In terms of boxes ticked, Ulster will be fairly pleased at how this friendly went against a Wallaby-heavy selection having a final hit-out before their Super Rugby season gets underway.
Yes, the hosts didn’t finish ahead of Queensland Reds on this Les Kiss’s first return to Ravenhill since his earlier than anticipated departure from the Ulster hot seat back in 2018, but then that wasn’t exactly crucial as Richie Murphy will have drawn much from having this game ahead of returning to the much more serious stuff next week.
One of the primary benefits for Murphy was the sight of James Hume, Jacob Stockdale and Stuart McCloskey, all putting it out there after their time sidelined with injury which in Hume’s case had been since last April.
While Stockdale and McCloskey were withdrawn at the halfway point, the 26-year-old centre put in a 50-minute shift without incident, his first live action after undergoing ACL surgery and enduring the lengthy rehab, and even scored a try, his first since December 2023 as it happens.
No better time too for Ulster to get their experienced trio back in harness particularly with all the injury issues which have stalking selection over the backline in recent times along with the requirement now to produce some results as they bid to put the Zebre nightmare behind them and try to break into the URC’s top eight.
“I didn’t want to make a big thing of it at the start of the week,” said a clearly upbeat Hume following his first game back.
“I do have nearly 100 caps and I’ve been here before and it’s a long injury, but I just wanted to get out and do my thing and not put too much pressure on myself or make a big deal about it.”
All fine, except that his return couldn’t really go entirely under the radar as Hume explained, “I woke up – I always sleep in on game days – to a load of messages from people and I was like ‘that’s just class that they have thought about me.’
“I have such a great support group and I’m very grateful for that,” he added.
“It (preparing and playing again) was great, even just, going through the week and having the Friday night game; you do your work Monday, Tuesday, off Wednesday and sharp captain’s run and then that build-up to Friday night.
“Having not had that in nine and a half months … and that was something to do, to try to get my nutrition right again and my recovery right and I felt I did that in the last couple of days and I felt really good.
“(There have been) some really dark times,” he admitted of his recovery journey, “but I have exceptionally good friends and family who make me feel good and it could have been way worse if it wasn’t for them.
“Tom Stewart helped me a lot through it as he was getting his ankle rehab for five months of my nine months, so we had some good craic together.
“I’ve spent nine months with Gareth O’Neill (Ulster physio) and there have been highs and lows but he’s an absolute legend.”
As for the game, when Hume reunited with McCloskey to put Ulster’s frontline midfield out on the park for the first occasion since last April’s Challenge Cup quarter final at Clermont, it mostly went fairly well though he was feeling it at half-time.
“It was either meant to be 40 or 50 minutes (for me),” said Hume, “and turned out to be 50 and they wanted me to get back into experiencing a half time and then going again in the second half and my glutes shut down at half time.
“I felt like I couldn’t move in the second half, so it took me a couple of minutes to get going but I’ve now experienced it.
“I’ll move that on in the next couple of weeks.”
Ulster will be hoping all this translates into winning again with a trip to Benetton coming next.