SCRUM-HALF PAUL MARSHALL explained to TheScore.ie two weeks ago that there was no time to mull on international disappointments as Ulster had an unbeaten record to keep alive.
Marshall travelled up from the Irish training camp, at Carton House, to Belfast as preparations intensified for the Argentina game.
He was joined on the drive by Andrew Trimble – a player that had been dropped from Ireland starter to unwanted squad member in the space of 58 toiling minutes against the Springboks.
The chat hardly flowed but both Marshall and Trimble were enlivened when they hooked up with their provincial teammates.
Errand kicking by Alberto di Bernardo gave Ulster a 16-15 win, pushed the unbeaten run out to 11 [it is now 13] and cheered the discarded Ireland players up no end.
Correct response
Trimble kept his head down and, with a clamour growing for Ireland’s new star Craig Gilroy to go straight into the Ulster side upon his international return, focused on his rugby.
He scored a breakaway try that ultimately proved the winning of an away tie with Scarlets and set the Heineken Cup destruction of Northampton Saints in motion with a ninth minute score.
With Saints arriving in Ravenhill for a do-or-die return match this weekend, talk of Gilroy usurping Trimble has died down.
The senior winger is keeping the international upstart on the bench but, given the reverential tones with which Gilroy speaks of Trimble and Tommy Bowe, there is no resentment in this close-knit squad.
Trimble will earn his 50th Heineken Cup cap for Ulster this weekend and he deserves the plaudits.
However, he knows that he will need to keep up his run of good form or else cap number 51 may come as a replacement for a young man who knows when, and how, to take a chance.
