RUGBY:The Ulster players, who are pursuing a 13th straight victory in all competitions this season under the coaching baton of Mark Anscombe, don't have time to be superstitious, being instead preoccupied by the magnitude of tonight's task.
While they attend to the minutiae of the match-specific playbook, the debate outside the squad will centre on Anscombe’s selection, or more pointedly, his decision to leave Craig Gilroy and, to a lesser extent, Luke Marshall on the bench.
Gilroy, a try-scoring debutant for Ireland against Argentina – he had claimed a hat-trick the previous week in a non-cap game against Fiji at Thomond Park – has charmed the Irish rugby public with his dazzling footwork, sharp pirouettes and natural inclination to run. The 21-year-old is capable of elevating excitement levels, a captivating quality.
Anscombe can hardly be accused of indulging in a flight of fancy in choosing to play Ireland international Andrew Trimble ahead of Gilroy: quite the opposite. It’s a pragmatic decision predicated on a number of factors.
More aggressive
Trimble is the more aggressive defender and he also uses that physicality in the manner in which he carries ball. He’ll be chaperoning the Heineken Cup’s most elusive figure in Northampton Saints’ Ken Pisi.
Tommy Bowe will line out on the right wing for his 50th Heineken Cup appearance, after having been on bench duty last weekend.
None of this is to suggest Gilroy would wilt in this kind of environment. His Test-match bow offered compelling evidence of an aptitude to flourish at the highest level. Anscombe has opted for Trimble in a similar way to plumping for Paddy Wallace’s experience and footballing nous over the raw energy and promise of Luke Marshall.
The New Zealander admitted: “There were some difficult decisions but that’s what you want. The guys who have missed out this week have been outstandingly positive and that’s very pleasing.”
It is the collisions up front that will determine overall success and failure. Northampton possess the best lineout in the tournament and Ulster captain Johann Muller will have to find a way to make inroads into that statistic. The presence of Iain Henderson at blindside flanker should help in that respect.
The Saints also use the scrum as an offensive weapon, driven by the twin pillars of Soane Tonga’uiha and Brian Mujati, so the return of a triumvirate of Ireland internationals, Rory Best, Tom Court and Dan Tuohy, to Ulster’s starting team is opportune. The home side are backboned by a core of England internationals in the pack in Dylan Hartley, Courtney Lawes and the in-form Tom Wood and adopt a pretty direct, confrontational style.
There’s no doubt they miss the on-pitch influence and qualities of centre James Downey. He gave his pack a target, invariably over the gain-line, and also led the defence. The same can be said for number eight Roger Wilson who returned to his native city from Northampton in the summer.
Exciting backline
The Saints miss Wilson, a point conceded by their director of rugby, Jim Mallinder, in a general assessment of the visitors’ credentials. “They’ve got a big, strong pack. We know Roger Wilson will be critical to that at number eight. The halfbacks, they’ve got two quality players there, and they’ve got a real exciting backline.
“There’s no discussion in terms of how difficult it’s going to be. Even when they’ve had a lot of players missing, which has been most recently with the international action, they’ve still been winning games. But they’re human. We’ve beaten them before. Not this season, but we have beaten them fairly recently and we know we can beat them again; but we’ve got to be at our very best.”
Mallinder’s last reference point is to a Heineken Cup quarter-final two seasons ago in which they beat Ulster 23-13 but the Irish province bears little resemblance now to the team that at that point was in the foothills of their mental transition. Ulster now travel in expectation, not in hope.
The Pisi brothers, George and Ken, and fullback Ben Foden provide a bit of subtlety to crash, bang, wallop patterns.
Ulster will target Ryan Lamb and that outhalf corridor, all the while relying on the game management qualities of Muller, Best and Ruan Pienaar to put them in the right positions territorially.
Two New Zealanders, fullback Jared Payne and number eight Nick Williams, when he is released from the bench, are potential game-changers. If Ulster can effectively neutralise the Saints’ grunt then they possess the players and quality to go marching on.
