Home-boy back to his roots

Tommy Bowe can breathe a sigh of relief now that Ulster have confirmed their new head coach for next season.

Two days after signing with the IRFU and sealing a three-year deal that will take Ireland’s try-scoring machine back to his beloved Ravenhill for the next three seasons, Ulster yesterday appointed Mark Anscombe to carry on the foundations laid by the outgoing Brian McLaughlin.

It concludes a decent week of business for the northern province and the arrival of New Zealander Anscombe will have allayed Bowe’s concerns that he may have been leaving a Welsh region in flux at Ospreys and joining an Irish province in similar straits.

Speaking at Ireland’s Carton House camp ahead of tomorrow’s penultimate Six Nations match of the season against Scotland, Bowe declared he knew nothing about the identity of McLaughlin’s successor but had been assured of a bright future for Ulster by director of rugby David Humphreys.

“It was a concern, it definitely was,” Bowe said.

“One of my big issues was that in my playing career I’ve never really felt part of a settled squad.

“When I went to the Ospreys [in 2008] they were going extremely well under Lyn Jones. They thrashed Saracens in the LV semi-final, went on and beat Leicester in the final and should have beaten Saracens in the quarter-final of the Heineken Cup.

“They were really booming and all of a sudden Lyn got dropped and a new coaching structure came in. It’s kind of been a little bit all over the place and it was the same at Ulster whenever I was there. They’d Mark McCall, Matt Williams.

“I was a little bit wary but Humph is still there, the senior players are still there. That decides a lot of things around the pitch and I think a new coach coming in will be a strong thing for Ulster.”

With a settled squad comes a realistic chance of adding some team success, something that Bowe felt was always just around the corner and tantalisingly out of reach at Ospreys.

“Building and development is a buzzword in the Ospreys, no doubt. You only have to look at the young players that they have got coming through.

“I suppose the likes of James Hook and these guys were coming through a few years ago but unfortunately Hooky has now moved on and it is time for the new breed to come through and try and take the reins there.

“I think they will be a very successful team if they get everything right there and I think Steve Tandy will be a good coach, he is in touch with a lot of the young fellas and he has some great ideas. But you have a few older fellas there as well who are probably thinking ‘development is maybe not what I am about and I want to win things now’.”

That would certainly appear to be as Bowe believes Ulster are the province to get him on the winning trail, despite being tempted by Munster.

“I think I was fairly clear in my mind if I was coming back that I would go to Ulster. They’re my home team. Obviously I get on very well with the other guys in the other provinces and they’re playing great stuff but Ulster have shown in the last year or so that they’re making great strides so I’m delighted to get back involved with them again.”

There were suggestions of a move to Munster and Bowe admitted he had briefly considered and swiftly discounted a move to England or France.

“I was aware that Munster were interested in me, yeah,” he said, “But it would be difficult to go to another province.”