Leinster v Ulster: Head to Head
McCloskey’s Time is Now
Few players will have gotten more out of the November internationals than Stuart McCloskey. He may not have set the world alight as he has been doing in an Ulster shirt, but for the first time in his career he had an extended run in green with three starts in a row.
Where is he now in the Ireland pecking order? It’s difficult to say he’s any better off than he was. With Ireland 3-0 up on 53 minutes against Australia, Andy Farrell made a call that doesn’t bode well for the Bangor man. Bundee Aki was summoned off the bench at the expense of McCloskey.
With the game on the line, Farrell wanted Aki - who hadn’t played a game in weeks due to suspension - rather than McCloskey who had put in an okay, by no means terrible, by no means stellar performance up to that point.
It’s a sign that, for all his good early season form, McCloskey still has a few tweaks to make to put significant pressure on Messrs Henshaw and Aki for that starting shirt.
Against South Africa, for the first 25 or so minutes before going off injured, McCloskey was excellent. Time and again he was asked to pick up the pieces after the Boks’ blitz defence caused carnage, making the best of scrappy ball to find regular gain line success.
By contrast against Australia, he was a touch laboured and struggled to get front foot ball that he usually does for Ulster. In the first half, he carried eight times, six on first phase but to little effect. His first carry nearly saw him held up, while a later effort saw him lose possession to Michael Hooper - albeit illegally.
After half-time, McCloskey was much more involved in unscripted play away from first phase carries, getting on the ball five times in open play. Akin to South Africa, that is where he did his best work in beating defenders and making yards. However, he didn’t show the same desire as Aki to regularly get on the ball and do damage, to look for grunt work time and again.
Aki’s try was the perfect example of this. Seeing the forwards were struggling to crash over the line, he came infield, picked an angle off Casey through a defensive mis-match and forced his way in for a critical score.
It’s not an issue of strength, size or ability. In that game, it simply looked like a dogged desire to impact on every single touch was the difference between the two players.
That said, McCloskey has a golden opportunity to show he has taken the learnings from Ireland. He will be the lone Irish centre playing big European matches in the coming weeks. Henshaw is out until the new year with a wrist injury, while Aki is playing in the Challenge Cup - any performances there are not as valuable a currency as the Champions Cup.
Henshaw won’t play against Ulster this weekend while the other recognised Leinster 12, one-time All Black Charlie Ngatai, may or not feature due to a shoulder issue. McCloskey could well have an opportunity to improve his first phase attack running at someone who is playing out of position.
The symbolism of dominating a game against Leinster, not to mention good performances vs Sale and La Rochelle (Jonathan Danty is likely to be McCloskey’s opposite number), will be huge. No other Irish 12 has such an opportunity.
McCloskey’s time to show he can learn from Ireland has come. The time to strike again is now.
Other Points to Note
First phase
For all this talk of McCloskey’s role of securing go-forward ball Leinster are actually the most dangerous attacking side off set-piece this season. They have scored 15 tries on first phase, more than any other team. Out of their eight URC games this season, five have come without McCloskey’s rival Henshaw in the line-up - they attack well with whoever is at centre. Ulster’s backline defence will be tested significantly come Saturday.
A big part of stopping first phase momentum is to cut it off at source. Out of the 37 tries Leinster have scored this season, 22 have come from lineouts. That figure includes the ridiculous amount of maul tries notched by Sheehan et al (he has six tries) along with the first phase strikes.
Iain Henderson will return to the starting line-up you think, he and his partner be it Alan O’Connor or Kieran Treadwell, alongside defensive lineout guru Duane Vermeulen, all have a big part to play.
Maulin’ time
Speaking of the lineout, remember how the maul defined much of the previous meeting between these two back in September. For the first hour of a 20-13 Leinster win at a drenched Kingspan, Leinster’s maul was dominant, allowing Sheehan to rumble over while setting up countless attacks.
Ulster couldn’t get their own rolling maul going until Leinster’s big South African Jason Jenkins went off, a move that helped them suddenly gain the ascendancy and use their set-piece to get back into the contest.
However, the dynamics of both sides’ packs have changed drastically since then. Jenkins is still there, but Ulster have a fit Henderson once more. Advantage Ulster you would think, but James Ryan looks to be in much better form after a good international campaign under his belt - his maul defence alongside Tadhg Beirne vs South Africa was immense.
Ulster have made more maul metres (212m) than anyone else this season. It’s as difficult as ever to predict who will have the upper hand at the maul and, as we saw in September, winning that contest goes a long way to winning the game.
Fast starters
These are the two best teams in the league at scoring early in games. Both have notched seven tries in the opening 10 minutes of URC matches. In September, Leinster won the battle of the fast starters to race into an early lead before flagging late. If Ulster back their ability to finish matches better and avoid such a disastrous start, who knows where they’ll be.
Keep an eye on the benches both sides select.
