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www.
ulster
rugby.com
1
ULSTER
RUGBY
PRESIDENT’S
WELCOME
ULSTER BRANCH
Kingspan Stadium,
85 Ravenhill Park,
Belfast, BT6 0DG
T
//
+44 (0)28 9049 3222
ulsterrugby
.com
John Kinnear
/
/
President
Bobby Stewart
/
/
Senior Vice President
John McKibbin
/
/
Junior Vice President
John McKibbin
/
/
Honorary Secretary
Michael Boyd
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/
Honorary Treasurer
Denis Gardiner
/
/
Competitions Secretary
Shane Logan
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/
Chief Executive
Chris Webster
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/
Domestic Rugby Manager
Audrey Robinson
/
/
Financial Controller
Fiona Hampton
/
/ H
ead of Sales & Marketing
I would like to welcome in particular
our friends from Ospreys: directors,
players, coaches and supporters
alike - I hope that you all enjoy your
stay in Belfast.
Tonight’s match will see Ulster take
on the form team in the Guinness
PRO12. Ospreys are top of the
division and unbeaten so far this
season. The Ospreys management
and players must be congratulated
for their excellent start to the
campaign and Ulster will have to be
at their very best if they are to take
anything from this evening’s match.
It has been three weeks since Ulster
have played due to the Autumn
International Series in which Ireland
recorded a fantastic win over South
Africa. The amount of injured players
in the international squad at this
present time made that win all the
more remarkable.
Ireland backed that win up with a
comfortable victory over Georgia.
We will all be hoping that it is a clean
sweep of victories when Ireland take
on Australia tomorrow.
High praise must go to Joe Schmidt
and Les Kiss for their success
and it was particularly pleasing
to see Ulster’s Jared Payne make
his international debut. It was also
great to see Tommy Bowe make
a try scoring return to the Ireland
team. Against Georgia we saw solid
performances from Darren Cave,
Craig Gilroy and Robbie Diack, while
substitute Stuart Olding showed
what he can do with that brilliant
score. It is great to have three of
those players back in the Ulster team
this evening.
While there was much to celebrate
in recent weeks; in recent days we
have become aware that Chris Henry
suffered a blocked blood vessel in
his brain on the morning of the South
Africa game. There are few people
more passionate about playing for
their province than Chris. Everyone
at Ulster Rugby wishes Chris a full
and speedy recovery.
Finally, I would like to thank our main
sponsors and partners, in particular
Bank of Ireland for their continued
support of Ulster Rugby.
I hope that you enjoy the game.
Good Luck to Ulster and Stand up
for the Ulstermen!
Yours in Rugby
John Kinnear
//
President
IRFU (Ulster Branch)
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all here to
Kingspan Stadium for this Guinness PRO12 match
against Ospreys.