Marty Moore is happy to play his part

Moore was deployed as an emergency loosehead in the recent defeat by Leinster after Andy Warwick’s red card and Eric O’Sullivan was withdrawn, and the 10-times capped Ireland front rower admitted it was a long time since he played on the opposite side of the scrum.

“It was a Junior Cup game when I was 14-years-old, quite a while, I’m afraid to say how long ago it was,” said Moore.

“It’s one of those things. It was me trying to do a job at loosehead or us playing a man down and I think the guys had suffered enough trying to play the game down numbers already without me being a diva and saying I wasn’t going to give it a go on the other side of the scrum. I was happy to get on.

“There was a period of time when we didn’t know what the best thing was or what the rules were. We were just trying to figure out how to get fresh legs on the pitch and not disrupt the set-piece.

“I was just trying to give some energy to those guys who had had a tough day.

“I wouldn’t have felt too much of a need to be doing it in training, maybe now I’ll prep it the odd time.

“You know what you should be doing but it’s getting your body to respond. It’s like writing with your bad hand I suppose.

“You know what you want to do and how it’s supposed to work but it is a little bit alien.

“It was fine like, my only nightmare scenario was if I’d come on and been a liability but thankfully it was pretty solid and an open enough game as well, so I could just add some energy around the field.

“It wasn’t too much of an issue with lineouts, it’s pretty generic, I’m not sure if too many supporters would be too interested in the intricacies of what we do on a daily basis.”

While Ulster have only lost two of their 15 games in the league, due to the new format they won’t have any Pro14 knockout rugby, and Moore believes that while the team missed an opportunity, they are improving.

“We’re a stronger side, the biggest part of that, or the easiest way to judge it is the depth,” he said.

“We’re much more as of a seasoned squad from 12 months ago.

“It’s one of those things, it’s unfortunate, we have that great win percentage, but six weeks ago we knew it would come down to bonus points and we needed to beat Leinster.

“We can’t complain to anyone about the situation, it wasn’t something that we were only made aware of last weekend after the game.

“We’re fully aware of it when we miss some opportunities over the last few weeks, we got some good wins over Ospreys and Glasgow but not finishing those teams off the way we should have and getting the bonus points has led to the position we’re in.”

21-year-old lock Cormac Izuchukwu, who has made four appearances from the bench, will make his first start for Ulster tonight.

Ulster team to play Zebre Rugby: (15-9) Ethan McIlroy, Robert Baloucoune, James Hume, Stewart Moore, Rob Lyttle, Michael Lowry, John Cooney;

(1-8) Eric O’Sullivan, John Andrew, Marty Moore, Cormac Izuchukwu, Kieran Treadwell, Sean Reidy, Jordy Murphy (Capt.), David McCann.

Replacements: Brad Roberts, Callum Reid, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Matty Rea, David Shanahan, Ian Madigan, Ben Moxham.

READ MORE:

Check out our Danske Bank Premiership Team of the Week

Roddy Grant praise for Ulster’s Craig Newby move

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