Springbok influence can act as springboard

HEINEKEN CUP POOL FOUR: THEORIES ABOUND as to why South African players find the creature comforts of Belfast appealing. By and large the Afrikaner and Ulster Protestant are like minded, God-fearing souls. They share troubled histories. They are direct, honest, hard-working, no frills folk. Take your pick.

Stereotypical tosh.

But Brian McLaughlin is the coach, who is currently up to his oxters in Springbok talent and facing into a monster of a Heineken Cup pool. Four South African accents currently colour the background around Onslow Parade, with a fifth, Stefan Terblanche, still negotiating such matters as the compulsory English language test and an array of bureaucratic skips and jumps – all very normal.

It was lock Johann Muller, 31, who this week sat alongside McLaughlin as captain and natural leader of Ulster. The eldest son of a farming family and former Springbok skipper, Muller along with the injured Ruan Pienaar, Pedrie Wannenburg and the now Irish qualified Robbie Diack, marks the province as a welcoming home for the wild geese of Bloemfontein, Mossel Bay, Durban and Nelspruit. Muller, though, is no dirt-kicking oink.

“I have obviously played my rugby in Durban for the last 11 years and that’s very far from the family farm,” he points out.

“What I really enjoy about Belfast are the people. It’s very laid back. I don’t see it as a city. It’s not that big. There’s no major traffic jams and life is just really relaxed. It’s not a big rush. Everything is on the back foot a bit and that’s the way I enjoy life.”

South Africa relaxed the policy regarding their international players picking up on lucrative contracts overseas and the fruits of that are clearly visible as Ulster face into Clermont Auvergne today, a match that can define their European season.

But the South African link reaches back a decade to Alan Solomons, the former assistant coach of the Springboks and head coach at The Stormers and Western Province. A qualified solicitor, Solomons was the first to make an impression at provincial level when he arrived in Belfast in 2001.

He led Ulster to a three-year unbeaten home record in the Heineken Cup and in 2003 won the then Celtic Cup. An articulate man in the mould of Jake White, he brought in South African players Robbie Kempson and Warren Brosnahan to kick off the love affair.

But at club level Ballymena had been cooking up the connection for many years before that. In 1996 the club of Syd Millar and Willie John McBride appointed former South African international Nelie Smith as director of rugby. When Smith departed compatriot Andre Bester arrived and remained in position for three seasons before going to Harlequins.

During that time the club had 12 players on the Ulster side that won the 1999 European Cup.

In 2004 Steph Nel took up the post, following Australian Tony D’Arcy, and Nel was immediately replaced by another South African, Jaques Benade.

When Ulster emerged from their pool last year for the first time in over a decade, many people paused to ask how they could have allowed themselves to remain on the periphery for so long. But it was a triumph of sorts and in that quarter-final defeat to eventual finalists, Northampton, one third of the team, Pienaar, Muller, Wannenburg, Diack and BJ Botha were South African born.

With their overseas column, Ulster would like to think they can kick on from that peak, making today’s match pivotal. But the sheer player power of Clermont has added to anxieties for most of the week. Before the French announced their team yesterday, McLaughlin had only a notion of what select band of internationals would line out.

“You’re not just 100 per cent sure what way they are going to turn up, who they are going to play or what they are going to do,” he says.

“(Aurelien) Rougerie and (Morgan) Parra didn’t play last week so it’s difficult to judge. Obviously they can have (Brock) James and David Skrela at 10, so you just have no idea of what they are going to turn up with.”

He now knows it is captain Rougerie and Skrela.

Muller was more certain but like McLaughlin, certain of just one thing; that Clermont and their 28 international players will expect to win.

It’s certain too that for the preservation of Ulster hopes of emerging from the pool two years running for the first time since they won the tournament in 1999, their needs are the same as Clermont’s expectations.

“Look obviously I think they’re a quality outfit. The type of rugby they can play and will come and play here ... we know what’s coming,” says Muller. “We know they will come here and play with passion and try to dominate up front. We all know the French have try scorers who can create something from nothing. We know exactly what’s coming.”

Muller warms to the challenge and no doubt the 2007 World Cup winner’s medal adds the can-do confidence that Ulster may have lacked in seasons before. In that respect Pienaar’s absence is huge in a pool that alongside Leicester and Aironi, is more tricky than last year.

“Yeah, it is more difficult,” says Muller. “There really is no question about it. We play Clermont and then we play Leicester, who after Toulouse are probably two of the most consistent and successful sides in Europe in the last 10 years.

“Yes incredibly tough but we set ourselves goals at the beginning last year, you know that we want to improve as a group. As a team every single year we need to get out of our pool and that’s our target and obviously if we want to do that we need to start this weekend with a win at home. If we lose at home it’s going to get very, very tough for the future so it’s all about this weekend for us.”

The South African influence Muller plays down, his professional instincts and captain’s armband perhaps recognising that it’s not always a bright practice to separate one group of players from the rest of the team.

“When you come to a new country,” he says. “For myself and Ruan and Pedrie and Stefan, who has still to come, it’s all about fitting into a new system.”

No frills, no complications from the World Cup winner.