Ulster Team Talk Thread III: Les Miserables SEE MOD WARNING POST #1924 + #2755

Was just reading the thread on UAFC about the season ticket meeting with Bryn Cunningham and a few other staff last week. It seems the meeting did not go well, or at least the atmosphere in the room was fairly toxic. The overriding theme seems to be anger from ST holders at Logan's cowardly disappearing act and sending out a backroom staff member to answer questions on his behalf. Some supporters got up and walked out mid-meeting.

On what Bryn actually said:

- There will be no change to the management structure. IRFU have forbidden this. The same people will be running the show. This did not go down well.

- Two players have signed elsewhere (Piutau and Black I assume)

- Squad is to be pruned and deadwood (he used this word) shipped out

- Greater emphasis on academy

- D4 will pick the new DoR/HC (again)

- NIQs have been disappointing (he used this word). Piutatu has been brilliant, unlucky with Coetzee. It appears Van der Merwe has been told he has to offer more if he wants to stay, but he was scouted based on his time at the Lions when apparently he was part of a dominant scrum (yea... right)

- Munster wanted to keep Deysel, IRFU wouldn't allow it. Ulster hoped to get 50 minutes a game from him. Like Van der Merwe has been told more is expected.

- 140 applicants for the head coach job (139 of these are probably Eddie O'Sullivan)

Apparently the night went downhill when the floor was opened to questions. Someone got up and said that Logan promised we'd be the best team in the world, 9 years later we're not even the best team in Ulster. :pac:

The feeling in the room about the lack of structure change was overwhelmingly negative. It seems like the entire night was negative. It seems the media guy wheeled out to answer questions was not at all popular.

It does seem that everyone is just fed up with the bullshit.

bilston wrote: »

Kearney would be a good signing. Although does he start in a first choice back three?

It might suggest Gilroy will be seen more as a 15. Although a lot depends on whether Payne makes it back, but that seems unlikely.

11 Stockdale
14 D.Kearney
15 Gilroy

23 Lyttle/Ludik

Ludik will be the only full back on Ulster's books next year capable of playing there against anything other than Pro14 dross. I am assuming Payne is gone tbh.

We need to sign someone but I'd prefer a full back than another winger who can cover fullback.

There was another meeting with Bryn Cunningham tonight, I'm just copying directly a post from UAFC from someone who was there. Highlights are mine on things I found interesting.

Coaching-
IRFU will be involved in the appointment as they pay his wages. Joe Schmidt will get involved down the line, Ulster are making their own shortlist but IRFU already have an up to date list because of Erasmus and van Graan. There will be a large long list before it will get wittled down (has already been inundated with e-mails from agents) Criteria they are looking for is for someone who can rebuild the culture of Ulster as Bryn feels there has been a loss of identity in recent years. Wants someone to be direct and clear with experience of bringing through young players. They don't want someone to come in and demand to get everything they want now with lots of foreign players because that will be detrimental to the future. No timescales as of yet when the appointment will be made.

NIQs-
All NIQs must fit through the IRFU programme and their succession planning. IRFU are always budgeting towards the future, why it can sometimes be difficult to bring in NIQS of quality when it doesn't fit in with the IRFU plan. Normal procedure when signing players if that they look at his most recent 6 matches with coaches and see his quality before talking to the agent. Went into a bit more detail regarding our current players;

Coetzee - No real playing research required, everyone knew how good he was. At the time the decision was Coetzee or Vito, Vito wanted to come but his wife had already been living in France for a year and wanted to stay. Said they would have preferred Coetzee anyway due to his physicality, just very unfortunate how it turned out with his injuries.

Deysel - Botha failed an independent medical, especially after Coetzee's issues they didn't want to take a risk on another player with knee issues (though he said that he seems to be tearing up trees with London Irish at the moment). Regarding Deysel, Munster were not allowed to keep him despite wanting to. Bryn feels he is not performing at all and could get an awful lot more out of him.

van der Merwe - Limited footage available as when he joined Montpellier it was as a medical joker and due to an admin error they had too many jokers and therefore could hardly ever play him. Then he went back to South Africa where the only spot open was at the Kings. Relied more on the footage of his time at the Lions where he was at the forefront of a dominant scrum. He feels we have had not a good return at all out of him and called him disappointing.

Piutau - X Factor signing, felt it was required as Trimble, Bowe and Payne would be away alot with Ireland. Had an excellent first season (didn't say much about this season)

Fundamentally feels we should have 3 top class foreign signing to supplement what we have already.

