Ulster tyros making case for Ireland

IRELAND COACH Declan Kidney will confirm a 30-plus squad at lunch-time today which will come together for training ahead of the Six Nations Championship. Recent weeks have confirmed some reputations and established others, none more in the latter category than a smattering of Ulster tyros.

Existing national squad members Paddy Wallace, Rory Best, Stephen Ferris and Ryan Caldwell could soon be joined by Darren Cave, Ian Humphreys and David Pollack, whose development into realistic candidates for the test match arena has accelerated appreciably in recent months.

One player who won’t make the grade, purely because of injury, is Leinster captain Leo Cullen who will miss Sunday’s Heineken Cup clash with Edinburgh at the RDS. While the province wouldn’t confirm the extent of the damage, he didn’t train with the squad.

While Leinster are contending for a place at the business end of the tournament this weekend Ulster’s visit to the Stade Jean Bouin in Paris on Saturday marks another staging post in the rejuvenation of the Irish province.

Matt Williams has given the team structure, technical and tactical, while empowering a handful of seriously talented young players whose natural exuberance complements a playbook built on the solid, fundamental tenets of the sport.

Ulster have never won in France – their previous best result on French soil was a not insignificant draw with Toulouse – and their task on Saturday against Stade Français won’t be easy, even though the Parisian aristocrats can not make the quarter-finals.

This game isn’t a dead rubber because of the new points system introduced by ERC that will determine the seeding for next season’s tournament. It’s a point that isn’t lost on Justin Fitzpatrick, the former Ireland international prop and Heineken Cup winner with Ulster, who spent a couple of seasons with Castres Olympique.

“It’s very important for us to win, there may be no quarter final place at stake this year, but we want to start getting the consistency week after week and not having any fear about playing away from home. We took a lot of confidence about going down to Limerick and winning at Thomond Park and we hadn’t done that in 17 years.

“We haven’t won in France in the European Cup and it’s about time that changed. The French are a tough lot and don’t like to lose, but neither do we.”

Fitzpatrick pointed out the squad can take a great deal from Saturday’s 21-10 victory over Harlequins. Ulster will confirm their squad for Paris today.