Better mental approach is Best way forward

INTERVIEW RORY BEST:The Ulster captain tells Johnny Wattersonhow an attitude change this seaosn has helped the province achieve results in tight matches

THOSE LOOKING for symbols of change in Ulster rugby need not have looked past this week. On Monday, captain Rory Best was in Dublin piping up this year’s Heineken Cup with coach Brian McLaughlin, while his colleague Bryn Cunningham was in Belfast drafting his retirement statement. Injury finally undid the talented fullback, Cunningham, the only remaining active player from Ulster’s European triumph in 1999.

Best leads out a rekindled Ulster, determined to strike out and demonstrate that the form they have brought to early season is sustainable, firstly against burly Italian side Aironi at Ravenhill on Friday night.

This year Ulster need to generate hope and carry through in a tournament they have prematurely departed at the group stage every year since that final win over a decade ago.

That’s 11 years of provincial underachieving in a competition that has incrementally become more difficult to win. The fear was Ulster may never catch up.

Tradition showed they have always left too much to pull out of the fire in the Heineken Cup pool stages. When the squad sat down this season there was a reawakening. Players identified poor areas of their play. They saw they were repeating the same errors. Something had to give.

“The big thing for us has been the tight games,” explains Best. “If we’ve been a couple of points up in the last 10 minutes over the past few years, more often than not we’ll lose those games.

“If we’ve been a couple of points behind with 10 minutes to go, more often than not, we’ll only get a point out of it. That was the big thing we looked at.

“We have to go out and get something from absolutely every single game, preferably a win but if it’s a point, it’s a point. Especially now with the Heineken Cup being such an intense competition, it’s something we found last year – one point makes a massive difference at the end. It’s only six games.

“It’s something that’s been very pleasing this year – in the tight games, we’ve held on and got ourselves wins, or got a draw in Connacht.

“Those are things we might not have done last year. So that has been something we’ve looked long and hard at.”

In Ulster’s favour Aironi are finding their way. Their motivation in the first year is to rattle the competition, make some noise. Doubtlessly they see Ulster as the easiest scalp in the pool and last week against Edinburgh showed how the Italians can cause difficulties in the scrum.

Ulster go in eyes open as they have travelled there in the Magners League and found out how the Italian pack likes to bring it on in a game.

There is no mystery but Aironi have already exported healthy bundles of respect around Europe. Last year’s runner-up, Biarritz, and Premiership leaders, London Irish? Consideration for those pool matches are for another day.

The four South Africans, including recent addition Ruan Pienaar, who made himself known last week by kicking Ulster to a win, have added some fizz. Not only by their performances, the Springboks have also introduced their own style of behaviour off the field and in the practice arena.

“A world-class player arrives at a club and it lifts everyone,” explains Best. “Ruan is one of those boys that when he comes on to the training pitch, you can just see he is very, very skilled. You know he can turn his hand to absolutely anything. That’s exactly what Ruan does.

“In terms of the goal-kicking he puts in all the time. When we are coming in from scrumming sessions he is still at it, out practising his goal kicking, that extra level of professionalism. It’s always going to lift you. I suppose he showed in the last five minutes (against Glasgow Warriors) why we signed him. He picked the ball up and just blasted it into the corner and Glasgow didn’t get out of their 22. That’s what you need to do to close out games.”

The Ulster’s crossroads is a pleasant place to be. The team is beginning to recognise how a match evolves and be content to take the best out of it. More muscle up front, the buzz of Pienaar and greater sophistication in their thinking has opened minds to possibilities.

“It’s an attitude change, a mentality. There’s no point in going away from it,” says Best. “Munster has it. That’s why they’ve won two European Cups in the last number of years. They go away, don’t play well and win. They have set the bench mark and that’s where we want to and have to get to.”

Now at least, they have stepped on to the path.