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Franco van der Merwe, Iain Henderson, and
Jamie Heaslip will want set-piece supremacy
primarily, and recently Ulster’s occasional fragility
at scrum-time has been successfully addressed,
and provided there is care and structure at the
breakdown the home side looks the more consistent
unit.
We love to speculate on what might happen, who
might be the key influence on the 80 minutes, and
there are 46 players on show, each of whom could be
the catalyst for what would be a pivotal afternoon for
one of the sides.
In Ulster this year the emergence of Stuart McCloskey,
of Kyle McCall, Sean Reidy and Rory Scholes has
offered very real reason to believe the present – and the
important future – teams will compete effectively and
consistently, that their talents have been forged in the
white heat of serious competition and the visit of Leinster,
fierce Inter-Pro rivals as well as PRO12 contenders too, will
not find these younger players wanting.
Add to that the return to health of Iain Henderson, and Stuart
Olding – internationals both – and the pool of experience
and ‘nous’ of Best, Rob Herring, Ricky Lutton, Callum Black,
Robbie Diack, Chris Henry, Roger Wilson, Andrew Trimble,
Craig Gilroy, Darren Cave, Paul Marshall, the incomparable
Ruan Pienaar and so many more - and Ulster fans rightly
should share a ‘feel-good factor’.
And time may have beaten his recovery but what a game it
would be was that colourful, engaging and crowd-rousing Nick
Williams able to add his rumbustious presence to proceedings
on his last appearance in an Ulster jersey at Kingspan Stadium?
Madigan, Fitzgerald, Reddan, Healy and Ruddock, amongst
others travelling from Dublin, will have firm ideas of a rather
different outcome than the one that the sell-out home crowd will
want and urge from their favourites.
The rewards of the 80 minutes this afternoon are plain and
seductive, and even at the final whistle there is one more weekend
of the Guinness PRO12’s ‘regular’ season which could become
truly critical to Ulster’s quest to reap the harvest so much hard work
deserves, and which will sate the appetite of supporters who have
waited – not perhaps always patiently! – for their investment in
terms of loyalty, time and hopes bring genuine success.
The target is to extend the campaign into May, to reach the semi-
finals, and it could be around five o’clock next Saturday, after the
game with the Ospreys in Wales, that we will all know if the squad
has taken a key step towards a trophy.
A league title was won at the Liberty Stadium a decade ago with a
last-gasp drop goal from a certain David Humphreys. An omen?
Let’s first prepare to give full voice to create a thunderous welcome
to Leinster this Saturday afternoon. This is what a certain Scot
labelled ‘squeaky bum time’, what the more elegant rugby
enthusiast might call something else.
Pure Drama!
ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN
FREELANCE JOURNALIST
AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST
@RODNAWN1