Trimble wants to re-live past glories

THE HEINEKEN Cup may be all about furthering wider European ambitions but Andrew Trimble will be partly motivated by local realities when Ulster face Biarritz today in the province's biggest game for a dozen years.

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.