By BrianC
December 12 2006

It was my initial intention not to write a separate preview for this weeks game, the ‘No Surrender!’ piece from last week sufficing for both. In the light of last Saturdays magnificent win I simply couldn’t resist penning another piece in advance of our return fixture this Friday. That aside, it gives me another chance to upset some of our brethren by using another Northern Ireland political slogan and photograph.

We went into last Saturday’s game as clear underdogs and all but out of the competition. We have emerged from it probably as favourites for the return fixture and with a still slim but at least now measurable chance of qualification from the group.

At last we are seeing something like the London Irish team we came to love last season. On Saturday the running lines were sharp, the handling errors few and the defence very much ‘in your face’. Perhaps what was most striking was that the inventiveness going forward seems to be there again. The pairing between Catty and Shane Geraghty seems to be blossoming.

This is not of course how many Ulster supporters saw the game. To them their team simply did not turn up on the day. They lost the match rather than us winning it. Now how many times and against how many teams have we heard that before?

As Toulouse will testify, Ravenhill can be a tough ground to visit. The men in red and white will defend their pride stoutly on their home turf. Their defeat to us last week was their ninth in a row on English soil; they have yet to win here. The record in Belfast is a lot better.

Some advice I will give to those traveling is to keep an eye on the weather forecast and to wrap up well. The conditions at Ravenhill can be atrocious. I’m aware that a good number of the traveling support is in the small ‘Titan Stand’. If the wind and rain gets up this will offer little protection from the elements. It sits right in the face of the prevailing wind. When I was there a fortnight ago it was, quite literally, raining horizontally into the stand.

Whilst the Scarlets with three wins out of three are very much in the driving seat in our pool the bonus point we picked up last week now gives us a glimmer of hope. If we are to stand any chance of catching them we must win this game. It’s a tall order but the team I saw last Saturday, which I would expect to be largely unchanged, might just manage it.

Ulster will of course be saying NO!