Ulster Rugby - Annual Report 2017-18

ULSTER U18 GIRLS In the first Inter Provincial, played at Virginia RFC, Ulster defeated Connacht by thirty seven points to twelve. The girls scored seven tries and one conversion. Try scorers were Bethany McDowell and Ellie Ingram, with two each, Mya Alcorn, Lucy Turkington and Kelly McCormill, with Lisa Mullen adding the conversion. The Ulster Girls lost their unbeaten record against Leinster in Dublin, going down by twenty two points to five. Amanda McQuade was the only scorer for Ulster. The Ulster girls suffered their second defeat of the Inter Pro series against an experienced Munster team, who won the match by twenty three points to twelve. Emma Kearney and Mya Alcon scored the Ulster tries, with Lisa Mullen again adding a conversion. The squad of twenty six included thirteen uncapped players, so Ulster were quite young in comparison to the other provinces. Eight Clubs were represented within the final squad. These figures were hugely positive in that more Clubs were producing high quality players at this age group. It is to be hoped that with further development and support of Clubs then more will be represented leading to the provision of a greater pool of high quality players. Ten of our girls from the final Ulster squad were involved the Ulster 7s programme which had run a few months before the Inter Pro series. The skills that were taught at the 7s programme were very evident from the players who returned. This certainly helped the core/ fundamental skills of the squad as whole. However, some players picked up injuries from the volume of 7s & 15s training. Two of our girls, Ellie Ingram & Lucinda Kinghan, were selected to represent Ireland in the U.K. School Games competition, which was a great achievement. Ellie and Lucinda were then joined by Kelly McCormill for U18 7s European Championships. A post-series survey indicated that 95% of the girls really enjoyed the U18 programme and the coaching which was provided. It was evident that all of the players had improved in at least one area of their game if not more. The coaching provided by Charlie Farrell & Zoe Templeton prepared the girls well for the friendlies and Inter Pro campaign games. This year we have six girls moving from under age into senior level. The coaches and management are confident that with some senior rugby experience these girls will go on to be members of the Ulster Senior Squad. COMMERCIAL AND MARKETING REPORT In what has been a difficult year both on and off the pitch we have taken note of the impact that this could have on commercial incomes and public relations with our many and varied stakeholder groups. Sponsorship continued to be one of the key pillars of success with growth again on the previous year and contributing almost a third of the overall commercial income. Ulster Rugby have a large number of long term sponsors and partners and this season saw great celebrations in October as Bank of Ireland completed twenty years as a proud partner of Ulster Rugby. Match attendances, whilst down on the previous

season, continued to be well above average across the PRO14 and European Clubs with an average attendance of fourteen thousand seven hundred and ninety nine. The local derbies continued to be the sell- out games, with tickets being in high demand. Ulster continued to be innovative in the areas of digital and video content and in live streaming of some of our games. Several Micro-sites were incorporated into the website for referees, camps, events and season tickets, allowing greater flexibility but also ensuring that the brand guidelines were adhered to across all sites. Video content The recruitment of an in-house videographer within the Communications Team led to significant growth in video consumption on Ulster Rugby’s digital channels. Video views on Ulster Rugby’s YouTube channel increased by 22% over the past twelve months, with a 25% rise in subscriber numbers during the same period. One of the highlights was a documentary produced by the Communications Team to celebrate the life of Nevin Spence, on the fifth anniversary of his passing. This was a very fitting tribute to Nevin and was extremely well received with three hundred and eighty thousand views on Ulster Rugby’s channels alone. Live streaming Following a successful pilot in 2016, we continued to broadcast Domestic and Professional matches live on Facebook and YouTube. This season we collaborated successfully with Bank of Ireland to live stream the Ulster v Wasps game and with First Trust Bank to stream the Senior Cup Final on YouTube for the first time. Ulster A’s British & Irish Cup quarter-final match against Bedford Blues was also broadcast live. Social media Our social media follower numbers increased by 13% during the 2017/2018 season, meaning Ulster Rugby had the third highest digital audience of rugby clubs in the UK and Ireland. Ulster Rugby also performed well in terms of engagement figures across all social media platforms, and currently has the most engaged Facebook audience of any Club rugby team in Europe. This is testament to the quality, volume and breadth of content produced. Domestic game promotion We made significant efforts to promote some of the successful initiatives being delivered across the Province by rugby development staff such as over 60s rugby, X7s and the U20s development programme. An important part of this delivery was a 64% increase in Domestic video content from 2016/17 (twenty two pieces) to 2017/18 (thirty six pieces). Media coverage Media coverage of Ulster Rugby reached unprecedented levels with over twenty thousand articles published in print and online outlets over the course of the season. APPOINTMENTS AND REPRESENTATIVE HONOURS Rory Best, Iain Henderson and Jared Payne are

IRFU ULSTER BRANCH ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

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