Ulster Rugby v Edinburgh

AARON DUNDON REMAINS CONFIDENT IN THE FACE OF A REVIVED EDINBURGH SIDE

With the departure of Les Kiss as Director of Rugby, the coaching ticket had to be reshuffled slightly.

Head coach Jono Gibbes has taken on more responsibility for on-field matters, meaning scrum coach Aaron Dundon has also had to step up and look after more within the forward pack. A former hooker with Leinster, he has plenty of experience from his six-year stint in Dublin before then taking up the role of Forwards Coach with

"Hopefully it’ll be a quick fix but we just have to keep working on it. As coaches, we’re pushing hard and pushing for them to get these basics right." Sitting third in Conference B isn't where the coaches will have wanted to be at this stage, nor would they have wanted to be out of Europe either, but now they

Top 14 side Grenoble, where he worked until making the move to Kingspan Stadium. It's been a bit of a transitional period for the team with all the changes happening during the break, but extended role and that they're trying to make things as seamless as possible. "My main role coming in was scrum coach, but I’ve been helping Jono out a lot with the Dundon says he's enjoying his new

have to work out a way to ensure Ulster finish as high in the table as they can. However, that means sorting out what they've been focusing on over the last few weeks, and addressing the team's differing home and away form that has seen them win just one of their last five games on the road. Dundon is confident that they can turn it around and move up the table, and insists they aren't looking behind them in

INTERVIEW: AARON DUNDON forwards, now more than ever since he’s got a lot more roles, so I’ve been helping out with the lineout and the maul wherever I can," he explains. "We kept things the same. We spoke about it and decided it didn’t need a lot of change, and we didn’t want to change a whole lot.

the table at tonight's opponents Edinburgh, who are just three points behind after a good run of form. "I think it’s home and away consistency. We haven’t been performing away as we do at home," Dundon states. "Obviously we do enjoy playing at home in front of our supporters, but we have to find that balance and bring that competitiveness and consistency we have at home into our away games. That’s the players preparing as well as they can and making sure they bring that performance. "But we don’t want to look behind us, we want to be looking forward and how to catch the top two. We don’t want to finish third, we want to finish as high as we can, so we’re just looking ahead of us at another win that would bring us closer to the two ahead of us."

"There’s a couple of areas we thought were really critical to us and needed improved, and we’ve been working really hard on them for the last two weeks. It wasn’t about change, it was about what’s important to us and what needs to get better quickly." That begs the question: what did need improved? "Line speed and tackle technique are two things," Dundon continues and somethings in the set piece. We need to show more energy going out and enjoying being out there and showing that energy in every aspect of the game.

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