Ulster Rugby vs Llanelli Scarlets

“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.

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