THIRD TIME UNLUCKY

The signs had been there, and Ulster finally paid for their wastefulness.

Against the Dragons and Glasgow, in spite of Ulster’s inability to get over the line more times than they did, Les Kiss’ men got away with spurning their opportunities. The Scarlets were a lot less forgiving and, unlike the Dragons and Glasgow, had the quality in their squad to hold Ulster out and wrap up four points they deserved.

Or maybe to put it better, four points that Ulster didn’t deserve.

You hoped that with a full week of training together that Ulster would look a lot more competitive than what they did in their previous two games, even with Rob Herring out injured and with Ruan Pienaar sat on the bench, but in the end their defence was too narrow to cope with the dangerous running of DTH van der Merwe and Michael Collins, and their composure in the “red zone” was once again non-existent.

By the end of the match even the scrum, which had been perfectly level up until this stage, had begun to struggle and you knew that the hosts were not going to go the full length of the pitch to win the game. As much as you willed them to, Ulster never even crossed their own 22 metre line before Stuart Olding lost the ball, ending a frustrating afternoon.

And yet that was exactly what the writing on the wall was suggesting was coming unless Ulster improved. The Dragons and Glasgow games should have been enough warning that unless there was vast improvement then Ulster would slip up somewhere along the line, and now they have handed four points to a play-off rival as the race for the top four heats up.

It’s a costly four points to lose.

It is impossible to pinpoint any individuals on whom to rest the blame, this was a team failure. How a team with aspirations to finish in the top four of the PRO12 managed to spend two long spells camped on their opponents’ five metre line only to fail to score a single point from either attack is ridiculous and is where most of their issues stem from, with the weak-as-water defence following close behind.

I can’t quite work out if it is funny how the exact same issues that plagued Ulster against the Dragons two weeks ago still plague them now (and have finally cost them), or if it’s simply just painful. What has been done to rectify those issues is also unclear – we still persist with the same tactics in the opposition 22 that are clearly not working and our defence is starting to leak tries at an increased rate, something that was saving us in previous encounters.

No longer is the Kingspan Stadium a fortress either. Munster have stormed it already this season, Saracens took five points from it (albeit in exceptional circumstances) and both the Dragons and Glasgow came close to taking a result away from it too. Not for the first time this season the atmosphere inside the Kingspan Stadium fell a long way short of what we know it can be, and it can be argued that was reflected onto the pitch.

All is not lost, however.

Despite the defeat, Ulster still reside in fourth place in the league and they still have a favourable run-in towards the end of the season with two games against Zebre still to come as well as the potential to harm Connacht and Leinster when they make the trip to the Kingspan Stadium in April. So to write them off as top four contenders on this one defeat would definitely be an over the top reaction.

No, Sunday’s result was not ideal, but if anything it will be a reality check for this Ulster team – they are not invincible and if they continue to put in these sub-standard performances then they will be found out, especially whenever they don’t have the home comforts of the Kingspan Stadium to fall back on. This weekend’s trip to the Cardiff Blues will be a real test of Ulster’s mental resolve.

For that trip, Les Kiss will need to work the players hard to get back into a state of mind where they are in a position to overcome the Blues on Sunday. If they can then the demons of a week previous will be exorcised and with a few other results potentially going their way then Ulster will be right back in the mix at the top of the table.

A top two finish is still there for us, we just need to knuckle down and grab it.

MAKING IT COUNT

It was rumoured for weeks and now it has arrived.

Safe to say Ulster haven’t let us down either. They promised someone that would be on a par with the incoming Charles Piutau (who, by the way, was magnificent at the weekend) and they delivered. With 28 caps for the Springboks and having been awarded the Sharks captaincy for the upcoming Super Rugby season in the absence of Pat Lambie, this boy has a sparkling CV at the young age of just 24.

It is a warm Ulster welcome to Marcell Coetzee!

With his ability to play anywhere across the back row (although his main position is blindside flanker), Coetzee’s versatility will be a very useful addition to our squad. Not only does it allow us more flexibility in our back row selections but it also gives us the ability to blood a few of our Academy back rowers like Lorcan Dow and Nick Timoney while moving Coetzee around to accommodate them.

