Best in contention for Ulster’s Battle with Aironi

ULSTER skipper Rory Best is in contention for Saturday’s win or bust Heineken Cup clash against Aironi in Viadana.

Best has made a remarkable recovery from a suspected rib cartilage injury sustained in the win over Biarritz on Saturday and was involved in training yesterday ahead of the Pool 4 clash.

If Ulster win it will see them through to the knockout stages of the competition for the first time in over a decade.

Coach Brian McLaughlin is already without front rower BJ Botha who faces surgery on an elbow injury.

McLaughlin said: “Rory popped a cartilage at the end of the Biarritz game, but it appeared to rectify itself on Sunday and the pain has dissipated. He took part in line-out work yesterday and seemed fine. But we will be doing scrummaging work today and we will see how that works out before making any decision on his availability. He got the injury when he twisted awkwardly at a scrum and he was in pain when he came off.

“Considering Aironi have a big and experienced front-row, it may be a big risk, even if he comes through today. Unfortunately BJ is out and is to have an exploratory operation Friday on his elbow to ascertain the extent of the ligament damage. If the ligament needs to be stitched back on, they will do that on Friday as well. It’s too early to say how long he could be out.

Declan Fitzpatrick will step into Botha’s berth at tight-head with Nigel Brady standing by in case Best fails to come through.

McLaughlin has named a 32-man squad with Robbie Diack back in the fold after injury. However, apart from Botha and possibly Best, there are unlikely to be any changes to the match-day squad from that which squeezed past Biarritz.

McLaughlin continued: “That 9-6 result was a big one for us, particularly with Glasgow doing us a favour and defeating Wasps on Sunday. The ball is still in our court and we must go and win to get through. We said at the outside of the competition that we want the games to become bigger and bigger, and yes, last week was a big game, but this one is an even bigger one.

“The emphasis is on us going over to Italy and winning first and foremost. If we get a bonus, it obviously will be the icing on the cake. But we will worry about that later in the game. The key thing is that we are going to Aironi to win the game and forget everything else. They are a proud team and they will be a hard team to crack.

“They defeated Biarritz in Italy and then they really got into their faces. True Biarritz probably went into that game with the wrong mindset and played very loose with Aironi forcing a lot of errors. They are also a good mauling team and we are under no illusions that they will pose the same threat up front as Biarritz.”

ULSTER SQUAD (forwards): T Court, D Fitzpatrick, J Cronin, B Young, A Kyriacou, R Best, N Brady, R Caldwell, T Barker, D Tuohy, J Muller, N McComb, W Faloon, P Wannenburg, S Ferris, TJ Anderson, C Henry, R Diack.

(Backs): A D’Arcy, D McIlwaine, J Smith, M McCrea, A Trimble, S Danielli, P Wallace, N Spence, I Whitten, I Humphreys, N O’Connor, I Porter, P Marshall, R Pienaar.