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“And from the clubs, where we bring in good,
promising players to join our Academy and
returning senior players, we’ve had people
like Ballymena’s Stephen Mulholland shine, so
much that they’ve been thrust into the Ulster
side in important PRO12 games,” says Codling.
And Jacob Stockdale and Lorcan Dow, who’d
impressed in the ‘A’s and in the club arena, found
themselves playing important roles in the PRO12
trip to Treviso three weeks ago, and through the
year Mark Best, Sam Arnold, Sam Windsor are just
some who have been committed to the Ulster ‘A’
cause and have seamlessly moved in to the senior
dressing room.
Of course the side’s management can point, with
deserved satisfaction, to how prop Kyle McCall had
been an eager and developing pillar of the team
before earning ‘rave’ reviews after Les Kiss and Head
Coach Neil Doak confidently chose him to anchor the
front row at loose-head.
To the ‘A’ team management it was not surprising to see
the accolades Kyle has been winning, he was learning
his trade, playing the sort of rugby which demanded he
be included in the senior Ulster side.
“Les shows such interest in everything Ulster ‘A’ does, in
training and in matches, his support has been massive
and, I can tell you, hugely appreciated”, says Codling
“Alan O’Connor, Andy Warwick, Rory Scholes, Arnold,
Johnny McPhillips, Windsor, they’re just some of the boys
who have featured for Ulster ‘A’, and are familiar figures when
Ulster was chasing trophies in Europe and in the PRO12.”
The environment they all buy into is one about a team with its
own ambitions, its own targets, but is part of – not below, not
apart from – the Ulster rugby experience. Everything is now so
professional, it replicates the way the senior squad is treated,
whether that be in access to what are the best training
facilities of any club in Europe, or the quality of the team’s
travel and accommodation arrangements.
But what we know is that with the British and Irish Cup
regarded with great seriousness by aspirant clubs such as
wholly-professional Bristol and Bedford, for example, Ulster
‘A’ will now regularly confront high-level ambitious opposition.
The players are dealt with and respected as professionals, an
indistinguishable part of ‘Ulster Rugby’ and training in first-rate
conditions, expected now to respond with performance and even
greater player development success.
Inside Kingspan Stadium the ‘A’s are, literally, on a level playing
field, and the Ulster Rugby structure will depend more and more
on that entity – integrated though it is – to serve a multitude of
purposes: to grow a winning mentality and consistent competitive
edge; to allow experience and form to thrive; and to continue
honing a throng of gifted younger players towards readiness for
the ultimate fray in the white jersey.
Fans could play a part too by going along to see the team in
action, give it the support it deserves, and catch a glimpse of just
part of Ulster’s rugby future.