IF YOU WERE expecting Sean Doyle to be apologetic after the Chris Ashton-esque finish to his try on Saturday night, you’re in for a disappointment.
The openside is still grinning at the thought of the score which put the icing (before a few cherries arrived) on a bonus-point win over Treviso.
Not just because it was the Heineken Cup, in front of a packed Ravenhill, or because Ruan Pienaar had laid it on a plate for him; but because it was his first score for the northern province.
“A bit of excitement running through the veins there,” he explains with a laugh, “and finished with a bit of a dive. All in good fun.”
“I could see that there was nobody at home when I was coming around behind Ruan so I knew I had a bit of time up my sleeve.”
Since tracing his roots – his grandfather, John, hurled for Clare – back to Ireland last year, times have always been much tougher than that magic moment looked. Just over a month and three Pro12 starts into his first season in a new country with a new club, Doyle broke his leg playing for Dungannon in the Ulster Bank League.
“It wasn’t great timing and it didn’t heal the way it was meant to – it was supposed to be an eight to 10 week injury, but it took about 30 weeks between games which just ruined my season.”
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Doyle picked his words carefully. The injury didn’t literally end his season, he would come off the bench for Ulster’s final regular season meeting with Cardiff Blues, but it might as well have.
Saturday was his eighth appearance for Ulster; four outings this season by no means constituting a feast of first team opportunity. However, with Chris Henry one of the three potential first-team back row players out injured, Doyle is capitalising on an occasion when luck has deserted a teammate and smiled on him.
Given the jersey for the visit of Treviso last week Doyle most certainly took his chance; putting in 18 tackles on a night only one other player broke double figures and making his presence felt on several occasions with swift, accurate interventions at ruck time.
“Those little things are what you’ve got to make sure you do and do well,” Doyle says as TheScore.ie points down to one corner of Ravenhill where he sent two backs tumbling off the ball.
“Something like a big fast clean out can pave the way for the nine just having great forward ball then out wide for the 13 to dance around defenders and get all the credit.”
There’s more than just a hint of mischief as Doyle delivers the latter part of his dream move, but it was once he who (while not quite dancing around defenders, he admits) stood in the backline as an inside centre before being invited into the pack after graduating from under 20 grade.
“I’m not the big hard ball-runner in the team, I’mt he small mobile one whose got to go around doing those things. That’s what I love doing – I’ve played almost all my footy at seven and that’s where I feel most at home.”
Goodness knows Ireland doesn’t have enough of Doyle’s breed. And at just 24, his value on this island could well rise over the coming years. For now, however, he must stick to taking his chances where they come and that means coming down fast from a 48 – 0 win to concentrate on a rematch with a Treviso side with plenty of pride to win back.
“You’ve got to refocus, otherwise you’ll be the wounded animal,” says Doyle, turning the tables on how we expect Treviso to act at the first whistle.
‘Big, physical, fast’
“You’ve got to mentally prepare yourself all week like it’s the first one. It’s a knockout game, that’s how we’ll go into it.
“The Italians are a big physical side at home. Completely different to an away team. We know that and we’re preparing for that and we’re going to go into the game big, physical and fast.
“Hopefully we’ll do another number on them.”
