Ulster winger Rob Lyttle motivated after ‘being written off’

Lyttle has shown some great form recently, picking up a man of the match award in the home Guinness PRO14 game against Southern Kings.

Although he did not play in last week’s European Champions Cup quarter-final loss to Leinster in Dublin - then opting to watch it at home on television with his family - he returns to the Ulster line-up for Friday night’s crunch game at Glasgow and this heat is turned up in the race for the PRO14 Championship play-offs.

A win for Ulster against the current Conference A leaders, plus results of games involving Benetton and Edinburgh, could see them the Irish Province strengthen their second place standing in Conference B and inch them closer to a home tie in the play-offs.

“During the international period we put ourselves in a very good position,” said Lyttle, reflecting on three straight bonus point wins.

“Finishing those games now to get a home quarter-final is totally on ourselves, no one else. We just need to do the job yourself.

“Obviously now that we have gone down and shown we can compete against the best on the big stage that is where we want to be and we want to keep that up in the PRO14,” he added.

Lyttle has suffered injuries recently but his return has seen him back to his best.

“A few people wrote me off, I read an article at the start of the year that said I should be cut, so that probably motivated me,” explained Lyttle.

“But you train with the guys every day and you want to do well for them as well as for yourself, giving back to the guys who have supported you through injury.

“I am happy enough with how things are going. I had two difficult seasons and so it was nice to put a run of games together.

“Just to be trusted by the coaches to step up and play in those games was good. It is always nice when things are going your way.”

Lyttle replaces Robert Baloucoune on the wing on Friday night.