Ulster Rugby vs Munster

by ROD NAWN WHEN BOTH TEAMS HAVES EYES ON THE PRIZE

SATURDAY afternoon in early May at Kingspan Stadium, surely it just has to mean it’s a big game! Indeed it is, the penultimate home fixture for Ulster in the ‘regular’ PRO12 campaign, and the opposition familiar and formidable. Robin Thompson, Willie-John McBride, Syd Millar, Ken Goodall, Mike Gibson, David Irwin, Trevor Ringland, Nigel Carr and so many more forging their gifts in gruelling pre-Christmas battles between two proud provinces.

Munster travels to Belfast just one point ahead of the hosts, but potentially, crucially perhaps, in second spot in the league table. If Ulster wins today the teams would swap places, and then Neil Doak’s squad would travel to leaders Glasgow next weekend tantalisingly within reach of a home play-off. And with the PRO12 Final being played in Belfast, Ulster fans may possibly have two more sell-out contests at Kingspan Stadium before this tumultuous season ends. Still with us? Well, in brief, the year has come down to – hopefully – four games, two of which will determine if Ulster’s guaranteed play-off semi- final is at home, or away. That is the great prize of the next seven days, for any coach would want as much time with his players and as little travel as possible as the quest for a trophy gathers frightening pace. Munster have the same reward in mind, for was it to leave Belfast still in second place at best it would need to win its last match at home to Dragons, and hope Ulster returns from Scotstoun still locked out of the top two positions. And so, Munster would tog out at Thomond Park in a fortnight in the ‘semis’ – very possibly against Ulster! It’s all hypothetical of course, and Anthony Foley’s star-studded side will have but a single purpose this afternoon – one mirrored by Ulster – and that is a win, and consolidation and momentum going into the last few weeks of the campaign. These clubs have been rivals for well over a century, at first when Inter-Pro supremacy was the target of a season of three key games, with Leinster a threat to both, and Connacht awkward but normally beatable opposition. In Cork, Limerick, Galway and Belfast there were fiercely- fought engagements for generations, and the international side’s stars emerged. In the more recent amateur era Munster provided totemic figures such as Tom Kiernan, Noel Murphy, Donal Lenihan, Jerry Walsh, Barry Bresnihan, Moss Keane, Keith Wood, David Wallace, Tony Ward, Donncha O’Callaghan, Mick Galwey, Ronan O’Gara, each one a Lion too. Ulster’s post-war history is similarly lustrous, with Jimmy Nelson, Jack Kyle, Noel Henderson,

In this professional age there are added priorities and prizes, in material terms huge returns, but at the very core of games between Ulster and Munster is a very real desire to earn the right to be the best, Leinster very often muddying the sporting waters! Yes, for both teams a home semi-final is by far the most desirable outcome, so there’ll be incentive in both dressing rooms on that score. But for Doak and Foley, with silverware the ultimate quarry, the performance and form of their sides will be very important. Both sides had their ‘blips’ this season, but the Munster ship – at one point looking particularly unseaworthy and with many pundits shaking their heads with long-term concerns for the multiple Heineken Cup winners – has steadied, and is more than just an even keel, it is now forging forward at a rate of scoring knots. And so too Ulster, indeed it can be argued that it navigated the PRO12 currents best during the Six Nations when important players like Rory Best, Jared Payne, Tommy Bowe and the immense Iain Henderson were on international duty. Doak and his assistants Jonny Bell, Allen Clarke and Niall Malone, harnessed the resources available skilfully, and never was the truism that the modern game is about the depth and quality of the squad more convincingly demonstrated. The Munster and Ulster camps are characterised by ambition, one less fulfilled perhaps, but still ranked highly in Europe despite this year’s disappointments in the Champions Cup. For Ulster the last trophy acquired was the PRO12’s precursor the Magners League in 2006, while Munster was in the midst of its domination in Europe. But for it too, this year Europe brought unexpected and early reverses. Now both clubs are on the cusp of taking the season’s last remaining trophy, but be assured everyone is focussed on this afternoon’s game as the means to that end only. A good win, and a performance which would confirms recent good, clinical try-scoring form, would give Ulster a superb boost before that daunting fixture in Glasgow, and equally, a second success for Munster over the men in white would give Foley a real platform for a celebration at the end of this month.

ROD NAWN

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ULSTER RUGBY

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