THE TOUGH GRIND

Grinding out wins is an art.

Leinster made a habit of it in their glory years under Leo Cullen and Brian O’Driscoll. Same with Munster under O’Connell and O’Gara. It was how those teams reached the lofty heights of being championship-winning teams: they could force the results they didn’t deserve.

At the Sportsground on Saturday night we saw that Ulster have evolved to a team that can grind out those close results.

They had no right to win that game, and neither did Connacht – the two sides had played each other to a rugged stalemate and had effectively cancelled each other out for 75 minutes, with a draw probably the respectable result between them. But Ulster were not about to let their winning run come to a halt.

It is said that rugby is just as much about a team’s mentality as much as their physicality, and that shone through for Ulster. They had that mental fortitude carried over from a week ago in the Stade Ernest Wallon to know that the game was not beyond them even going into the last few minutes and it was a simple strike move off the back of a scrum that set Luke Marshall through who was then able to recycle for Nick Williams to score.

It was poetry in motion. The move was slick, the recycle was rapid and Williams’ awareness to see the gap at the bottom of the ruck was top quality. Ulster may not have had a player on the field with the status that the likes of an O’Connell or an O’Driscoll would have, but they had something better: a united squad belief that they could still cross the line.

Once they did it was inevitable that Ulster would win, both because there were just three minutes left on the clock and also the fact that Connacht’s heads dropped as soon as the try was awarded.

It added that degree of professionalism to a dogged performance that is a very important win away from home in the league. Connacht spurned two kicks at goal earlier in the game and Ulster made them pay with the late blow, and they now sit fourth in the PRO12 table four points better off as opposed to just two and they have their mental belief to thank that that is the case.

And not only that, but the momentum continues to build. No, the performance was not perhaps up to the same standard as that of the two games against Toulouse, and the coaches and players are probably the first to admit that, but the win is just as important and as credible. Remember, that’s two unbeaten home records Ulster have broken in successive weeks, and this one was just as hard fought as the one in France.

It is crucial for Ulster to keep this momentum up, both for their own sakes and for the sake of Irish rugby.

With Leinster destined to miss the quarter-finals of the Champions’ Cup, and Munster more than likely joining them based on their current form, it is up to Ulster to fly the Irish flag alone in Europe. That means it will probably take two bonus point wins against Top14 basement dwellers Oyonnax and probably a losing bonus point away to Saracens as well to get there, and it will require their continued momentum to propel them to those three results.

On current form Ulster will make the quarter-finals handily. Unless Oyonnax pull one of the shocks of the year by sending out a full side for either game then a side of Ulster’s quality are more than capable of taking all ten points on offer, and armed with a stronger knowledge of their opponents and a more settled team they can give Saracens a real good game in London.

But their recent found form has been built on a strong squad ethic and a belief that all players can play their part.

With an injury list like Ulster’s, grinding out wins is a vital necessity as we face important games that will define where we are as a club heading into the New Year. It’s been a crucial part of both Leinster and Munster teams that have won trophies in the past and it is a sign that Ulster are building and becoming a team that know how to win ugly, and possibly a few trophies on top of that.

By its very definition, it isn’t pretty. But it is pretty effective.

SEASON'S CELEBRATIONS

As the festive season approaches, there is little goodwill on the island of Ireland.

Ulster’s brilliant double over Toulouse aside, last weekend’s round of Champions’ Cup fixtures just furthered the belief across Ireland that there is a widening gulf between the provinces and their counterparts from England and France with both Leinster and Munster losing at the hands of superior opponents in Toulon and Leicester.

Leinster find themselves in European wilderness – bottom of their pool after four rounds without a single win to their name. And it’s not for a lack of effort either, they put up brilliant efforts in both Bath and Toulon and they looked in relative control of Saturday’s reverse fixture against Toulon in the Aviva Stadium, however on all three occasions they fell just short of what was required of them.

Toulon are almost unplayable, even when out of form, as they are simply able to replace like for like when it comes to matches. What other side can replace Juan Smith with Mamuka Gorgodze? However Wasps proved that a disappointing Bath are easily beatable at the Rec if played correctly (they struggle to counter-act the power game) and that makes Leinster’s loss there all the harder to take.

