Ulster’s Spence living his dream

NEVIN SPENCE says that he has to pinch himself to bring a sense of reality to his season which has seen him catapulted into a possible wild card selection into Ireland’s World Cup squad.

The 21-year-old Ballynahinch centre is now one of the first names down on the Ulster matchday squad and deservedly picked up a couple of young player of the year awards in recent days.

The icing on the cake will be to get to the Magners League showdown at the end of the month and a trip to New Zealand in the autumn. But, he says, there is a bit of rugby left before he can start dreaming, particularly tonight’s clash against Leinster at the RDS and a match-up against his hero, Brian O’Driscoll.

“You always want to play against the best and Brian is that. He might be 31 but he is still the tops and one of the best players in the world. So with that in mind, it will be great to test my skills against him,” said Spence, who cannot believe how he has progressed.

“It’s amazing the way things have turned around in a couple of months. Playing for Ballynahinch in the All-Ireland League before Christmas to now, waiting for a Magners League semi-final. To be honest I haven’t had time to sit down and think about it too much, I’m too busy playing.

“Hopefully there are a few weeks on my season left.”

But despite the speculation Spence has not thought of the World Cup just yet.

“Some people mentioned me as a dark horse for the World Cup, but I’m afraid that’s all it is — a dark horse.

“Some players are being written off, but there is a lot talent and huge experience in that Ireland squad. All I’m worried about is keeping my place in the Ulster team and playing to the best of my ability, starting tonight.

“Playing against another province is something special and with Leinster the best team in Europe right now, it is a very big game.

“We want to show people what Ulster rugby really has to offer, not like the last time when Leinster blew us away in the first 25 minutes. We don’t want to be second best to Leinster, or indeed Munster.

“They have a high tempo to their game and bring a high intensity in everything they do. It’s now up to us to match that. We must start quickly and stay with them up to half-time.

“We did that against the Dragons last week, and now it’s up to us to get that consistency. Leinster provide a different challenge to Dragons though, even when they have a Heineken Cup final next week.

“It could be on their mind, and if it is, we can exploit that. But they are quality players and the chance of another cup final will spur them on.”

As expected, coach Brian McLaughlin has made only one change from last week’s victory over Dragons. Dan Tuohy has failed to recover from a hamstring injury and is replaced at lock by Tim Barker with Neill McComb coming onto the bench.