HAD THINGS PERHAPS transpired differently this season, Marcus Rea realistically foresaw a scenario where his future lay away from Kingspan Stadium. How quickly things can change in sport.

Between rugby returning from its Covid-enforced break and November of last year, the younger of the Rea brothers only saw action on four occasions for Ulster and was quickly being consigned to the bit-part role that sees players opt to seek pastures new, usually in the English Championship.

That was the reality facing Rea. In a contract year, he was forced to watch on as, one by one, David McCann, Greg Jones and brother Matty all got their chances to nail down a starting jersey alongside Nick Timoney and Duane Vermeulen in the back row. All the while, the lure of more game-time somewhere else was growing more appealing each week.

“I wasn’t particularly happy playing for my club (Ballynahinch) because I had dreams and aspirations to play at a higher standard,” says the 24-year-old. “I wasn’t too sure what I was going to do – then it just so happened games came around and injuries fell and I got the opportunity in the Leinster game.

“Back then at the start of the season, it was either make or break in the sense that I needed to push into the team. Once I got my foot in the door, I knew if I got an opportunity it wasn’t something that I was going to pass up.”

Saying it is one thing, delivering is another – and Rea has delivered and then some. It did take injuries for him to get his chance in Ulster’s back row, but since then he has retained his place in the squad based on merit alone following on from that cameo at the RDS.

The Ballymena man started all four of Ulster’s wins in the pool stages of the Heineken Champions Cup, leading them to four wins, and looked right at home in restricting the influences of the likes of Courtney Lawes, Judicael Cancoriet and Arthur Iturria with a relentless work-rate off the ball.

He’s no longer in a contract year either. His performances mean his future is now sorted until the end of next season and, with that particular weight having been lifted from Rea’s shoulders, it’s unburdened him of the pressure of being out of a job in four months’ time.

“I think it is more freedom to express yourself and you don’t have to worry; you don’t have to worry about moves or something that you have run in the week,” he says of the difference between who he was before the Leinster game and now.

“For me, from the Leinster game it was about trying to get my super strengths and showing them as much as I could. From there I was just keeping on producing my super strengths and bringing up the consistency with how I was training and playing as well.

“The contract came at a good time because I wasn’t playing a lot of games, and even last season, as far as rugby goes I just want to get better, I want to stay in the team and I want the team to get better. I want to win something this year and I don’t want to give up my shirt for anyone really.”

The real work only begins now, though. Ulster announced on Tuesday that Jordi Murphy, who was so influential in their run to the Challenge Cup semi-finals last season, is reintegrating back into training, while former Ireland U20 captain McCann is pushing for more game-time and he will soon have to contend with new arrival Sean Reffell from Saracens.

Rea is not lacking in confidence, however. Being entrusted with four consecutive starts in Europe will do that to a man.

“I knew if I got a run of games and got a bit of confidence up that I would be hard to put out of the team again,” he grins. “I think for me it was consistency, some of the work I did, whether it be breakdown, lineout work or some detail stuff that obviously comes from repetition and playing in there.

“You get your foot in and hammer the detail for the first few games and it is coming a lot easier now than it had been back then.”