In fact there is a genuine possibility that Leinster could end up whitewashed in this pool stage if they aren’t careful. Not to the detriment of their Pro12 hopes one should think, but if they cannot front up against Bath and Wasps, especially away in Coventry, then they will be on the receiving end of one of their worst ever pool performances in the modern era. Not exactly a positive reinforcement for Leo Cullen as a head coach.

Axel Foley isn’t faring much better either.

Armed with a fly-half who can’t hit a barn door or control a back line, Foley has to be sympathised with. Munster haven’t looked vastly inferior to Leicester in their two games against them and yet somehow they find themselves back in Limerick licking their wounds and without a point to show for their two skirmishes against the Tigers.

Munster are suffering from a lack of leadership more than anything else: while CJ Stander has stepped into the role admirably in Peter O’Mahony’s absence, they miss the Ireland flanker’s influence in the back row and what he brings to the team. On a bigger scale they miss Paul O’Connell’s legendary status in the second row, although of course there is little they can do about that. That is no slight on Mark Chisholm who has done well since his arrival from Bayonne, but the loss of O’Connell is now proving massive.

Unlike Leinster they do still stand a mathematical chance of making the quarter-finals – a bonus point win away to Treviso is more or a less a given these days and should they get their act together for the trip to Stade Francais in three weeks then they will be in with a shot of a best runner-up spot if they can then replicate that a week later at Thomond Park. But Munster now walk a very thin line regarding their Champions’ Cup hopes.

Unlike Ulster.

For the second week in a row it was a case of using the right tactics against Toulouse by the Ulster coaching staff and it paid off handsomely. Stuart McCloskey and Luke Marshall were once again magnificent as a centre pairing, Ruan Pienaar was a deserving man of the match as he controlled the game from scrum-half and his half-back partner Paddy Jackson showed a return to form again.

That does disservice to the rest of the team because, again, it was a remarkable performance by numbers 1 to 23. Perhaps Ulster’s success will be a shot in the arm for the rest of Irish rugby, especially when you look at Ulster’s injury list and how they’ve been able to overcome it and pull out those two results the last two weeks. Results that suddenly propel them from European oblivion back into European reckoning.

It doesn’t necessarily make them favourites to win the tournament, but in the knock-out stages anything is possible.

We’re back to Pro12 duty this weekend with a festive foray down to Galway on Boxing/St. Stephen’s Day, and it’s looking increasingly like it won’t be two full teams taking the pitch at 6pm – theirs due to injury, ours due to choice. There’ll be a danger to overlook the Pro12 in favour of the Champions’ Cup, and that is a danger that was Leinster’s downfall last season. While I am confident Ulster won’t fall foul of the same danger, there does need to be a focused mindset this weekend.

Merry Christmas one and all – and a happy St. Stephen’s Day!

BACKING IT UP

It’s time for Ulster to stop dreaming and start believing.

Before the game on Friday night if you’d asked anyone at the Kingspan Stadium if they really thought Ulster were going to triumph you’d probably have found very few who would respond positively. When you compared the two squads – the international stars of Toulouse compared to the injury ravaged Ulster team – there were very few areas for home fans to be positive. And yet by the end of the game everything had been turned on its head.

If that wasn’t a flawless performance then it was pretty close. In the build up to the game Les Kiss had put a lot of emphasis on shifting Toulouse back and forth across the pitch to tire out their big forwards – the Johnstons, Tekoris and Dusautoirs – and it was a tactic that worked wonders. No more than 15 minutes into the game some Toulouse players were already huffing and puffing and once the tries began to flow the heads dropped too.

What was even more impressive is that you can’t fault any player on the Ulster team for their effort in the victory. Where seasoned heads like Best, Pienaar and Trimble led from the front by example, it was the young players like McCall and O’Connor (whose performance makes you wonder where he’s been so far this season) who brought the performance together with stellar outings in the white shirt.

Man for man, Ulster were excellent.

And as I said, they must now start believing that the quarter-finals are not beyond them. Last year we picked up the five points at home to the Scarlets and then went out to Llanelli and left with nothing – this year we come off the back of one of our best ever European results and we must back it up otherwise it was worth nothing.

