McLaughlin kicks to touch on Ferris’ battle for fitness

Concrete updates on Stephen Ferris’ ankle injury were thin on the ground in Belfast yesterday but all the indications are that the Ireland flanker will be named in the Ulster team to face Munster in Sunday’s Heineken Cup quarter-final.

The 26-year old underwent a scan three days ago on the knock sustained against Aironi at Ravenhill on Friday night and was initially rated as doubtful after the procedure revealed significant ligament and muscle damage.

Coach Brian McLaughlin treated every question on the subject of his star flanker with caution yesterday but the bottom line is that Ferris will be given every second to get himself right for the trip to Limerick and a club statement confirmed they “remain hopeful” he will be fit.

“At the minute he is in our squad and he is progressing,” said the coach. “We’ll reassess the situation daily and we’ll see how he progresses as the week goes on. There’s no doubt we are very keen to have him fit but we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Ferris’ absence would be difficult to exaggerate given his powerhouse performances for Ireland during the Six Nations. But it was obvious during yesterday’s press conference that players and coaches were instructed to deflect such considerations.

Time and again, it was put to them that the flanker’s absence would be a crippling blow and time and again the response was to speak instead about what a blow it would be to the player himself who missed last year’s quarter-final against Northampton.

Ulster’s concerns for Ferris are in marked contrast to Munster whose walking wounded, including Paul O’Connell, appear to be on the mend and just the significance of that was stressed by Johann Muller who described the Irish lock as “their Stephen Ferris”.

“I have played a couple of games against Paul and he is one of the best locks I have ever played against, if not the best,” said the Ulster captain.

“He is an outstanding rugby player and an outstanding leader and that is what he brings to the team. He lifts everybody around him.”

Muller expanded on how O’Connell sets the tone for Munster and that will be apparent in an opening quarter which McLaughlin has predicted will be “all-out war” on ground where the home team have lost just once in the Heineken Cup.

And the Thomond factor isn’t one that has Ulster on the back foot and a number of the squad were on board three years ago when they claimed a 37-11 win there.

Muller agreed: “It obviously makes a bit of a difference if you have played there. You know the circumstances and you know how the crowd and the noise they are going to create but, in saying that, none of us had played in Clermont before and we went down there this year to one of the best atmospheres I have ever played in. That was just a great day, even though we lost. The amount of experience we earned on that day was brilliant and takes us another step forward going down to Limerick this week and knowing what to expect. It makes some difference but, at the end of the day, it is what happens between the four lines. Anything else doesn’t matter.”