Ulster Rugby vs Newport Gwent Dragons

PLOTTING A HALLOWEEN SCARE FOR THE DRAGONS Clocks have been duly corrected, an hour gained apparently, but time marches on, never more speedily than for players, coaches and fans of rugby. by ROD NAWN

It’s November already, an evening start at Kingspan Stadium, even from afar the floodlights picking the arena out through the urban chill of an autumn now certainly arrived. A week ago tonight’s combatants had Europe in focus, Ulster rueing the loss at home to champions Toulon, the Dragons reflecting on a reverse in the subsidiary Challenge Cup by Newcastle. Important matches both, but Europe will now stand aside while the Guinness PRO12 series continues this weekend, which will mark the end of the opening stages in the chase for the title. Ulster will then take a short break until the Ospreys, who have set the league pace so far, come to Belfast on Friday, 21 November. The Dragons will have LV Cup action to stretch their playing resources to the full until Munster arrive at Rodney Parade the same night. This evening’s visitors have managed just one win in six PRO12 outings to date, but with shrewd rugby men such as Kingsley Jones, the Director of Rugby and Head Coach Lyn Jones at the helm, one of the great bastions of the game in Wales is confident that the rebuilding at the Dragons is beginning to bear fruit. Lee Byrne, Ian Gough, Jason Tovey, Aled Brew, Taulupe Faletau, Richie Rees and the mercurial Andy Powell provide a core of experience to a carefully-assembled Dragons squad, and with a plethora of youngsters coming through, the club believes it can put behind it the travails the game in Wales has suffered and become a power in the land again. The results this season have been disappointing, but the coaches and the players would point to the Challenge Cup win at Stade Francais two weeks ago as a real pointer to the potential of Newport Gwent Dragons. That win in Paris demonstrated that in most areas of the pitch the side is on the right track, and the players will relish the chance to upset the PRO12 formbook against Ulster this evening. Neil Doak with Jonny Bell and Allen Clarke, will have swiftly addressed tonight’s game as one which should produce the points to copperfasten a top four place before the break for the Ireland internationals. Absorbed will have been some of the shortcomings of the display against Toulon, but it was not a poor Ulster performance and there will be positive lessons to take out of the game with Europe’s best. But very clearly the Dragons will have been the focus of this week’s preparation. The PRO12 is the staple of professional rugby for the Irish, Scottish and Italian sides, and certainly the most important commitment for the Welsh clubs. The path to Europe is through the season-long marathon, that is the league, and coaches break down the playing year to take into account injuries, international obligations, and the oldest of factors: form. With those involved with Ireland the Player Management protocols strictly limit the playing time of those such as Tommy Bowe, Rory Best, Chris Henry, Jared Payne, Stuart Olding, Craig Gilroy and Robbie Diack, all required by Joe Schmidt. Those not originally listed, such as Paddy Jackson

and Darren Cave, may well still be summoned to Carton House, so Doak will have already planned different strategies for the league games during November. Against the Dragons he will be confident in those available to him, the depth in midfield means Darren Cave and the revelation which has been Stuart McCloskey, should be available. It’s a cliché that it is squad depth which brings success, but it’s undoubtedly true that during the autumn internationals and the New Year Six Nations clubs must have more than just ‘reserves’. They must have players able to compete at the top level and meet the standards which will have been set in training since everyone arrived for pre-season in July. Franco van der Merwe, Wiehahn Herbst and Louis Ludik have arrived at Ulster and already cemented their growing reputations and they will be key figures not just tonight but throughout a packed and demanding year. So there will be no talk in the dressing room or training ground of weakened Ulster sides, the quality of the squad is proven and chosen so that when it changes – for whatever reason – it does not diminish the expectations of those who select and the huge crowds which pour into Kingspan in support of the men in white. Neil Doak has taken sole charge of the Head Coach reins, his own personal ambition realised after working through the professional ranks with Ulster as a player, a development officer ‘growing’ the game at the real grassroots of the sport. He moved through the coaching phases to earn a reputation which reportedly had attracted three lucrative offers to leave the Province last summer, but he’d always hoped the Province, which had brought him to the brink of international recognition under Ireland coach Murray Kidd in the late 1990s might just ‘call’. He relies on Bell and Clarke, and on Niall Malone too, to take on their specific duties with backs and forwards and with high-octane analysis of team and individual performances, but ‘Doaky’ will stand by his conclusions on selection and on performances, and he is ‘weathered’ enough to know that there will be some good times and some less welcome times. He fully buys into the aspiration of Ulster becoming a world- class rugby organisation, and he’s been on the journey which has provided convincing evidence that the players, staff and facilities are reaching out for that near horizon. He knows too that results are king in professional sport, and while concentrating hard on the targeted defeat of the Dragons this evening he’ll be fashioning firm ideas about the approach to next month’s resumption in the Champions Cup, and the busy, hectic month which is December. On this Halloween weekend he won’t want any frights, but he won’t mind if his team’s performance proves a scary experience for the Welsh visitors – and provides fans with another big rugby occasion under the Kingspan Stadium lights.

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