Ulster Rugby v Connacht

RODNEY AH YOU

On the eve of the Connacht fixture we caught up with Ulster’s New Zealand born prop Rodney Ah You, who joined from Connacht in the summer of 2016, to discuss Ulster’s form so far and his feelings on playing against his former team-mates.

“I’m not sure what to make of the season so far. I love the opportunity to be included in the match night 23 and getting the two starts against Dragons and Zebre was just fantastic. I’m trying to make the most of the time that I do get to play on the field so that I can add the most to the team. The new coaching set-up this season has been brilliant, I feel that they’re really getting the best out of everyone and encouraging everyone to step up.” Ulster started the season with four straight wins, but hit something of a speed-bump last weekend in Parma. “Zebre was a tough match. They were definitely up for the fight. Their line speed was incredible and unfortunately, we didn’t problem solve fast enough in the game to try and sort out the challenges they presented us with. In fairness to Zebre though, they played really good rugby and deserved the win. Personally, I wasn’t feeling too good about my own game. It was not the performance I wanted to give and not what I expected of myself. “The outcome of the Zebre game hasn’t changed our focus but the game did highlight several internal weaknesses which we need to improve. In particular, it highlighted the failure of our basic ball handling skills, there were simply too many handling errors on our part.” The surprising and disappointing defeat away to Zebre last Saturday has prompted naysayers to suggest that Ulster has got a head start on repeating the same poor run of results as around the same time last season. But as Ah You knows, focusing on the past and what you don’t want to happen is not the best way to design a successful future. “It definitely wasn’t the result that we wanted but we have to focus on the positives in terms of what we can learn from it. We learned that we need to concentrate more on execution and how to deal with hard-line speed so we’ve been working hard this week to better our basic skills and avoid handling issues to ensure that we don’t make the same mistakes again. “Our focus is on a week to week, match by match basis. We don’t worry about the league tables or

what other clubs are doing, we’re focused on what we need to get better on individually in order to collectively improve our overall performance and move forward with success.” To date this season, Ah You has been sharing the number 3 jersey with Wiehahn Herbst as the Ulster coaching ticket continue to manage playing resources through an intense schedule of games, and Rodney feels there is a healthy competition for starting spots throughout the team. “We have some great operators in the front row. There is good competition between us all and I don’t think that’s a bad thing, I think it’s healthy for the squad. We all have to be at our best to keep challenging each other. In general, there is good depth in our squad, everyone knows what they are doing; if a new person comes in he simply picks off where the last person left off so everyone pulls together very well.” Tonight, is the first Interprovincial clash of the season as we welcome Connacht to Kingspan Stadium where we hope that history and the support of the home crowd will be on Ulster’s side to reinstate those winning ways. “I’m confident about Ulster’s chances tonight. As a Connacht player, we always found it difficult coming here to Kingspan Stadium. It was always a tough game; the home crowd are so loud and really get on your back. So, it’s nice for me to now have the roar of the home crowd behind me as an Ulsterman. “There is a step up in intensity with Interprovincial games, they seem to be a bit more competitive and we know that Connacht will definitely be up for it. They’ll be keen to get a big win here as it’s somewhere they’ve never won before. We know that they will try to take us on, they’re going to bring a new vitality and physicality to the game but we’re prepared for it. “I’m excited to play them and really looking forward to the game tonight. At the very least we are aiming to deliver an improvement on Saturday’s past performance with more intensity and a more clinical approach to our game plan. I’m confident that we’ll do the job.”

RODNEY AH YOU

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