IF THERE WAS ever a week that Ulster didn’t want any injuries in a game then it was this one. Instead, they shipped three.
The 33-19 win over the Southern Kings threw up enough concerns of its own without adding the extended injury list into the mix, but in the week prior to facing Leinster in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Champions Cup, seeing Louis Ludik, Marty Moore and Darren Cave all helped off was less than ideal.
It’s a week where Ulster could do with having all hands on deck to face one of their local rivals in what is, without a doubt, their biggest game of the season. Instead, head coach Dan McFarland will have to do it with a considerably weakened hand.
Outside centre, in particular, is looking rather thin on the ground. Will Addison and Luke Marshall were already out before the withdrawals of Ludik and Cave, while Academy centre James Hume has just had surgery on a broken ankle.
The next in line would be another Academy centre, Stewart Moore – currently in Boston for the Cara Cup with Ulster A – but the chances of awarding him his first senior cap in the hotbed that will be the Aviva Stadium seems as remote a possibility as Jared Payne coming out of retirement for a spot start.
With scarce other options available, there’s a growing possibility that superstar winger Jacob Stockdale could be forced into the 13 jersey, a role he has played sparingly for Ulster and has not frequently lined out at since his time as a schools player with Wallace High.
While Moore would also be a significant blow at tighthead, Ulster are slightly better stocked there at least, with one of either Tom O’Toole or Wiehahn Herbst ready to step into the breach if needed.
Still, it’s hardly ideal.
“Apart from the potential for the injuries we will be in a good place going into next week,” McFarland was quick to stress, though.
In terms of the win over the Southern Kings, the phrase ‘job done’ would probably be the most appropriate to use. It wasn’t the sparkling vintage that McFarland would have desired before kick-off but, come the full-time whistle from referee Lloyd Linton, it was five points in the Guinness Pro14 table and Ulster into second in Conference B.
There were plenty of positives, another maul try chief among them, as were the individual performances of the likes of Rob Lyttle, Stuart McCloskey and Matty Rea. But underlying it all was the frustration of never being able to put a limited Kings side fully to the sword and repeatedly allowing them back into the game.
Having forged two tries ahead within the first quarter of an hour, Ulster allowed their South African opponents to draw back within two points 10 minutes later. Similarly, in the second half they invited no shortage of pressure from the visitors after grabbing their bonus-point score.
“We were a little bit disjointed today — three weeks off and it looked like we had three weeks off,” admitted the head coach.
We turned the ball over in the first half seven times, for us that is very uncharacteristic. Our ruck performances so far this season, or certainly in the second two-thirds of what we have played so far have been excellent, and today that was the worst performance in terms of ruck and keeping hold of the ball that we have had in three or four months.
“That is a little disappointing because when we went to the Ospreys after a little bit of a break I thought we were excellent, we managed to nil them over there. For some reason, we were not great today.
“We had a couple of fellas playing who had not played as much recently, and just getting the ground under their boots for the first time in a while — that might have led to a little bit of lacking in energy. But that is only natural that would happen with anybody at any time.
“We will look at that, we will be better for it.”
Having been done a favour by neighbours Connacht, who defeated Benetton on Friday night, and also the Cardiff Blues, who ensured the Scarlets also picked up no league points from their Welsh derby, the weekend’s result leave Ulster sitting pretty in Conference B.
Now up to second and with a healthy seven-point buffer over fourth-placed Edinburgh in the race for the play-offs, there’s no shortage of optimism around Kingspan Stadium that the northern province can finish the season on a real high.
Not only that, but McFarland’s side are now unbeaten in seven games stretching back to mid-January and are currently on a four-game win streak that has seen them take bonus points in their last three games, something they have struggled with in the past.
“If we win, and continue to win, we’ll advance [to the play-offs],” acknowledged McFarland of the position his side have managed to put themselves into.
“In the forefront of our minds is that we have to go to Glasgow, we have to go to Edinburgh with their Scottish internationals back, and we’ve the best team in Europe in the last game of the season. We’re under no illusions to the size of the task ahead of us.
“But we’ve put ourselves into the position that we said we wanted to be in. At the start of the Six Nations, we knew if we continued to win we could put ourselves in a strong position for those last three games. We’ve done that.”
But first, before they worry about the rest of their Pro14 push, they have the big one. And, of course, it comes up against a side that McFarland himself has already labelled the best team in Europe.
Ulster will not be given much of a chance at overcoming Leinster at the Aviva Stadium next weekend, regardless of recent form or what’s at stake, but within the four stands of Kingspan Stadium there’s an air of confidence slowly growing within the squad that they can do something special.
Of course, this result against the Kings does little to deter them from the task at hand. Factor in the returns of their Ireland internationals, plus the natural incentive that is their first European knockout game since 2014, and it’ll be a different beast that travels to Dublin on Saturday.
Stockdale will be back. Rory Best will be back. Iain Henderson is hoping to be back, even if a decision on his availability won’t be made until very late in the week. Talent will not be in short supply, that’s for sure.
All in all, it adds up to what will be a huge week in the development of this young Ulster team, one that potentially could be looked back on in a few years as very important. And, with it now the next game on the schedule, all eyes turn to the Aviva.
“I think you have to pay [Leinster] a lot of respect, and you want to pay them a lot of respect. What they’ve done consistently over the last number of years is impressive,” praised McFarland.
“They’re well coached, there’s a lot of guys who work very hard for their province and when the chips are down they produce the goods. For us, that’s a brilliant challenge.”
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