Confirmed: Stephen Donald will not join Ulster

Ulster's signing of Stephen Donald to replace Christian Leali'ifano at outhalf has fallen through after the All-Black suffered an injury while playing for Toshiba Brave Lupus in the final game of the Japanese season.

In a statement released on Monday the province confirmed that the signing now will not take place and said that “the timeline now makes it very difficult to find a suitable replacement, but we will continue to monitor the market.”

Leali’ifano played his last game for the province on Sunday when they went down 26-7 to Wasps in what was the end of their Champions Cup campaign.

Donald, who landed the winning kick to secure New Zealand the 2011 World Cup, was named as their new outhalf almost two weeks ago but the situation has now changed due to that injury which will keep the 34-year-old out for at least four weeks.

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Ulster now have a job on their hands to find someone to fill the void at outhalf while Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding are both unavailable as they are both facing rape charges.

Les Kiss’ side will resume Pro14 action on Friday, February 9th when they take on Southern Kings at Kingspan Stadium.