This is one which requires precious little exertion in terms of marketing. Ulster and Toulouse going at it again seems to have become almost part of the European landscape; an enduring rivalry which has coloured many previous campaigns and, as such, has led to a rarely enough sighted sold-out sign being put up at the Kingspan for Saturday’s third round Champions Cup clash in Pool Two.
The history certainly helps but then so has Ulster’s form, which has produced three straight victories in the wake of the same number of reverses. The first in the winning sequence at home to Racing 92 revived the northern province’s qualification hopes before narrow results were banked in the URC over the festive period against Connacht and Leinster.
Throw in the approach of the 25th anniversary of Ulster conquering Europe back in January 1999, which saw Toulouse famously beaten in the weather-beaten quarter-final in Belfast, as well as this weekend marking the centenary of the first Ulster game at Ravenhill – Leinster provided the opposition back then and dutifully lost – and there is plenty of additional backdrop to this game.
Then there is the star quality of a certain Antoine Dupont, who is expected to feature this weekend before hooking up with France’s Sevens squad in preparation for this summer’s Olympics which, in turn, will take him out of the upcoming Six Nations.
All that and this being a game both teams will be throwing everything at winning – Toulouse lead Pool Two while Ulster are five points back in third – and there is frankly more than enough to whet the appetite.
Ulster head coach an McFarland certainly did his bit in ramping up the contest, not that an awful lot was really required of the Ulster head coach in this regard.
“There’s a strong argument that Toulouse are unique,” he said of the side who have won five of their last seven matches in all competitions and blitzed Harlequins in London for round two of Europe.
“I don’t say that lightly,” he added of the five-times winners of the Champions Cup.
“In rugby, there are so many generic ways of playing or standardised ways of playing both in defence and attack.
“[But] Whenever you watch Toulouse, year in year out, they break the mould around that.
“The way they attack, the way they build their team around that attack is very different to most other teams and that makes it exciting to watch.
“It makes it extremely exciting, but also extremely challenging, to prepare for them.
“I think there will definitely be elements of the game that are certainly different to the last two weeks [against Connacht and Leinster], a chunk of elements that are similar to Racing in terms of transition play, the ball changing hands through the kick or turnover, dealing with counterattack, and understanding when and how we can counterattack.
“That will be similar to the Racing game, but chunks of how you defend their attack will be very different,” he said.
“They’re both transition teams,” added McFarland. “It’s not that Racing are conservative, but Toulouse are even less conservative than Racing. Zero conservatism at times.
“Toulouse will often use their big forwards in the same pattern, playing with Dupont around the edge of the rucks, looking for weaknesses, looking to overpower you with the size of their players, looking for offloads or gaps in between to try and collapse your defence.
“Then they’ll whip the ball to the edges with their lightening backs.”
Dangerous enough then which leads to a rightly fulsome tribute directed at Dupont.
“What a great player, what a great ambassador for the sport,” said McFarland.
“I remember when he was here the last time [in April 2022 in the then two-legged round of 16], he ruined our night basically on his own with a brilliant display of kicking and a couple of breaks that led to tries.
“I leave the stadium late and going out [that night] he was still signing autographs for young Ulster supporters.
“He could have packed his bag and gone straight back to the team hotel. I thought ‘that’s awesome.’”
“He’s a super player and our guys are fully aware of that. We’ll be looking to limit his destructive ability.”
Meanwhile, Ulster’s cause has been boosted as the in-form James Hume will be available for Saturday evening after recovering from injury. Ethan McIlroy is also fit again.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our In The News podcast is now published daily – Find the latest episode here
