Ulster Rugby vs Toulon

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8 ULSTERRUGBY
TOMMY BOWE
“We were obviously disappointed by our
performance especially in the first half,” says
Bowe. “I think that we started the game well
but then a few errors crept in and we gave
away a few penalties which gave Leicester,
who are a strong European side, the
opportunity to get their tails up. They scored
a try and I think they went through a purple
patch, they got a bit of confidence and for us
we just lacked composure and fell away from
them for 15 minutes and that’s when they
accumulated points.
“We obviously addressed that during the
break, but given where we were at that stage
in the game we were lucky to come away with
a losing bonus point and not having given
them a bonus point. During the second half I
believe we got ourselves back into a position
where we could have won. It’s a performance
we were not very happy with, but at the same
time we came away with a point away from
home which is a good sign of where we
are as a team. Going away to a European
powerhouse like Leicester and to be so
disappointed with only picking up a point just
shows the standards that we expect from each
other and how hungry we are to do well in this
tournament.”
In the 55th minute of last weekend’s game
Bowe scored his 25th European try following
some great inter-play with Jared Payne down
the right wing:
“It was a nice try, I was delighted to get over,”
claims Bowe. “It’s always good to get over
straight from a set piece, they are the ones
that the forwards enjoy the most. It shows
how dangerous we can be, there is strength
throughout the pitch and whenever we do get
the opportunity it is nice to be able to put away
a try like that. It is certainly up there with one
of my favourite tries and it’s nice to be back to
scoring ways again.”
However, with French giants Toulon coming to
town the team do not have much time to dwell
on the misfortunes of last weekend…
“We looked at the Leicester game early on
Monday and have put it behind us, we have
an enormous game coming
up against Toulon the reigning
champions - so the talk is
focused on that, everyone is
excited, it is a full house and it is
a huge opportunity for us to turn it
around.
“As rugby players, these are the
fixtures that we all get excited about
playing and certainly everyone in
Belfast and in Ulster will be chomping
at the bit to get this game going on
Saturday and we can’t wait for Toulon to
come to town.”
It is essential that Ulster can optimise the
fortress nature of Kingspan Stadium and
get the points this weekend:
“This competition is so difficult and you
certainly have to win your home matches.
But I do think if that wasn’t to go to plan, we
have plenty of opportunities to get away and
we would be confident in facing the remaining
pool games. However at the moment we are
fully focused on getting a win this weekend.
With a full house here the atmosphere is
unreal, even against Glasgow a few weeks
ago the atmosphere was electric, so if we can
give the crowd something to get behind, we
know the atmosphere will be amazing.”
The visiting line-up includes world class
operators like Bastareaud, Giteau, Armitage
and Habana but Bowe will treat it as he does
any other game:
“Look you change things up slightly no matter
who you play against, I look at areas I can
attack, running different lines against different
people, obviously my opposite number
and players in the back three that we might
come up against to see if we can pick up
weaknesses or trends in their game that we
can exploit. So when we get on the pitch on
Saturday and have a split second to think,
we know what they are going to do and how
to counteract that, that is the benefit of video
analysis and why we use it every week.”
Tommy Bowe reflects on what was a hard
to take defeat away to Leicester Tigers last
weekend but insists that the team are in
fighting spirit to take on reigning Champions
Toulon this afternoon…
TOMMY BOWE:
“THESE ARE THE GAMES
THAT EXCITE US”