Rory Best will make his 150th appearance for Ulster, against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road, but the hooker won’t be thinking about that milestone when he runs out at the home of the English Premiership Champions.
Rory Best will make his 150th appearance for Ulster, against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road, but the hooker won’t be thinking about that milestone when he runs out at the home of the English Premiership Champions:
“Obviously 150 caps is a great achievement", says Best. “It is nice to get, but you would swap all that for a home quarter-final.”
That incentive is huge. A home quarter-final at the newly redeveloped Ravenhill would be a landmark occasion for everyone associated with rugby in Ulster:
“It (the match against Leicester Tigers) has the potential to be a great day for us,” Best says. “It is something that we have talked about a lot over the last couple of years, once we started to get out of the group and into the quarters for the first time.
“We said then the next thing we wanted was a home one. We have put ourselves in a great position to do that at this stage. We are the only team in Europe unbeaten and we need to make sure we get to Saturday night maintaining that. We have put ourselves in positions like this before. Last year we were in a great position in the December games and then let that slip. That ultimately cost us the home quarter-final, so we want to make sure we do everything right this weekend.”
Much has been made of the challenge of playing at Welford Road, but Ulster can take comfort from the fact that they haven’t lost a Heineken Cup Pool game away since the 19 points to 15 defeat to Clermont in January 2012. They can also look back at their comprehensive win over Montpellier to know that they can beat Europe’s top sides in this competition:
“I think because we have got to round six and it happened in round two, everyone has forgotten about it (the game against Montpellier). We went there and beat one of the top teams in France. Their top team that day. We beat them quite comfortably in the end. To go into the quarter-finals having knocked over two of the top teams in Europe would be massive. It would be a bit of a statement, but it would be a massive confidence boost for us to go to two top clubs, two intimidating places and have won.
“Leicester have been fantastic the way they have navigated through the Pool after their initial loss to us and they have put themselves in a similar position. It is set up for a cracking game and set up for a game that we truly believe we can win.”
Rory Best will make his 150th appearance for Ulster, against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road, but the hooker won’t be thinking about that milestone when he runs out at the home of the English Premiership Champions:
“Obviously 150 caps is a great achievement", says Best. “It is nice to get, but you would swap all that for a home quarter-final.”
That incentive is huge. A home quarter-final at the newly redeveloped Ravenhill would be a landmark occasion for everyone associated with rugby in Ulster:
“It (the match against Leicester Tigers) has the potential to be a great day for us,” Best says. “It is something that we have talked about a lot over the last couple of years, once we started to get out of the group and into the quarters for the first time.
“We said then the next thing we wanted was a home one. We have put ourselves in a great position to do that at this stage. We are the only team in Europe unbeaten and we need to make sure we get to Saturday night maintaining that. We have put ourselves in positions like this before. Last year we were in a great position in the December games and then let that slip. That ultimately cost us the home quarter-final, so we want to make sure we do everything right this weekend.”
Much has been made of the challenge of playing at Welford Road, but Ulster can take comfort from the fact that they haven’t lost a Heineken Cup Pool game away since the 19 points to 15 defeat to Clermont in January 2012. They can also look back at their comprehensive win over Montpellier to know that they can beat Europe’s top sides in this competition:
“I think because we have got to round six and it happened in round two, everyone has forgotten about it (the game against Montpellier). We went there and beat one of the top teams in France. Their top team that day. We beat them quite comfortably in the end. To go into the quarter-finals having knocked over two of the top teams in Europe would be massive. It would be a bit of a statement, but it would be a massive confidence boost for us to go to two top clubs, two intimidating places and have won.
“Leicester have been fantastic the way they have navigated through the Pool after their initial loss to us and they have put themselves in a similar position. It is set up for a cracking game and set up for a game that we truly believe we can win.”