Ulster Rugby vs Zebra

With his calm, measured demeanour the deep intelligence of the Head Coach’s deployment of his players respect and admire his commitment and desire and are determined to match those characteristics and add their own talented ‘twists’ to the rugby cocktail. No longer does an Ulster team await the arrival of one of the great powerhouses of the sport with any degree of awe. It will afford the visitors respect but have concentrated on its own abilities and how best to harness them fully to exploit any possible frailties in the French outfit. Discipline, as Peel, emphasised this week, will be important. Ulster has worked hard on reducing its concession of penalties and there will be a suspicion that it is actually Clermont which has had the more persistent problem in that regard. Capitalising on errors will decide this match. Whether it’s a critical game-saving intervention like Jacob Stockdale’s last weekend, or whether it’s Cooney’s superb and punishing boot, Ulster will be readied as perhaps never before. It might be cold outside this Friday evening, but the temperature on the Kingspan Stadium terraces and grandstands will be soaring – and that’s just before kick-off! It’s a great occasion, a special meeting and merging of cultures on and off the pitch, and nobody will deny that there is a special relish in downing the giants from France. The players on both sides, though, are proudly professional and passionate about their personal and collective responsibilities, so the factors at work this seething, frenetic night are many. It's a special game, it’s a very special Belfast sporting night. Allez!

of carrying and winning turnovers allied to predictably high-energy contributions from prop Marty Moore and the indispensable Rob Herring. Sam Carter was forced out of the second row early but Alan O’Connor is an experienced player to call off the bench, and Eric O’Sullivan, Tom O’Toole and Sean Reidy have fine pedigrees and played their part in a game which may not have been free-flowing but it was physically and mentally draining, and ‘The Rec’ required concentration and accuracy. Out-half Billy Burns should be fit to resume his blooming partnership with the astonishing John Cooney, surely Ireland’s great scrum-half ‘secret’. Rob Lyttle, with Cooney, scored a try in the West Country but took a knock in Bath, but great talents such as Craig Gilroy, Louis Ludik and Robert Baloucoune – fresh from a try hat-trick outing at club level – are available to McFarland for what is bound to be one of the most compelling contests at Kingspan Stadium this season. If the midfield pairing of Stuart McCloskey and Luke Marshall continues its impressive run, and crowd favourite Will Addison is asked to fill the No. 15 jersey again, there is the necessary firepower and physical presence required. Memories such as those created in spectacular wins against Toulouse, Stade Francais, La Rochelle, Racing 92, and indeed Clermont in 2016 are permanent, and never taken for granted. Adding to that exalted list will be what the packed stadium wants with unalloyed fervour, but it will take meticulous planning by McFarland and his attack and defence coaches, Dwayne Peel and Jared Payne, to record a second successive win in the Champions Cup group. This management is demanding but imaginative, it asks much from a fine squad of players but only because it has the skills, the ambition and will to improve. The pack is now a consistent unit, the backline is awash with verve, flair and increasingly polished and unforgiving defensive acumen. McFarland, immediately after the late drama in Bath, pinpointed the necessity for his team to impose itself against Clermont, to dominate possession and, from that, create more out- and-out attacking opportunities.

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