LIONS ARE LAMBS TO SLAUGHTER
ULSTER are unchanged for what should be a routine win against South African franchise Lions at Kingspan Park tonight.
The Lions, by the way, were a club deemed worthy of facing the other ‘Lions’ — the touring side — earlier this summer in the opening 2021 tour game.
The visitors made light work of the task, winning 56-14, as Josh Adams bagged a memorable four tries.
However, the summer’s Emirates Lions side bears little resemblance to that which will be on duty in Belfast tonight. There are seven who started at Ellis Park in the first 15, while two of the subs reprise bench roles.
That the visitors are so weakened is not because of any kind of Springboks imperative either; the reality is Ivan van Rooyen’s squad barely trouble Rassie Erasmus’s calculations.
There were no Emirates Lions in the 42-man Springbok squad when it was revealed ahead of the 2021 Rugby championship last August 8.
As it stands, there are actually seven previously-capped Springboks at the club, six of whom aren’t here tonight and loose-head prop Ruan Dreyer, who earned four caps in 2017, who is on the bench.
Arrival
Sure, there has been much fanfare concerning the arrival of the ‘big’ South African franchises to the URC collective but this one can hardly be said to be even living up to it’s pre-competition 80/1 price.
The Kingspan faithful could be forgiven for standing up for their Ulster stars and asking “Are you Southern Kings in disguise…”
This is, of course, part of an idea reflected by a three-gamesin league table three that sees the four South Africa franchises having played 12 games and return just three wins and a draw.
Mitigating factors first — all four franchises have played all 12 games away from home and they have been some time on the road.
For the league’s credibility there has to be the hope places such as the Bulls’ Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria (51,762), the Lions’ Ellis Park, Jo’berg (62,567), the Sharks’ Kings Park Stadium, Durban (52,000) and the Stormers Cape Town Stadium (55,000) can conjure up better.
But for now the Lions’ twopoint win at Zebre in round one and round three wins by Sharks and Stormers at Ospreys and Cardiff respectively have really only been augmented by the Stormers drawing at Edinburgh.
It is hard to get a handle on just how South Africa sees this competition unfolding.
Ulster, for their part, can only take the field and play what’s in front of them — a tiring squad on the last leg of a four-game jaunt.
Soon
This should be meat and drink for players such as impressive scrum-half Nathan Doak.
Doak’s performance last week should have made Ireland coach Andy Farrell decide to get the 19-year-old scrum-half to international squad training as soon as possible.
Elsewhere, Rob Herring, in playing his 200th game for the province, was also excellent last week.
Farrell can only be encouraged seeing a player he chose to start the 2021 Six Nations games against Wales, France, Scotland and England in such form.
The clamour for Leinster hooker Ronan Kelleher’s inclusion in the national side had been loud and solid for some time and it will be interesting to see how this one pans out through November.
The Ulster back-row is also worth monitoring; Nick Timoney remains very much an out-lier in terms of t he Ireland squad but his versatility and consistency has a lready b een rewarded — he started at No.7 against USA last July.
Moreover, given there are plenty of back-rows on the fringe of the international side, it would be a stretch to say 21 year-old David McCann is going to get a call this year.
But his ‘ standing-in’ as Ulster wait on South African RWC2019 winner Duane Vermeulen’s arrival, has revealed an 108g, six-footfour, energetic and powerful operator — watch the space.
ULSTER: Will Addison; Craig Gilroy, James Hume, Stewart Moore, Ethan McIlroy; Billy Burns, Nathan Doak; Andrew Warwick, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Sam Carter (capt), Matty Rea, Nick Timoney, David McCann. SUBS; Brad Roberts, Eric O’Sullivan, Ross Kane, Kieran Treadwell, Sean Reidy, David Shanahan, Mike Lowry, Ben Moxham. LIONS: Divan Roussouw; Stean Pienaar, Manuel Rass , Megiel Burger Odendaal (capt), Sibahle Maxwane; EW Viljoen, Andre Warner; Sti Sithole, Gerrit Visagie, Carlu Sadie, Ruben Schoeman, Reinhard Nothnagel, Sibusiso Sangweni, Vincent Tshituka, Ruhan Straeuli. SUBS: Pieter Jacobus Botha, Ruan Dreyer, Asenathi N t l a b a k a nye , Wilhelm van der Sluys, Emmanuel Tshituka, Morne van den Berg, Frederik Zeilinga, Wandisile Simelane.
REF: Mike Adamson (SRU). VERDICT: Handy Ulster bonus-point win Tickets for the game, priced from £25 for adults and £15 for juniors, at ulsterrugby.com.