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.