Ulster's Stuart McCloskey celebrates World Cup family moment with newborn son in France

It had been a long journey to Paris for McCloskey after being constantly overlooked in the national set-up for the likes of Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw.

He wouldn’t have gotten the precious moment with his son at the Stade de France had he not changed his mind about retiring from international during a phone call with Andy Farrell.

Having only added five caps against tier two nations since making his Ireland debut against England at Twickenham in the 2016 Six Nations – and omitted from the 2022 summer challenge with New Zealand - McCloskey was ready to tell Farrell he was finished with international rugby.

"It was great to have Kasper there 10 days after he was born,” enthused McCloskey. "It was amazing, I still believe we should have won it ( All Blacks quarter-final) and gone on to win the whole thing but that's professional sport.

"It was two good teams going at it and unfortunately we were on the wrong side but I really enjoyed the six weeks out there and the eight weeks before that.

"I thought it was really well done, really well organised...it's a great group of lads, a great group of people.”

Nearing his 30th birthday, McCloskey thought his international days were over.

"I wouldn't say it was incredibly dark days, but I was down about it,” he said. “There were stages when I thought I was playing well for Ulster and I still wasn't getting a chance.

"That tour when I didn't get picked to go to New Zealand, I remember a phone call with ‘Faz’ (Farrell) where I nearly said I was going to call it a day.

"I'm not saying he talked me out of it, I probably talked myself out of it as we were chatting..,it wasn't an angry conversation, it was just a chat.

"I ended up going on that tour, played the Maoris, played well, ended up starting six in a row after that, winning a Six Nations, going to the World Cup, it's amazing how quickly things change.

"You grow up wanting to play for your province for a while and when you do that, you think you've an opportunity, you think you're at that level.

"Which is kind of where I thought I was for a while, at a level where I thought I could play for Ireland if I was given a decent opportunity.

"I felt I would have given it a good go but it's just the way it is sometimes.

"Some coaches don't see what other coaches see."

McCloskey returned to the Ulster midfield for last week’s win over Munster and starts in tonight’s clash with the Lions at Kingspan Stadium.

“It was great...felt like a while, it was four or five months, it was good to get the win,” he said. “We made hard work of it at the start and gave ourselves a bit of a hill to climb but I thought we really got back into the game and played a lot of quite nice stuff out there.”

McCloskey is joined by James Hume in the centre while Jake Flannery is at out half. Prop Scott Wilson has earned a start after his impressive cameo last week while Iain Henderson captains the side.

Marty Moore is on the bench, returning to the match squad for the first time since New Year’s Day, while back row Lorcan McLaughlin could be the third Queen’s player after Joe Hopes and Wilson to make his provincial debut in three consecutive fixtures as he is named among the replacements.

Ulster v Emirates Lions (BKT United Rugby Championship round five; Kingspan Stadium; 7.35pm; Live on BBC NI, Viaplay, TG4 and URC.tv).

ULSTER: (15-9) Stewart Moore, Rob Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale, Jake Flannery, Nathan Doak; (1-8) Andrew Warwick, Rob Herring, Scott Wilson, Alan O’Connor, Iain Henderson, Dave Ewers, Reuben Crothers, David McCann.

Replacements: John Andrew, Eric O’Sullivan, Marty Moore, Harry Sheridan, Lorcan McLoughlin, John Cooney, Billy Burns, Mike Lowry.