Ulster Rugby vs Zebre

NIALL MALONE, VIDEOANALYST & SKILLS COACH

DISCUSSES...

Results picking up... We had a run of difficult games, a lot away from home and unfortunately the results just weren’t what we had hoped for. More recently, we have had a run of better fixtures, better performances, guys who were unavailable are now back from injury, so following a bit of a dip, we are enjoying a bit of a high. As coaching staff, we do the same thing when we lose as when we win and we have a system that we believe in, so I don’t think we have done anything too different - it’s just a better run of games for us. We now have a mix of really difficult games and a few easier ones coming up so we need to keep the momentum from the past month going. Zebre... I must give Zebre credit, they were a lot better than I expected two weeks ago. They haven’t had a lot of wins this year and we thought the game would be more straight forward than it was. It’s definitely a good opportunity for us here at home to beat another Italian side this weekend. However, Parma was a sobering enough exercise for us because we thought it would have been easier than it was. They have guys away with Italy, so it’s a good opportunity, but we certainly won’t be taking it lightly. Squad mentality... The defeats are really hard to take. The coaches and players really struggle for days after a loss and when you get consecutive defeats that obviously multiplies. At the minute, the spirit is good, we play this game and then have a down week, so that’s a good opportunity for everyone to rest and replenish their energy, physically and mentally. If we get five wins and a bonus point against Zebre before the break, that would be perfect for us. Missing players during the Six Nations... Our squad feels really strong at the minute, even though we are missing internationals like Rory, Paddy and Hendy, who are some of our best players. Other sides really struggle when their international players are away, Glasgow in particular. Obviously, we lose some good players, but we replace them with exceptional young players. I don’t think that during the Six Nations our team suffers too badly, which is promising for our squad and for our future.

This week's game plan... The plan this week was to focus on ourselves and not be complacent. Zebre had a couple of ploys two weeks ago, they tried to attack our inside defenders more than we expected and probably had a bit more possession than we anticipated. They attacked us around certain channels that we have focused a lot on this week and I think that will be a big improvement for us. Hopefully the pitch will hold out and that will allow us to play a bit more this weekend, which we couldn’t do against Treviso. The fans... The numbers that come out to support the team amaze me every week, it’s not like that when we go to any other ground. On a bad night like last Friday, it was incredible that people still came out to support us in their droves. We are very fortunate to have the fans that we do.

NIALL MALONE

38

www. ULSTERRUGBY .com