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ROD NAWN
ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN
FREELANCE JOURNALIST
AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST
@RODNAWN1
squad and with the competition which exists
in every department. Stuart McCloskey,
Sam Arnold and Jacob Stockdale are
already very much in form and offering
great promise across the backline, and
ready to make the most of Jared Payne and
Darren Cave being in World Cup action.
And a veritable explosion of forward talent
is arriving through the Hughes Insurance
Ulster Rugby Academy and shrewd
acquisition.
But for the 80 exciting minutes of the new
PRO12 season at the Kingspan there is the
promise of two clubs with rich attacking
traditions going head-to-head, and the
entertainment quotient in encounters
between these sides has always been
consistently high.
So, we are off-and-running in the PRO12,
and for Ulster and the Ospreys the
ambitions for the next nine months will be
high, just as they will for Leinster, Edinburgh,
Connacht and Dragons who’ll play this
evening, and for champions Glasgow who
meet Scarlets tomorrow, and for Munster
who host Treviso, while Sunday sees Cardiff
open up at the Arms Park against Zebre.
By Sunday evening there’ll be a few bumps
and bruises, real and psychological, but
the hunger for big nights at Kingspan
Stadium is as great as ever, perhaps even
the expectations are greater still, and there
is a group of coaches and players who want
– like the fans whose support is regarded
as so vital – who want so much to realise
the dreams of not just good rugby and fine
wins, but of silverware.
Everything about Ulster’s set-up screams
quality and success. There is no question
there’s a passionate determination to deliver.