TESTING THE DEPTH

It’s just Ulster’s injury luck for a player to get injured before even arriving in Belfast.

Our heart goes out to Marcell Coetzee – it’s hard for any player to hear the news that they’ll be sidelined for nine months, especially when it means he’s made his last appearance for his hometown Sharks as well. You can only hope he makes a speedy recovery that will see him hopefully make his Ulster debut before the end of the year.

The injury bug seems to be striking everyone right now too. Ulster seem destined to be without Nick Williams, Alan O’Connor, Stuart McCloskey and Louis Ludik again this weekend against Zebre and while it shouldn’t make a difference to the final outcome it’s better to have them available than not.

It’s a necessary reminder that rugby nowadays is a squad sport, and not just a competition of who can get the best 23 players for their team. Between the many injuries and international call-ups, Ulster haven’t been able to field their strongest team this season once (Saracens at home was probably the closest we came to that), further emphasising the need for quality dripping down throughout the squad and not just at the top ranks.

It’ll be tested towards the end of the season.

It seems to be fate that O’Connor will play no further part this year while Ludik and Williams have been struggling with persistent niggles all season – there’s three key individuals who we could be facing a very crucial run-in without. Those are the positions we need our squad players to step up into and prove their worth in our set-up.

Guys like Pete Browne and Sean Reidy will have to slot into the gaps left by O’Connor and Williams and bolster our pack. But, to their credit, both have already impressed this season so far – Browne offers a strong carrying option in the second row while Reidy has excelled at the breakdown and has been probably Ulster’s breakout player of the season.

Ludik’s loss is offset by the return of a certain Tommy Bowe from injury – remember him? – while McCloskey’s loss is only softened by the fact that Ulster have a seemingly never-ending list of talented centres ready to slot into the squad. Stuart Olding will probably replace him – equally as talented in a different way.

But it’s a reflection that Ulster still need squad depth.

While the backs stocks seem to be relatively deep, the same cannot be said for the forwards. With Williams out, Saturday’s game should provide an opportunity to give either Stephen Mulholland another shot at number eight or potentially start Academy number eight Lorcan Dow after his man of the match performance against Munster A last week.

If Dow can build on that appearance against Treviso earlier in the season then there is some real potential for him to even take the 8 shirt on a more regular basis, especially next season in the period of time between Coetzee arriving and actually being available to play for us. Even if he’s not ready then the ever-reliable Roger Wilson is on standby for us, but this is a glorious opportunity to look at some of our young options.

Because it’s all well and good bringing in players of Coetzee’s calibre and also Charles Piutau in the backs, but if you’re not producing the young talent to go with it then you’re still going to struggle. Ulster are going to be away in the semi-finals of the PRO12 this season and you can probably chalk that down to the two defeats to the Scarlets and Cardiff during the Six Nations – times when we relied on our squad depth.

Rugby is no longer a 23-man game.

I feel like we have improved our depth, especially from previous seasons. Our backs are littered with quality – even our young players such as Sammy Arnold and Rory Scholes have stepped up admirably when called upon – and some of the forwards have made an impact too such as the aforementioned Browne and Reidy.

There is still room to improve, however, and Les will know that. Acquisitions like Rodney Ah You, Kieran Treadwell and Brett Herron for next season will undoubtedly have improved our depth, but there’s also a requirement to fill from within with the likes of Dow, John Andrew, Dave Shanahan and Jacob Stockdale continuing to get chances in the first team when possible.

Games like this weekend should provide opportunities to give those guys some chance of impressing the coaching staff, however sadly this game has come at a time in the season where Ulster need the five points, end of. That means a full team will be out on the pitch going all guns blazing for the 80 minutes.

The young names will bide their time for another day.