Ian Madigan already feeling the love at Ulster

Ian Madigan celebrates with Ulster skills coach Dan Soper. Photo by Bill Murray/Sportsfile

Repetition is everything for goal kickers. When Ian Madigan stood over the injury-time penalty that would beat Edinburgh last weekend and take Ulster though to a first league final in seven years he clicked into a familiar gear of processes and thoughts.

Skills coach Dan Soper likes to manufacture pressure kicks in training, pitting all the kickers against each other, and Madigan would have automatically cleared his mind of negative thoughts and focused in on the task at hand.