Ulster Rugby vs Bordeaux Begles

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the latter is too important in terms which are often
financial – big and sustained fan bases still wield huge
economic influence – and not winning trophies can
dilute support, see spectator and broadcast interest
wane and, as men like Leicester’s Richard Cockerill
discovered recently after long-term success at
Welford Road, the last result is the one that matters.
Rugby at the top level is big business, and the trick is
in sustaining its hallowed values and framing them in
the modern professional setting which attracts loyal
fans and the ‘names’ who excite them and bring
the success which is a paramount if camouflaged
concern.
Ulster has the infrastructure on the field and in the
administrative area to be one of the real powers in
the game, and if silverware has been lacking the
presence in white shirts of world-class performers –
and individuals – like Ruan Pienaar, Charles Piutau,
Tommy Bowe and many others – is testament to the
determination to achieve great things.
The Academy structure, started by Gary Longwell and
grown further by his successors, and today by Kieran
Campbell, is the envy of many clubs, and perhaps we
don’t always appreciate just how many of the current
frontline players have come through that system. It
will produce more candidates for the senior team,
and just as the quality at the top ebbs and flows some
years are more productive than others in identifying
the emerging talent in schools or in the club game.
The policy has always been – and will continue - to
nurture the best of Ulster’s youngsters, provide the
best environment for them to thrive and improve, and
Trimble, Bowe, Cave, Olding, Ferris, Gilroy, Jackson
and Marshall are just a few who’ve gone on to
international distinction.
But where strengthening is required there has been
no hesitation in scouring the world for players who
have been carefully selected for their own gifts and
their abilities to improve the indigenous pool: Pienaar
is an exemplar of that, and who would question the
influence he has had on his team-mates with his own
marvellous match performances and during every
week of training and preparation.
An IRFU dictat means we will lose the Springbok this
summer, something which still rankles and which
Ulster did everything it could to challenge.
John Cooney will move from Connacht in June to
challenge for the scrum-half position, and in a busy
week the outstanding South African back-rower
Arno Botha signed up at Kingspan and the prospect
of Marcel Coetzee and Botha on the ball-carrying
charge will definitely add heft to a forward unit which
sometimes falls just short in physical terms against the
very best.
Operations Director Bryn Cunningham and Les Kiss
will continue to bring in players from outside Ulster
when they think they are better than they can find in
the short and medium term at home, and despite the
obvious rumblings of some supporters about lack of
success just now there can’t be any question that the
strength of the playing squad is being addressed, and
with some confidence.
There are suggestions current too that the coaching
team may be ‘tweaked’, but that happens in every
club after a certain period and the rumour mill always
starts grinding fast at this time of the year.
The search for improvement at Ulster is continuous,
and Kiss is convinced that there is the ability and
character in his playing squad to write some glorious
new chapters in Ulster’s rugby history.
This afternoon against Bordeaux-Bégles it would be a
great pre-6 Nations ‘lift’ if the side produced the verve
and adventure which saw France’s best, Clermont
Auvergne, despatched at Kingspan in November.
Today’s visitors had been chasing down Clermont in
the Top 14 but domestic form has – a little like Ulster’s
– fallen away in recent weeks.
But a club which has the formidable Raphael
Ibanez in charge will be unlikely to take a backward
step, while a back division coached by the great
France and Toulouse winger Emile N’Tmack won’t
lack encouragement to ally the unorthodox and
enterprising with stout defence.
Both sides might have seen Champions Cup progress
denied, but each has still much to battle for in the
PRO12 and Top 14, and for Ulster – before a short
break – an emphatic performance, and score to
match, would re-energise the fans, soothe some of
the concerns many have after a really poor run of
results, and give everyone a chance to recalibrate
targets and sharpen their focus, whether player, coach
or supporter.
The European Cup winners of 1999 provided two
extraordinary Saturdays: the lunchtime defeat of
Stade Francais in the semi-final, then that Lansdowne
Road triumph for the remarkable squad assembled by
Harry Williams.
The atmosphere at both games was exceptional, and
if the Kingspan Stadium crowd can generate even
a portion of that this afternoon as Bordeaux-Bégles
take the field then it could be another European day
to cherish.
ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN
FREELANCE JOURNALIST
AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST
@RODNAWN1