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ROD NAWN
ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN
FREELANCE JOURNALIST
AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST
@RODNAWN1
It is all-too-easy - and missing the long-term point
– to apportion reckless blame to players, coaches
or the Club’s support systems: the ingenuity of Neil
Doak as, first, backs coach since 2009 and then as
Head Coach since 2014, is admired widely and for
many his departure after ten selfless years with the
senior squad is more than disappointing. A player
with a great vision of how the game can and should
be played, his coaching pedigree is unquestionable
and he’s surely going to contribute massively to the
sport for a long time. Queen’s will benefit significantly
from his return next season, and the students will
know that ‘Doaky’ will cajole, inspire and insist in
equal measure.
A dressing room of attacking backs could be filled
with those in the present and recent groups at
Kingspan who attribute much of their personal
success and development to his lively, inventive
guidance.
Allen Clarke’s prowess as an international hooker
has been translated into his primary coaching role
with the forwards, and testament to his talents is
the Ospreys’ successful pursuit to install him at the
Liberty Stadium. These are people who have been
thoughtful, ingenious members of the management
and their personal commitment has been astonishing
to witness at close quarters.
Doak and Clarke will not have dwelt on their
imminent departures but rather will have drawn
everyone together on and off the training ground
this week with one thing only in mind: the defeat of
Leinster by sending out 23 players who will give their
all and apply their talents intelligently but belligerently
on behalf of the side and the fans they have always
been themselves.
Whoever lines up for Leinster this evening will have
been studied intensely, and Kiss and his charges
are acutely aware of the quality of a side which has
overcome an early-season wobble to flourish under
Cullen and his kiln-fired, perhaps under-estimated
assistant, Lancaster. With an apparently endless
seam of quality performers such as Isa Nacewa,
Joey Carbery, Robbie Henshaw, Gary Ringrose,
a youngster called Sexton, a McGrath here and
there, Tadgh Furlong, Cian Healy, Zane Kirchner,
Rhys Ruddock, the retiring Mike Ross and so many
internationals, whatever line-up takes to the pitch
today will be sternly determined to prove their
credentials as the Guinness PRO12’s best.
Tonight’s fare will be combative and fiercely
competitive, for these are two sides with immense
mutual respect for each other. For Leinster taking
‘the foot off the pedal’ with those ‘semis’ beckoning
will not be an option, while for Ulster what more
valuable ‘scalp’ could there be than that of the
league leaders and the most traditional of rivals.
In its own right this match deserves the full-throated
attention of the Kingspan faithtful, and what a
competitive reward it would be, and evidence of just
what the calibre of resources here are, if a home win
was registered and a ‘marker’ laid for the challenge
which awaits in August when arguably the most
critical season for over a decade gets underway.
The Barbarians are yet to visit in June, and that
will be another opportunity to impress, and to pay
fulsome tribute to the departing genius that is Ruan
Pienaar and to Roger Wilson, that most dogged of
competitors and much under-rated for his rugby
intelligence in the dark corners of the scrum, ruck
and maul.
They, like others, have served Ulster well and
deserved more tangible success, but they have
contributed in huge measure to the development of a
modern professional club which is amongst the best
in Europe and will soon show that again.
For now, though, raise the roof at Kingspan Stadium
and see the Ulster of promise become real. Even for
just this one closing PRO12 evening.