Ulster Rugby Annual Report

Emerging Talent In a little over twelve months Ulster has said good-bye to some of its longest serving and most experienced players with a total of over one thousand six hundred caps. Replacing such talent is never easy, but the performances in the Ulster side of some of our young Academy and Development players have been more than a little encouraging. Sixteen such players played at least once for the Ulster side during 2018/19. Academy player Marcus Rea’s only appearance was against Leinster at Kingspan. In a memorable debut, he scored the winning try and received the ‘man of the match’ award. Seven players played ten or more matches with the two props Eric O’Sullivan and Tom O’Toole leading the way with twenty six and nineteen appearances respectively, while hooker Adam McBurney played ten times. In the backs, Angus Kernohan, Michael Lowry, Robert Baloucoune and James Hume all made their debuts, finishing the season with a combined total of fifty nine appearances. This would suggest that the future is bright. A full list of appearances can be found in the Appendices at the back of the report. Women’s Rugby It is pleasing to note that the Women’s game continued to grow, with more teams coming into the leagues and some Clubs having enough players to field second teams. Additionally, next season there will be two Ulster teams in the Women’s AIL. The appointment of Pamela Stevenson as chair of the Women’s Committee has had a very positive effect, and the publication of the IRFU Women in Rugby Action Plan 2018/23, has identified

strategic objectives to grow and develop the Women’s game over the next five years. I have no doubt that Pamela and her Committee, with the assistance of Branch staff, will work tirelessly to meet those objectives. It is vitally important that having published the plan, the IRFU make the necessary resources available to facilitate its implementation. Coleraine Issue The decision of USRFR to boycott Sandal Lodge at the start of the season caused considerable disruption, not just to Coleraine, the target of the action, but also to their opponents, who had absolutely no involvement in the original issue but were unfairly disrupted nevertheless. A number of affected Clubs contacted the Branch to request, or in some cases demand, that they be allowed to fulfil their fixtures as arranged. While the problem was ultimately resolved and the boycott ended, one fundamental issue remained. The action highlighted the fact that the Ulster Branch, which is responsible for the organisation and completion of hundreds of matches every year, does not have a single referee at its disposal. All referees are members of and answerable to the USRFR and the Branch, effectively, has no authority over that body or its members. Consideration therefore must be given to the appropriateness, or otherwise, of the current relationship between the USRFR and the Ulster Branch. The Management Committee has now received and accepted the report from the review group which had been asked to consider how instances of non red card abuse of referees were dealt with. On the basis of its findings, the Branch will work closely with the USRFR to put agreed measures in place in an effort to ensure that such a scenario will not be repeated. At the core

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