Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CONNACHT v ULSTER HENRY: IT IS HORRID
Flying Ulster winger Speight hating having to leave club just as form turns around
HENRY SPEIGHT admits it will be an even greater wrench leaving Ulster given the province’s recent rich vein of form in both the Champions Cup and Guinness PRO14.
The 19-times capped Wallaby, who arrived in Belfast on a short term deal in the summer, plays his last game for Dan Mcfarland’s men in Galway this evening.
And the influential 30-yearold, who is set to return to the Brumbies in advance of the 2019 Super Rugby season, admits it will be tough saying goodbye.
Ulster, who have won six of their last seven games, lie second in their conference and are knocking on the door of the last eight in Europe.
“It makes it a lot harder to leave the way the results have been going,” said Speight. “We’ve had a few wins on the trot and that creates a good vibe.
“The boys are happy, the team is up and the whole province is happy so it’s going to be really hard to sort of pull away.”
Speight, who flies home on Sunday, was surprised how emotional he was coming off the Kingspan pitch following his final home game against Munster last Friday.
The Fijian-born flier saw Rob Herring (below), Rob Baloucoune and Dave Shanahan touch down for tries in a 19-12 win to make it four straight victories in all competitions.
“It was a sort of an emotional build-up and I didn’t expect that,” he said. “After the game I was just doing a lap and it sinks in a bit that it is your last home game.
“It was very, very special and the atmosphere was amazing. They say our support is the 16th man and you feel it out there when your backs are against the wall.”
On Connacht, who suffered their first loss in six outings against Leinster at the RDS last week, Speight said: “Their record is probably just as good as ours over the past month. They play good rugby and have hit their straps in the past month. We can’t switch off – if we do we will get a hard time there. It’s a big test.”
Mcfarland has made four changes to the team that beat Munster with Nick Timoney coming in for Sean Reidy in the pack.
Darren Cave, Angus Kernohan and Johnny Mcphillips take over from Stuart Mccloskey, Billy Burns and Robert Baloucoune in the backline.
Winger Baloucoune is serving a two-week ban for a dangerous tackle in last week’s clash.