Ulster Rugby Annual Report 2015

assistance and support. I would also like to give my

thanks to all the volunteers, staff, supporters, sponsors

and other partners who support the professional game

and contribute to its success.

The IRFU continues to provide significant assistance

and financial support to the Professional Game in Ulster

and indeed the other Provinces. There is a growing

recognition in the IRFU that the Branches need the

continued and additional financial support of the Union

if they are to remain in and challenge in the knock out

stages of Europe. Ulster is now seeing the benefits of

investment in its Academy structure with many young

players developing into integral parts of the senior side

and a greater representation of local players in the

successful full Irish and underage representative sides.

The Branch is very grateful to the IRFU for this ongoing

support.

The Domestic Game has had a difficult year due to the

ending of the DCAL funding. DCAL funding amounting

to almost £0.5m came to an end in March 2015. This led

to a restructuring of the Domestic Game staff to better

align staff resources with available funding and the

development of the domestic game. All costs were kept

well under control throughout the year. Regionalisation

of the Domestic Game has helped to bring more focus

and increased resources to the amateur game and will

hopefully bring about more and better players of the

game. I would like to thank all the staff within the Branch

for their continued excellent work in the domestic game

under the enthusiasm, guidance and leadership of Mr

Chris Webster, and also all the volunteers who work

within the Branch and Club structure in Ulster for giving

of their time and expertise to make amateur rugby in

Ulster the great game it is.

The outlook for the Domestic Game in terms of finance

not only for the Branch but also for clubs and schools

is challenging. The IRFU has agreed to maintain its

support of the domestic game for 2016-17 to enable

the continuance of the four regions and this is to be

welcomed. It is hoped that more funding will be made

available to our sport from government sources in the

years to come but this is by no means a certainty

Annually the Branch has an Internal Audit carried

out in addition to the annual audit of the accounts.

The internal audit function has been outsourced

to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In carrying out

this work PwC look at all the systems and controls

within the Branch on a rolling basis. Their report

gives their opinion on the individual systems and

controls, an overall opinion on the organisation and

makes recommendations for improvements. The

two areas reviewed this year were financial controls

and professional rugby. This work concluded that

the systems achieved a satisfactory assurance rating

for financial controls and a substantial rating for

professional rugby at the year end. This is the result of

considerable efforts and focus on controls by Audrey

Robinson, Financial Controller, the finance team and all

the staff within the Branch.

The annual audit of the Branch’s accounts is once

again being performed by Deloitte who carry out this

work to a very tight time scale and in a very efficient

and professional manner. I would like to express my

thanks to both PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte

for their help and assistance with this work. The Audit

Committee made up of David Workman (Chair), Paul

Harte and Hugh Johnston meet to consider these audit

reports on behalf of the Branch and I am grateful for

their work, support and assistance in this very important

area.

The Finance Committee has continued its work

of managing and scrutinising the financial affairs

of the Branch together with making reports and

recommendations to other Branch Committees. I am

grateful to this committee for all their hard work over

the past year which included Gordon Hamilton (IRFU

Rep), David Millar (Chairman of the Professional Game

Board), John McKibbin (Hon Secretary) and John

Boyd (Chairman of the Domestic Game Committee).

Shane Logan (Chief Executive) and Audrey Robinson

(Financial Controller) also attend meetings of the

Finance Committee and their detailed knowledge

and understanding of the day to day operations of the

Branch is very much appreciated. My thanks also go

to Audrey and her team, Joanne Hunter, Liz Lowry,

and Janice Gilpin for all their hard work and support

throughout the year which has been invaluable.

Audrey has always been a source of great insight to

the Branch’s finances and never tired of my numerous

questions and queries throughout the year.

Bobby Stewart, our outgoing President, has had a great

year representing the Branch. He has undertaken all his

duties with diligence supported by his wife Valerie, and

will be an extremely hard act to follow. I wish Bobby all

the very best for the future. I welcome John McKibbin as

our new President and I know that John, ably supported

by his wife Moyra, will relish this incoming year. This is a

well deserved appointment for John for his contribution

to the game in Ulster and his many years as the Hon

Secretary of the Branch – his knowledge of the Branch’s

governance issues is second to none. He is someone

to whom I have turned on a many occasions to help plot

the best course of action on different issues.

My thanks also go to Shane Logan who as Chief

Executive has led a very successful year at Ulster

Branch. I am grateful for Shane’s support which

has certainly made my role less difficult than it may

otherwise have been.

The Management Committee, under the excellent

chairmanship of David Dobbin, has continued to make

significant progress in 2015/16. The financial outcomes

achieved by the Branch are due largely to the strategic

and operational decisions taken by this committee. I am

very grateful to the support offered from this committee

over the last year.

Finally I believe Ulster has made further progress in the

past year in developing a large number of areas. The

challenge is to keep going forward in a sustainable way.

This continual development can only be achieved by

good people with good ideas and experience working in

a very constructive way. The Branch has demonstrated

that through the work of the staff and volunteers such

real progress is possible and sustainable. .

Michael Boyd

Honorary Treasurer