Mark McCrea looks to seize Ulster opportunity
Ulster’s Mark McCrea is hoping that he can seize his chance and impress coach Brian McLaughlin in the Irish team’s Magners League match with Munster at Ravenhill on Friday 29 October.
McCrea gets his chance after a number of injuries and call-ups have left Ulster short of numbers. The winger hopes that a rare start in the first team will give him the chance to show the selectors what he is capable of.
Ulster will be missing Irish internationals winger Andrew Trimble and versatile playmaker Paddy Wallace, and this will give McCrea the opportunity to stake a claim. Fellow winger Simon Danielli has also been injured, leaving yet another place open for McCrea
to step into.
McCrea has had a frustrating time since he became a professional at the club in 2008. Says the winger: “It's frustrating when you are not playing but that's rugby. Sometimes you get picked, sometimes you don't, and you just have to wait for your chance and
then take it."
The former Irish schoolboy international has found it difficult to break into the squad and he believes this is due to the strength of the squad and the world class players that Ulster have brought to the club.
"When the team is doing well and winning it's hard to break into the squad, and there is so much competition for places now," said McCrea.
McCrea knows that he will face a tough Munster side, despite the fact that a number of their star players will also be missing after they joined up with the Ireland squad.
"There is always an added incentive with an Irish interprovincial match and the opportunity has opened up for me and some of the other guys with five players away on Ireland duty," said McCrea.
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