Ulster Rugby

Ulster Rugby

Nickname(s)	The Ulstermen
Founded	1879 (1879)
Location	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Ground(s)	Kingspan Stadium (Capacity: 18,196)
Chairman	Shane Logan
Director of Rugby	Les Kiss
Captain(s)	Rory Best
Most caps	Andrew Trimble (200)
Top scorer	David Humphreys (1,585)
Most tries	Andrew Trimble (67)
League(s)	Pro12
2014–15	4th (playoff semi-finalist)
1st kit 2nd kit
Official website
www.ulsterrugby.com

Ulster Rugby (Irish: Rugbaí Ulaidh) is one of the four professional provincial rugby teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the Pro12 and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the IRFU Ulster Branch, which is one of the four primary branches of the IRFU and is responsible for rugby union throughout the geographical Irish province of Ulster, comprising six counties in Northern Ireland and three in the Republic of Ireland.

Ulster play their home games at the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast which has a capacity of 18,196. The province plays primarily in white, and the team crest features a red hand within two rugby balls, the red hand being taken from the provincial flag of Ulster.

Ulster turned professional along with its fellow Irish provinces in 1995 and has competed in the Pro12 (previously known as the Celtic League) since it was founded in 2001, having previously competed in the annual Irish interprovincial championship.^[1] Ulster won the Heineken Cup in 1999, the Celtic Cup in 2003 and the Celtic League in 2006.

Ulster A compete in the British and Irish Cup.

History

The Ulster Branch of the IRFU was founded in 1879. Since then, Ulster has been arguably the most successful of the four Irish provinces (the others are Connacht, Leinster and Munster) having won the Inter-Provincial Championship a record 26 times. Additionally, Ulster was the first Irish side to win the European Cup, which they won in 1999 against French side US Colomiers at Lansdowne Road, Dublin. (now the Aviva stadium)

In the amateur rugby union era, Ulster regularly played international touring sides from the southern hemisphere. Their most impressive performance was in the 1984/5 season when they defeated Andrew Slack's "Grand Slam" Wallabies.

Professional era

In the 1998–99 season, Ulster became the first Irish province to win the Heineken Cup. They beat Colomiers in the final at Lansdowne Road (predecessor and still common name for the recently built Aviva Stadium) 21–6. The Ulster squad contained many part-time players two of whom, Andy Matchett and Stephen McKinty, started the final. This Ulster side was coached by Harry Williams and managed by John Kinnear.

From 2001 to 2004, the Ulster team was coached by Alan Solomons, a former Assistant Coach of the Springboks and head coach of The Stormers and Western Province in his native South Africa. It was during this time that Ulster fully embraced the professional era.

Alan Solomons coached Ulster to a three-year unbeaten home record in the Heineken Cup. In the 2003-04 season, Ulster finished second in the Celtic League, only overtaken by Llanelli on the final day of the campaign. Two of Ulster's most impressive achievements in this period were a 33–0 win over English giants Leicester Tigers in the Heineken Cup in January 2004, and winning the inaugural Celtic Cup on 20 December 2003, beating Edinburgh in a rain-soaked Murrayfield final.

In July 2004, Solomons departed for Northampton Saints and Mark McCall, former captain of the province and a member of Ulster’s European Cup winning squad, took over as Ulster Rugby head coach with European Cup teammate Allen Clarke as his assistant. Despite an initially poor start to the season, the two extended Ulster's unbeaten home record in Europe to four years.

In the 2005-06 season, Ulster led the Celtic league for most of the season thanks to dominant forward play largely inspired by Australian import Justin Harrison, New Zealand–born Irish scrum-half Isaac Boss, and a rapid maturing of a youthful home-grown three-quarter line. However, inconsistent late form from Ulster, combined with a late run from Leinster, meant that either of those sides could take the title in the final game of the season. In Ulster's final match against the Ospreys with Ulster one point behind, David Humphreys kicked a 40-metre drop goal to clinch the game and the league for Ulster.

Ulster started the 2006-07 season in fine form racking up a number of victories including a 30–3 thrashing of Heineken Cup contenders Toulouse. However, following an abject display losing 29–13 to London Irish, their season deteriorated with a number of poor performances, including several home defeats, leading to a fifth-place finish in the Celtic League and another early exit from Europe.

