Kieran Campbell made 100 appearances for Ulster and was capped three times by Ireland

With the magnificent exception of Monaghan-born British and Irish Lion Tommy Bowe, Ulster Rugby have made scant use of the resources available to them beyond the confines of Northern Ireland. But that is about to change.

For decades, the three Ulster counties housed in the Republic of Ireland - Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan - were a rugby wasteland, unloved and largely ignored by rugby chiefs on both sides of the border.

We may never know how much or how little untapped potential slipped through the cracks in the system there, but things are finally looking up.

This season, Ulster expect Letterkenny's blindside flanker Joe Dunleavy to become the first professional rugby footballer from Donegal to represent the Ulster senior team.

His debut will be a celebration of the hard work now being done in a progressive Ulster Academy, as well as the coaching and added investment that has gone into the north-west.

"We have some really creditable guys coming through so we are starting to reach into those counties," says Ulster Academy manager Kieran Campbell.

"All these guys have played national underage rugby.

"Joe has played for the Ireland Under-20s this year and you have Conor McMenamin, also from Letterkenny, who's in our '19s' and has played for Ireland Schools. At 6'5 and a lock, he has every opportunity to get through and play for Ulster.

"We have Oisin Kieran from Cavan, Ryan O'Neill from Monaghan. There's a scrum-half here from Donegal in Charlie Worth who is young but has a really good chance of making Irish Schools this year."

Donegal's Joe Dunleavy has come through the underage system with Ulster

Ulster have just nine clubs south of the border; six in Donegal, two in Cavan and one in Monaghan.

Undoubtedly, Dunleavy is the one poised for an imminent breakthrough.

Campbell, who has strong Donegal roots himself behind a successful career as a former Ulster, London Irish and Ireland scrum-half, is clearly excited at the prospect.

"Joe has played for our 'A' team regularly now and I'm hoping he will be capped this year.

"He went to an Irish-speaking school - not a rugby school - but he was identified by our National Training Squad lead Michael Black and Johnny Gillespie who drove to Letterkenny and to Derry to coach him.

"His family have always had connections to rugby and the Letterkenny club, I actually played with his brother, Michael, at Dungannon and now Joe has come through for Ulster '18s', '19s' and 'A' and now played for Ireland.

"My father, Tom, is from Ardara and while he moved to London for work years ago, he and my mother are back living in Donegal town now, and I have a lot of family in the area, and I am aware how GAA-centred a county it is.

"We have very real links to Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan now and we will start to see a greater volume of players from there now. The fact they have underage caps is a signpost they are going the right way.

"It is going to take time but we've got to make a start."

Moving on from criticism of the past... and Leinster

Overseas signings will always be a necessity, but the influx of over-hyped and occasionally injury-prone arrivals will recede if Ulster can close the gap on market leaders Leinster, whose numbers are so vast their dispatching of players up the M1 to Ulster's Academy and senior squads has become almost routine. Joey Carbery's summer move to Munster perhaps another high-profile reminder of the quality of their roster.

This season four Ulster Academy players have been promoted to the senior ranks, but there is still a long way to go.

"Let's accept where Leinster are and they're the best in Europe at the moment," Campbell says.

"The only thing I'll say in terms of giving us an excuse is they have a huge population and outside of that, we've got to develop a programme which is better than theirs if we're going to compete, that's the bottom line.

"We've got to have a programme that has the requisite numbers for play for Ulster and Ireland.

"It's starting to turn around. You can see guys starting to appear in the first team who are playing at national underage level who are of the requisite quality to come through.

"Do we have the volume of numbers yet that we can be totally happy with our succession planning? No, we need to work a little harder again and have a higher volume than we've had up to now.

"But it's important people are aware of what we're trying to develop here and the confidence we have in the next generation of Ulster players."