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ULSTER
RUGBY
www. ulster rugby.comROD NAWN
by ROD
NAWN
WHEN BOTH TEAMS HAVES
EYES ON THE PRIZE
SATURDAY afternoon in early May at Kingspan Stadium, surely it just
has to mean it’s a big game!
Indeed it is, the penultimate home fixture for
Ulster in the ‘regular’ PRO12 campaign, and the
opposition familiar and formidable.
Munster travels to Belfast just one point ahead
of the hosts, but potentially, crucially perhaps, in
second spot in the league table.
If Ulster wins today the teams would swap
places, and then Neil Doak’s squad would travel
to leaders Glasgow next weekend tantalisingly
within reach of a home play-off. And with the
PRO12 Final being played in Belfast, Ulster fans
may possibly have two more sell-out contests at
Kingspan Stadium before this tumultuous season
ends.
Still with us?
Well, in brief, the year has come down to
– hopefully – four games, two of which will
determine if Ulster’s guaranteed play-off semi-
final is at home, or away. That is the great prize
of the next seven days, for any coach would want
as much time with his players and as little travel
as possible as the quest for a trophy gathers
frightening pace.
Munster have the same reward in mind, for was
it to leave Belfast still in second place at best
it would need to win its last match at home to
Dragons, and hope Ulster returns from Scotstoun
still locked out of the top two positions.
And so, Munster would tog out at Thomond Park
in a fortnight in the ‘semis’ – very possibly against
Ulster!
It’s all hypothetical of course, and Anthony Foley’s
star-studded side will have but a single purpose
this afternoon – one mirrored by Ulster – and that
is a win, and consolidation and momentum going
into the last few weeks of the campaign.
These clubs have been rivals for well over a
century, at first when Inter-Pro supremacy was
the target of a season of three key games, with
Leinster a threat to both, and Connacht awkward
but normally beatable opposition. In Cork,
Limerick, Galway and Belfast there were fiercely-
fought engagements for generations, and the
international side’s stars emerged.
In the more recent amateur era Munster provided
totemic figures such as Tom Kiernan, Noel
Murphy, Donal Lenihan, Jerry Walsh, Barry
Bresnihan, Moss Keane, Keith Wood, David
Wallace, Tony Ward, Donncha O’Callaghan, Mick
Galwey, Ronan O’Gara, each one a Lion too.
Ulster’s post-war history is similarly lustrous,
with Jimmy Nelson, Jack Kyle, Noel Henderson,
Robin Thompson, Willie-John McBride, Syd Millar,
Ken Goodall, Mike Gibson, David Irwin, Trevor
Ringland, Nigel Carr and so many more forging
their gifts in gruelling pre-Christmas battles
between two proud provinces.
In this professional age there are added priorities
and prizes, in material terms huge returns, but
at the very core of games between Ulster and
Munster is a very real desire to earn the right to
be the best, Leinster very often muddying the
sporting waters!
Yes, for both teams a home semi-final is by far the
most desirable outcome, so there’ll be incentive in
both dressing rooms on that score. But for Doak
and Foley, with silverware the ultimate quarry, the
performance and form of their sides will be very
important. Both sides had their ‘blips’ this season,
but the Munster ship – at one point looking
particularly unseaworthy and with many pundits
shaking their heads with long-term concerns
for the multiple Heineken Cup winners – has
steadied, and is more than just an even keel, it is
now forging forward at a rate of scoring knots.
And so too Ulster, indeed it can be argued that it
navigated the PRO12 currents best during the Six
Nations when important players like Rory Best,
Jared Payne, Tommy Bowe and the immense
Iain Henderson were on international duty. Doak
and his assistants Jonny Bell, Allen Clarke and
Niall Malone, harnessed the resources available
skilfully, and never was the truism that the modern
game is about the depth and quality of the squad
more convincingly demonstrated.
The Munster and Ulster camps are characterised
by ambition, one less fulfilled perhaps, but
still ranked highly in Europe despite this year’s
disappointments in the Champions Cup. For
Ulster the last trophy acquired was the PRO12’s
precursor the Magners League in 2006, while
Munster was in the midst of its domination in
Europe. But for it too, this year Europe brought
unexpected and early reverses.
Now both clubs are on the cusp of taking the
season’s last remaining trophy, but be assured
everyone is focussed on this afternoon’s game as
the means to that end only.
A good win, and a performance which would
confirms recent good, clinical try-scoring form,
would give Ulster a superb boost before that
daunting fixture in Glasgow, and equally, a
second success for Munster over the men in white
would give Foley a real platform for a celebration
at the end of this month.