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Flanker Best Earns The Plaudits

Flanker Best Earns The Plaudits

Five tries in seven games – not the strike rate you would expect from an Ulster flanker, but Neil Best is in flying form for the province of late and coach Mark McCall would not have it any other way.

Neil Best taking a double hit against Treviso

Five tries in seven games – not the strike rate you would expect from an Ulster flanker, but Neil Best is in flying form for the province of late and coach Mark McCall would not have it any other way.

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With that sort of record, the Belfast Harlequins forward must be in contention for a place in the Ireland squad for next month’s Autumn internationals, and at least, a starting spot against Romania.

The 26-year-old scored a 53rd-minute effort in Friday’s Heineken Cup Pool 4 win over Benetton Treviso at a sold-out Ravenhill.

McCall said on Friday night : “Neil is playing exceptional rugby and he has been all season.

“His rugby graph has gone up in a huge way in terms of the little things that he has added to his game from last year.

“He has always had that physical edge – which he still has – but he has developed his game in other ways and has been exceptional all year.

“The whole pack are playing well and I thought our back row were very strong again – they all got a try each.”

Ulster pushed their unbeaten European home record to 13 matches with the defeat of the Italians, but former Ireland centre McCall was still critical of his side’s performance.

“I thought we were always going to win the match and they posed us no real threat, but it was a frustrating night for a number of reasons,” he said.

“Our performance was a notch down from the last couple of weeks, but that happens. Having not played as well we still won 27-0 and scored four tries, though it should have been more.

“I thought it was a stop-start match and, in the first half, we simply turned over too much ball.”