London braced for battle of the Boks

HEINEKEN CUP QUARTER-FINAL

Talk of how the province’s growing South African community would clog the pathways for Irish youngsters was commonplace but the Bok build-up in Belfast was but a dribble compared to the tidal wave that swept through Saracens.

It is five years since South African billionaire Johann Rupert pumped a reported £10m into the grand old club which, at one point, boasted an owner, a CEO, a head coach and a dozen playing members who all hailed from the Rainbow Nation.

It was the sort of influx that prompted a similar outcry heard shortly after across the Irish Sea and a BBC blog entitled: ‘Are Saracens losing their soul?’ yet, as Ulster have found, success tends to wash away misgivings of a less calculable nature.

And when the sides come face to face at Twickenham tomorrow, for the first time since January of 2001, they will do so in a part of the world where there are an estimated 750,000 or so of their countrymen and women in residence.

Ulster will once again lean heavily on the skills and experience of Johann Muller and Ruan Pienaar but here again Saracens outdo them in terms of numbers with 10 of their squad born in South Africa and two more hailing from Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Heck, in their lock, George Kruis, they even possess an Englishman who sounds like he was born and raised on the dusty veldt but those who actually do speak Afrikaans will be on first-name terms with many in the opposite ranks.

Johann Muller, for example, spent the bones of a decade packing down with John Smit with Natal, the Sharks and South Africa and he has experienced game time with Schalk Brits and Alistair Hargreaves too.

A special weekend, then? “We definitely don’t see it that way,” the Ulster captain laughed. “It is two great rugby teams going up against each other at a great stadium in Twickenham. You just go out and express yourself as best you can. If you are South African or a Northern Ireland or UK citizen or a Frenchie or New Zealander it doesn’t matter.”

For one of them, it will morph into a nightmare.

What excites most about tomorrow’s quarter-final in London is that it represents a meeting of two sides soaring ahead on an upward curve but it remains to be seen how Mark McCall’s side approaches it: Will they be all bish-bosh and forward power or will they seek to throw the ball about? They have both arrows in their quill.

Whatever their tactics and personnel, Muller is adamant Ulster can cope. He has seen his side progress from one with talented individuals but little or no depth to one which dug out a draw against Treviso not so long ago without 23 players through injury or internationals. Such a scenario would have been unimaginable in 2011.

“Also the experience that you get. We lost in the quarter-final in my first year to Northampton. The second year we went away to Munster and beat them, beat Edinburgh in the semis and then got a hiding in the final against Leinster. Those experiences can’t be bought.

“You have got to go through those tough and great times as a team and that is why I believe we are a better team. We have seen it, we have done it, and when we get in those situations this year we can hopefully go back into the box at the back of the brain and make sure we don’t make those mistakes again.”

It should make for one hell of a braai.