Ulster Rugby vs Leinster

ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN FREELANCE JOURNALIST AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST @RODNAWN1

Tonight’s match may be the opening skirmish of a much longer battle to follow over the next nine months, but the coaches and the players who will be involved – from the start or off the bench – will want to put down a ‘marker’ for the season, and Ulster against Leinster always has a rather special flavour, some would even say frisson! But what is certain is that the serious business starts here. The pre-season training has been, by all accounts, innovative, strenuous if enjoyable, and while many of us basked in the sun abroad or sheltered in the grey holiday skies closer to home, the Ulster squad has been gradually working towards what we, the supporters and observers, ultimately judge it by: the performances and successes. The qualities by which the team is always measured are no less expected in a ‘friendly’ than in the white- hot fervour of a Top Four encounter or vital European tie: imagination, cohesion, determination, focus and the ability to create, entertain and react to adversity. Neil Doak sends out a side this evening which will bear his unmistakeable imprint, and that will reflect all those qualities. As a player and as a coach he has always been associated with an attacking mind- set, but acutely aware of a team’s need to maintain concentration, to impose its authority and its talents on the game, and to use its intelligence to respond to the unexpected. So often the refrain is ‘get the basics right’, and it is a truism. Ulster expects those to be a ‘given’ and to see structures which allow the individual to flourish and stand out, but all in the overall cause of the team. Over the next two games anticipate many players we have grown to trust and respect to line out with new faces, some recent or current products of the Hughes Insurance Academy, and together they will be challenged to provide a convincing basis on which the competitive year can be launched when the always threatening Ospreys draw a full house to Kingspan Stadium on Friday 4th September. The work has been done, the playing pool prepared, all that remains to be done are making some ‘tweaks’ and the polishing of some partnerships and various game plans. Leinster has similar motivations, and it is a province designed to succeed. On the pitch and in its management are people hoping to make an impression. Just like Ulster.

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