Ulster Rugby vs Leinster

ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN FREELANCE JOURNALIST AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST @RODNAWN1

It is all-too-easy - and missing the long-term point – to apportion reckless blame to players, coaches or the Club’s support systems: the ingenuity of Neil Doak as, first, backs coach since 2009 and then as Head Coach since 2014, is admired widely and for many his departure after ten selfless years with the senior squad is more than disappointing. A player with a great vision of how the game can and should be played, his coaching pedigree is unquestionable and he’s surely going to contribute massively to the sport for a long time. Queen’s will benefit significantly from his return next season, and the students will know that ‘Doaky’ will cajole, inspire and insist in equal measure. A dressing room of attacking backs could be filled with those in the present and recent groups at Kingspan who attribute much of their personal success and development to his lively, inventive guidance. Allen Clarke’s prowess as an international hooker has been translated into his primary coaching role with the forwards, and testament to his talents is the Ospreys’ successful pursuit to install him at the Liberty Stadium. These are people who have been thoughtful, ingenious members of the management and their personal commitment has been astonishing to witness at close quarters. Doak and Clarke will not have dwelt on their imminent departures but rather will have drawn everyone together on and off the training ground this week with one thing only in mind: the defeat of Leinster by sending out 23 players who will give their all and apply their talents intelligently but belligerently on behalf of the side and the fans they have always been themselves. Whoever lines up for Leinster this evening will have been studied intensely, and Kiss and his charges are acutely aware of the quality of a side which has overcome an early-season wobble to flourish under Cullen and his kiln-fired, perhaps under-estimated assistant, Lancaster. With an apparently endless seam of quality performers such as Isa Nacewa, Joey Carbery, Robbie Henshaw, Gary Ringrose, a youngster called Sexton, a McGrath here and there, Tadgh Furlong, Cian Healy, Zane Kirchner, Rhys Ruddock, the retiring Mike Ross and so many internationals, whatever line-up takes to the pitch today will be sternly determined to prove their credentials as the Guinness PRO12’s best. Tonight’s fare will be combative and fiercely competitive, for these are two sides with immense

mutual respect for each other. For Leinster taking ‘the foot off the pedal’ with those ‘semis’ beckoning will not be an option, while for Ulster what more valuable ‘scalp’ could there be than that of the league leaders and the most traditional of rivals. In its own right this match deserves the full-throated attention of the Kingspan faithtful, and what a competitive reward it would be, and evidence of just what the calibre of resources here are, if a home win was registered and a ‘marker’ laid for the challenge which awaits in August when arguably the most critical season for over a decade gets underway. The Barbarians are yet to visit in June, and that will be another opportunity to impress, and to pay fulsome tribute to the departing genius that is Ruan Pienaar and to Roger Wilson, that most dogged of competitors and much under-rated for his rugby intelligence in the dark corners of the scrum, ruck and maul. They, like others, have served Ulster well and deserved more tangible success, but they have contributed in huge measure to the development of a modern professional club which is amongst the best in Europe and will soon show that again. For now, though, raise the roof at Kingspan Stadium and see the Ulster of promise become real. Even for just this one closing PRO12 evening.

ROD NAWN

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