Ulster Rugby v Harlequins

MIGHTY QUINS COULD OFFER ANOTHER FESTIVE GIFT

Just five days on from the stunning 17-5 Champions Cup win at the famed Twickenham Stoop, Ulster does battle with Harlequins this evening at Kingspan Stadium in a revived quest for a coveted place in the knockout stages in the New Year.

Tim Visser’s move south hasn’t diluted the powerful winger’s appetite for the charging run and the approving roar for his prolific try-scoring exploits, and if full-back Mike Brown plays with what might seem to be a simmering anger for everyone and everything not in 'Quins colours, he is a brave counter-attacking option. He for one will relish the opportunity to rile both opposition and the Kingspan crowd by reversing fortunes for his club tonight. Following Conor O’Shea as Director of Rugby at 'Quins was always going to be an unenviable task, but Kingston has steadied the rugby ship in an era when the club game in England has never been so cut-throat. The defeat in front of their own fans on Sunday was hard to digest given the celebratory scenes a week earlier when Saracens was put to the Premiership sword. The famous quartered colours and instantly recognisable logo have been worn by Carling, Woodward, Greenwood, Monye, Luger, Leonard, Wood, Skinner, Winterbottom, Brooke, Kirton, Mehrtens and an endless galaxy of world-class players and that could weigh heavily on the current squad in these more ‘results business’ days. This week will have decided its Champions Cup fate; defeats by the daunting La Rochelle and by Wasps ensured the meetings with Ulster would be make-or-break affairs. For Ulster, the opening home win over Wasps, hard-earned if somewhat laboured, was a sound platform for qualification to the knock-out stages, though quite understandably the machine that is La Rochelle meted out a dose of harsh rugby realities the following October week in France. But the win in London was as cheering as it was unexpected by many loyal Ulster supporters. Champions Cup ambitions, if not sky-high, are fully revived, and what a transformation in morale on and off the pitch would be achieved with a maximum return this evening. The final two group games in January at Wasps and at home to La Rochelle would suddenly become ‘hot’ tickets! With some conviction, Kiss argues that to have taken 12 points out of a possible 15 in the last three Guinness PRO14 games is hardly

It’s the fourth game in the Pool for each side and the prospect of exiting Europe in 2017 is very real for the London giant – with no hope of pre-dawn renegotiations. For Ulster, still very much ‘alive’ in the tournament, a victory even more convincing and rewarding than that on Sunday would mean 2018 holds a panoply of prizes. On maintaining a realistic Cup ambition in 2018, victory – and perhaps an important try-bonus point – is what would really give Les Kiss’ players the present they want. For 'Quins Director of Rugby John Kingston, three matches already lost surely means Europe must wait another year. Immediately before this back-to-back tie with Ulster, tonight’s welcome visitors had impressively stalled a sequence of poor Premiership and Champions Cup results with a thrilling 20-19 win at The Stoop over Europe’s top side of the last two years, Saracens. Those clubs’ fierce rivalry over decades possibly has an overblown importance for 'Quins fans, but ‘derbies’ tend to be about more than just 80 minutes, ‘bragging rights’ in the English capital have historic significance. But that victory did demonstrate that Kingston had at his disposal talent which was, when roused, a formidable force. Danny Care’s determination to be England’s first-choice scrum-half gathered support with a clever and brave display, and Wales’

GUEST ARTICLE: ROD NAWN Jamie Roberts looked back to his threatening best. Flanker Chris Robshaw – apparently having to prove himself on a weekly basis at club and international level – was unyielding in the ruck and maul, and a huge influence in guiding his England team-mate, the unmistakeable prop Joe Marler, to use his many physical and technical gifts in a positive, selfless way.

Add Lions success, and last week’s try-scorer, Kyle Sinckler to the front row and skipper James Horwill, the much-capped Australian lock, and Ulster’s pack could again be seriously tested early on this evening. But is there an appetite to avenge the loss at The Stoop, where Kiss and Head Coach Jono Gibbes clearly out-thought 'Quins tactically, and their players were splendidly disciplined and remarkably error-free?

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