Ulster Rugby vs Bath

Ahead of the Heineken Champions Cup clash against Bath, we caught up with Stuart McCloskey to reflect on the Clermont game, to chat about skills training, team cohesion, and to look forward to today’s game. STUART McCLOSKEY

with different weights of balls too, so Dan keeps everyone enthusiastic about working on skills. That’s why you will have seen players showing extra parts to their game.” This training development is just one of several factors which the 27-year-old feels has been behind Ulster’s resurgence this season. “I’m sure the extra skills work has helped in a way; it’s an accumulative thing, isn’t it? The work Jared Payne has been doing with us in defence has been great this season. Roddy Grant and Dan McFarland’s work with the forwards has been going from strength to strength as well. Everything is coming together now; we aren’t the finished article but are moving towards it.” The Bangor Bulldozer’s longstanding partnership with Luke Marshall in midfield needs little explanation, but there are other units within the squad becoming more established, such as the Cooney – Burns half-back pairings. That cohesion from game-to-game is something that he relishes. “Speaking for Luke and myself, our partnership has been going for 4 or 5 years now. There’s still a lot for us to do together but we work well and communicate with one guy covering the other. That’s when we really thrive; we know what each other is going to do in attack as well.

Although the defeat to ASM Clermont Auvergne last Saturday was a disappointing result for the powerhouse centre, Stuart McCloskey was encouraged by many facets of Ulster’s performance. “When you go away to one of the best teams in Europe, you’re going to have to take your opportunities when they come; we didn’t do that and we let them come into the game too much. There were a lot of positives to take – we controlled the game well for large periods. “I don’t think the score line fairly reflected how much we were in it – at one point it was 16-13 with fifteen minutes to go. It shows how far we have come that going over there, we’re expected to get the win, or if not, be very close to winning. We’ve really come on in the last couple of years.” The squad is encouraged by the coaches – including Skills Coach, Dan Soper – to try new things and add extra dimensions to their skillsets; something which McCloskey has fervently embraced. “Dan Soper has us working on lots of different areas and keeps it interesting. We could be kicking one day and offloading the next. We work on a variety of passing drills

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