Ulster Rugby vs Ospreys

squad and with the competition which exists in every department. Stuart McCloskey, Sam Arnold and Jacob Stockdale are already very much in form and offering great promise across the backline, and ready to make the most of Jared Payne and Darren Cave being in World Cup action. And a veritable explosion of forward talent is arriving through the Hughes Insurance Ulster Rugby Academy and shrewd acquisition. But for the 80 exciting minutes of the new PRO12 season at the Kingspan there is the promise of two clubs with rich attacking traditions going head-to-head, and the entertainment quotient in encounters between these sides has always been consistently high. So, we are off-and-running in the PRO12, and for Ulster and the Ospreys the ambitions for the next nine months will be high, just as they will for Leinster, Edinburgh, Connacht and Dragons who’ll play this evening, and for champions Glasgow who meet Scarlets tomorrow, and for Munster who host Treviso, while Sunday sees Cardiff open up at the Arms Park against Zebre. By Sunday evening there’ll be a few bumps and bruises, real and psychological, but the hunger for big nights at Kingspan Stadium is as great as ever, perhaps even the expectations are greater still, and there is a group of coaches and players who want – like the fans whose support is regarded as so vital – who want so much to realise the dreams of not just good rugby and fine wins, but of silverware. Everything about Ulster’s set-up screams quality and success. There is no question there’s a passionate determination to deliver.

ROD NAWN

ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN FREELANCE JOURNALIST AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST @RODNAWN1

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