Facial injury leaves Ulster's Mike Lowry a doubt for New Zealand tour

ULSTER ASSISTANT COACH Dan Soper admits he doesn’t know how long Mike Lowry’s facial injury will sideline him for, putting the fullback’s participation in Ireland’s summer tour to New Zealand in considerable doubt.

The fearless 23-year-old put himself in harm’s way to bring down Cell C Sharks full-back Aphelele Fassi in Ulster’s final United Rugby Championship regular season game at Kingspan Stadium last month, which required his immediate removal from the game.

After missing last weekend’s URC quarter-final win over Munster in Belfast, a medical report from the province confirmed Lowry would be unavailable for Saturday’s semi-final away to the DHL Stormers after undergoing surgery, and Soper confirmed he would also be out of a potential final as well.

That, naturally, puts his availability for Ireland’s tour to face the All Blacks in severe doubt as Andy Farrell’s squad is expected to be announced next week, with the European Player of the Year nominee having been a near lock to be included in the extended panel if fit.

“I’m certainly no medical expert. I know he won’t play again for us this year, which is really unfortunate, but I wouldn’t know how much longer it will keep him out for,” revealed Soper.

“It’s desperately unfortunate for Mike that we get to this stage of the season when he’s contributed so much to our success and he doesn’t get to play a part in knockout footy, but that’s the nature of the job.”

In Lowry’s absence, centre-turned-fullback Stewart Moore did an excellent job at standing in as he scored two tries in a fluid, clinical performance from Ulster’s backs as they cut Munster to shreds in a 36-17 win at Kingspan Stadium to book their last-four place.

Produce another display like that and the Stormers will find the northern province tough to cope with, but that is easier said than done, as history shows – the 2019 World Cup knockouts being a prime example as England failed to back up their sensational semi-final win over the All Blacks and were subsequently beaten in the final by the Springboks.

“That’s been a strong message driven by the senior players – yes, it was a good performance, but that doesn’t mean you can sit back and fall in love with yourself because you’ve accomplished something or finished,” admits Soper.

That was really good to hear the senior players driving that message that we want to go again. It wasn’t perfect and there are things we can get better at. If you aspire to be winning a competition like this, you need to be able to produce a big performance three weeks in a row.

“Four teams have been able to do it, this week there will be two. We need to take a step forward again and be one of those two teams.”

Ulster will also be keen to set the record straight at DHL Stadium against the Stormers after their last game against the Cape Town franchise, which ended with a controversial TMO decision denying Ulster the victory when Callum Reid’s seemingly legitimate try was ruled out.

In the aftermath, URC head of officials Tappe Henning confirmed the decision should have stood and, ironically, that decision is what means Ulster are away in the last-four as opposed to hosting this game in Belfast – not that they are dwelling on it themselves.

“Everyone knows the last couple minutes of that game. It is what it is but that’s certainly not anything that’s going to motivate us. We’re looking forward to the challenge of going back to Cape Town,” adds Soper.

“We’ll take the learnings from that game but that was one incident. Yes, that might have won us the game, but there were a lot of things that actually if we had got them right, we could have won that game without having to worry about a TMO call.

Ulster’s assistant coach Dan Soper.

“We have to draw on the experience of going there and what we learned, and that will help us in our preparation. Last time we were there was the first time for nearly everyone being in that stadium, and for some it was the first time touring in South Africa, so of course you draw on that experience to prepare yourself for the next game.

“We’re also well aware it’s nil-all. We start again and the best team wins.”

Also adding to the challenge of facing the Stormers is the added travel, with Ulster hoping on a plane this morning to make the mammoth journey to Cape Town knowing they will need to hit the ground running when they arrive in order to be ready for Saturday.

It is now an unavoidable part of the URC play-offs, particularly if the South African sides continue to be as successful as they have been this season, and there was certainly a degree of fatigue that hit Edinburgh in the second-half of their quarter-final with the Stormers last week.

“There’s no doubt it’s a factor, but that’s part of the league and you have to deal with it as a group,” Soper opined.

“There’s a bit of drawing on other teams’ experience and what’s worked well and what hasn’t, and individuals. It’s a part of the league, it’s the way it is, so you need to learn how to best cope with it and mitigate against it having a negative impact on our performance.

“We certainly won’t be using it as an excuse. We’re really excited about going to Cape Town and getting an opportunity to play. We hear they might have a full stadium and to me that sounds like a wonderful opportunity to go and perform.” 

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