ANY TIME A province names a 10-12-13 combination whose ages are 22, 21, and 22, it’s obvious that their supporters are going to be very excited.
So it was entirely unsurprising that Ulster fans were looking forward to seeing Michael Lowry, Stewart Moore, and James Hume playing together on Friday night against Benetton. They weren’t disappointed.
There were a couple of defensive slips and moments that showed their inexperience, of course, but there was much more to like during Ulster’s 35-24 win.
Inside centre Moore made a gliding linebreak with his first touch in the second minute of his maiden senior start for Ulster, dummying and smoothly breaking upfield before offloading to Jacob Stockdale after another show of his footwork.
Moore had clever kicks, strong carries, subtly sharp passes, and some decent defensive work in what was the latest illustration of his rich potential, a week on from starring in Ulster A’s win over Leinster at the RDS.
Meanwhile, Lowry built on his promising performance at out-half away to Toulouse with a composed display as the starter in the number 10 shirt, making some combative tackles, showing his kicking smarts, and also scoring a try off John Cooney’s good pass.
Outside centre Hume continued his promising form of recent weeks with another demonstration of his footwork, power through contact, and acceleration – most notably when reacting with alertness to get on the end of Cooney’s sublime outside-of-the-foot grubber kick to score an Ulster try.
Lowry and Hume previously played together in school at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and have been working hard to break through at senior level with Ulster in recent years.
After underlining his promise with the Ireland U20s at the 2019 World Rugby Championship, Moore is now into his first season on a senior professional contract and it’s clear that he has a big future as a complete playmaker in the number 12 shirt.
With senior team mainstays Billy Burns, Stuart McCloskey, and Luke Marshall absent against Benetton, it’s fair to say that the young guns took their chance to impress.
Ulster assistant coach Dan Soper, who coached Lowry and Hume at RBAI, was certainly pleased with what he saw.
“I thought it was really exciting, that 10-12-13 combination, seeing those three young fellas who have come up through the age-grade teams playing together, to see them out there playing together for Ulster in a senior fixture was really exciting,” said Soper.
“I thought they did really well. James has been playing really well, he’s making a lot of progress which is great.
“Stew has been training really well and his opportunity wasn’t coming because of the nature of the games leading up to this, but everyone who has trained with him over the last year knows what a quality player he is. There’s a lot of potential there that we’re going to continue to work on.
“Seeing Mikey get a start at 10, it was just a really exciting combination. They brought a lot of energy, as young guys often do. Put the three of them together and there’s huge energy, which is great.
“We’re really pleased with how they’ve done and it’s great because it gives us some genuine competition across that midfield, which is what any squad needs.”
He’s not as disappointed as some on relation to how far off they are? They are miles off. No offence to Munster but they are an average,though very gutsy and committed side,and they have hammers Leinster twice in a row now. I do agree that they haven’t had any continuity with combinations,especially from 9-13,and hopefully when the likes of OBrien, Healy, Moore, Teo, McFadden etc come back then there will be a big improvement.
I must take the opportunity to praise Matt O’Connor for the huge improvement in Guinness Pro12 teams. Ever since he arrived at Leinster, every other team has greatly improved. Teams, that two years ago were almost brushed aside by Leinster, have now reached the heights that Leinster once inhabited alone.
Treviso have improved, Munster have improved, Edinburgh have improved, Scarlets have improved, Dragons have improved, Zebra have improved, Connacht (brilliant tonight, by the way) have improved..
In fact, they have all improved so much that Leinster has great difficulty taking on any of them.
By extension, Wasps and Harlequins have shown just how brilliant they are too due to you Matt.
I can hardly wait to see how much Castres get better when they arrive at the RDS soon. They will build statues in your image all over the town.
Matt, you have done European rugby a great service. They have all reached and surpassed Leinster this season thanks to your input at Leinster and everywhere else.
Thank you Matt and Happy New year!.
(and also to Mr Caputo, the news paper seller. Your influence on all other teams has been exceptional)