How missing Ulster quartet can still play a role in final
With a combined 50 years and north of 800 appearances in white, plus an additional 198 Ireland caps, Ulster will be without four key players for their biggest game in 14 years. Ulster will look to end their 20-year trophy drought when they take on Montpellier in the Challenge Cup final in Bilbao on Friday. But they will have to do so without suspended captain Iain Henderson, and the injured trio of Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale and Rob Herring.
McCloskey, in particular, is a blow as he was having the best season of his career at the age of 33. He was nominated for the Six Nations player of the tournament for Ireland but his campaign came to an end with a hamstring injury picked up late on in the semi-final win over Exeter Chiefs. Stockdale sustained a facial fracture earlier in that game while making a tackle on Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, that would see him sent to the sin-bin and lead to surgery on the injury.
Henderson is serving a three-game suspension for a red card against the Stormers, while Herring's return from a troublesome calf injury was cut short just 14 minutes into the defeat by Glasgow on Friday. "It's just trying to win it for them as much as for us," said centre James Hume. "They can't be in the pitch so we're the ones that have to go and do it.
Hopefully celebrate with them after. " Youthful Ulster 'would love to be part of history' Henderson, McCloskey, Stockdale and Herring won't be on the pitch in Bilbao, but they will still have a role to play. Looking at the squad which faced Exeter, the last time three of the four played together, the inexperience of the squad as a whole is on show.
Of the 20 remaining players, only Werner Kok and Nick Timoney are over the age of 30. Ireland international Timoney joins Tom O'Toole, Nathan Doak and Michael Lowry as those with at least a century of Ulster appearances. "It's tough on Stu and a couple of other older lads that have been around the squad for way longer than any of us who are playing.