Wing and a prayer

Really?

“I’d say so: out and about, playing rugby for a living?”

Okay. And did you say 35, 36? You’re looking to keep going until the 2019 World Cup, then?

“Tommy [Bowe] and I have chatted about this in the past. When we were 21, 22 coming through we thought ‘You know what? By the time I’m 30 I’ll be ready to do something different.’ Not a hope! If I’ve a chance to play rugby at this level and feel like I’m still competitive then (I’ll keep going), 100%. As much as there’s disappointing days and you’ve got to dig in at times, we’re generally very lucky in what we do. If we can keep going, I’d be keen to keep going. I’d hate to be doing what youse are doing.”

Trimble can get away with mocking the hacks he met in the press room in Kingspan Stadium last Wednesday. He’s always been popular with the media — bright, good-humoured, funny. Besides, we understand why he’d rather keep doing what he’s doing.

Twelve straight years he’s been playing Test rugby. 2016 was not only his busiest year, with 11 Test starts from 12 (Canada was the only game he missed) but also his most enjoyable.

He’s most animated talking about Ireland’s historic win in Cape Town — “a brilliant, brilliant tour” — and of course he’s unashamedly proud of what happened in Soldier Field. “That will never change,” he says. “I’ll always be in the first Irish team to beat the All Blacks, and that’s something I’m massively proud of.”

There’s only one issue itching away at him: Ulster, or, more specifically, his determination to have a positive effect at a club whose shortcomings become more acute when seen alongside Connacht’s triumph last season, or Leinster and Munster’s resurgences.

You can see how this would niggle. He’s a one-club man, Ulster’s record try-scorer (69 tries in 210 appearances) and now, their captain. He finds it a tough gig, not just because it’s his first time doing the job or because it’s difficult to lead from the wing but because he has played so infrequently.

“I never saw myself as a captain, never had a burning ambition to do it,” he says. “As soon as Kissy [Les Kiss] mentioned it, I thought: ‘That would be a massive honour.’ I was excited about that, maybe just get out of my comfort zone a little bit and back myself and know that I have a lot of experience. I know how the game works, I know what works in the preparation and the run-up to a game and what key messages to deliver. That pushed me. And it’s still a role I’m coming to terms with. It’s definitely frustrating to have been involved so little this season, especially after November. I wanted to come back (from Ireland camp) and to hit the ground running. There have been long periods of my career where I’ve played week-in week-out, and consistently performed. And I like that reputation, that I was tough, I dug in and got the job done, week-in week-out. Now I’m feeling almost like I’m letting people down a little bit.”

Trimble has been known to read the Bible in the dressing room before games, so it’s hard to imagine him aping Paul O’Connell in the captaincy role, urging team-mates to “put the fear of God” into their opposite numbers. “If that’s one end of the scale then you could safely say my style would be at the other!” he laughs.

He will lead more by example, yet he may still have that effect on opponents, especially those opponents who happen to be on the receiving end of his teeth-rattling ball-and-all tackles — recall, for example, the way he saved a certain try by emptying Alun-Wyn Jones at the Aviva last February.

These are part of his stock-in-trade, part of the reason he appeals to Joe Schmidt, but also potentially a liability in the new era of zero tolerance — supposedly — on high tackles. Trimble knows as much, having seen Ulster pay a heavy price for Sean Reidy’s tackle on Aled Davies in Llanelli last weekend.

“The margin for error for a yellow card, red card or a penalty try, as we saw at the weekend, is going to be very tough and it’s going to catch a few boys out,” he says. “Potentially it could be more suited to catching someone like myself out. It was only whenever I saw the replay at the weekend I wasn’t even aware that I’d clipped him [Scarlets’ Aled Davies] on the head. Arguably you could say I should have got the yellow instead. The penalty try was tough though, very, very tough I thought. But then their yellow for their high tackle was tough as well.

“You can understand what they’re doing and why they’re doing it, and you wouldn’t disagree with it. But I don’t know (how it’s going to play out). No matter how switched on you are, guys are still going to get wrong-footed. You never think last second, ‘Keep your arm down’, because you’ve already been beaten and naturally your body shape will be there, especially if they’re dipping for the line. It’s going to be tough.”

Trimble and Ulster will be focused more on attack than defence today, for one simple reason: if they’re to qualify for the last eight, they more than likely need bonus-point wins from their final two games.

Thankfully the forecast is for a dry sod. With a front row injury crisis, the last thing Ulster need is a scrum-fest.

“If it’s dry we can play some rugby and express ourselves,” Trimble says. “We’re under pressure and I’m quite confident that whenever we’re under pressure can produce a big performance. There are only so many years you can make excuses. You can get unlucky once or twice, but eventually if you keep on being unlucky there’s a reason for that. We’ve got to become winners, become a side that’s more clinical and gets over the line, gets the job done.”

Whatever it takes. He’s more than happy to keep trucking along for a good while yet.