Ulster Men: Starting the season on the back foot

by

, ,

I didn’t watch the Stormers semi-final last season and couldn’t stomach watching a repeat of the game on Premier Sports, but I only could imagine what my reaction would have been to see Ulster come within minutes of a final appearance in the maiden season of the URC. Had they held on, the Bulls would have travelled to Ravenhill, where I would have tipped Ulster to prevail.

But that’s not how it panned out as players and supporters alike bemoaned another costly try conceded within the last 5 minutes of games last season.

We’ve had our sprinkling of southern hemisphere rugby to tide us over during our summer of reflection and now we must look ahead. The URC is back in action with Ulster recording a routine win over Connacht at Ravenhill before edged out Scarlets in a 94-point thriller in Llanelli in their opening two fixtures leaving them top of the pile with second place Leinster travelling to Ravenhill on Friday night.

However this season the provinces have been lumbered with the obstacle of collectively losing 35 players to an ‘Emerging Ireland’ tour that gets underway on Friday. To change Ireland’s fortunes in World Cup quarter finals, ‘A’ matches are coming back into fashion. It started with a couple of matches against the Maori All Blacks in the summer and continues with a tour of South Africa that kicks off at the end of the month, before it culminates with a match against an All Blacks XV in November. They’ll take on Currie Cups sides Griquas (30 September), Pumas (5 October) and Cheetahs (9 October) during the tour of South Africa.

Ulster are without 10 players – Callum Reid, Tom Stewart, Cormac Izuchukwu, David McCann, Nathan Doak, Michael McDonald, Stewart Moore, Ethan McIlroy, Jake Flannery and Robert Baloucoune – leaving them with little depth in certain positions. Doak and McDonald’s selection means John Cooney and Dave Shanahan are the two remaining senior scrum halves in the squad with Conor McKee in the academy. At loosehead, Eric O’Sullivan and Andrew Warwick – who missed the friendly against Exeter due to injury – will feature in all the opening games with just George Saunderson in the academy. Not much room for injuries!

There’s a few surprising inclusions and omissions though there would have had to be some from of compromise from the IRFU to ensure the provinces don’t go into the new season undercooked in certain positions. From Ulster I was surprised Marcus Rea was omitted, though with Duane Vermuelen on Springbok duty and Nick Timoney involved with Ireland during the summer, it would have left Ulster stretched in a very physical position if Rea joined David McCann on the tour.

I was surprised that Ireland still view Robert Baloucoune as an emerging player, especially after his man of the match hat trick against Toulouse last season and his maturity in defence that has led him to be named one of the first players on the Ulster team sheet. His selection is likely to be because of the injury that denied him a place on the plane to New Zealand.

This tour sends a clear message to the provinces that international rugby rules the roost and the IRFU are prepared to sacrifice domestic results in favour of an uncapped tour. It doesn’t send a positive message out to the URC either after one of the marketing points when the URC was first announced was that availability of the top players would be greatly increased!

Crucially, Ulster’s remaining fixtures during this window are against Ospreys and Leinster at Ravenhill. Ospreys are on an upward trajectory after a horror show in the final chapter of the PRO14 while Leinster is always a tough match regardless of who they field. A bonus point win over Scarlets without the players mentioned is big result – especially as Ulster had only won four times at the Parc-y-Scarlets – and will hopefully be the catalyst to see Ulster through the season.

Tougher ties lie ahead for Ulster but they have acheived a job well done status in their opening matches. Looking further south, Munster and Connacht are 0 from 2 with the Munstermen particularly rueing their start with defeats against Cardiff and the Dragons – two teams the Limerick side would have expected to beat.

Will this tour along with the other ‘A’ matches be the catalyst to get national men’s team into the coveted semi finals? Or will this have been a waste of resources that left the provinces playing catch up in the league for the other teams? It may be 13 months before we find out the answer.


Corrections, comments or questions?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.