6
ULSTER
RUGBY
ON
Captaincy
I have had the honour of captaining the side a
few times in the past, it probably comes with
the amount of experience I have now and the
number of years I have under my belt. I am
the oldest player in the squad this season but
I was really happy to be asked and obviously
relished the experience until Rory returned.
ON
Pre-season
Pre-seasons tend not to differ an awful lot but
this year we did a lot more BJJ Jujitsu style
training instead of doing more contact and
it has been great for fitness. Generally the
sessions optimise our time much more, we
fit as much as we can into the day and try to
absorb as much information as we can. Pitch
sessions are short and sharp which is much
more intense.
In terms of the games, it was
always going to be tough
travelling to play Leinster
and to get the result was
great. I thought we started
the game really well, much
better than the week before,
the Exeter game was a bit
slow, obviously it was our
first game back but I just
thought things were better
against Leinster. Those
young guys and the new
players who were given the
opportunity to play really
stuck their hands up.
ON
The newcomers
Andy Warwick had a really good game against
Mike Ross in Dublin; Louis Ludik has really
impressed me over the past few weeks, he
is physical and gets stuck in and also Sean
Reidy had a good pre-season run as well,
everyone is pleased with how things have
gone over the past few weeks but those are
the three stand out performers for me so far.
ON
Improvements
We still need to work on ball retention, but that
comes with getting more game time under our
belts. Early games tend to be scrappy, there
are a lot of new combinations and players who
haven’t played together before are just getting
used to each other and also match fitness
will only improve with time. It’s just a case of
getting more game time in, trying to lift things
up another level and tidy things up.
ON
The season starting
Pre-season can drag on so the lads
were dying to get stuck back into rugby.
We enjoyed the friendly games but it’s great
to get back into competitive games, it’s down
to business now and this is when the results
really count. It was great to come back fighting
against Scarlets and it is testimony to the work
both physically and mentally that we put in
over the summer.
ON
Zebre
We do fancy our chances tonight, we would
like to think that we have built a fortress here
at Kingspan. Teams don’t enjoy coming here,
they know what they are up against and it’s
up to us to lay down a positive marker at the
first competitive home game of the season.
You sometimes don’t know
what you are going to get
with Italian sides, I am sure
they will be physical but we
have just got to focus on
ourselves. Andrew Trimble
and Luke Marshall are
available from Ireland again
this weekend, they had a
super run out last weekend
so that can only benefit
us and the lads can’t wait
to see a packed house at
Kingspan.
ON
Developing
I am always trying to learn, that was my 14th
pre-season, so it would be easy for me to
stay in my comfort zone but its important that
I keep pushing myself. As a group we are
working on being able to think clearly under
fatigue so we have been doing a lot of fitness
drills until exhaustion and then running plays
so it is all about thinking clearly and making
the right decision even when you’re tired.
This recreates what its like in a game and has
made training really challenging but definitely
beneficial.
ON
Goals this season
The main goal is to nail down a starting spot
as much as I can. I am getting on a bit, I am
the oldest in the squad now and there is so
much young competition coming through, so
for me it is just to keep the standards high,
keep training well, keep enthusiastic and enjoy
playing as much as possible.
ROGER
WILSON
CATCHING UP WITH
ROGER WILSON
