MARTY MOORE ARRIVED home in the wee hours of Tuesday after helping shoulder an immense weight as Ulster eked out a 7-11 win over Cardiff Blues in Rodney Parade.
Despite being weary from a sapping shift and the travel to and from Neath, his brain doesn’t settle until he takes a bird’s eye view back at his night’s work. Not for all the entertainment he feels he may have missed, but to straighten out some recollections that might otherwise put a kink in his sleep.
“You’re pretty wired after a game anyway,” says Moore, “put it on the TV and try and get the personal view out of the way and then get the team one.”
Moore could have taken pride in the 17-minute stretch before half-time. It’s a portion some might have felt compelled to fast forward through, but Moore had his shoulder to the wheel throughout as Ulster tried to turn the screw on Cardiff in the scrum.
“Bad conditions, a tough night. When Mikey Lowry went over just before half-time there was no happier man on the field than me after 17 odd minutes of scrums. It’s a vital away win. Away wins our huge in this league.”
Lowry’s try proved decisive, a score coming after Billy Burns continually backed his pack rather than grabbing some easy points for his own tally. Despite feeling the effects of an extended scrummaging set, if the question is asked then it becomes rhetorical for a pack. Once in the battle, they have to stay until it’s won.
“If you haven’t really done it you might not appreciate how fatiguing it is,” Moore says.
“It’s probably the least I’ve ran in a game in the last month, but definitely, the most fatigued I’ve been.
“I don’t know how to describe it, it’s just the lactic acid build-up, so you kind of get jelly legs when you get out of a scrum and try to run after the play.”
Though his metres were down, that he was fit and strong enough to fulfill his core function even under fatigue is testament to the work the Dubliner has put in off the field in recent months. And he will hope to carry his form, underpinned by fitness, into Monday’s meeting with Glasgow in Kingspan Stadium.
“It’s no secret that I struggled with fitness when I came back after the lockdown period.
“A goal that I had for myself, but one that helps the squad as well, was to get back to being able to put in those 70 minute performances.
“It’s something I’m still chipping away at but it’s definitely down to those extra bits of training. Everyone has some area that they need to put that extra work into, that’s my area that I just have to keep focusing on.
“I’m quite happy to have been able the last few weeks to go long enough stints in that three jersey and hopefully it continues.”
