Ulster Rugby v Cheetahs

JONO GIBBES

Jono Gibbes, Ulster Rugby Head Coach, shares his thoughts on tonight’s challenge with the Cheetahs

will have on the PRO14. From the way they have been playing in the Currie Cup it is pretty obvious that there will be a lot of questions asked of our defence on Friday night which certainly sharpens the mind. For the Ulster supporters - what can we expect to see from the Cheetahs on Friday? One of their strong points is their cohesion. They’ve played a lot of games together recently, so we’re going to see a cohesive team; one that has played a lot and offers pretty solid combinations. Their approach to the game is holistic, they really play as a team. From 1 to 15 they are all comfortable handling the ball, they are all comfortable running support lines and off load lines and attack. South African teams, traditionally, have strong set piece play and a good drive and the Cheetahs certainly use variations of that. They bring all their team into play not just 1 to 8 with a 9 that kicks it; they can play from all parts of the field and have real speed in what they do, even the loosehead prop, Ox Nche, is extremely quick for a loosehead prop. We now know that Rory Best is going to captain Ulster for the season. Can you tell us what was the thought process behind that decision and what does Rory bring as a leader to the team? Each team has a different way of approaching what they think is important for the captaincy role. For this group, we kept coming back to a guy who is the captain of his country, who has performed at the highest level internationally, who was as a Lion in the summer for the second time. Someone who is a real warrior. Rory is a guy who brings people with him and we feel that he embodies the values of what is special about the Province of Ulster. He is a doer; he gets on and finds a way to get things done and continues to play at the highest level. The fact that he has played over 100 games for Ireland is a testament to the kind of character he is. All these factors were part of the decision-making process. His availability will be managed in line with his international commitments to ensure that he has the best possible support to further develop, so that he can continue to play at the highest level, influence Ulster Rugby and assist future Ulster leaders.

What can the team and management take from the recent outcomes of the friendlies and the pre-season programme in general? We felt that one of the real positives to come out of the pre-season games was the exposure it gave to a large number of players. For certain players, the pre-season games were a chance to blow off the cobwebs after a break between the seasons and for others it was a reward for their hard work and efforts so far. Perhaps more importantly, it exposed a lot more players to the way we want to play and the way we want to approach games which will be beneficial in the long run. Unfortunately, the amount of effort and investment from the team was not reflected in the overall scoreboard. But it was good experience for us, as a new coaching team, to understand how players react under pressure and how our skills and understanding are affected under the pressure of a live game, as no training environment can ever fully recreate that. From that point of view, we have learned a lot about the players and continue to focus on the strong positives that emerged for us as a coaching team. So tonight, it’s down to business as a new coaching team and a new squad with your first competitive outing – how do you feel about it? It’s exciting and has come around a lot quicker than I thought it would. I know the guys are raring to go and keen to show the difference between a pre-season game and a competition game. The preparation has been really good and we’re excited. Nine weeks of preparation builds towards this first game of the season and it’s right here - the first game in the competition, at home in Kingspan Stadium. I know it won’t be perfect but we are confident that we have prepared as best we can. From a coaching perspective, just how different or difficult is it facing a new team in the first game up? There are certainly a lot of unknowns. We weren’t completely sure of the touring party until it was announced on Monday so that put a little bit of pressure on trying to build enough information to give our players the right kind of detail so that they could adequately prepare. We’ve looked at the variations between how the team work from Super Rugby, to the Currie Cup and tried to identify the impact they

JONO GIBBES

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