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while Luke Marshall is back in top form. The news from
the treatment room is that Jared, Darren, Dan, and the
irrepressible Stuart Olding are intent on demanding
inclusion within weeks.
Doak calmly steered Ulster in the right direction while
Kiss was delayed by his Ireland duties until the autumn,
but with Allen Clarke and Niall Malone sure that they
have created a style of rugby that ‘is the Ulster way,
and it’s forward’, the next few months will provide more
twists, a few turns, but a team worth watching!
Munster, once indisputably Europe’s best, will have
targets of its own today, and in a period of some
transition there is confidence that a return to the peaks
is at hand. His employer certainly thinks Anthony Foley
is the Head Coach to guide the club there, a new deal
put on the table only a week or so ago.
Matches between these two famous clubs have
always been contests ‘too close to call’, but the
spectacular rugby played in Limerick earlier this season
demonstrated a willingness to use big games to allow
the players a stage, a place to express themselves.
Perhaps we won’t have the try-fest of several weeks
ago, but what we can expect is an uncompromising
battle up front – so nothing new there then! But look for
both backlines to go through the gears and use pace,
guile and pure, unadulterated bloody-mindedness to
provide excellent entertainment.
For the home side, and not least its support, there was
a watershed period in late November and in December:
against Leinster a display full of gritty and combative
play, allied to renewed attacking confidence; at home
to Edinburgh in horrific conditions a rare intelligence,
particularly in the second half, a win was the least the
team deserved; and then there was Toulouse at home,
and a complete demonstration of what the rejuvenated
Trimble described as ‘the ambition we know we have in
our play, Toulouse away put the icing on the cake.’
Kiss, Doak, Clarke, Barakat and Malone make a
formidable management unit, all of them proven talents
as players ‘who’ve been there, done that’, and as
coaches of invention, discipline and conviction.
They’ve each made promises to themselves for 2016, all
of them for Ulster and its family of players, management
and supporters.
Share their resolution, share their ambition. Then share
in the success they will inevitably shape and demand of
their playing charges.
It’s a Happy New Year. Yes?
ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN
FREELANCE JOURNALIST
AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST
@RODNAWN1