‘We’ve sent big French teams packing before’

ANXIOUS Ulster winger Andrew Trimble came through a last-minute fitness test on a hamstring twinge and is ready to tackle Biarritz at Ravenhill this afternoon.

Trimble features in an unchanged back-line in the season-defining game and hopes to help this Ulster team to shrug off the past and finally achieve glory of their own.

“To be honest I was (a) little anxious about my injury. I just felt the hamstring tighten against Treviso and came off. The scan showed there was no real damage, but you always wonder. Now I just want to get out there and allow people to forget about the triumphs of the Ulster side 11 years ago,” said Trimble, who is continually reminded of how the 1999 team defeated Toulouse twice, Stade Francais and Colomiers on their way to European glory.

“I want people to start talking about us. We’re all sick of hearing about 1999 and if we can get a result this weekend we’re hoping it can lead to bigger things.

“In my time we haven’t been in this position with two games left and with a big French team coming to Ravenhill, our future is still in our hands. The idea of a Heineken Cup quarter-final is exciting, I’ve been here six years and never made it to the last eight.”

Trimble, however, knows that Ulster face a Biarritz team that were last season’s runners-up and are looking to seal a vital home quarter-final.

“They are a quality team with some real quality players like Dimitri Yachvili who is their play-maker. We must keep him quiet. But we also have some big names who are going to make the right decisions in the right areas of the park.

“We have clever rugby players and that is maybe something we have lacked in the past. These big French teams have come to Ravenhill before and we have sent them packing. It’s great when we get a big team over here in front of a raucous crowd and get stuck into them.”

Yachvili, who will be partnered by French star Damien Traille at half-back, is wary of Ulster and says that his side’s 10-try walloping of Agen could have done them as much harm as good.

“I don’t know if it is good to play so well one week before the Ulster match. For sure, it was good for our confidence but we know it will not be the same in Belfast,” said the French scrum-half.

“I have played at Ravenhill many times and it is always difficult there because of the fighting spirit of their players. It is always hard and very physical. They didn’t play their best game against us in France in the first Heineken match in October when we won 35-15.

“But it was the start of the season and their new players were not playing as well as they are now.”

Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin has made two changes up front for the clash with Dan Tuohy replacing Tim Barker at lock and Willie Faloon coming in for Chris Henry at openside.