Ulster Rugby vs Connacht

ULSTER BRANCH

PRESIDENT’S WELCOME

John Kinnear / / President Bobby Stewart / / Senior Vice President John McKibbin / / Junior Vice President John McKibbin / / Honorary Secretary Michael Boyd / / Honorary Treasurer Denis Gardiner / / Competitions Secretary Shane Logan / / Chief Executive Chris Webster / / Domestic Rugby Manager Audrey Robinson / / Financial Controller Fiona Hampton / / H ead of Sales & Marketing

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all here to Kingspan Stadium for this Guinness PRO12 match against Connacht.

However, Ulster has a very strong home record against Connacht. With a number of players returning from injury tonight we can hope for some festive cheer as we aim to finish 2014 with a win. Since Ulster last played at Kingspan Stadium I have been fortunate to have been at both the First Trust Senior Cup Final and the Miller McCall Wylie Junior Cup Final. Congratulations to Ballynahinch and Instonians respectively on their triumphs. Congratulations too to Bangor who have made the All Ireland Junior Cup Final. At the time of writing CIYMS are still to face Dundalk in a semi final replay and I sincerely hope we have an all-Ulster final on Saturday 31st January. Finally, thank you for your support over the course of this year. Enjoy the match and stand up for your Ulstermen!

I hope that you had a Merry Christmas and I want to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year for 2015. At this holiday time I would like to particularly welcome Connacht President, Adrian Leddy, committee members, management, players, staff and supporters who have made the trip from Galway. It has been three weeks since we have had a home game and since then performances have been mixed from Ulster. With qualification from our European pool all but over, focus is now centered on the Guinness PRO12 and claiming a play-off space come May. Our inter-provincial rivals Connacht will provide a stern test this evening. An already strong team has been boosted by the arrival of hugely talented players such as Mils Muliaina and Bundee Aki. We all saw in the Autumn how powerful a player Robbie Henshaw is in midfield and ex Ulster players Willie Faloon and Ian Porter will have a point to prove returning to Belfast.

Yours in Rugby,

Kingspan Stadium, 85 Ravenhill Park, Belfast, BT6 0DG T // +44 (0)28 9049 3222 ulsterrugby .com

John Kinnear // President IRFU (Ulster Branch)

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