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For Ulster, fresh from that fine win in Glasgow last
week, the first month has gone well, the team sits
atop of the early-season table and this evening
hosts the Ospreys, the most prolific 15 in the
competition but one which slipped up – and lost
the leadership – at Leinster.
Cardiff Blues, at last, is demonstrating a
consistency its talented player roster has often
lacked and, like Ulster, boasts a perfect winning
record and sits second in the table, ready to
pounce.
Four games played and coaches and players
alike hope to have built a platform for the
relentless assault on the league and the European
Champions Cup games, which all will have a key
bearing on the prospects for the year.
Ulster started with three solid if unspectacular
wins, picking up a try-bonus point against the
Dragons at Kingspan, navigating a tricky test at
Treviso and despatching the Scarlets at home a
fortnight ago, then had its most significant, hard-
earned success in Scotland.
International players were slowly re-integrated into
the matchday panel and there were modest but
robust signs that the strength in depth justified
fans’ expectations for the long winter ahead.
While the Irish contingent and the long-term
injured slowly became available, others have
more than proved a point or two about the
competition for places at Ulster. Very often such
talk has been seen as glib, but Rob Lyttle, Louis
Ludik, Jacob Stockdale are just three players who
will not just offer genuine cover but real selection
options for Kiss, Neil Doak, Allen Clarke, Niall
Malone and Joe Barakat.
The much-anticipated arrival of All Black
Charles Piutau can already be described a great
success, his talents and presence making him
an immediate favourite at Kingspan and he’s
blended seamlessly into team awash with world-
class quality behind the scrum.
Coaches and pundits often speak of the
ambition to select from a ‘full deck’, and though
circumstances – notably injuries! – always intrude
it is from a very gifted pool of players that Ulster’s
fortunes are carried this 2016/17 season, and it’s
not indulgent, nor does it tempt fate, to anticipate
a very serious assault on silverware.
This evening’s opponents will be thinking along
very similar lines because, like Ulster, the Ospreys
have not consistently provided tangible rewards
for the shrewd investment in, and development
of, playing resources. It is the Welsh club with the
most glittering array of stars in key areas of the
pitch, and yet it has never dominated the league
as many observers believed it should.
Coach Steve Tandy, now in his sixth year in
charge, has fashioned a squad which is the envy
of most and only Ulster could rationally claim to
have greater quality and strength in real depth at
its disposal.
Tandy was a more-than-useful open-side flanker
with the club in the ‘noughties’ before he was
asked to take charge of team affairs in 2012.
That he has stayed in charge during a period
of transition is testament to his character and
the respect his coaching has earned him from a
panel of players who share his determination to
restore the glories of the early years of the new
century.
Three thumping wins to start the PRO12
season, accumulating no fewer than 21 tries in
the process, created real history: the Ospreys
became the first club to open its league
campaign with three successive bonus-point
wins. Top of the pile going into last weekend’s
game with Leinster the players were determined
to celebrate in Dublin with a win for skipper Alun
Wyn Jones, that most redoubtable of Lions, on
his 200th appearance for the club.
But, just as Ulster was breaking its hoodoo in
Glasgow with a gritty and often imaginative
victory to chalk up a fourth successive win, the
Ospreys faltered badly, going down 31-19 to a
Leinster side now guided by Leo Cullen with
the assistance of Stuart Lancaster. Two late
converted tries showed a dangerous defiance
and the attacking threat from Dan Biggar, Ben
John, Rhys Webb and Jeff Hassler remains
potent, while Justin Tipuric, Scott Baldwin
and the inspirational captain Jones at lock are
possessed of great character and international
ability.
So, tonight’s opponents swapped places at the
top of the table, and at a stage of the season
when many argue the template is set, the targets
of pre-season become more precisely focussed
On the first weekend in October it truly can be said that the Guinness PRO12
campaign is underway, that sides have gradually gone through the gears and
are fully-equipped for the most challenging weeks of the season.
KEEPING THE FLYING OSPREYS GROUNDED
ROD NAWN