in the top
four and get a qualifying spot and hopefully even a
home Play-off. That would be fantastic!
Cardiff are in good form; it’s going to be a tough
game?
They had a good game against Gloucester and
nearly won at the RDS the week before so we know
how good they can be. Hopefully we will benefit from
not having a game last week. No injuries, no fatigue
and we had a really useful training week, whereas
they had the Challenge Cup so may have some sore
bodies. Nevertheless, we know they will be a tough
side to beat. We played well against them over there
and we have been away from Kingspan for a while
so no doubt the crowd will be buzzing. The weather
is picking up and the pitch is in good condition, so
hopefully we can throw the ball about and with the
crowd behind us, push on to win.
What will you do to combat their strengths?
They are going to be tough at the breakdown, they
have got a lot of players who can get on ball well,
get turnovers and slow the ruck down so we need to
be on the money at the breakdown. We need to not
give them a sniff and if anyone has the ball we need
to act fast and get them out of the way. They have
a threatening backline, the likes of Matthew Morgan
and Gareth Anscombe are both good footballers.
They will want to dictate the game but we need to
make it about us. We want to be effective on both
sides of the ball.
Big Nick will be in the opposing pack. It will be
good to see him but bad to have him back?
It will be good to see Nick again but not good to be
running up against him! We know how dangerous
Nick can be and we don’t want to let him play too
much. When he was on our side we all wanted him
to get his hands on the ball and play a lot but now
he’s in a blue jersey we don’t want him to disrupt our
game plan.
How’s the mood in camp this week?
It’s really good, we got some good work done in
training last week. The workload was high intensity
but we were able to relax a bit more mentally
knowing we had another week to prepare for this
game.
It’s a boost to the team having all you guys back
from Six Nations duty?
Everyone is back in, which is good to have. It will up
the standard of play, up the competition and have a
positive knock-on effect to the younger guys putting
their hand up for a place in the squad.
They say take your chances and you certainly
did with a hat trick against Italy, that must have
been special?
Yeah, I was delighted. It was great to be involved. It
was my first Six Nations game in two or three years
so it was great to get that buzz back and play in the
competition again, which is such a tough but fun
championship. I was delighted to be involved from
the get-go, despite recovering from an ankle injury
which kept me out for two months. Joe Schmidt
filled me with confidence selecting me in the first
place and certainly it would have been nice to play
a bit more but competition is tough and you need
to be at the top of your game. I think I showed Joe
what I can do in an Irish jersey. It’s a tough run in
to the end of the season with a summer tour at the
end, which I will be looking to put my hand up for.
A CATCH UP WITH CRAIG…