Ulster Rugby vs Bordeaux Begles

ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN FREELANCE JOURNALIST AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST @RODNAWN1

the latter is too important in terms which are often financial – big and sustained fan bases still wield huge economic influence – and not winning trophies can dilute support, see spectator and broadcast interest wane and, as men like Leicester’s Richard Cockerill discovered recently after long-term success at Welford Road, the last result is the one that matters. Rugby at the top level is big business, and the trick is in sustaining its hallowed values and framing them in the modern professional setting which attracts loyal fans and the ‘names’ who excite them and bring the success which is a paramount if camouflaged concern. Ulster has the infrastructure on the field and in the administrative area to be one of the real powers in the game, and if silverware has been lacking the presence in white shirts of world-class performers – and individuals – like Ruan Pienaar, Charles Piutau, Tommy Bowe and many others – is testament to the determination to achieve great things. The Academy structure, started by Gary Longwell and grown further by his successors, and today by Kieran Campbell, is the envy of many clubs, and perhaps we don’t always appreciate just how many of the current frontline players have come through that system. It will produce more candidates for the senior team, and just as the quality at the top ebbs and flows some years are more productive than others in identifying the emerging talent in schools or in the club game. The policy has always been – and will continue - to nurture the best of Ulster’s youngsters, provide the best environment for them to thrive and improve, and Trimble, Bowe, Cave, Olding, Ferris, Gilroy, Jackson and Marshall are just a few who’ve gone on to international distinction. But where strengthening is required there has been no hesitation in scouring the world for players who have been carefully selected for their own gifts and their abilities to improve the indigenous pool: Pienaar is an exemplar of that, and who would question the influence he has had on his team-mates with his own marvellous match performances and during every week of training and preparation. An IRFU dictat means we will lose the Springbok this summer, something which still rankles and which Ulster did everything it could to challenge. John Cooney will move from Connacht in June to challenge for the scrum-half position, and in a busy week the outstanding South African back-rower Arno Botha signed up at Kingspan and the prospect of Marcel Coetzee and Botha on the ball-carrying charge will definitely add heft to a forward unit which

sometimes falls just short in physical terms against the very best. Operations Director Bryn Cunningham and Les Kiss will continue to bring in players from outside Ulster when they think they are better than they can find in the short and medium term at home, and despite the obvious rumblings of some supporters about lack of success just now there can’t be any question that the strength of the playing squad is being addressed, and with some confidence. There are suggestions current too that the coaching team may be ‘tweaked’, but that happens in every club after a certain period and the rumour mill always starts grinding fast at this time of the year. The search for improvement at Ulster is continuous, and Kiss is convinced that there is the ability and character in his playing squad to write some glorious new chapters in Ulster’s rugby history. This afternoon against Bordeaux-Bégles it would be a great pre-6 Nations ‘lift’ if the side produced the verve and adventure which saw France’s best, Clermont Auvergne, despatched at Kingspan in November. Today’s visitors had been chasing down Clermont in the Top 14 but domestic form has – a little like Ulster’s – fallen away in recent weeks. But a club which has the formidable Raphael Ibanez in charge will be unlikely to take a backward step, while a back division coached by the great France and Toulouse winger Emile N’Tmack won’t lack encouragement to ally the unorthodox and enterprising with stout defence. Both sides might have seen Champions Cup progress denied, but each has still much to battle for in the PRO12 and Top 14, and for Ulster – before a short break – an emphatic performance, and score to match, would re-energise the fans, soothe some of the concerns many have after a really poor run of results, and give everyone a chance to recalibrate targets and sharpen their focus, whether player, coach or supporter. The European Cup winners of 1999 provided two extraordinary Saturdays: the lunchtime defeat of Stade Francais in the semi-final, then that Lansdowne Road triumph for the remarkable squad assembled by Harry Williams. The atmosphere at both games was exceptional, and if the Kingspan Stadium crowd can generate even a portion of that this afternoon as Bordeaux-Bégles take the field then it could be another European day to cherish.

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