It maybe a strange way of looking at it but Ulster might benefit from not having the same early-season success that Leinster had in Europe.
Neil Doak's side meet Munster in Belfast for their pivotal Pro12 League match on Saturday. But Ulster and Ireland centre Darren Cave believes that Leinster's run into the knockout stages of the European Champions Cup may have undone them in the league as they now scramble to save their place in European rugby.
Ulster sit third on the league table, a point behind Munster. Both sides have qualified for the knockout phase with Ulster this week planning to reverse a Munster win earlier in the season at Thomond Park.
“Since the New Year I think we’ve lost once away in the league, away to the Dragons,” says Cave. “So yeah, were happy how we ticked along. Another thing that helped us was not being in the quarterfinals of Europe.
“Obviously it was a disappointment. We weren’t good enough to make the quarter-finals of Europe but we’ve made the most of that. At the end of the day, that’s probably been Leinster’s downfall, trying to compete on both fronts.”
Ulster are also coming into the Munster meeting with health on their side. Although Andrew Trimble is missing and won’t be back this season, a number of seasoned souls are again bedding in.
Preferred scalps
It’s a similar story every year post-Six Nations but Ulster have backed up their return with a string of decent performances. Their recent win over Leinster may be tempered by Matt O’Connor’s side’s poor season but Ulster are claiming it as one of their preferred scalps.
Cave played in the centre that day alongside Jared Payne, with Tommy Bowe and the top Irish try scorer in the league, Craig Gilroy, on the wings. Paddy Jackson, Ruan Pienaar, Iain Henderson, Chris Henry all played too.
“I think it’s what hindered us more than anything early in the season,” said Cave. “I don’t think we have as big a squad in terms of quality as Leinster, and not as much but Munster. We do rely on those players and there’s no hiding from that.
“Iain Henderson, away for so long. Jared Payne for so long. We missed Chris Henry for so long and Tommy [Bowe] and Rory [Best] being away. It’s a third of our team and we rely on them a lot not just in terms of quality but also leadership. I think it’s shown since they came back, how much better we have been playing.”
Ulster are confident without being brash. They have match-winners in Gilroy, Pienaar, Henderson and Bowe but first they will show Munster respect in a coalface sort of way.
Better resources
The last match wasn’t such a spectacle to watch. Cave hopes with better resources on both teams the partisan crowd will have more to appreciate and, from his viewpoint, more to cheer about too. But tight it is expected to be.
“It has the potential to be that tight again,” he says. “I think because of the form the two teams are in, it could be a better game, a bit easier on the eye. Both teams at that stage [November 28th] were missing a few players. It wasn’t the best game even though it was very close.
“There’s not a lot between the teams now in terms of quality. I’ve been very impressed with the form of all the top-four teams, particularly Munster.
“The last two Pro12 weekends they have played after us and they ended up running up bigger scores than us and actually the weekend of the Connacht game we got five points and they ran up a big score in Edinburgh and ended up overtaking us on points difference.”
He won’t lose sleep over the maths of win points and bonus points, or that they meet Munster this week and then leaders Glasgow. But there’s determination in Cave for more desperate reasons and it may count.
“While I have 160 odd games to show and a lot of big achievements I haven’t got a trophy,” says the centre.
“I have couple of medals that are the wrong colour. I’ve watched Leinster, Munster lift trophies, not only on TV but right in front of my eyes a couple of times and you can’t help but be jealous. There’s no shying away from that.”
Hunger. That’s the word.