On top of that we have him long term too, and a lot of credit has to go to Bryn Cunningham for convincing him to sign for three years as opposed to the standard two. Coetzee has gone on record saying that it was a hard decision for him to leave the Sharks so for Bryn to sell Ulster strongly enough for him to commit three seasons of his career to us speaks volumes of our recruitment process.

It also fills a much needed hole in our squad after the departure of Nick Williams (although one suspects he was let go after Coetzee signed). It’s likely that Coetzee, for the big games at least, will be the one to fill Williams’ spot at the back of the scrum, and he’s certainly a quality replacement for the big man.

And now Ulster are faced with a very competitive squad going forward, one with which they can match most other teams in Europe with. Coetzee will provide more than just a ball carrying ability from the back of the scrum with his work at the breakdown exemplary too, while Piutau adds another phenomenal option to our already talented back line.

I mean, look at our options.

In the centres we have Stuart McCloskey, Stuart Olding, Darren Cave, Jared Payne and Luke Marshall all to fit into two positions (three if you include the bench). You don’t have to be a mathematician to work out that five doesn’t go into three. It’s impossible to choose which two miss out as well, all five are remarkably talented footballers that deserve to start for us.

Then you have the same problem in the back three: Piutau, Andrew Trimble, Tommy Bowe, Craig Gilroy, Peter Nelson and Louis Ludik all fighting it out for four spots on the team. Again, six does not go into four and two excellent options will have to be left on the sidelines. It’s fantastic to have such depth at our disposal though.

With such a competitive squad, Ulster should now be aiming for trophies.

The money that the French and English clubs can throw about may keep the Champions’ Cup out of reach (never say never though) but certainly next season Ulster will have the best starting line-up in the PRO12 by some margin – what other side can boast their foreign stars as South Africa’s starting scrum-half, a Springbok back row and a Kiwi full-back who should have been at the World Cup?

In fact, it would be a shame with the players that Les Kiss has available to him if Ulster didn’t pick up their first trophy since 2005. If they did it would be just reward for Ulster’s recruitment team for the exceptional job they have done in luring Piutau and Coetzee to Belfast, and it would mark another stage in Ulster’s development as a top sporting organisation in Europe.

Coetzee’s arrival marks a lot more than just a step in the right direction for Ulster, his arrival signals intent on our part to make it back into the European elite. With our squad looking remarkably more complete with the Springbok at the back of our scrum, there is no excuse for Ulster to now be right in the mix come the end of the season, and that goes for in Europe too.

All they have to do is make it count.

HARD-EARNED POINTS

Another week and another display of mental fortitude for Ulster.

Last week it was overcoming a poor first half to fight back and gain what was an unlikely four-try bonus point away to Treviso. This week was a completely different story as we had to show great strength of character to hang in until the bitter end to see off an in-form Dragons side and grab all four points let alone four tries.

I don’t think I am the only one who thought that Friday night would be a formality and by the end of the game Ulster would be sitting comfortably atop of the PRO12 table, probably with a two-point cushion. But in truth the game was anything but a formality and it goes to show how valuable it is for the Dragons that they have continuity within their side even through the international periods. While we lost four players to Ireland, the Dragons lost just one and it showed.

Their attacking patterns were fluid, their defence was robust and they looked like the more complete team. Had their maul defence and discipline been slightly better then perhaps we would be looking back on Friday night’s game in a different light.

But should we look back on it in a different light just because Ulster won?

Certainly it prevents us from immediately jumping to the knee-jerk reactions that would have undoubtedly followed had that final penalty not gone over, but when you do look at the game in general it wasn’t Ulster’s greatest performance by any means. The Dragons did play well and were a handful but Ulster didn’t cover themselves in glory either.

There were several times where the wrong decisions were made in attack and we sent isolated runners into the Dragons defence and we were punished for it. There was no attempt to suck in the visitors’ defence before going wide, we decided instead to crab our way across the pitch and as a result we never looked like we would break through. Defensively, for the first time in a while, we also looked rather frail which is very uncharacteristic for this Ulster side.

Ultimately, however, we did pick up four points and that was down to a brutally effective rolling maul and the continued rise of Sean Reidy. The maul, which was the catalyst for last week’s win too, was in powerful form and is quickly becoming a weapon for us against most teams while, in the absence of Chris Henry, Sean Reidy has become one of our key players recently with his breakdown work improving every week. He has been one of the breakthroughs of the season so far.

