Stand Up Magazine - Issue 39 - Ulster Rugby Supporters' Club

www.ursc.co

Operations director at Ulster Rugby, Bryn Cunningham has spoken with Stand Up editor, Ken Arthur, and his article is worth a read. Bryn also addressed the media and confirmed what I had outlined in our back page lead the morning after Les Kiss’s departure as Director of Rugby was announced, that there was to be a review of the structures of the organisation, writes Richard Mulligan in his latest Mulligan’s Musings.*

I am quite sure it is the case, because if something does not change dramatically soon, Ulster are going to be an average PRO14 side probably playing European Challenge Cup rugby. A lot of what has led to the point where the club now finds themselves can probably be traced back to a quarter-final Heineken Cup loss to Saracens at Kingspan Stadium in 2014. When David Humphreys jumped ship you knew something was going south, then coach Mark Anscombe was shown the door. Kiss’s appointment was a bit bizarre - and I actually had to sit on a story for almost four months - for the good of Ulster at the time. An interim term as coach was followed by his appointment permanently in 2015. He was to be the man who would turn the fortunes around and fill the cabinet. No luck - well you have to make your own sometimes - but Ulster seem to have an injury jinx when it comes to big name signings. The exception perhaps being Charles Piutau. However, why Ulster needed to sign a big name back was baffling at the time. But the All Black has done the jersey proud and we wish him well at Bristol next season. Marcell Coetzee’s injury history is well documented - the Province has got about five games out of him in two seasons...but we can expect him back by the end of the season and, with a bit of luck, get a season out of him in 2018-19. Back to Kiss. As a defence coach he was probably one of the best - Ireland had trusted him for seven years, and the national squad delivered. Perhaps a role as head coach would have suited better, from what I understand his inability to delegate caused issues in the previous coaching set up to the point where it was no longer manageable - and Neil Doak and Allen Clarke were parachuted. The arrival of Jono Gibbes, Dwayne Peel and Aaron Dundon to join Kiss and Niall Malone was expected to deliver on the expectations. The problem is the systemic issues in the underbelly of Ulster Rugby remained since probably back in the Brian McLaughlin era - and we all know how that ended.

Gibbes, too, in my opinion is not a director or rugby, and it is fairly clear from Ulster’s statement on Kiss’s departure that Cunningham will ultimately be in charge of off field matters and Gibbes the onfield. There can be no honeymoon period however. Gibbes has to deliver a Champions Cup place for next season and a minimum requirement of a Guinness PRO14 play-off. Realistically, you expect to have both of those. But, if not, is there someone else’s head on the chopping block come the end of the season? One absentee during all the upheaval, if you like, was the CEO, Shane Logan. during the triple Inter-Pro series. The handbrake may have been put on after back-to-back wins over Harlequins and the win against La Rochelle which led to a false dawn yet again in Europe. Wasps ended the dream as Ulster flopped for the fourth successive year in the Champions Cup (in its new format). The media were asking the coaching staff what the supporters wanted (trust me we did, even if you did not like the answers). There was a need for the top man to appear to offer the coaching team support, the playing squad support - publicly. The absence of that spoke volumes in my opinion. That does not mean to say it should be the CEO’s head next on the chopping block. That, like Kiss’s departure, will solve nothing. What of the players? Charles Piutau, Rory Best and Alan O’Connor are among three who recently admitted they needed to take some responsibility for the performances. Yeah probably - they are after all the people on the pitch. If there are 12 mistakes made by individuals in Ulster’s next game, will it be Gibbes who gets the blame? Certainly it was Kiss who was having the finger pointed at him from all quarters. The decision to remove Kiss was probably taken long before the poor performances For the record I had the same relationship with Kiss that I had with Anscombe, McLaughlin, Doak, Williams. If I appeared to be defensive at times - as some of you who follow me on Twitter perhaps highlighted - it was because I felt things were not totally all Kiss’s fault.

As I said earlier, the underbelly of the entire organisation needed to be looked at. The Academy are starting to see benefits of their work. The mistake we make with regard to the Academy is comparing it with Leinster. They are four to five years ahead of where Ulster are, but they have bigger numbers and their schools appear to be producing players. Ulster should make the comparison more with Munster, that is being realistic. Our schools are no longer the product line we used to have. Let’s take the scrumhalf situation. For seven years Ruan Pienaar, a world class international nine, played with Ulster. There was such a noise when he was ‘forced’ to leave. John Cooney’s arrival and his performances have resulted in little mention of the South African. In Ruan’s seven years with Ulster there were at least 10 scrum halves who would have played in Schools’ Cup finals. Have any of them progressed to the Ulster ranks? What went wrong? The questions we have to ask is why are the schools’ not delivering? Why are we not looking more to our clubs? Is the All Ireland League in its current format delivering what the Provincial and National game needs? Kiss was a fall guy. There is a feeling of “eject and deflect” in some ways - however Cunningham has give us a bit of hope with his brief outline of a new strategy for the next three to five years. That has to be welcomed, but our expectations have to be realistic given the time frame. It will take at least three years perhaps to see the fruits of something new - and some have shown they do not have the patience! One other thing to mull over. Jared Payne as Ulster’s defence coach? Yes why not. If he is not able to play, at least make use of his talents. Joe Schmidt and Warren Gatland hold Payne in high regard, his rugby brain is remarkable and he is already being groomed for a defence coach role in Belfast given his unfortunate recovery from injury. Finally, here is wishing Gibbes & Co. good luck for the rest of the campaign. #keepthefaith #SUFTUM * Mulligan’s Musing are an opinion piece and may or may not represent the views of the URSC, or indeed, any, some or all of its members!

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