Ulster Rugby vs Oyonnax

MAXIMUM RETURN IS THE TARGET! Nothing quite stirs the rugby juices than the prospect of a glamorous European contest at Kingspan Stadium, and if today’s opposition is relatively new to the ‘big time’, Oyonnax has certainly made a firm impression this season!

ascended to the top tier of the French game was never an ‘easy touch’. Perhaps too quickly observers of the competition had dismissed Oyonnax as lambs to the rugby slaughter, but logic – and that old mind-bender, hindsight – now proves that the side preparing in the away dressing room at Kingspan this lunchtime has been poorly-served by some parts of the media and by rugby followers unfamiliar with the game in France. In fullback Quentin Etienne, former Welsh international Nicky Robinson at half-back, in winger Uwa Tawalo, centre Eamonn Sheridan, prop Laurent Delboulbes, lock Fabrice Metz and flanker Maurie Fa’asavulu, there is a clear, quality spine to the team. Recent changes in the coaching team, the decision to dispense only this week with Piri Weepu, an All Black 71 times, have been distractions – but not to opposition players and managements. Les Kiss, Ulster’s Director of Rugby, cautioned against unrealistic expectations from the rescheduled trip to Oyonnax a fortnight ago, and assistant coach Allen Clarke – who had analysed performances minutely – was an unapologetic admirer of a big but mobile pack. On Saturday last Toulouse came unstuck and could not navigate a way to match that forward unit and to undermine a well-drilled and often innovative backline. Ulster was under the hammer for forty minutes, which sparked some social media incredulity in genuine fans who had journeyed to the Rhone-Alpes region, charmed by the environment but mostly convinced that maximum points would be extracted on a dank French afternoon on an artificial surface which would surely unleash the visitors’ free-running backs! Professional sport just isn’t as predictable as that now, and Saracens before it, and Toulouse a week later, shared Ulster’s experience of a team of talented and shrewdly-recruited players prepared well by Johann Authier. It remains a group determined to represent itself – and a community swelling with pride at its recent rise to rugby’s top table – with a performance justifying the form of the last two years which has earned Top 14 and now European Champions Cup rugby.

Just two weeks ago the small club in the shadow of the Alps came perilously close to causing one of the big shocks of the season, and in the process derailing an Ulster side which in previous weeks had moved ominously through the gears. The small town club’s rise to the heights of the domestic Top 14 is something of a fairytale, and now it may well hold the key to further progress for Ulster in the Champions Cup. Few rugby matches have provoked more comment, been chronicled more fully, than the game on a gloomy French Sunday when the presumed ‘minnows’ rushed into a 23-0 interval lead, the pride of Ulster apparently put to the sword. The truth – and the myths! – of how Ulster was transformed, and how it battled back to win the tie with Paddy Jackson’s mammoth 78th penalty, will provide discussion and debate for many a year. That Les Kiss returned with his squad that night 24- 23 winners, with four vital points gained – rather than five potentially squandered in the Alpine foothills – will loom large in the memory of those who were there, nerves mangled, emotions tortured, and of those at home, watching or listening, as the bizarre events in the Stade Charles-Mathon unfolded. Would Ulster fans this afternoon, packing Kingspan Stadium to the rafters, as the side seeks the emphatic win against the same opposition which could secure a Champions Cup quarter-final, want to be put quite so thoroughly ‘through the mill’ again? Perhaps nerves and blood pressure would not be so forgiving! The upshot of last weekend’s round of games in all five pools was, as we perhaps all expected, a final series of matches which will determine the quarter- final line-up. And Ulster has known since the loss at Saracens last Saturday that only an emphatic – probably bonus point – win today will place it in a genuine position to reach the last eight. And that was never going to be easy, and if there was frustration with the escape from Oyonnax with a win that must now be put in context, for the tournament debutants showed the first half against the Ulstermen was no freak. The demolition of Toulouse - as Saracens confirmed its domination of the group with qualification at Allianz Park - demonstrated that the side which only recently

ROD NAWN

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