Ulster Rugby vs Connacht

It’s the Yuletide season, where tradition insists we should all be of good cheer, but undoubtedly the next week will be more bountiful, in rugby terms, for some more than for others. REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL

This evening’s clash of protagonists Ulster and Connacht continues a long history of Inter- Provincial battles, but in this inaugural Guinness PRO12 year the sides have perhaps never been so well-matched, the fixture never more unpredictable. Neil Doak’s squad is emerging from a bruising – literally and metaphorically – sequence of games in the league and in the Champions Cup, solidly positioned in a PRO12 table which is crowded with genuine challengers. Amongst them is the side from the West, ‘under new management’ too, with Pat Lam, of Samoan and Kiwi legend, shaping a side as rugged and deft as he was in both hemispheres as a player. After years of internal IRFU debate as to how Connacht rugby could best be served – and that, at one point, seemed to suggest its ‘relegation’ to a development region only – the Province has emerged as a strong, viable sporting and business entity. Resources have been strengthened, on and off the pitch, and after good work by Michael Bradley and Eric Elwood the coaching and management structures are forward-looking and bearing fruit. Much of the side’s current success as a credible challenger in the PRO12, and as a real contender in Europe’s Challenge Cup this season, can be put down to the impact of Pat Lam’s personality: the qualities of hard work, commitment, complete dedication to the cause marked him out as an outstanding back-rower who never took a backward step. Whether as captain of Samoa during three World Cups, and as an All Black, or playing for Crusaders with fearsome tackling and ball- carrying. He’s built a team in Connacht nit unlike his own image. He’s used native Western talent more effectively than most, and he’s recruited well from the Southern Hemisphere, and the Connacht pack is no longer one to be taken lightly. Behind the scrum there is flair aplenty, with Robbie Henshaw, record try-scorer and skipper Miah Nikora, free and inventive runners. Lam demanded that any idea that Connacht would be the ‘whipping boys’ of Irish rugby be banished, and there is a confidence and momentum in a shrewdly-assembled squad which has seen Leinster, Munster and Ulster put to the sword. Flanker Faloon, despite serious injury woes, is highly-rated by his coach and would be happy to show the Kingspan crowd that at 28 he still has plenty to offer at representative level.

Over the holiday the four Irish Provinces meet each other in what are now truly competitive fixtures, with rich rewards the prize in the league. Those games come at a vital stage of the rugby year, at the halfway stage effectively, and advantage gained in the next few weeks could be key to the race for a top four finish in the PRO 12, and coaches will be focussing hard on the five months ahead and even beyond. Connacht’s European Challenge Cup campaign seems likely to yield a quarter-final spot, and Lam will be aiming for automatic promotion to the Champions Cup next season. For Ulster the league is unquestionably the priority now, though the European challenges in Toulon and against Leicester in Belfast next month will be important on several fronts, not least – hopefully – in seeing returns to action from injury for players such as Andrew Trimble, Paddy Jackson and Iain Henderson. Ulster supporters can look to 2015 with some confidence despite recent reverses in the Champions Cup, for with a full, fit squad there are few better-resourced squads in Europe. Doak, Jonny Bell, Allen Clarke and Niall Malone have not used injuries as excuses for some disappointing results, but with a ‘full deck’ the coaching team will expect and prepare for a storming few months. Summer recruits Franco van der Merwe, Wiehahn Herbst and Louis Ludik have quickly shown their pedigree and they will be key figures in the first months of the New Year as Ireland collects its Ulster contingent for a protracted Six Nations programme. But with Ruan Pienaar back and determined to make up for sadly lost injury time in the autumn, the omens are good. At this juncture in the calendar it’s normal to reflect, and for Ulster few can deny that it has been a year of some change, a wonderful new stadium, surprises and, yes, tumult. But the club is now such a successful playing and business entity that it can, and has, absorbed the comings and not insignificant goings, the injury plague and other unforeseen challenges. So, be of good cheer indeed, it is a season to be very merry – and to be

ROD NAWN

optimistic about Ulster Rugby, its players and those responsible for polishing and sustaining one of the Province’s sporting jewels. The call for 2015? Bring it on!

42

ULSTER RUGBY

www.ulsterrugby.com