And where would we be without Paddy Jackson.

I wrote a few weeks ago about how much the 24-year old had grown as a fly-half and how much control he now exerted over the game, and Friday night’s cameo off the bench showed he has added yet another string to his reliable bow – composure. The mental strength for Jackson to put that second penalty over, especially after missing the first one, proves how resilient the young man has become.

Ironically we shouldn’t even have had him for the game, he definitely should have been away with Ireland and should have featured against Wales in some capacity. Joe Schmidt’s inability to select the form Irish fly-half for Sunday’s game was without a doubt Ireland’s loss and Ulster’s gain. Jackson has done everything he can to be considered for international honours and if he isn’t given a run in the green shirt before long then it is a grave error.

For all my negativity, we still have to look at this as a positive that we have overcome an opponent that proved to be a lot trickier than we thought they would be and have risen to the top of the PRO12 standings. We have an accessible run of fixtures to the end of the season and we should be able to make a genuine run at finishing in the top two, especially with no European distractions.

And then, of course, our final hoodoo has to be broken at some point.

CHANGES

For all the negativity Ulster get for their performances in Treviso, they’ve never actually lost at the Stadio di Monigo.

Yes, their results have tended to be very close, but Ulster have never actually been on the wrong side of the scoreline any time they go to play Treviso in Italy. Ironically, the only time they have been on the wrong end of the scoreline against Treviso was at Ravenhill a few seasons ago.

In the first half of Saturday’s game, you thought that record might be broken given how the game was panning out. Ulster had resorted back to their ineffective kicking game, they were making far too many errors in key areas and they were slowly losing the forwards battle too with the Italian scrum looking the slightly more menacing in their early encounters.

At half-time you were thinking, “Oh no, here we go again.” Another away performance where we play like a team thrown together on the morning of the game and told to make a go of it. That we were three points up on the scoreboard at the interval was a minor miracle in itself and I’m not sure many supporters had any confidence that we were going to be able to hold onto it.

Yet in the second half everything changed.

The driving maul started it all off – the one in midfield gave us the confidence that we had their number up front and then we were able to apply the pressure in the corner that sent Sean Reidy over for the opening try. From there the floodgates opened and after some good fortune (Sam Christie, that pass was never the right option) we had our bonus point win. A very welcome change to the two point nerve-wracking results we’re used to in Italy.

It is refreshing to see that even with most of our internationals absent we are a side capable of racking up the important wins. Games in Italy may not look all that difficult or important on the outside, but when you consider our record over there and how the game was looking at half-time, you suddenly realise that picking up that fourth try might prove to be incredibly vital come the end of the season.

Equally refreshing was the fact that we had two Academy players making their debuts too in Lorcan Dow and Jacob Stockdale. Dow especially was impressive coming on from the bench and making a real impact with some good strong ball carries, and you would say he was probably in for a debut try too had he not overrun Darren Cave’s pass by a matter of millimetres. With strength like that though, you would imagine he won’t have long to wait for his first five points in a white jersey.

The second half mentality and performance level must be maintained during the Six Nations.

That was the difference between Saturday’s game and previous years in Treviso – we were able to turn things around and put an inferior team away, whereas in previous years we looked like we were being dragged down to the Italians’ level. In the second half there were no passengers, every man went out and ensured that from the depths of a poor first half we pulled out an incredible try bonus point win.

The Six Nations is where a team’s league campaign can be made or lost. If a side can successfully navigate their five or six games while they’re missing their internationals then they should be well set to finish somewhere in the top four, and that must be Ulster’s minimum aim with a top two place well within their reaches.

With no European rugby to concern ourselves with (which I still maintain could be a positive come April/May) our only focus is the PRO12 and if we can come out of the Six Nations still in a strong position then we should, at a minimum, be aiming for the top two and then the PRO12 title at Murrayfield in May.

The blend of experience and youth works well – the desire from the young players to do well in the white shirt is nothing short of admirable and if Dow can pick up where he left off from Saturday then he looks like a handy addition to the back row, while Stockdale and Shanahan should also be getting several chances too and so far they’ve looked pretty good too. If Les Kiss keeps up on his promise of giving youth a chance then there’s a good chance that enthusiasm will translate into the results too.

And that’s most definitely a good thing.