Ulster Rugby vs Llanelli Scarlets

DAN TUOHY: BACK FROM INJURY AND AIMING TO MAKE AN IMPACT FOR ULSTER AND IRELAND

Dan Tuohy, returns to the Ulster starting XV tonight after what has been a frustrating 12 months with injury.

Since he had to leave the field with a fractured arm in Ireland’s game in last season’s RBS 6 Nations against Wales, he has broken his arm again, broken his hand and ruptured ligaments in his thumb. Now fully fit again, he will be playing only his 10th game of the season: “At times it has been tough to sit on the sidelines and watch good performances and also to watch bad performances and not be able to affect that,” says Tuohy. “It has probably been the toughest period of my career so far. Fortunately, I have not had any really nasty knee injuries or shoulders or anything like that. In the grand scheme of things I have been lucky as the longest I have been out is ten to 12 weeks but it is the cumulative effect of all of them that has made it a very frustrating time.” “It was tough getting injured and then having to make the decision as to whether to have surgery on my thumb or not. When I had the surgery done the surgeon said that it was the best decision that I could have made because the thumb was in such disrepair that I wouldn’t have stood a chance of being available for selection for the 6 Nations or for the games here, so I am glad that I made that decision. It is just one of those things. I am as fresh as I can be. Now we have a run of seven games and perhaps knock-out matches. Hopefully I can get into the team, make a positive impact and hopefully help them to win something.” A month ago Ulster had crashed out of Europe and had slipped out of the play off places in the PRO12. Five weeks on and the province are up to second and Tuohy believes that the team are starting to hit form at the critical time of the season: He says: “It was disappointing that Europe finished the way it did. Having said that it was great to get that performance against Leicester Tigers and that has put us in a good mind-frame and set the benchmark for the rest of the season. Performances like that are key. Glasgow at the start of the season was like that. It shows what we can do as a squad and shows what level

we can play at. You have to show consistency if you are going to be in the mix for silverware and that is what we are starting to show now.” Having won three matches in row, maintaining consistency will be essential against the Scarlets, a team that Ulster know well: “This is our fourth time playing them this season and I will have played in all the games, says Tuohy. “We are well accustomed to each other. There will be no suprises for either team. We are at home on Friday and we have got the best home record in the league and continuing that in the knock out stages will be key to our success. Now that there is a guaranteed final at Kingspan Stadium it would be nice to have a home play off and these are the games that we need to win if we are to achieve that. This week teams around us are playing each other so we have to pick up results to keep the pressure on Glasgow.” Tuohy’s immediate goal is to help Ulster win these next two PRO12 matches but having worked hard to get fit he is hopeful that he might still be able to make an impact for Ireland in this season’s RBS 6 Nations: “I got a text message from Joe Schmidt the other evening,” Tuohy reveals. “He is going to touch base with me post-Dragons. I am going to try and get as many minutes as possible in the next two matches. He will assess everyone meticulously as he always does and he will probably make a call from there. If my thumb holds up, I would love to go down to Dublin and to contribute to the final two games and see where I stand. I am not expecting a great deal, but to contribute in a world cup year to the end of the campaign will be incredibly important. He will get the chance to see me train and you never know, play. That will be a good precursor leading up to the world cup warm up games. That’s a bit further down the line, right now I am just going to concentrate on these two matches with Ulster.”

DAN TUOHY

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ULSTER RUGBY

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