There is no doubt that the Investec Champions Cup is the pinnacle of the club game.
Week-in, week-out, the tournament produces golden moments of rugby action as the top teams in Europe and South Africa duke it out for supremacy.
A staple in the tournament has been the competitive nature of the Irish provinces, who have won seven titles between them since the tournament’s inception in 1995.
Leading the charge is Leinster, who has won the competition four times, followed by Munster with two titles.
Whilst these two have won multiple titles, it was Ulster who got over the line first as they won the 1999 edition of the tournament.
The men from Belfast are always an entertaining watch for neutrals, even if they, at times, drive their supporters nuts with their up-and-down nature.
Further highlighting their yoyo nature, Ulster slipped to a rather dismal opening round loss to Bath despite leading the match at half-time.
Fast forward to round two and the pressure was on Dan McFarland’s team to get back on track at home against French Top 14 leaders Racing 92.
In what could well have been a banana skin that derails their season, Ulster showed their full potential as they blitzed their star-studded visitors with what was undoubtedly their best performance of the season thus far.
Whilst the action on the pitch was at times mesmerising from the home side, eagle-eyed viewers noticed a rather funny preamble to the match.
As is standard with the competition, the television broadcasters showed the two teams’ line-ups with a photo of each player.
Yet this time around, there was a glitch in the system that saw several of Ulster and Racing’s players be replaced by Exter Chief’s Georgian prop Nika Abuladze.
All we can say is fair play to Abuladze, who had one heck of a weekend as his Chiefs side secured a last-grasp victory over Munster, and now it would appear his second team, Ulster, got a win too!
Jacob stockdale has bulked up a bit
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