Hendo’s injury blow rocks Ulster Euro bid

A little later than usual, European Rugby is finally on the horizon. While we’d normally be readying ourselves for the traditional festive double-headers at this time of year, things are different this season with Toulouse and Gloucester waiting for Ulster over the next two weekends.

ithout the usual pool structure too, the new-look competition is less focused on edging the head-to-heads or playing canny cup rugby and more on simply amassing as high a points total as possible.

For Ulster, to make the knockouts for a third year in a row will require them to finish among the top four teams in their 12-strong side of the draw.

Thankfully, their fixture list has been weighted in light of their standing as PRO14 finalists three months ago. Unfortunately, such status earned them nothing more than a pair of games against Toulouse, the same Toulouse that thumped them in last season’s quarter-finals to the tune of a comprehensive 36-8 scoreline in the Stade Ernest Wallon.

That the old artisans were among the bottom seeds for this season’s competition despite reaching the latter stages in the past two seasons was because, in contrast to the PRO14 and Premiership, the Top 14 season was not put on hiatus when the pandemic struck back in the spring but cancelled.

With Toulouse in seventh place at the time of the stoppage, they were placed alongside the likes of Dragons and Harlequins in the fourth tier of seeds.

While Ugo Mola’s side would go only one step further than Ulster, losing to eventual champions Exeter after seeing off the northern province, they have responded to last season’s disappointment in a similar vein.

Not quite eight-from-eight, but they have been in impressive form in the weeks and months since, sitting second in the table, behind only the La Rochelle side of Ronan O’Gara and Jono Gibbes, with wins over Racing 92 in Paris and at home to Toulon among their better performances.

Saturday’s away win over Bayonne ensured they will travel to Belfast in a confident mood, unbeaten in four games going back to the day a much-changed outfit were handily beaten by Stade Francais.

The deal between the Top 14 clubs and the French national team has come under some scrutiny thanks to the shadow team fielded by Les Bleus against England in the final of the Nations Cup but, as we pivot back to the club game, there is no doubt who has been better served.

While Dan McFarland will have spent the past week cursing his luck after seeing pivotal duo Billy Burns and Iain Henderson pick up injuries in the name of the Irish cause, Toulouse had long since had their Test front-liners returned to them.

The side that Ulster put out on Friday will be one that, thanks to this elongated string of internationals, won’t have played together since the start of October, while Toulouse will field essentially a full strength team at the Stade Jean Dauger.

With Romain Ntamack fit again and featuring at inside centre, the Ulster staff could be forgiven for casting an envious eye at a game that was more straightforward for the visitors than the 24-20 final score would suggest, thanks to a last minute converted try for Bayonne.

For as they sat idle, their worst fears for the weekend were realised when Henderson limped from the field in Dublin.

The 28-year-old has made a mockery of such prognosis before, but the 2017 Lion certainly didn’t look like a man who’d be ready for the cut and thrust of European rugby over the next two weekends.

Should his knee and Billy Burns’s groin keep them out of such key games, Ulster will be feeling that the season’s schedule has left them decidedly hamstrung.