Tonight, against the Stormers, Stuart McCloskey will become the latest member of the coveted 200-club where he’ll join the likes of Andrew Trimble, Darren Cave and Rob Herring.
McCloskey was bit of a latecomer to the game after a brief flirtation with golf, but since committing to the oval ball game he has certainly left his mark in the game.
The former Bangor Academy pupil has so far earned 19 Ireland senior caps and was also part of the 2023 Grand Slam winning squad.
He also was part of the squad that travelled to the World Cup in France later that same year.
But the big rampaging centre admits that the occasion of his 200th Ulster cap has somewhat crept up on him
“I know, it’s strange, I honestly hadn’t thought about it much until maybe the weekend when my dad mentioned it,” McCloskey confesses.
“I knew it was close but I didn’t know it was going to be 200 this week and it’s massive. You look at some of the guys who have done it, they’re all real legends, like guys I grew up watching and even playing with as you say, guys that in their own way have left a real stamp on the team and the province.
“It’s not something I never, definitely when I started it wasn’t something I ever thought I’d get close to 200 caps, coming from not really playing any other age provincial rugby or anything like that but as it went on it just seemed like something I would inevitably get to if there was no injuries so thankfully I have got there.”
There has been on more than one occasion, offers from abroad to tempt Grand Slam winner McCloskey, or as he is known on the terraces, ‘The Bangor Destroyer’, away from Belfast. But his strong ties with his home province meant that playing anywhere else just wouldn’t be the same.
“I’ve flirted with going away to other places and done all you have to do to make sure you get good value for yourself and yada yada yada.
“But I never really wanted to leave, I love the place, even what you’d say is a tough time like now, the way the results haven’t gone 100% their way this year.
“I always thought if it went away, I wouldn’t care as much about how the team was doing.
“If I’d played somewhere in France and we weren’t going well I’d go home and I probably wouldn’t care as much which might be nice in a way but I do, it’s probably not a good thing to say but I do genuinely care how this province does and every time we don’t do well and people aren’t happy about how things are going I feel bad about it in the simplest form so I wanted to stay like that.
“I wanted to stay where I actually cared about what I was doing for especially this latter part of my career.”