The dirty dozen

It’s been 12 years since Ulster’s Heineken Cup success, and the same since they made the knockout phase of the competition. Too long, says the province’s stalwarts. Brendan O’Brien took the temperature ahead of Sunday’s clash with Northampton

SOMETIMES Zak Andrew Ward walks into a room in the family home and his father will shake his head in wonder at the thought that 12 years have sped by since that blur of a day when his eldest child was born and Toulouse were beaten.

Andy Ward was there for both life-changing events, but it looked for a long time like he would have to sit out the latter after his wife Wendy went overdue and she was scheduled to be induced on the day of the quarter-final.