ULSTER CAPTAIN IAIN Henderson has praised the likes of Nick Timoney, James Hume and Robert Baloucoune for the impact they are having on the Kingspan Stadium squad despite the disappointment of not being involved with Ireland.
The trio all scored tries in their comfortable 48-12 win over Cardiff at Kingspan Stadium on Friday night that took Dan McFarland’s side back to the top of the United Rugby Championship standings, with Baloucoune adding a second for good measure.
Of course, having been called up to Andy Farrell’s squad for the Six Nations, ideally none of them would be playing for Ulster during this period due to their international commitments, with only Hume seeing game time against Wales and Italy so far.
Baloucoune can perhaps be a tad aggrieved he hasn’t even been on the bench, with James Lowe coming back into the squad and straight in ahead of him against Italy last week, while Timoney has found it hard to shift the regular back-row quartet of Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan and Peter O’Mahony.
But all three have returned to the province and put in admirable performances against Connacht, Dragons and Cardiff rather than sulk at their lack of involvement during the Six Nations, something that has really impressed their skipper.
“James and Rob are being really good examples of how to do it really well. Another one is Nick Timoney, he’s been absolutely fantastic,” said Henderson, himself only involved at Kingspan Stadium to get game time after a long injury absence, followed by a bout of Covid.
“Guys are taking their learnings when they’re down in camp, learning from two different environments and taking the best of both to produce really good performances be it for Ireland or Ulster. They’re learning new things with Ireland, getting some more experience and bringing that back and passing on knowledge to others, which is why it’s important we get as many guys down in Ireland camp as possible.
“It’s great to see them down and training really well. Fingers crossed for them, hopefully they’ll get a few more appearances between them towards the end of the Six Nations but if they come back and play for Ulster then they’ll do a good job there too.”
After playing the full game himself, Henderson should be back in the mix for Ireland’s trip to Twickenham to face England next weekend but, for now, he was happy to revel in a first appearance for his province since mid-December and a sixth straight win for the books.
Ulster dominated against the lacklustre Welsh region, who were as rusty as their patchy schedule indicated they should be, running in seven tries on their way to the win with Stuart McCloskey also crossing alongside first senior tries for Aaron Sexton and Tom Stewart.
It moves the province one point above Leinster to the top of the standings, even if it may only be for one day, while they also got a boost in seeing flanker Jordi Murphy make his first appearance since May due to injury and John Cooney was a welcome return off the bench, too.
“It was just brilliant to get back out playing there at Kingspan. It was a good performance, obviously it was a great result. There are a few work-ons, but it was good to link together,” added Henderson.
“One of the things we asked of ourselves was to get the set-piece working well and give the backs some ball to play with and I think that generally did happen. Delighted to get the win and it’s always good to get a win at Ravenhill on a Friday night.”
One of the stand-out performers was Stewart Moore, the centre forced into action at full-back due to a shortage of available options and yet showing that his skill-set is versatile enough to move him around the back-line at least for games such as these.
While he didn’t get on the scoresheet himself, Moore set up both Baloucoune and Sexton for tries and was generally reliable under the high ball after an early spill, and it was a performance that had assistant coach Dan Soper grinning from ear to ear afterwards.
“It’s something I’ve been a big advocate of for years, for the underage guys not to limit themselves to one spot and keep their options open,” he insisted.
“Stew Moore is such a talented rugby player, he’s got a wonderful skill-set and understands the game well. The guys were confident he could do a job tonight because of those things. It is important young guys can play in multiple positions and Stew is showing he can do that.
“I thought we scored some nice tries. The first half was a battle and we were a bit untidy and lacked a bit of energy at times, but second half we had a better tempo and when we gave guys out on the edges opportunities they took them.”
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