Ulster Rugby vs Treviso

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47 ULSTERRUGBY
While Ireland got off to a solid, if spectacular, Six Nations
pursuit in Rome last Saturday, the PRO12 teams were
shaping up, after a brief break, for the most important stage
of their season. And from that game in the Stadio Olympico
perhaps a signal of what Ulster can expect from the visitors
should be acknowledged.
The international side was combative, robust and physically
imposing against Joe Schmidt’s side for nearly an hour, and
in the end it was just that extra piece of quality and all-round
ability which saw the current Six Nations champions off to a
good start – a platform, we hope, for a further step up against
France in Dublin tomorrow.
With seven Treviso players in the current Italian squad that
is some indication of the club’s primary position in the
domestic game, and Ulster’s Neil Doak will have prepared
the 23 players on duty this evening for one of the most testing
games under his stewardship.
Only last month Ulster put on one of its most impressive and
creative displays of the season as it raced to a 24-point lead
in the Stadio di Monigo – only to fly home that night hugely
relieved to have racked up a win after a storming home retort
had reduced the deficit at the final whistle to just four points.
Doak, like most PRO12 coaches, is now resuming the league
campaign with his resources culled in key areas for Ireland’s
Call, but he has planned for the next several weeks knowing
he’ll dig deep into his squad. He is absolutely convinced he
has the quality and commitment to navigate the forthcoming
PRO12 matches and keep on track for a top four place, and
the tantalising prospect of a final at Kingspan Stadium in May.
The coaching team will hope that Schmidt might release
some of the Ulster contingent to get some important game
time, but it will have had confidence in a pool of players slowly
returning to full health to keep the momentum going after that
wonderful win last month against Leicester.
That performance, classy and complete, was the precise
response required to satisfy the faithful fans and to stay the
ill-timed criticisms and out-of-touch assessments of Ulster’s
character and resolve after an injury-ravaged side fell in
Toulon a week earlier. A closer look at that performance in
France might have persuaded the more reasonable observer
that even when down to the ‘bare bones’ players such as
Mike McComish – one exceptional example – were not just
ready for the fray but had the talent and passion to wear the
jersey with pride when the odds were so perfidiously stacked
against them.
Focus this evening is entirely on the game with Treviso, but
as many will have seen Doak and Team Manager, Bryn
Cunningham have been busy not just bringing in some
high-quality short-term cover but planning for next year and
beyond.
The return of flanker Willie Faloon, announced this week,
is just one significant indicator that the squad will deepen
further, and he’s a very particular signing. A product of the
Hughes Insurance Academy, its then supremo Gary Longwell
held fast to a conviction that he had the potential to become a
world-class performer.
Injury blighted his time with the Ulster senior team and after a
blistering start with Connacht – where the captaincy was often
conferred on this most understated but effective of back-
rowers – Willie was beset with more serious injury hurdles.
That Connacht gave him a new long-term deal when he was
undergoing serious surgery and ‘rehab’ says something of
the regard in which he’s held by men like Pat Lam.
He and the others which the management team are quietly
assembling guarantee that Ulster Rugby will be an enduring
European force, and that the quest for silverware is unstinting.
But at Kingspan Stadium tonight, though, there’ll be a
wariness of, and preparedness for, a Treviso team which
does not accept any casting as ‘whipping boy’ in the PRO12.
This is a club which has nurtured rugby since 1932, which
has been in European Cup competition since its inception in
1995, and which is a founding member of the Celtic League,
the template for the hugely competitive league we have today.
Any side which could draw with Leinster and push Cardiff,
Connacht and Glasgow to the very limit, and meanwhile
confirm its dominance in Italy with wins over Zebre, is at the
very least hugely competitive. In coach Umberto Casellato
Treviso has a well-trained, experienced, well-travelled and
flexible mind at the helm, and he’ll relish the challenge of an
unfamiliar but still strikingly enterprising Ulster formation this
evening.
The visitors have an international squad from which to select,
so Kiwi fullback Justin Hayward, England’s Rupert Harden
at prop can ably complement the native gifts of wing Angelo
Esposito and centre Andrea Pratichetti in a line-up which is
robust, very organised, and after the experience of last month
Ulster will know that there is a full 80 minutes of rugby to
complete.
‘The Italian Job’ is no rugby ‘caper’, it’s a professional
challenge which Ulster is very well-suited to taking on and
subduing, and with what is undoubtedly a more attack-
minded backline Ian Humphreys and Ruan Pienaar can sow
the seeds of what would be an important victory.
With Rory Best, Jared Payne, Robbie Diack, Tommy
Bowe, Iain Henderson and others concentrating on their
contributions for Ireland, forthcoming games against
Edinburgh, Scarlets, Glasgow, Cardiff and the Dragons will
truly test the mettle of every member of the Ulster squad.
Neil Doak will have strategies and line-ups to face each game
as it comes, but his ambition is clear and unambiguous, the
commitment of his charges to that complete: winning rugby.
When the ‘gallacticos’ return to the fold they should find
the camp in rude health, and the Guinness PRO12 season
heading for another tumultuous climax, with Ulster right at
the heart of the trophy chase.
In the midst of these wondrous few months of rugby
Ulster is intent on making its own very special impression.
…A great one.
ITALY CLUBS TOGETHER
IN NEW RUGBY ORDER
WHEN you like your rugby to come fast and furiously there is nothing quite like
the feast provided in Europe’s club leagues and by its international sides in seven
glorious weeks in this monumental rugby year 2015.