Ulster need a big one

RUGBY European Cup/Ulster v Gloucester:  By rights, this shouldn't be a contest. Gloucester come to Ravenhill with 11 of the starting line-up from the 55-13, six-tries-to-one rout they inflicted in the initial meeting between the sides on October 30th. But one of this competition's most redeeming features is that there have been bigger turnarounds than that.

With home advantage, anything is possible, as Ulster have proved at Ravenhill as much as anyone.

The Cherry and Whites have a star-studded team of all the talents, with Phil Vickery locking the scrum, Alex Brown one of the foremost lineout men in the Zurich Premiership, and Jake Boer (absent from that aforementioned meeting) back to lead the team alongside Andy Hazell, who is probably set to be England's openside in the Six Nations.

The accomplished Andy Gommarsall at scrumhalf is joined at halfback by Simon Amor, the English sevens captain and voted the IRB's world sevens player of the year for 2004 - quite an achievement considering the specialist contenders from New Zealand, Fiji and elsewhere.

Amor is one of three changes from the team beaten by Leicester last week, with Henry Paul reverting to centre to the exclusion of Nathan Mauger, while James Bailey and James Parkes have been recalled at left-wing and hooker.

Outside of Amor and Paul, even in the absence of the injured James Simpson-Daniel, there are other noted match winners like the turbo-charged Marcel Garvey and full back Jon Goodridge.

They are, as Ulster coach Mark McCall noted yesterday, a well-balanced side, who can either play a rumbling, forward-oriented game or the touchline-to-touchline wide game which took the Premiership by storm two seasons ago.

The selection of Amor would suggest Nigel Melville is after tries tonight.

"I know Simon Amor quite well actually, because he was at London Irish as an 18-year-old when I was there and I've followed his career ever since then," said McCall. "He's become something of a sevens specialist and hasn't played much 15-a-side but he's lightning quick and small, smaller even than me if you can believe that."

Nevertheless, even when they were in their pomp this time two years ago, Gloucester were rumbled themselves by Munster in the so-called Miracle Match, and last year's repeat dose in Thomond Park is a reminder that they can be dodgy travellers.

Ulster have the form guide of an 11-match winning streak over the last four seasons in Europe and contrary to last October, probably the nadir of their season, to their credit they've dug deep and begun to turn their season around. They've won five of their last eight games, including the last four at Ravenhill, where the return of European games in front of packed crowds was probably as much of a catalyst as anything else.

That they've done so without the talismanic Andy Ward makes the turnaround more creditable. Ward appeared as a late sub against Connacht after missing nine games, and not match fit enough to start a European game, remains on the bench.

But industrious fellow-Kiwi Campbell Feather has led the side well in his absence.

A rejuvenated Gary Longwell, too, has added some streetwise experience in Ward's absence and so the only change from the team that beat Connacht sees the return of Simon Best at loose-head for Ronnie McCormack, with 22-year-old Rory Best, another in their crop of home-grown young talent, making his European debut after a couple of impressive Celtic League outings.

Ulster's qualification hopes hang by a thread, but McCall and his players are looking upon this as a massive game in its own right, and a chance to underline their improvement since that harrowing Kingsholm day.

The inspired win over Stade Français at home, when turning around a 20-point defeat away into an eight-point win at home a week later, shows how anything is possible. In time-honoured and similar fashion, Ulster will have to get their set-pieces right and apply unrelenting pressure on Gloucester, especially on the playmakers, Amor and Paul, to put them on the back foot and sow the seeds of away-night doubt in Europe.

And once again it will require an immense defensive effort and concentration over the 80 minutes. "One slip against these guys and we'll be in trouble," admits McCall.

It would help too if it came with moments of individual opportunism, such as those tries scored by halfbacks Kieran Campbell and David Humphreys against Stade, not to mention the latter's goal-kicking.

Humphreys has scored 52 of Ulster's 62 points to date and inevitably much of Ulster's chances will hinge on his points gathering and direction. A big game player inspired by Friday nights in Ravenhill, invariably, he carries the load well.

ULSTER: B Cunningham; T Bowe, K Maggs, P Steinmetz, T Howe; D Humphreys, K Campbell; S Best, R Best, R Moore, G Longwell, M McCullough, C Feather (capt), R Wilson, N Best. Replacements: P Shields, R McCormack, R Frost, A Ward, N Doak, A Larkin, P Wallace.

GLOUCESTER: J Goodridge; M Garvey, T Fanolua, H Paul, J Bailey; S Amor, A Gomarsall; C Bezuidenhout, J Parkes, P Vickery, A Eustace, A Brown, J Boer (capt), A Hazell, A Balding. Replacements: R Elloway, T Sigley, N Wood, P Buxton, J Forrester, A Page, N Mauger.

Referee: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales).

PREVIOUS MEETINGS: (2004-5) Gloucester 55 Ulster 13.

FORMGUIDE: Ulster: 21-16 v Cardiff (home); 13-55 v Gloucester (away); 10-30 v Stade Français (away); 18-10 v Stade Francais (home). Gloucester: 31-39 v Stade Français (away); 55-13 v Ulster (home); 23-19 v Cardiff (home); 23-16 v Cardiff (away).

LEADING TRY SCORERS: Ulster: David Humphreys 2. Gloucester: James Simpson-Daniel 3.

LEADING POINTS SCORERS: Ulster _ David Humphreys 52. Gloucester - Henry Paul 62.

Forecast: Ulster to win.