BKT-URC Ulster Rugby Match Day Programme v Cardiff

ULSTER
DETERMINED
TO BANISH
THE BLUES
Guest Article: Rod Nawn
which is Leinster.
There have been ‘tweaks’ to the anticipated
staring fifteens in recent months. Billy
Burns’ departure for Munster in the summer,
which in itself is a blow, has meant that in
recent weeks Nathan Doak has slipped into
the out-half role, and his partnership with
the remarkably consistent and classy John
Cooney has been promising.
That the two players of genuine quality
have vied most often for the scrum-half
spot are now accommodated in the team
is a positive but Doak is bound to wonder
if his personal ambitions will be fulfilled
at No.10. His kicking game is excellent,
his invention reminiscent of his father
Neil, and with Cooney the team has two
outstanding place-kickers.
The imminent departure of Springbok
When we gathered last at Kingspan
Stadium Ulster appeared to stem the flow
of negativity with a thumping win over
the Dragons.
Head Coach Dan McFarland had just left his
post and his assistant Dan Soper supervised
that welcome victory.
Then the squad flew long-haul to South
Africa with Richie Murphy now installed
as interim Head Coach, and though the
games with the Sharks and Stormers were
competitive just one bonus point was culled
from a traumatic period of the season.
The dramas around Kingspan Stadium
continued while the players and
management sweltered in the southern
hemisphere, chief executive Jonny Petrie
and his employers parting company by
mutual consent.
New management and changes of coaches
followed, and Petrie and McFarland did have
the CVs to signal renewed supporter fealty.
Both men have left their footprints, in part
visibly in the nature of the pitch and of the
team which cannot have been immune to
the welter of commentary on the turmoil at
Ravenhill Park.
Yet somehow, after yet another ‘plane trip,
the Champions’ Cup failure ‘reward’ was a
European Challenge Cup tie in Montpellier,
and Murphy opened his winning account.
The man who guided the Ireland U20s to
successive Grand Slams then had just a
week before another trek to Clermont,
where Ulster’s protracted and disappointing
European campaign ended with a
comprehensive defeat.
And in a way, with the last few weeks of
turbulence, tonight’s resumption of United
Rugby Championship ‘hostilities’ with the
visit of a Cardiff team not exactly realising
its potential either, Murphy and his players
can reset for the five-match run-in to the
end of the regular season.
The ambition will be to hold on to – indeed
to improve – eighth place in the table and
therefore extend the campaign into the
play-offs in May. In years gone by, whatever
the ultimate disappointment, Ulster would
expect to be contesting for the leadership
of the league. But as its fortunes, on and
off the field, have declined so too has its
reputation for being amongst the very small
group who could reasonably expect to
challenge the hegemony of the steamroller
World Cup winner Steven Kitshoff means
we will not have benefitted fully from the
prop’s gifts in the front row area. Returning
to South Africa less than a year in Belfast
is probably for a fusion of issues, but we
certainly have not seen the very best of his
proven qualities.
He misses tonight’s game through injury,
and the Ulster cause is hardly helped by
the absence of skipper Iain Henderson,
hooker Rob Herring, the utterly reliable
Nick Timoney who have ell returned from
France with ‘knocks.’ International all, these
are players who have provided some of the
brighter moments in their careers in Belfast,
and injury too has ruled out the versatile
and developing back Stewart Moore.
Still, the cliché that this provides
opportunities for others to step up and
claim more game-time is somehow apt,
and Cormac Izuchukwu, Tom Stewart,
David McCann, for instance. To grow their
reputations with responsible displays
against Cardiff this evening.
On paper – a surface the teams will not be
playing this Friday evening – the visitors are
themselves in a transitional phase. Though
rarely overwhelmed the fact that the players
have not tasted victory in the URC since a
resounding nine-try win over the Dragons
at the Arms Park on Boxing Day speaks to
head coach Matt Sherratt’s challenges.
Josh Turnbull’s recent retirement was
expected but the back-row was a club
and Wales stalwart for years, and injuries
have denied the side for long periods of
the services of proven operators such
as James Botham, Thomas Young and
Taulupe Faletau, an international centurion
for Warren Gatland with his country and
the Lions.
Next season Callum Sheedy will return to
Cardiff after an impressive spell at Bristol
and current No.10 Tinus de Beer will want to
show this evening that he’s not waiting to
be replaced. His kicking is a real strength in
his game, and when paired with the highly
regarded Tomos Williams the team has a
dangerous and creative half-back unit.
Ray Lee-Lo and Uilisi Halaholo have
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