Two of Ulster’s star backs will join another Ireland international Rob Baloucoune on the sidelines when the DHL Stormers visit Kingspan Stadium in Belfast for Friday night’s penultimate Vodacom URC league fixture.
The influential centre Stuart McCloskey sustained a hamstring injury while helping front Ulster’s charge into the EPCR Challenge Cup final against Monpellier with an impressive 29-12 win over Exeter Chiefs in their home semifinal last weekend.
A scan will be conducted on McCloskey during the week but the talk from Ulster appears to revolve around whether he might be ready for the EPCR final rather than for Friday night’s game, with the latest Ulster medical report indicating he is definitely out of the Stormers clash.
And McCloskey’s fellow Ireland international, wing Jacob Stockdale, will also miss the Stormers game and is unlikely to make the Challenge Cup final after sustaining a facial injury against Exeter.
According to the report from the Ulster medical team, Stockdale will visit a maxillo-facial surgeon before it can be confirmed how long he will be out of rugby for.
The McCloskey and Stockdale injuries are added to the continued absence of Baloucoune, who was a revelation for Ireland at wing in the recent Guinness Six Nations as he built on the form that had propelled him to international recognition playing for Ulster in the early stages of the URC.
Baloucoune sustained an elbow injury during the Six Nations that ruled him out for three months from late March, meaning that he will not play for Ulster again this season.
Another Ulster player who will miss the Stormers game is loose-forward David McCann, who is having a knee injury assessed and is considered to be in a race against time to be available for the Cup final, which Ulster are putting a lot of focus on as winning in Bilbao in the secondary EPCR competition will give them their first taste of silverware since 2006.
CATCH 22
On the positive side of the balance sheet Ulster have welcomed Angus Bell (foot), Rob Herring (calf) and Scott Wilson (ankle) back to training this week, thus easing what had become a front row crisis for the Northern Irish team.
Whether or not any of them will be ready to face the Stormers remains to be seen, with coach Richie Murphy unlikely to take too many risks just two weeks out from his team’s final showdown with Montpellier.
Murphy does face a bit of a catch 22, however, as while his team can make sure of qualifying for next year’s Investec Champions Cup if they win the final in Bilbao, they will be cut off from the elite European competition if they lose to Montpellier and also finish outside of the top eight of the URC.
Making the top eight, and qualifying for a URC playoff, is the conventional route of making it into the Champions Cup.
Ulster face a tough finish to the URC as their other remaining game other than the one against the Stormers is against Glasgow Warriors, effectively meaning they are finishing off against the top two teams on the log.
While the absence of key players suggests the Stormers’ task of winning for the first time at the Kingspan Stadium will be eased, the Cape team won’t be taking that view to Belfast.
“We know how desperate they will be and we will also be desperate as we don’t want to return to Cape Town with the disappointment of not having finished top of the log,” said Stormers forward coach Rito Hlungwani ahead of Tuesday’s departure to the northern hemisphere.
The Stormers are currently one point ahead of Glasgow at the top of the log, with 56 points, while the joint third placed teams Leinster and the Security SureDrive Lions, who play each other on Saturday in Dublin, are three points behind.