Ulster ship very much on course

Ulster are familiar foes for the patrons at Leicester’s Welford Road.

Tomorrow, the sides will meet in European competition for the fifth time in just three seasons — with a sixth tête-a tête to follow in January — but the Ulster that appears before them this time is not the entity it was.

The volume of change has been profound. Director of Rugby David Humphreys has decamped for Gloucester — along with prop John Afoa — ex-head coach Mark Anscombe is back in New Zealand while former skipper Johann Muller is tending the family farm in Mossel Bay in South Africa.

The waves created didn’t smooth over until last week when Neil Doak was named as the new head coach and interim keyholder Les Kiss was booked in for a return to Belfast as new Director of Rugby once Ireland’s 2015 World Cup campaign had been put to bed.

In retrospect, the upheaval was dealt with as well as could have been expected.

Ulster have lost just one of their opening six Pro12 outings and leaders Glasgow relinquished their unbeaten start at the Kingspan Stadium last Saturday night. For all the potential turmoil, the ship looks to be still very much on course.

Reaching their desired destination is another matter. Ulster have fashioned themselves into bona fide contenders of late by reaching Pro12 and European deciders, but without managing to take that last step.

It will be Doak’s job to change all that.

“We’ve had pretty continuous success, without getting trophies,” says the former scrum-half. “Maybe over the last couple of seasons things just haven’t fallen into place for us.

“The players have dug in well since the start of the season. We have changed a few bits and pieces over the last couple of seasons. Even with players joining the international system, there has been a bit of change for us. In the past maybe we didn’t have as many players feeding into the international system. It’s been good in a way because younger players have got opportunities. We are just trying to make sure we build a squad that is competitive on both fronts.”

Depth of squad — more so the lack of it — had been Ulster’s Achilles heel for some time and their stockpile will be tested in the coming weeks with players of the calibre of Ruan Pienaar, Dan Tuohy and Iain Henderson among those temporarily unavailable to the new coach.

Pienaar’s influence is almost impossible to overstate. The South African scrum-half damaged knee ligaments playing against New Zealand last month and his abilities, leadership and ability to get the best out of young out-half Paddy Jackson will be missed against Leicester and, possibly, against Toulon a week later.

“Ruan is a quality player and any team would want him in their side,” says Doak.

“With him playing international rugby as well we know there are times when we will have to do without him, but it will be good to get his experience back into the side as well. With Jacko the last couple of seasons moving into the team and the international game as well, to have Ruan inside him gives him that little bit of a buffer, but we have other nines in there doing a job for us at the moment.”

This time they face what, on paper, is probably the most difficult pool with reigning champions Toulon, Leicester and Scarlets standing between them and a fifth successive slot in the quarter-finals.

“We had a tough enough group last year and we were lucky enough to be six out of six. I’d take that now and we’d move on very quickly. It’s about who can take their chances on the day and who has that strength in depth because, if you are playing a level of international rugby every week, or close to it, you are going to need a full squad.”