ULSTER COULD BE forgiven for thinking the whole world is against them this week.
As you may have heard already, there was a pretty contentious fourth minute incident in their Heineken Cup quarter-final loss to Saracens… but we won’t get into that.
With just a six-day turnaround to raise spirits, ease swelling and refocus they will be missing seven players for an inter-provincial clash against a Connacht side who have had a fortnight to target them with the hope of spoiling another night at Ravenhill.
“We tried to keep training light-hearted [on Monday] with team games,” says Luke Marshall, who is a quiet man even when things are going extremely well.
“That made it a little easier, it was important to move on after the weekend. The guys were feeling pretty down and there were a lot of sore bodies.”
Each player will have had their own way of coming to terms or just plain forgetting about Saracens. Marshall hit the weights, walked the dog – anything to avoid sitting around the house. Yesterday helped too, a full training session with plenty to focus and distract the mind to keep the ‘what ifs’ from taking over.
Nothing to lose
The schoolboy out-half has turned into an international centre, but with Ulster’s defensive line in contingency mode on Saturday night, Marshall was summoned to defend the left wing.
Those early nerves were perhaps most evident for Saracens’ opening score in the 23rd minute, but Marshall is always forthcoming when talking about rugby and he stepped up to cite where he felt he could perhaps have prevented the ‘Ash-Splash’:
“We just got a bit of an overchase off the scrum and they got a wheel as well, so our back row was taken out of it.
“They exploited the gap inside pretty well and I was about to head out into the back-line to cover when Chris [Ashton] got free. He’s obviously pretty nippy and I got caught flat-footed and he got round me which was disappointing, but it’s just one of those things.”
It’s been a difficult week for the entire province, but the search for silver linings should not be as difficult for the 23-year-old centre. A month on from doubt over whether he could even play professional rugby again following a fourth concussion in a year, he has come through three sets of 80 minutes undaunted.
“It is one of the few positives for myself to pick out of the game, it was a pretty physical game, a good test of my health and I got through it alright.”
He added: “We came together well [at training yesterday] and our minds are definitely on Connacht now on Friday. The guys realise we need to turn it around as quick as possible or else we’re gonna give Connacht a good chance to beat us – after Connacht we’ve Munster, Leinster and Glasgow so it’s a tough run in.”
There’s not much pressure if you’ve got nothing to play for, so talk of difficult games at this time of the season can only mean there are more positives to fall back on. Though the Heineken Cup is the primary focus for at least three of Ireland’s four provinces, you only need look at the table to see how seriously the Pro12 is taken here.
Silverware
With the three other Irish provinces and fourth place Glasgow Warriors filling their remaining fixtures, Ulster face a fight to hold onto their play-off place, but they’re not planning on clinging on. Their targets are bigger than that.
“Our aim at the start of the season was to get some silverware. The Heineken’s gone out of the picture, but we’re still massively focused on the Rabo.
“We haven’t won the league since 2005-6 and we were beaten in the final by Leinster last year. So we would love to lift the trophy at the end of the season and we’re fully focused now on the run in.”
They’re up against it, but Ulster have proved plenty of times already this season that they can revel in that role..
