50 / 64
48
www.
ULSTERRUGBY
.com
ROD NAWN
And with all the pre-season preparations more-
or-less in place, the team which inspires such
fierce loyalty begins another quest for Guinness
PRO12 glory.
The opposition first-up is the Newport Gwent
Dragons, a club which has survived the wealth
of problems in the Welsh game – political and
financial – to remain one of the fortresses of the
game in the Principality. It is a club with a rich
history and it believes that it is on the way to
restore past glories.
Only Zebre and Treviso finished lower in the
table last season, and four wins from 22 outings
is – by any measure – a paltry return for a side
which has an age profile many others would
envy and for a club which has invested heavily in
youth. Throughout the Rodney Parade panel are
scattered players who’ve already represented
Wales at every level, including the senior 15, but
it is those currently emerging from the age-group
teams which offer a very firm and positive view of
the long term.
At the helm is the hugely-respected coach
Kingsley Jones, a proven master of developing
younger players into mature and skilled
performers, and in flanker and new captain Lewis
Jones – in his eleventh season at the club – there
is a prime example of local talent being nourished
to the top level.
Jones, ever the innovator, decided that the
Dragons skipper should be sought out by seeking
applications from within the squad, and there
were at least eight players who held their hands
up for the position. The coach professes himself
delighted that Jones emerged as the leading
candidate, and he’ll have the experienced help
of previous captain Thomas Rhys Thomas, the
hooker, and of a second vice-captain, lock Nick
Crosswell.
With wing Pat Howard, and international Adam
Warren on the opposite flank, promising centre
Jack Dixon, the experienced South African pivot
Sarel Pretorius, flanker Nic Cudd and new front-
row addition Tom Davies, there is clearly the spine
of a more consistent and robust Dragons line-up
this season. With props Boris Stankovich and
Sam Hobbs in the panel, Jones and his forwards
coach Ceri Jones believe the 2016/17 campaign
will be much more rewarding.
Despite the disappointment of the previous
campaign in the PRO12 it should not be forgotten
that rarely were the Dragons totally unravelled
by opponents, and there were memorable wins
over Leinster and Munster to offer testament to
what the squad can offer. The previous year a
European Challenge Cup journey went all the
way to the semi-finals, so the Dragons may have
been less than flaming recently but they have the
strength in depth now to really ignite.
The welcome to Kingspan Stadium will be warm,
perhaps even as fiercely hot as any dragon would
produce, but the focus of attention for the mass
of the big crowd will be on the team Director
of Rugby Les Kiss and Head Coach Neil Doak
send out to open a season nobody denies is one
where expectations on and off the pitch are high,
reasons to be cheerful great.
The coaching staff doesn’t deal in the currency
of excuses, it never has, and it starts a new
campaign as it knew it would without several
important players because of their Ireland
international tour commitments in the summer,
while the inevitable tranche of injuries which are
the consequence of a high-impact, contact sport
denies Kiss, Doak, Allen Clarke and Niall Malone
the ‘full deck’ they might hanker after. But they
believe that this year resources at Kingspan
Stadium are greater, deeper and of higher quality
than ever.
Bryn Cunningham has fitted as snugly into his
role as Director of Operations as he did the No.
15 jersey for Ulster for a decade, and over the last
18 months has added to the squad while keeping
more than a watching brief on the ambitious crop
emerging from the Academy.
Of course, the signings he and the management
made, which have caught the imagination are
those of Springbok breakaway Marcell Coetzee
– a ball-carrying, wrecking-ball New Year present
for the fans if his untimely injury rehabilitation
goes to plan – and of Charles Piutau, the young
All Black for whom the term ‘utility back’ is a
gross misnomer. Since his arrival was announced
over a year ago, supporters have been watching
his displays at his temporary ‘home’ at Wasps
with increasingly moist lips!
The English Premiership had never seen his like,
and now the Guinness PRO12 is about to see its
September, the first Friday evening, a perfect Kingspan Stadium surface, an
expectant crowd – it must mean competitive rugby for Ulster’s players and
their legion of supporters.
SLAYING THE DRAGONS IS FIRST PRIORITY