But this team is good enough to do it, and they have proved it time and time again. McCall, Best and Herbst have formed a front row that is strong enough to stand up to one of the strongest front rows in the Top14, Nick Williams looks to be hitting some fantastic form this season (sadly a little late for our liking) and our backs are lethal when they are given the ball to play with. When it all comes together, combined with the correct tactics, this team can be fantastic.

What a win on Sunday would do for our confidence and our quarter-final prospects. From what looked like European oblivion, hope has sprung eternal and there is suddenly a real chance that, if we can pull off one of the most remarkable double-header wins, we could actually reach the last eight. In the midst of Irish turmoil, Ulster would reign supreme.

And they would breathe life back into the Irish set-up.

After the Saracens defeat a month ago there was a lot of disappointment and Kiss and Best talked about how they knew that was not the true Ulster and it was a terrible night at the office. And based on what we witnessed on Friday night there is a sense that Ulster are getting close to what Kiss envisioned when he took over a few months ago.

Certainly if you look at the mindset currently in the Ulster camp as opposed to Munster and Leinster there is no comparison. Ulster are riding a personal high, while Munster fans are not confident in their team’s ability to get out of their pool after they were handed their Saracens-equivalent defeat by Leicester on Saturday night and Leinster are all but out after their loss in Toulon. Ironically it is Ulster who now probably have the best chance of qualifying for the latter stages of the tournament.

A lot has been made of the shortcomings of Irish rugby over the last few months, particularly the state of the provinces, but Connacht have gone a long way to prove that a homegrown team can still be a potent threat, while Ulster look to be putting up a good fight in Europe – and in a one-off game there is every chance that they could sneak an away win in the quarter-finals.

I’m not saying the IRFU’s problems have suddenly been alleviated by one good performance in Europe, but perhaps it suggests that things aren’t as bad as they seem. That said, let’s wait until the return leg at the Stade Ernest Wallon on Sunday before jumping to hasty conclusions – defeat there and we’re right back where we started.

European Oblivion.

NECESSARY ROTATION

While watching the Dragons defeat Munster on Sunday afternoon, I was perusing through Twitter when I came across two tweets from Sunday Times journalist Stephen Jones.

The first read:

“Dragons/Munster unspectacular yet compelling considering how weakened the teams are. But Pro12 needs full sides blasting each other, weekly.”

Quickly followed by:

“This is tempting providence but with Tyler Morgan Jack Dixon and Hallam Amos back @dragonsrugby are good enough to climb the table”

Ah Stephen my friend, were it so easy.

I shall ignore the context that Stephen also appears to have forsaken, in the fact that Munster were well off colour in that game and that the Dragons were the better side, and also ignore the fact that this is a journalist who has spent most of his career flaunting the success of the English game. His knowledge of the PRO12, expert as he may claim, is limited.

In that form I shall address his two tweets in order.

Firstly, I think it is worth pointing out that the Aviva Premiership is not exactly full sides blasting each other weekly either. Saracens, for example, went to Newcastle on Sunday without the likes of Chris Ashton, Owen Farrell, Richard Wigglesworth, Schalk Brits, Alistair Hargreaves and Jacques Burger. Surely the mighty English champions Saracens wouldn’t be rotating, would they? For shame!

This is a season where, due to World Cup commitments, there are 16 consecutive weeks of rugby for PRO12 teams to traverse and no player could play all 16 weekends without facing some sort of burnout by the end. Rotation is a necessity, especially this season of all seasons, and all teams will go through it at some point.

And that leads me on to the second tweet – in the Dragons’ case the likes of Morgan and Amos are already first teamers, but for the likes of Munster’s young guns would they get their chance if it wasn’t for rotation? How much game time do you think the likes of Jordan Coghlan, Rory Scannell and David Johnston would have received this season already if it wasn’t for the World Cup and the policy of rotation?

In fact, as the time has gone on I’m warming to the policy of rotation.

Kyle McCall epitomises the benefits of rotation – drafted in due to the absences of Callum Black and Andrew Warwick against the Dragons at the start of November, McCall has taken his chance with both hands and has gone from strength to strength with his man of the match performance against Edinburgh last Friday his best game for Ulster so far. In fact, his meteoric rise is more than likely going to see him start against Toulouse on Friday night, a just reward for several great turnouts in a white shirt.

