Bowe backed to impress in Ireland’s Six Nations bid

HOOKER Rory Best believes his Ulster colleague Tommy Bowe could play a major role in Ireland’s Six Nations Championship bid.

Best has recovered from an ankle injury to push for a place in Eddie O’Sullivan’s 22-man squad for the opening game against Italy but yesterday he saluted Bowe for his endeavours in Ulster’s dismal season.

“Tommy has played every minute of every match for Ulster this season; he has played very well, is certainly one of the stand-out players in what has not been a great season and has kept his standards very high.”

Best also pointed to Andrew Trimble, saying he was one of a small group of Ulster players to maintain top form through a troubled campaign.

“These two boys have been good every week; they’re the stand-out guys from the back seven,” he said.

But Best was hedging his bets in relation to his own future. “There is pretty intense competition for places in many positions, not least at hooker. Bernard (Jackman), has been a key figure for Leinster in the Heineken Cup and he’s pushing everyone for recognition.”

But Best was pleased with Ulster’s upsurge in form in the last few weeks and, he said, the defeat apart, he was delighted with the Heineken Cup display against Gloucester at Kingsholm last week.

“We came off the pitch thinking that it was a game we could have won; there weren’t too many games this season when we were so disappointed. I think that display was more in keeping with the talent in the side,” he said.

Without any disrespect to former coach Mark McCall or caretaker coach Steve Williams, Best believes that the Kingsholm performance could well have been masterminded by new coach Matt Williams from afar.

Williams will link up with the province at the end of this month, but has already told them of the necessity to boost confidence after a bad run.

“He has stressed that we must be more united as a team. Obviously, when you lose a tried and tested coach, there are an awful lot of fractions there. Matt has come in and tried to unite us with the one common goal of getting positive results. We knew last week that we needed to perform, not just to impress him but to do something for ourselves,” he said.

Best has no doubt that he will be ready to face Italy if O’Sullivan gives him the nod today. “The ankle feels fine; it was scary at the time because I didn’t immediately know the extent of the injury.

“I got a good 60 minutes in against Gloucester and there were no complications afterwards. I’ve got through all of the training sessions this week and I feel fine, ready to go,” he said.

Another man ready to impress is Leo Cullen, although the intensity of the challenge for places in the second row is a massive hurdle to overcome.

Cullen, who returned to Leinster from a stint with Leicester Tigers a much improved and tougher player, has been given a lot of the credit for that improvement.

“When you’ve been in a different environment you learn different ideas and I came from an environment where they placed massive emphasis on set pieces. A huge proportion of the week is spent on set piece organisation and you can see it in their game, the way they play.

“A lot of English teams are forward-orientated and I guess I learned things over there that I wouldn’t have known before I went there.”

In terms of his own chances of surviving O’Sullivan’s cull (11 of the present squad will lose out), Cullen was pragmatic, saying: “I’d love to be involved, I missed the World Cup and everyone knows that Paul O’Connell would have replaced one of the four current locks if he was fit.

“I don’t know where I fit in, but I do feel I have a lot to give the squad and the team. I’ll just have to await my fate though.”

Come what may, Cullen has no regrets about returning home. “The Leicester experience was a great experience, but there were things I missed about Ireland, one of them being my involvement with Leinster. That was a massive part of my life before I went away and it’s a great privilege to play for them again. I’m not sure whether I was out of mind being away, but being seen in action every week is an added bonus.”

Even if Cullen fails to make the cut, he will row in with his support of Ireland in the forthcoming championship. He believes the World Cup will be forgotten. “It’s history,” he said, “people were disappointed but it’s water under the bridge and all you have to do is look at the current form of many key players to conclude that Ireland will launch a serious challenge.”