Ulster have been giving the unenviable task of facing Leicester at Welford Road on the opening weekend of the inaugural European Champions Cup.
With Toulon and Scarlets also in their group, it is vital that the northern province get something out of this game or they will be up against it straight away to get out of the group.
Ulster are without Dan Tuohy (arm), Iain Henderson (hip) and star playmaker Ruan Pienaar (knee), who was injured while playing for South Africa in the Rugby Championship. They will also likely have to make do without try scoring winger Andrew Trimble (toe) who remains a major doubt for Saturday’s clash.
Ulster will be well used to playing Leicester at this stage having met them in last year’s Heineken Cup group stage, coming out on top on both occasions. This year, they face a slightly out of sorts Leicester who will have plenty to prove to themselves and their fans.
Form heading into the game
Ulster have been the most impressive of the Irish provinces this season with four wins and a draw out of their six league games. Amazingly, their one loss came at the hands of Italian side Zebre, who caught them on the hop away from home.
Last weekend they had an impressive victory over last year’s Pro12 finalists Glasgow Warriors where they defeated them 29-9 scoring some great tries in the process, the pick of these being the great solo effort from Craig Gilroy which he scored off the back of a superb rolling maul.
Leicester have had a poor start to the Aviva Premiership season and have suffered some heavy losses. Reports suggest that coach Richard Cockerill is under pressure but no more than Matt O’Connor at Leinster, some slack has to be given to the coach due to an unprecedented injury crisis. During their heavy loss to Bath this year, it is reported that up to 22 players were sidelined for various reasons including injury and international commitments. 11 of these are expected to be back for the clash with Ulster.
Key Players
Chris Henry is a real leader of the Ulster squad. He stepped into the breach for Ireland in the Six Nations last spring and he has been in superb form ever since. He is a scavenger who slows and disrupts ball for the opposition but will never be labelled a true out and out seven. That being said, he carries more often that most sevens and his presence in the Ulster team is crucial to their success.
In the backs, Jared Payne will be key to Ulster’s attacking threat and they will be looking to him to provide a spark that could unlock the defence.
For Leicester, Marcos Ayerza is a key member of their pack. Just returning from international duty in the Rugby Championship where he was part of an Argentinian front-row that destroyed all the other teams in the tournament. He is a destructive scrummager and will give the Ulster tight-five a real test on Saturday.
Out in the backs, the man mountain himself Manu Tuilagi is one of the real threats that Leicester possess. Aside from his scary power and tackling, the England international has developed a deft off-loading game in recent seasons that make him more of threat than ever.
Where will the game be won and lost?
This could be to do with the fact that we recently read a list of old rugby clichés which included the saying; “forwards win games, the backs decide by how much”. But we think that this is going to be a tough battle up front and the two packs are going to go at each other for 80 minutes.
The scrum promises to be a battle ground and it will be interesting to see how a new-look front row gets on against the might of Leicester. The breakdown is likely to leave a string of bodies in its wake like some gruesome scene from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
As mentioned above, Leicester have been out of sorts but that makes them even more dangerous and the pressure on Cockerill means he will likely have his charges revved up to the max to face the Ulster onslaught.
That being said, Ulster are on a bit of a roll and the win against Glasgow should give them great confidence going into Saturday so we are going with an Ulster win… just.
