Ferris: We’re a team to fear
Stephen Ferris’s memories are mixed at best.
He speaks wistfully when he recalls the balmy temperatures pitchside in Buckinghamshire last April. The sun was shining, the mercury touched 22 degrees — maybe even 23 — and Ulster and Northampton knocked heads for a place in the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup.
It was the kind of occasion players dream about when the lactic acid starts to burn in pre-season training or on those routine league nights when the wind, rain and cold are all battling for pre-eminence as Public Enemy number one.
Injured since January, Ferris watched it all from the stands and could only mourn and console like every other Ulster supporter in the ground when their campaign drew to a close with an ‘if only’ 10-point defeat at stadium:mk.
“I was nearly ready to put the boots on and go out there half-fit,” said Ferris.
“It was such a buzz without even playing.”
It was a cruel twist of fate for a player who trailed only Paddy Wallace and Rory Best in seniority in the dressing-room and one who, like them, had stuck with his home province through a succession of painful seasons.
Today, belatedly, he gets his reward. It seems a dubious one given Clermont’s record at the Stade Marcel Michelin where they stand unbeaten in their last 38 outings but a forecast of rain and temperatures of 12 degrees will go some way to making the visitors feel at home.
Every omen, no matter how small or insignificant, is welcomed given their hosts’ history on home soil and a Kryptonite factor that has turned these Ravenhill Supermen into vulnerable tourists on Gallic soil where they have lost a dozen times and drawn once.
And it isn’t just in France where Ulster have struggled. It took the lessons of 11 consecutive defeats in England before they learned enough to get the better of an average Bath side at The Rec three seasons ago and they haven’t won in Wales since 2003.
All in all then, not the most obvious of candidates to trek into Central France and capture the flag of a side that has, along with Toulouse, left the rest of the Top 14 choking on its dust in the march for domestic honours.
Ferris, shock-horror, doesn’t see it like that.
“I suppose it is a bit like Munster at Thomond and Leicester went down there and beat them and took their record.
“Records are there to be broken. There is no doubt that they are a very good team with quality players but we feel like we are heading in the right direction and ready to go get that first win in France.” It’s little wonder he namechecks one of the other provinces this week as Munster and Leinster have paved the path which Ulster crave for themselves. For too long their roads diverged as the season drew towards a close.
For five years, the script remained the same come late-January. Ulster would bow out of Europe, Ferris would get in his car and make for Irish base camp down south where, invariably, the lads from Dublin, Cork and Limerick would be patting themselves on the back.
That changed this time last year when Team Ireland convened and Ronan O’Gara led a line of players eager to shake a still-injured Ferris’ hand after Brian McLaughlin’s side clinched a spot in the last eight for the first time since 1999.
A repeat this weekend would mark significant progress given the difficulty of the group they were placed in.
It would mark them out as a team to fear in the latter stages although Ferris believes there are already jangling nerves in the continent.
“I’m sure opponents would be looking through the pre-match magazine and looking through our team with World Cup winners and John Afoa. Our foreign signings are unbelievable. Myself and Rory Best and these guys have been at World Cups and all that.
“The amount of international players we have is unbelievable and If I was in the other dressing-room and looking at our teamsheet I would be scared about going onto the pitch to face them.”
England took notice last week. Now would be the ideal time for France to do the same.
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