ALMOST EXACTLY 100 years to the day, the first rugby match was played at Ravenhill.
So fresh was the place that it didn’t even have a name, instead being termed ‘New Rugby Ground’ on the front of the official programme for their game against Leinster.
For posterity, the game kicked off at 2.45pm on a Saturday. Ulster beat Leinster 14-6.
It was a bitterly cold afternoon and snow had to be shovelled off the turf beforehand. It would take a century, but the remedy for that would be found with the artificial surface recently installed.
All along the ways, various chapters of history have been rewritten. Meetings with the All Blacks were notable as Ulster became the first Irish side to avoid defeat to the tourists as they drew 3-3 in November 1935. It was 5-5 between the two in January 1954.
In 1972 with the Troubles heading for its most gruesome period, they lost 19-6. But the sight of armed soldiers, standing just a yard from the pre-match parade with their guns pointing skywards, is a reminder of how insane things were for decades.
When the Toulouse team bus rolls into this corner of Belfast, it’s worth pausing and considering how far this place, this club, this sport, and this part of the world has come.
In terms of sporting stadiums right across Ireland, Kingspan Ravenhill is a strong contender for being the best for the purpose it’s been created for.
On match day, there is a cosmopolitan feel, especially with a French team in town. At the start of last week, the public relations side of the club announced with some glee that this game was a sell-out. It hadn’t been that way since the 10-15 defeat to Connacht in the URC quarter-finals last May.
Consider the optimism around Ulster right now, and how it has sprung from three consecutive wins.
Some have been scrappy, most notably the Connacht win on 22 December. The Leinster win on New Year’s Day took reserves of grit. Perhaps the most polished was the 31-15 win over Racing 92 in mid-December.
One reason for their reinvigorated form is Sean Reffell. The back-row’s signing from Saracens was a surprise when it was announced at the start of 2022. Thereafter he had a horrendous run of injuries. He returned in time for the Connacht game having spent almost the entire calendar year out through an ankle injury.
He’s made hay since. Last January, he made no fewer than 39 tackles against Munster shortly before his injury. Those numbers are record-breaking but he showed from a young age that he was capable of such returns.
Back in 2019, he made 39 tackles for Saracens in the Premiership Rugby Cup semi-final win at Worcester Warriors.
Against Leinster on New Year’s Day, he was his usual tackling machine, as well as showing immense pace in the lead-up to an Ulster try and performing a brave jackal on Caelan Doris.
“From me, I think it is not over thinking things too much,” Reffell said.
“I know my role within the team is to try and bring that work rate as a backrower especially as a seven.
“It is just setting out to see how you can make a difference in a game whether that is the speed to get back onto the feet and get off the line and make a tackle.”
That bloody-mindedness will be required against Toulouse. Their own formlines are strong in the places they need them to be. Across eight days in the opening rounds of the pool stages, they ran up a combined 99 points against Cardiff and Harlequins and shipped just 26.
And they have Antoine Dupont doing it his way. The last time they met here, Ulster felt they were seeing out an aggregate win to progress in the Champions Cup back in April 2022. Dupont had other ideas and went over for the crucial try with five minutes remaining.
How they could have done with a back-row tackling machine in that moment.
Let’s see how this unfolds.
European Champions Cup: Ulster V Toulouse, 8pm, Kingspan Ravenhill Stadium, TNT Sports 3.
