'If you're mentally prepared, the physical part is so much simpler' - Vermeulen hoping to bring winning touch to Ulster

It's rare these days in rugby that a major transfer catches people by surprise.

There are always rumours and there are always leaks, but when Ulster announced last September that they had laded South African World Cup winner Duane Vermeulen, it came right out of the blue.

While the number 8 had turned 35-years-old a few months earlier, his signing on a two-year deal was still a major coup.

His international commitments with the Springboks meant Dan McFarland would have to wait until December to see him in an Ulster shirt, giving the province's fans a couple of months to wince their way through the Rugby Championship as they prayed for Vermeulen to come through unscathed.

But since making his debut in Ulster's Round 1 Heineken Champions Cup win away to Clermont Auvergne, the veteran has been a consistent presence in the back row, playing 12 of the province's last 13 games, as they look capable of challenging for both European and domestic honours this season.

It's 16 years since the former European champions last lifted silverware, but they have steadily improved under McFarland since his appointment in 2018, reaching the Champions Cup knockouts in three of the last four seasons, as well as getting to the Pro14 final in 2020.

Their recruitment in recent years has been as good as any in the league, picking up some experienced talent from down the road in Leinster, while also backboning the squad with homegrown stars in the likes of Mike Lowry, Rob Baloucoune, James Hume and Nathan Doak.

Every contending team is searching for that final piece of the puzzle though, and for Ulster, Vermeulen could be it.

He ticks many of the boxes teams want from a marquee foreign signing; as one of the finest number 8s of his generation he's vastly