ULSTER ARE ON CLOUD NINE

For the fourth time this season, Ulster have walked away from a crushing victory with the maximum number of points available to them. That’s impressive, considering they’ve only played nine games so far.

Winning’s come easily to the Ulstermen this season. In fact, so easily they haven’t stopped. Seven wins from seven and 31 points in the league tells its own story – Ulster are on a roll. Add in a few more stats to that and it sounds even better: 278 points scored, only 125 conceded, 31 tries scored and only 10 conceded. That’s a book with a brilliant beginning.

Add in the Heineken Cup, and those stats get even better: 338 points scored, 150 points conceded, 36 tries scored and 13 conceded. Nine wins from nine, 40 points achieved altogether.

But it’s the middle that comes next, and it needs to match the excitement of the first few chapters. And hopefully the ending will be the best part of all…

Chapter One: How to win rugby matches…

Before we get to the middle and ending, we have the beginning to wrap up first. With seven matches complete, Ulster are a third of the way through the season and a third of the way through their season’s story. A game against Edinburgh composes the final chapter of the beginning, and what a game it was. For Ulster.

However, it didn’t start that way. Not for the first time this season, Ulster began slowly. Actually, slowly is an understatement because they didn’t really get going until the 28^th minute – and by then they were 10-3 down.

But after that, they sparked into life. Ulster crossed the whitewash three times in the next six minutes, and looked good for their money. Jared Payne showed his versatility by playing another blinder at outside centre, Ruan Pienaar was instrumental from fly-half and Roger Wilson had a solid game on his return to Ravenhill – nothing short of his high standards.

Wilson was signed to bring consistency to Ulster’s back row, and if you look at his high quality performances for Northampton over the last four years, you’ll see why he was first choice in David Humphreys’ book. Although he may not be the player that always grabs the headlines, he’s the one that is always playing well, will always get praised for his work and will very rarely let the team down. His performance on Friday was typical of him, and earned him the man of the match award, which was thoroughly deserved.

But it is not the individual performances that will stand out for Mark Anscombe. No, it is Ulster’s sheer dominance which will please him most. In the second half, Edinburgh barely had the ball, let alone a chance to score. Ulster squeezed the life out of their Scottish opponents and put 21 points on them in yet another merciless thrashing.

And it’s not often you come away from a 45-point victory saying you’re slightly disappointed. For Ulster, this has happened the last two weeks. So many errors have left fans wondering, ‘What if we’d got that try?’ The potential this Ulster side has is scary – when they click, they will put 50+ or even 60+ points on an unsuspecting team. Hopefully we will see that sometime soon, and not just once.

But even in a great win, there are two negatives Anscombe will take away and work on over the next two weeks.

First is the penalty count. It’s slowly crept up over the past few weeks and now it’s got to the stage where it could be a problem in a tight game. It’s not the fact that they’re being given away in kickable areas, but rather at the opposite end of the pitch – when Ulster are attacking. Were it not for these penalties, Ulster could have put three or four more tries on their opponents and really increased their points difference.

The other issue was Ulster’s first half defence, which was breached twice – and rather easily as well. Tom Brown sauntered in for a double in the first half and the Ulster defence parted for him like the Red Sea for Moses. Better teams will exploit this weakness to a far greater extent, so it needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.

But Ulster will be happy with the result. Another five points in the bag and another win that continues the unbeaten run for another two weeks anyway. Next up, Zebre in what may be an emotional match…

International fever in the Aviva

So we’re back to the international period once more. First up for Ireland are the mighty Springboks on Saturday. But instead of looking at the game in detail (that’s something for Thursday!) I will take a look at who we might see representing the Ulstermen in Dublin.

Obviously, there is Ruan Pienaar, who will probably start at scrum half for South Africa. Interestingly enough, this will be Pienaar’s fifth start for the Boks this season (if he does start), compared with only three starts for Ulster.

But in the green corner there will be a few more from an Ulster perspective to watch out for. Even with Rory Best and Stephen Ferris unavailable, there should still be a large Ulster contingent in the matchday 23.

In the front row it is likely that Tom Court will provide cover for Cian Healy off the bench as he has done for the past few seasons. Dan Tuohy will also be pushing for a place on the bench after Paul O’Connell was ruled out through injury last week. Chris Henry’s performances have certainly thrown him into the mix for a start at 7 in Sean O’Brien’s absence, and he may be the only Ulsterman to start in the scrum.

In the back line, Tommy Bowe looks set to start – the only question is in what position? There are rumours that he will fill in at full back in place of the injured Rob Kearney, but others say he will play at wing with Simon Zebo making the switch to 15. Andrew Trimble could be the one to fill the gap left at wing, but if not he should be on the bench. Darren Cave will also be looking to take the 13 shirt, but he may have to look to the bench as well.