Current Squad-

Should come in 5 categories;

NIQs - As stated already not a good return on the current recruits
Over 30s - should be the experience backbone of the squad. Only Best is a guaranteed member of the squad. Everybody else has tailed off. In comparison, Leinster would have had 7 in this bracket (now 6 with Heaslip's retirement)
26-30s - This is where there is a huge gap for us, only 2 players fall into this bracket. Basically stems from the lack of players coming through between 06/07 - 09/10. Only Darren Cave fell into that bracket of players coming through in that period.
20 -25 & Academy - Huge amount of talent coming through

Academy -

Main issue is the forwards coming through which is why 14 of the 21 in the squad at the moment are forwards. Wanted guys with a harder edge and more competitiveness. Likes of Dalton, hall & Dunleavy exemplify this, they are different, have real hunger. Felt Willie Anderson has made a big difference in this regard. Group behind them are equally strong, namechecked Lowry, Stewart and Hume. And the group behind that there is real talent in the outside backs with lots of pace like Aaron Sexton who has qualified for the Commonwealth Games while still at school. Want to have sustainable success in this area, not just 2 or 3 years of good and then 2 or 3 years of bad. Have to keep it going.

In terms of mindset, felt we are behind Leinster in this regard. They are all very competitive with each other while we are not at that level yet. Jackson is a significant loss but even with the injuries and unavailability we should be better than we are. Don't necessarily have to be from Ulster to help deliver this culture, if we had 15 Ludik's in our team every week he would be delighted.

Questions then opened up on the floor;

On youth teams;

Between Ireland U18, U19 & U20 level there are currently 30 Ulster players in the various squads, up from previous years. Feels there is better talent ID going on through Michael Black and they currently are at u-16 level where they start identifying players but this is under review when the likes of Saracens actually go to u-14. Fells that sometimes we have too many in our system and maybe we should just be concentrating on the best of the best. Is encouraged by the current IRFU succession depth chart, previous years players have been getting caps but maybe were only 3rd or 4th on the chart, now he is seeing lots of names at the top of the chart. We shouldn't be scared of picking up Leinster youth players who don't get picked up by them, especially with their advantage in schools and population. Also remarked that Munster and Connacht have more Dublin players than we do.

Feels pack next season will be better even if we did not sign any more players. Felt Jordi was exceptional when he came on against Scotland, will hope to get Marty Moore will be back to his Leinster fitness and that Coetzee will make a major difference. Even though he said he didn't want to call some of our squad "deadwood" or "journeymen" (moreorless what he called them), he wants them cut from the team and to have Academy players as 3rd choice in each position.

Q on letting players go too early;

Steenson - Was going nowhere in the Academy at the time. When Humph was here he had no interest in coming back and is happy in Exeter.
Whitten & Farrell - Not enough game time is why they left
Seymour - Bowe & Trimble ahead of him in pecking order.

Made a remark that none of these players will be back at the moment but might change down the line.

Q on money for players;

Difficult to weigh up remaining debt free v making team competitive. Feels they are £500k to £1m short of being truly competitive. Going from 5 to 2 central contracts will bring a £600k to £700k hit on finances.

Q on Nucifora;

Feels we do well on getting foreign players in, Munster and Leinster complain about this. Still feels Ruan being let go was a mistake but can see the logic as Cooney has arguably been player of the season. One area we can do better in is securing more money from IRFU.

Q on signings;

Never heard of Metuisela Talebula, there will be players who are under contract who will be leaving us.

Q on Ravens/A Team;

Was seen as a laughing stock. Wanted to make it more important and feel more connected with senior team. There was an arrogance of seniors who were dropped down into it, not the case anymore. Now showcases the best of the Academy, especially now it is under the control of the Academy.

Q on Review;

Feels like a glass half full kind of guy. Will be more difficult to bring players in if in challenege cup as we will be less attractive. Not really the case for coaches as they would like the challenge.

Q on coaches;

Will need to be inspirational, in a way will not need an unbelievably technical coach but someone who can deliver energy and enthusiasm.

Q on the trial;

Feels this is a watershed moment, strong programmes are now in place for this sort of thing and a full review will be carried out at the end of the trial.

Q on injuries;

Payne still unavailable. Will not return in immediate future, IRFU doing all they can to get him back (Bryn did not sound very confident this will happen). Coetzee "better be fit" for the start of next season. Wants to get Angus Curtis involved as quickly as possible, McPhillips must treat these last few games as a big learning experience.

Q on Jackson/Olding;

No matter what happens we will have an experienced 10 in next season. Has absolutely no idea what will happen with them after. Has been an absolute nightmare trying to plan for next season with this hanging over everything. Do they sign a 10 but then PJ gets off and then the squad will be lopsided? Decision will have to be made soon on what to do, will be a risk either way.

Other tidbits;

Henderson is in very advanced stages for his central contract, we are looking at trying to get a Loosehead prop, 2nd row and a back 3 player. On Dave Kearney we are not signing him "at this moment" (I noticed his specific use of language here). Mark McCall will be signing a new contract with Saracens so will not be available.