AFTER DROWNING IN Bath last weekend, Ulster have shown a certain intent as they look to the visit of Racing 92 and the first European home game of the season.
Back in comes John Cooney and Billy Burns for their tandem act.
Rob Herring comes in to shut the door on a struggling scrum. Mike Lowry gets the start after coming off the bench at The Rec. Mattie Rea is in there. Nick Timoney too. The games of footsie are over. The hammer is coming down, John Henry-style.
Adding his heft and bulk to the shoving and puffing is Dave Ewers. The Zimbabwean has been named as blindside flanker and with Herring back in the pack and Steven Kitshoff there too, they suddenly look to have a bit more bite.
It doesn’t take much to get Ewers reminiscing about Exeter Chiefs, where he spent all his career before a summer switch to Ulster.
“It was a very, very special day,” he smiles, recalling Exeter’s Champions Cup win against Racing in 2020.
“I had lost two or three Premiership finals against Sarries (Saracens) before that. I hadn’t had a good run of finals until that day so it was a massive relief.”
“Obviously it was a bit gutting that it was during Covid with no one in the crowd. It was a special day and one that I will never forget.”
A pity, then, that there was nobody there for it. Ewers’ mother and father had been to the previous finals when he lost, and they are now convinced that their presence brings bad fortune. Especially when Exeter followed it up by securing the double by beating Wasps 19-13 in the Premiership final.
With Kitshoff and Ewers, Ulster now have some proper and proven winners in the line-up. Ewers is keen to bring their lessons to the wider group.
“In the Champions Cup you need to be at your best game in and game out. If I look back on that year [when] we won Europe, we had some massive wins away from home,” he recalls.
“We didn’t manage to do that last week against Bath, but one thing I can take from that is we have to win our home games if we want to proceed. It is a massive test this weekend.”
It’s a bit early to be saying it, but Ulster face into the next six days for a period that could define their season.
Despite head coach Dan McFarland insisting they are trying to play a more offensive and risk-taking game, there was little evidence of it when they beat Munster, largely through the introduction of Iain Henderson to help with the gruntwork.
Against Emirates Lions in round five, the tries came from James Hume ploughing through the middle at the end of a snappy passing sequence, Jacob Stockdale being the touchline-hugger for the second try, and Rob Herring going over after a long maul to win 24-17.
Since then, it’s been losses to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bath.
Here, they have two home games to plant their feet and start swinging, with Connacht coming up the road next Friday night with designs on a second win over Ulster in the space of as many months.
After that, Ulster are free to enjoy the turkey, resuming action on 1, January at the RDS against Leinster.
Do they look like a winning team, though? Pushed on the issue, Ewers does see some similarities between that successful Chiefs team and his present side.
“I think so. Looking back at that team, we had some very outside exciting backs and you can say the same here.
“Across the forwards, there were exciting players, and we were able to provide them with a good stable platform for them to attack.”
“That is something we are aiming to do here as a squad and as a forward pack and one that we are very capable of doing.”
The Racing pack they face will include the likes of Cameron Woki and Siya Kolisi.
“There is a reason where they are in their club and on the international stage. It will be a massive test to shut them down but one I imagine will be very rewarding if we get it right.”