Of late the words "absolutely no additional injury concerns" have not been heard from the lips of anyone in Ulster rugby. What relief then after losing to Scarlets and cutting their European hopes adrift, the team could at least return to Belfast intact for a visit to Ospreys at the weekend.
It's a Pro12 bread and butter week. But Ulster can face into that without the sweet burden of playing in two competitions. The league will at least will have their undivided attention.
While the wounded and fallen stretches towards double figures – Paddy Jackson, Andrew Trimble, Iain Henderson, Stuart McCloskey, Wiehahn Herbst, Stuart Olding, Chris Henry, Nick Williams, Jared Payne – Ulster may look back at the fractures in the management that appeared last year and lay down some of the blame in their recent past.
Large hole
David Humphreys and Mark Anscombe as well as Johan Muller, Tom Court and John Afoa ripped a large hole in the Ulster hull. Then when Ruan Pienaar limped away from his stint with the Springboks and found himself under the knife for knee ligament problems, Ulster were left with an experience deficit. Chris Henry then departed after a heart scare and they were also denuded of team leaders.
There are eight first picks in that injury list and even with Pienaar back, Jackson will miss the return match and venue for what was one of his best ever kicking days in an Ulster jersey – the corresponding fixture against Ospreys in Liberty Stadium last year.
The good news is that Jackson is recovering well and will be playing by St Stephen’s Day if not before that. But last season his six penalties to Dan Biggar’s four gave Ulster a 12-18 win. More dramatically Jackson kicked the win after Ospreys went 12-0 ahead.
Last month Ulster also beat Ospreys 25-6 in Belfast, although, the question now is can the team struggle through the injuries and make sure of the play-offs in the Pro12?
Ulster also face an Ospreys side that have grown in stature as the season progresses. The recent European back-to-back games against Racing Metro were both on a knife-edge until the final whistle, but the Welsh side had to settle for a draw in the first match and a losing bonus point last week in Le Mans.
They have injury concerns too but are focussed on winning now, growing tired of playing valiantly and coming close, a feeling the players know only too well in Ulster.
“The frustrating thing for me is we are learning, we are growing, but at some point the learning has got to stop. We’ve got to convert that into results,” said Ospreys captain Alun Wyn-Jones.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time now, I might not get silverware out of it, that’s yet to be seen, but I’m really proud of what we are doing here and what we are creating.”
Back from injury
Ulster coach
Neil Doak
knows that interest in Europe is dead. But his task is to plot the second half of the season with some players migrating back from injury and others leaving for an Ireland camp over Christmas before some of them then become involved in the
Six Nations
.
Gone for that extended spell will be another team leader Rory Best, although, perhaps the list of Ulster names won't be as long as they might have hoped. Jackson was left out of the November Series because Joe Schmidt thought he needed more rugby.
In one sense Doak, for Ulster’s good, may hope some of his marquee players are under cooked for Schmidt’s use. But he knows now, the season may not get any easier.
