Mischievously, a journalist put it to Ulster flanker Neil Best that an Irish team was not really an Irish team without Ulster players on it and that an Ulster player had to play twice as well as his competitor to get into the squad.

Best had the foresight to guffaw and tell the reporter, "Eddie picks the team on form and who is playing well. Ulster are playing well and we're a good team so why shouldn't he pick us."

Realising where the answer might be leading, Best sensibly back-pedalled. "I'm not walking down the garden path with you on that one," he added.

But the question, while pejoratively phrased, was essentially about the scarcity of Ulster players on the national side.

Not so long ago there was only one Ulster player starting for Ireland. In the first match of last season's Six Nations against Italy, Tommy Bowe was the lone winger. Bowe started against France in Ireland's second game before Andrew Trimble came on to the flank in the wins over Wales, Scotland and England. By then David Humphreys was watching Ronan O'Gara for more than he cared and hung up his international boots at the end of the championship.

In the 2004 season it was even bleaker for Ulster and a regular feature of that year's Six Nations was there were no Ulster players starting. Shane Horgan and Geordan Murphy held the wing positions. Simon Easterby, David Wallace and Anthony Foley comprised the backrow, O'Gara was at 10 and the frontrow was Reggie Corrigan, Shane Byrne and John Hayes. There was simply no room and Eddie O'Sullivan was no romantic. In the old days of selectors the geographical mathematics would have been done. Not any more.

This week O'Sullivan realigned the provincial balance on the basis Ulster have been setting the pace this season and on 29 points they head the Magners Celtic League as the leading Irish side.

Trimble is again on the wing, Rory Best starts his first international at hooker in the absence of Jerry Flannery and in the backrow Neil Best nudges Easterby out of the starting line-up.

Provincial colleagues Bryan Young, Isaac Boss and Paddy Wallace also sit on the subs bench. Three starting and three on the bench. Where did it all go right for Ulster?

"At that time whenever there were no Ulster players starting for Ireland a lot of people argued that was a fair reflection," says Trimble. "Ulster rugby really wasn't where it should have been . . .Whenever Smally (Mark McCall) came into the squad to coach, it took a year to settle in and we hit the ground running that second year. I think with the bit of experience coming through there, things just click into gear and you start playing good rugby. I think now it's fair enough and it's reflected in the Irish squad."

Hitting the ground running meant Ulster's breathless 40 minutes against Toulouse in their first eye-catching Heineken European Cup match of the year. Combined with their form amongst the Celtic nations, O'Sullivan's timing to blood a few players can be backed up. The intensity of the European Cup is also coming close to that of international rugby so it's a reasonable testing ground. "The majority of the players playing Heineken Cup are internationals. It's as close as you are going to get," adds Trimble. "The European Cup is definitely a step up from Celtic League and even if two Celtic League teams are playing against each other, it's still a bigger occasion, a bigger stage and everybody raises their game."

In the Irish A team, Ulster also have Stephen Ferris starting in the backrow at blindside, Matt McCullough in the secondrow and prop Simon Best. In the replacements Roger Wilson is also poised to graduate.

"If we're sticking to the principle of picking the guys on form, then the only way to judge form is to select the guys who are playing," said O'Sullivan this week.

"All the players know if they fail to make their provincial team, then they are at risk of not being selected."

With nine players involved this week, the Ulster system seems finally to be paying dividends.