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.