Same goes for Josh van der Flier down in Leinster. Amongst a raft of brilliant back row talent, van der Flier has been rotated into the squad and has excelled on the openside, a position that Leinster have struggled in a bit with the loss of Sean O’Brien to injury. If Leo Cullen moves Jordi Murphy to his proper position of 6/8 and focuses on putting van der Flier as O’Brien’s immediate back up then there is huge potential for him.

But this is the only way to go for the Celtic sides when you look at how they are struggling in Europe – we can’t compete with the immense strength in depth of the likes of Toulon (whose inside centre options are Ma’a Nonu, Matt Giteau and Maxime Mermoz to make a point) so giving these young players a chance is the only way that we might someday be able to compete with the mass spending of the English and French.

So there you go Stephen. Maybe the PRO12 isn’t two full teams going hell for leather at each other every week, but the policy of rotation that we’re all having to adapt is working wonders for most sides in the long term. I’m sure McCall, van der Flier and many others will be thankful for their chances, and having these players at their disposal will undoubtedly be beneficial for the provinces in years to come.

And one other thing to remember Stephen: the Premiership isn’t exactly flawless either.

WEST WAGING WAR

There is a battle a-brewing in the Emerald Isle.

While Leinster and Ulster slugged to an 8-3 bore-fest at the RDS Arena on Friday night, Connacht produced another in their line of excellent performances to take their first win at Thomond Park in 29 years, defeating Munster 18-12 with outside centre Bundee Aki excelling and scoring a remarkable late try to make sure of the win.

And it means that Pat Lam’s men still lead the way not only in the Irish pecking order but in the Guinness PRO12 too, and deservedly so it must be said. Admittedly they have benefitted from not being as badly affected by the World Cup as other sides have been, however they have carried that momentum through and Saturday night’s result confirms that they are here to stay as a force in the PRO12.

Lam has coached them extremely well and finally the Galway men are emerging from beneath the shadows of Leinster, Munster and Ulster to try and dislodge the tag of being “Ireland’s fourth province”. They made considerable strides last season and came very close to making it into the Champions’ Cup, but this season they are playing rugby that makes them look like they are genuine candidates to finish in the top four of the PRO12.

And in some way they are something for the other three provinces to look up to.

While Connacht are playing the exciting expansive rugby that Lam has brought over from New Zealand, the rest of the provinces are floundering in their wake. The World Cup will have had a detrimental effect on Leinster, Munster and Ulster, and Ulster and Munster will have had an added setback having missed a game during the Champions’ Cup, but even so Connacht’s play seems to be a step up on anything the other three can produce.

Ulster in particular are struggling for some attacking impetus having scored just one try in their last three matches with Friday night against Leinster the latest in their efforts to cross the try line.

Yes they have come up against two of the most resolute defences in Europe in the form of Saracens and Leinster, however for two weeks Les Kiss’ men haven’t even looked like coming close to crossing the try line, and with the dangerous backs at their disposal that is a massive problem. The Kingspan residents will undoubtedly be counting down the days until Charles Piutau touches down in Belfast.

It really is hard to pinpoint where Ulster are falling so flat though, because on paper they should have all the pieces they need to play a strong running game and yet they seem unable to do so. It was a backline featuring an international half-back pairing, an international centre and two international wingers and yet between them they could only make one significant line break all game. And, ironically, of all of them it was the uncapped Peter Nelson at full-back who looked most dangerous.

The likes of Rory Scholes and Sammy Arnold wait in the wings to be given a chance to add a bit of a spark to the Ulster back line, but with the games coming thick and fast and all of them just as important as the next there won’t be too many chances for them to make their mark. Like Kyle McCall, if they are given a chance then they will have to take it with both hands.

Friday’s defeat combined with other results now means Ulster have slipped to seventh in the PRO12 table and out of the Champions’ Cup qualification places. By the end of the season that should change, of course, but even so it isn’t a nice position to be in at any stage. However you do expect Connacht, Edinburgh and the Scarlets to slip up somewhere along the line and let us back in. That said, you can’t rely on hoping for others to mess up – you have to do something about it yourself.

And that starts with a big result against Edinburgh on Friday.