Trimble wants to re-live past glories
The Belfast man, who this week committed himself to Ravenhill until 2013, has beaten a regular path down the M1 and M50 motorways for nigh on five years before winding his way up the last leg of the journey towards Killiney Hill and reporting for duty with the national squad.
For far too long, he has been one of the few making that journey. Ulster's struggles in the Magners League and Europe's premier competition have been routinely reflected in the make-up of an Irish squad in which Trimble all too frequently found himself the sole northern representative among the first XV.
Such a dubious honour has also fallen on the shoulders of others like Rory Best and Stephen Ferris on occasion and there have even been times when the Red Hand's contribution has been confined to the bench and surroundings stands and terraces.
It isn't something that has sat well with the 26-year-old. All things being equal, his next road trip to Dublin will be taken later this month for Six Nations boot camp and he would dearly love to make it having secured a spot in the last eight of the Heineken Cup and with a few more team-mates chipping in for petrol.
The portents are positive.
The summer infusion of a Springbok backbone, allied with a talented core of homegrown players like Trimble, Stephen Ferris, Ian Humphreys and Rory Best, leaves Ulster on the verge of an elusive quarter-final spot. Win today and deny the Basques a bonus point and it should be all but theirs.
“It would be great if we had a home quarter-final against Munster or Leinster because something needs to change,” Trimble says with a wicked smile. “Since I have been about, we have never had more than a handful of players in the mix for Ireland and that has to change. The South African lads can only do so much. We have to develop as well, and stand up and be counted.
“Even at the start of the season, when we got four wins and we were sitting at the top of the (Magners) League, we were thinking that people don't take this seriously until you beat Munster or Leinster or qualify in Europe. We just need a breakthrough and it would be something to go down to Dublin with a bit of a swagger. But this is the thing, we are talking about it now but it has to happen. It's not worth talking about otherwise.”
The time for speculation ends this afternoon at 3.30pm in Ravenhill when the true measure of Brian McLaughlin's Ulster side will be assessed. It seems a long time since the province’s breakthrough success in 1999 against Colomiers in Lansdowne Road when the ground was repainted red and white and Dublin found itself swept up by a northern tide long before anyone had ever conceived of 'Love Ulster' parades.
The current squad were afforded a timely reminder of that day last Monday when Bryn Cunningham, the last link with that team before his retirement three months ago, addressed the players after dinner and left Trimble with the sort of goosebumps that will raise their heads again today.
“Bryn is a guy that we all look up to,” Trimble says. “From a rugby point of view he just knows what he is talking about, so for him to get up there and talk about the game and say that sort of thing drives home just how big an occasion this is.”
In the eleven seasons since '99, Ulster have propped up their pool three times. Last year's second-place finish behind Stade Francais was their highest finish after a decade when their interest in proceedings was habitually holed by the time Christmas was celebrated.
The high point of last year's campaign was a round six defeat of Bath at The Recreation Ground that came too late to further their immediate goals but, as a first ever victory on English soil, it was an undeniable turning point. A second success on that same soil last month may prove to be just as seminal to any future success.
Ulster went into that fixture without the services of either Ferris or Best. Such absences would have been a recipe for disaster in years gone by but Trimble remembers it as the day when the wisdom of signing men like Ruan Pienaar, Johann Muller and Pedrie Wannenburg was proven beyond doubt.
Muller in particular.
“I remember thinking Johann really came through and stood up. He was an absolute leader. That was the day I thought this guy is going to be great for us in years to come and, hopefully, we'll have him about for a while. He is exactly what we need when someone like Rory is not there.
“I remember there were a couple of turning points where the game could have gone either way in The Rec that day and Johann got us together and just cooled heads. We knew exactly what we were doing and I don't think we ever thought we were going to lose it.”
Mentally, if nothing else, a corner has been turned.
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