21
ULSTER
RUGBY
The early preparatory jousting with Exeter and at
Leinster indeed did fulfil a vital service to interim
Director of Rugby Les Kiss.
Some players not immediately identified as
‘starters’ demonstrated their quality, and –
importantly – their readiness for the heat of
competitive battle.
Some new recruits, experienced and less
hardened, pulled the jersey on for the first time
and suddenly Ludik, Scholes, Warwick, Ricky
and John Andrew, Butterworth, Herbst, Stockdale
and Van der Merwe were elevated into the fans’
consciousness as part of the Ulster family.
It’s almost a cliché, not confined to rugby, but team
sport at the top level now most assuredly is about
the strength and breadth of the squad. There are
league games aplenty - and this Friday night at
Kingspan Stadium will generate a special fervour
– and there are exciting European challenges
to come in the Champions’ Cup. Les Kiss, and
perhaps especially Neil Doak, Jonny Bell and Allen
Clarke, will want a deep pool of committed talent to
call on in the months ahead.
It’s not just the proliferation of games which
requires the rotation of players to get appropriate
rest, but injuries are the anticipated but always
unpredictable hurdles which must be overcome:
confidence in the players asked to step up and
indeed make a case for retention will be high this
season.
That is evidenced by the attacking verve shown
against Exeter in Belfast, the gritty discipline on
show in the defeat of Leinster at Tallaght, and
the combination of those – allied to the genuine
character which saw points secured in last
weekend’s thrilling draw in the ‘opener’ at Scarlets
– hints at a season which could surprise those who
felt the Province might need a year for transition on
and off the field.
But the performance in Llanelli, for instance, was
achieved without a clutch of Ireland internationals
who will be gradually ‘weaned’ back into the fray.
The player management protocols may frustrate
club coaches at times, but it has proved its worth at
the very top level. Players are limited in the number
of games they will play in a season to ensure their
skills, fitness and energies are sustained.
Les Kiss, with his double role with Ulster and
with Ireland, will attest to how successful such
well-monitored care has helped the national
side in recent years, and he will be particularly
expert at marking out the games and the
teams which require ‘horses for courses’. The
autumn internationals and the 2015 Six Nations
Championship have assumed even greater import
in a fifteen-month cycle which will climax with a
World Cup next year.
The deftness and intelligence we have come to
expect of the Ulster players, so well-coached and
so driven, will be matched by just how cleverly
resources at Kingspan are handled. Just as we
await Ruan Pienaar’s arrival after he completes his
campaign in the Rugby Championship with South
Africa so too we know that Ireland’s call to Belfast
will be a widespread one. Success – and Ulster
has set many such ‘markers’ over the last decade
– brings recognition to the individuals concerned,
so Chris Henry, skipper Rory Best, Rob Herring,
Declan Fitzpatrick, Robbie Diack, Iain Henderson,
Dan Tuohy, Andrew Trimble, Darren Cave, Luke
Marshall, Tommy Bowe, Paddy Jackson, Paul
Marshall, the restored Stuart Olding, Craig Gilroy
and newly-qualified Jared Payne can expect to be
involved busily in Ulster and Ireland training camps
for the year ahead. And others too will catch Joe
Schmidt’s eye, be assured.
So never has it been truer that the strength of
a side is judged by the quality and range of its
squad. In that regard Ulster is in a very good place,
for Rory Scholes, Michael Heaney, Michael Allen,
Sean Reidy and Mike McComish – for example –
won’t regard themselves as anything other than
in the top tier, they and others determined to give
their all and to be in as many matchday panels as
fitness and form allows.
Ian Humphreys’ has returned to the fold and
slipped comfortably into the No. 10 spot, offering
the seamless continuity the management was
so keen to ensure as Jackson’s international star
continues to rise. And, modest and rooted though
he is, Ian doesn’t cross the whitewash believing
he’s anyone but the right choice. As the Scarlets
learned last Saturday!
So, for those who may think that the many
references which coaches make to the value of ‘the
squad’ are rather glib, think again.
It’s not just a fifteen-man game, or even a 23-
man game, it’s about a side picked to supply
a performance and a result and backed up
by a support system on the bench, on the
training ground, and managed and coached by
professionals with a keen, undimmed enthusiasm
for rugby and keeping Ulster at the top table.
It’s a sport now which offers opportunity for so
many, and to ‘make the cut’ into the squad is a
recognition of being special, of being an Ulster
player.
IT’S THE AGE OF THE SQUAD
ULSTER and the revamped Guinness PRO12 League
are up-and-running!
Article by
Rod Nawn
Freelance Journalist and
Sports Enthusiast
@RODNAWN1
by ROD
NAWN
