Best foot forward in fight for bonus wins

The Ulster hooker acknowledges the pressure is on to gain two bonus-point wins over Aironi but, as he tells JOHN O'SULLIVAN, this will not be easy

RORY BEST will bring a hard-nosed pragmatism to the pitch at Ravenhill tonight. Outstanding for Ireland during the World Cup, he is well aware Ulster need to rediscover a ruthlessness and accuracy that has largely been missing in recent performances.

The bald challenge for the Irish province is two bonus-point victories over Aironi in the back-to-back fixtures that would allow Ulster to go into the New Year with a genuine entitlement to dispute pool honours in the Heineken Cup.

Clermont Auvergne left Belfast with a point (16-11), while Ulster didn’t manage to secure anything from a trip to Welford Road in their two tournament outings to date. Their form since the game against the Leicester Tigers has been a concern but tonight offers an opportunity to better represent the talent in the squad.

Best admitted: “We know that it’s going to be difficult and we know that they (Italian teams) are no longer the pushovers that they were three to five years ago. (Benetton) Treviso set a new standard for Italian rugby in the league. Aironi, with the amount of players they had at the World Cup, well it’s only a matter of time before they start clicking.

“There is a lot of pressure on us with the way the group sits. It’s shaping up we probably need to get more than just eight points from these two games but if we go out with that attitude and get a little bit loose Aironi are the sort of team that can turn us over. We all saw last season when Biarritz (Olympique) got turned over in Aironi it really opened the door for us to get back into that group.”

The hooker and totem acknowledges Ulster can not be cowed by the challenge: a wishy-washy attitude won’t suffice. Victory over the Scarlets in the league last time out provided a much-needed confidence fillip as it provided a sliver lining to the clouds that hovered following two disappointing defeats, to Leicester (20-9) and Glasgow (17-9).

Best reflected on those two setbacks: “I think going into Europe you want to have a little bit of form behind you, certainly results behind you are important. We’d come off the back of two losses, which was disappointing; the way those games panned out they were very similar.

“With 10 or 15 minutes to go we were not only very much in the game we felt we probably should have been ahead. We could have gone on to win both games. The most disappointing thing was instead of pushing on, we ended up with nothing and that was probably the hardest thing to take.

“We’ve got back to winning ways, even though it wasn’t a vintage performance (against the Scarlets). We went 10-0 down but did what we had to do to make sure we got the win.”

He pointed to the general disappointment felt in having wrested control almost allowing the Welsh side back in, admitting “it could have turned out to be a little bit embarrassing at the end.

“We have to make sure when we come up against Aironi, if we get four or five chances, we have to score four or five tries; that is where we need to be. We need to make sure we’re top of this group at the end of December and equally so at the end of January.”

On a personal level, Best is arguably playing better than at any time in his career, something he attributes to one or two lessons from the World Cup.

“The attitude of the whole squad was let’s go and enjoy it. It’s a professional sport, it’s important to be professional but sometimes you can go away from the fact that it is a sport and you should be there to enjoy it.

“The World Cup made me realise you have to enjoy your rugby, be professional in all you preparations but at the end of the day it’s about enjoying your game and that is what I have tried to bring back into the Ulster performances; I hope it is paying dividends. I’m feeling good within myself, I’m enjoying playing, I love playing for Ulster and thankfully it is showing on the pitch.”

No argument there.