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Ulster Rugby vs Leinster Rugby
United Rugby Championship
Kingspan Stadium, Belfast
Saturday, 12th March 2022, 19:35

TV: Live: Premier Sports, TG4

Ulster might have thought it was on before, but this time it's really on!!!

Leinster head up the M1 this Saturday with a boiling rage in their hearts that will only be cooled by vengeance over Ulster.

In November Ulster had the cheek to actually beat Leinster in the RDS for the first time since 2014. Defeat (though thoroughly deserved) was bad enough but when James Hume scored an intercept try at the end of the game his celebration scandalised the Leinster rugby community. But what did the wild young pup actually do?

Did he flip vs to the crowd?

Did he drop the shorts and moon the Leinster bench?

Did he hop on Leo the Lion's back and ride the poor helpless beast around the pitch in triumph?

No, Hume smiled and shrugged a little bit.

The diabolical fiend!!!!

Such temerity will simply not stand and Leinster shall surely have their vengeance this Saturday!!!

On a more sane note, it should be quite a decent match this weekend and a real challenge for Leinster after little more than a training ground run last week against a Benetton team full of kids. Ulster have been in great form this season, aside from the odd unexplainable shocker like losing away to Ospreys, and they'll really fancy their chances against Leinster in this Covid re-arranged fixture.

Their good form has largely been on the back of some outstanding young talent in the aforementioned monster Hume plus the likes of Michael Lowry, Robert Balacoune, Nathan Doak, Stewart Moore and Nick Timoney. Their coach Dan McFarland has been massively boosted by the release from the Ireland squad of Lowry, Balacoune and Timoney but the wretched cur Hume remains in hiding (with the Ireland squad).

Lowry, Baloucoune and Craig Gilroy make up the back three with Stewart Moore and Stuart McCloskey in the centres. Billy Burns and Nathan Doak are the half-backs. Andrew Warwick, John Andrew and Marty Moore are the front row with skipper Alan O'Connor and Sam Carter in the boiler room. Marcus Rea, Timoney and South African superstar Duane Vermeulen make up the back row. The former Leinster players Mick Kearney, Jordi Murphy, John Cooney and Ian Madigan are all named on the bench.

For Leinster Leo Cullen has spent the last couple of weeks watching experienced players announce their intention to leave. With the reduced amount of games in the new URC format there seems to be a cull of experienced squad players who aren't really in the international picture. So Peter Dooley, Josh Murphy and Adam Byrne are off to Connacht and Jack Dunne and Rory O'Loughlin are off to Exeter. It looks like we'll basically be left with the top internationals and the promising kids so we'll have to see the long-term effect of that on overall competitiveness.

Cullen has made five changes from the side that started last week. Two of the departing players Adam Byrne and Rory O'Loughlin come in to start in the three quarter line and Jamie Osborne moves in a step to inside centre. In the pack the only changes are the new front row of Ed Byrne, James Tracy and Michael Ala'alatoa. There's a 6-2 split on the replacements bench which emphasises the lack of available outside backs.

Ironically for all the dazzling rugby Ulster have played this season, their win in the RDS was based on a basic but very physical gameplan. They also got the better of referee Frank Murphy's curious interpretation of the breakdown and offside laws and a chill went down Leinster's spines when Murphy was named referee for tomorrow evening.

Ulster have the chance to go top of the table and they look a good bet to edge a win and do the double over Leinster for the first time in nine seasons. However it looks like it will be a wet, dirty night and a forwards arm wrestle might actually suit Leinster more tomorrow evening,

by Jim O'Connor, © 2022-03-11