Challenge Cup final: Ulster Rugby ready to step into spotlight against Montpellier

EYES ON THE PRIZE: Ulster's Michael Lowry walks past the European Rugby Challenge Cup trophy. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

There are those in Ulster who feel they live on the fringes when it comes to the rest of Irish rugby.

If Belfast just feels a lot further away than any of the other provincial centres, then that’s especially true in recent seasons as the team struggled to put together performances and results on the field of play.

Head coach Richie Murphy touched on this after his weakened side had lost a URC tie to Munster in Thomond Park last month, gently chiding the media afterwards for what he perceived as their all-too regular absences from Affidea Park even as fortunes were looking up.

Ulster won’t quite take centre stage this weekend but they have shot up the bill throughout this campaign, and especially so with their presence in Friday night’s Challenge Cup final alongside Montpellier.

Leinster’s Champions Cup decider against Bordeaux-Bègles in the same stadium the following afternoon means Irish eyes have more reason than one to tune in to events in Bilbao. And, as appetisers go, this is tasty.

Friday's final takes place at San Mames Stadium, Bilbao. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Connacht, of course, will pay particular attention given an Ulster win would qualify them automatically for Champions Cup rugby next term and usurp Stuart Lancaster’s side in the process.

With friends like these etc… 

It’s 20 years since the northern province won silverware. That was a Celtic League title that feels very much like 'old money' at this stage so there’s all sorts of motivations for them here.

Murphy’s side pitches up on the back of some mixed form, decidedly mixed results and with a number of key players sitting this out because of injury or suspension.

Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale, Iain Henderson and Rob Herring will watch this one from the impressive San Mamés stands, and that has fed into a collective groupthink that the Top 14’s second best side to date this season is poised to win their third Challenge Cup in eleven seasons.

Murphy’s take that the loss of those four leaders is “not ideal” must already go down as one of the campaign’s greatest understatements.

Fears for Ulster were countered at least in part by the side Murphy named on Thursday with Robert Baloucoune returning to action on the wing and for a first start since Ireland’s last game of the Six Nations.

Added to that are reappearances for Wallaby front row Angus Bell before his trip back to Oz and Dave McCann to the back row, both after enforced periods of inactivity.

Scroll through that Ulster XV and it’s a damn fine team, including the exciting Jude Postlethwaite who deputises in midfield for McCloskey just days after the latter was named Rugby Players Ireland’s player of the year.

It is a very young outfit with just two of them over the age of 30, but some of those in their twenties are well into three figures for provincial caps by now too.

Ulster bring class and danger in every department and some of their rugby has been outstanding this year, not least in recent weeks despite failures to beat either the Stormers or Glasgow at home.

They will score tries.

LIGHT

The problem is that their squad isn’t built for assaults on two fronts. That cost them in the URC when finishing ninth and missing the playoffs and the bench here looks light as a result of that missing quartet.

That’s not a good sign when facing a French side with Montpellier’s wallet, personnel and form.

This is a team that, in contrast to Ulster’s exuberance, is built on brute force and setpiece. This is a game between Cavaliers and Roundheads and everyone knows who came out on top in that one.

Former England international Billy Vunipola ahead of the game. Picture: INPHO/Nick Elliott

Montpellier aren’t big on star power. Billy Vunipola, three years on from his last England cap, probably heads a cast supported by Mohammad Haouas and Scotland’s Ali Price, but they look too strong and too competent in the game’s basics not to grind Ulster down here.

MONTPELLIER: T Banks; G N'Gandebe, A Vincent, A Cadot, D Taofifenua; D Miotti, A Price; E Forletta, J Uelese, M Haouas; F Verhaeghe, T DuGuid; L Nouchi, A Becognee, B Vunipola.

Replacements: L Akrab, B Erdocio, W Hounkpatin, A Beard, M Tauleigne, L Coly, T Darmon, J Echegaray.

ULSTER: M Lowry; R Baloucoune, J Hume, J Postlethwaite, Z Ward, J Murphy, N Doak; A Bell, T Stewart, T O'Toole, H Sheridan, C Izuchukwu; D McCann, N Timoney, J Augustus.

Replacements: J McCormick, E O'Sullivan, S Wilson, C Irvine, B Ward, C McKee, J Flannery, E McIlroy.