HAD YOU SAID to Marcus Rea at the start of the season that he would end it being tasked with opposing South Africa’s World Cup-winning skipper Siya Kolisi, he’d probably have stared at you in disbelief.
The Ulster flanker looked likelier to be starting the season playing for Ballynahinch in the All-Ireland League than for the province, what with Nick Timoney and Jordi Murphy ahead of him in the pecking order, while Ireland U20s captain David McCann was also pushing through and even brother Matty was limiting his exposure.
But, to his credit, Rea put his head down, did his due diligence in the background and it paid off. He wouldn’t even play for ‘Hinch when their AIL campaign got underway as he was retained by Ulster, and he never looked back after an all-action cameo away to Leinster in November.
Out of Ulster’s last 17 games, Rea has started 15 of them and was on the bench for the other two. Hardly surprising given his rate of 17 turnovers has him third in the United Rugby Championship charts, while his ball-carrying has become particularly potent, too.
Of course, he is perhaps coming up against one of the most all-action flankers in the game in Kolisi when Ulster take on the Cell C Sharks at Kingspan Stadium tomorrow night (7:35pm, TG4/Premier Sports). But, by this stage, that prospect holds little fear.
“I’ve played against big players, I’ve played (during) Six Nations Championships in the past,” says Rea almost nonchalantly.
“It will be good fun playing against him and seeing how the breakdown and carries [go]. It will be very much a one-on-one battle and trying to limit him to very little, hopefully.
“He was pretty integral, he was basically the core of the South African team with his leadership and the way he plays. For any player watching him there is loads of stuff you can take away by keeping an eye on him.”
Still, the novelty of playing a man who almost single-handedly carried a nation’s dream to Japan and delivered it is not lost on Rea.
Only a year ago this kind of head-to-head would have only been possible on the national stage – a dream the Ballymena man still holds – and not in the URC.
“It was always a dream but it is pretty cool having the South African teams in so you come up against these players,” he adds.
“It is a pretty cool experience and I never thought that I would maybe get a chance to play against him because at that stage they were still in Super Rugby, seeing him on TV playing against the New Zealand and the Australian teams.
“It was probably something I never thought about until two or three years ago when there were whispers that the South African teams coming in was coming to fruition.”
Of course, when the two sides meet in Belfast tomorrow night the result will not be solely down to the battle of the two men with the No.6 on their backs, even if it will go a long way to deciding which team has home advantage in the knockouts.
The play-off picture could hardly be more finely poised and the clash between Ulster and the Sharks almost feels like a knockout tie on its own given the guaranteed prize of hosting a quarter-final that is on offer for the winners.
After a wobble that saw them defeated by the Stormers, Bulls and Munster in three consecutive URC ties around their European exit to Toulouse, Ulster got back on track with a gutsy 16-10 win over Edinburgh last time out and the hope is that kind of result can reignite their stuttering season.
“Once we were knocked out of Europe it was very much we went into the shed and said we still have a competition to play for, we still have a home quarter-final to play for and that is exactly where our intentions changed to,” maintains Rea.
“Beating Edinburgh on their home patch was huge because it hadn’t been done this season, so we reacted well. If we’d have lost or drawn that game it would have been doubly tough, but the fact we got back on the horse in a tough arena, we are full steam ahead to win this.”
