ULSTER BATTLE TO FILL AFOA’S BOOTS

PROP John Afoa will be missing for Ulster’s crucial clash with Leinster at the RDS on Saturday night but it is hoped the World Cup winner will be back for next week’s Heineken Cup quarter-final against Saracens at Twickenham. Afoa has flown back to his native New Zealand for the birth of his third child and, coupled with injury to Ireland tighthead Declan Fitzpatrick, it leaves coach Mark Anscombe with a selection headache in the No 3 jersey. Tom Court could switch from loosehead but is likely to stay in his best position, so it looks like a contest between Belfast Harlequins’ Richard Lutton and Ballynahinch’s Kyle McCall to fill the sizeable void left by Afoa (below). ‘Not having John is a big blow and, if you look at that pre-Christmas game [against Leinster], the reason we were able to win it was the dominance of our scrum and a penalty try,’ said Anscombe. Luke Marshall remains sidelined after picking up a concussion playing for Ireland in Rome but Anscombe welcomes back international quartet Rory Best, Iain Henderson, Chris Henry and Craig Gilroy. Scrum half Ruan Pienaar has shaken off the ankle injury which kept him out of last week’s defeat at Edinburgh while loose forward Roger Wilson is also fit to return after a hamstring injury. ‘It’s what you hope for and dream of as a coach — to have your best players available to be picked in the big games,’ added the New Zealander. ‘But that’s the way rugby is today, it’s disruptive and it’s about how you go through your lows and how you bounce back — it’s about how you handle the loss of form and losing players to injury and internationals. ‘How you handle that and bounce back is going to be the key, we haven’t been performing and we have been below par but the attitude is good, they have trained well,’ added Anscombe.