The team began the 2007-08 season with a terrible run of form. Mark McCall resigned in November following Ulster's embarrassing 32–14 home defeat to Gloucester in the opening round of the 2007–08 Heineken Cup.^[2] Assistant coach Steve Williams took temporary charge of the team. Under Williams, Ulster had some initial success, however several defeats left them firmly rooted to the bottom of the Celtic League and out of Europe. In December, former Leinster and Scotland Head Coach Matt Williams was named Mark McCall's successor as Ulster's Head Coach. He took charge at the beginning of February 2008, but despite some improved performances, he failed to turn the season around, with Ulster finishing 9th in the 10 team Celtic League.

On 21 May 2009, Matt Williams resigned as Ulster's Head Coach after finishing 8th in the Celtic League that season.^[3] He was replaced by Brian McLaughlin as Head Coach, with Jeremy Davidson and Neil Doak as his assistants, and former Ulster and Ireland outhalf David Humphreys taking on the role as Director of Rugby.^[3]

A new era

The 2009-10 season was the beginning of a new era for Ulster, as they got new management staff, a newly improved Heineken Cup campaign including their first ever win on English soil against Bath Rugby, a new stand at Ravenhill, and new fans as more people started to support the team. But Ulster finished eighth place in the Celtic League again, due to a series of disappointing results in the league since Christmas.

The 2010-11 season was even better for Ulster, as they signed key players including 2007 Rugby World Cup winning Springbok Ruan Pienaar. Ulster reached the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup for the first time since 1999 and finished third in the Celtic League.

The 2011-12 season brought even more success. Ulster beat Edinburgh to reach the Heineken Cup final for the first time in thirteen years.^[4] In the final, Ulster lost 14-42 to Leinster at Twickenham Stadium. In the Pro12, Ulster finished sixth after a disappointing finish to the season. Brian McLaughlin did not have his contract renewed as Head Coach at the end of the season.

For the 2012-13 season, Mark Anscombe was appointed as the new head coach. Major signings included Nick Williams from the now defunct Aironi and Tommy Bowe returning from his four-year stay at the Ospreys. Ulster started the season with 13 consecutive wins in all competitions, making it the longest unbeaten run in their history. It started on 31 August 2012 as they defeated Glasgow Warriors 18-10 in the RaboDirect Pro12 and it ended on 15 December 2012 as they lost 9-10 to Northampton Saints in the Heineken Cup. Despite finishing top of their Heineken Cup Group for the first time since the 1999 triumph, Ulster were defeated 27-16 by Saracens at the quarterfinal stage. Ulster finished top of the Pro12 table thereby giving them a home semi-final against the Scarlets. Ulster defeated the Scarlets 28-17 in the last match in front of the old grandstand before demolition. Due to the redevelopment of Ravenhill, Ulster played the Pro12 final at the RDS Arena in Dublin against Leinster losing 24-18.

The 2013-14 season proved trophyless again. For the first time, Ulster won all their Heineken Cup group games, with away victories against Montpellier and Leicester Tigers being the highlight. They were knocked out at the quarterfinal stage with a 17-15 home defeat to Saracens despite a red card early on to Jared Payne. The Pro12 season was racked with inconsistency and Ulster finished the league season in fourth place. This set up an away semi-final with Leinster, and for the fourth time in four seasons the season was ended by their old foes with a 13-9 defeat. The season ended with the retirements of captain Johann Muller, record appearance holder Paddy Wallace, and flanker Stephen Ferris. Director of Rugby David Humphreys also left the province to take up a similar position at Gloucester Rugby. Following Humphreys' departure, Mark Anscombe was sacked by the province and was replaced by Ireland defence coach Les Kiss on an interim basis.^[5]

The 2014-15 season saw Rory Best return to the captaincy, a position that he first held from 2007 to 2011, after the retirement of the now ex-captain Johann Muller.^[6] Ulster were knocked out of the new European Champions Cup at the group stage. They finished fourth in the Pro12 but lost in the playoff semifinal to Glasgow Warriors.

Neil Doak was promoted to Head Coach and Les Kiss returned to the province after the 2015 Rugby World Cup to take up the full-time Director of Rugby role with the province.^[7]

Current standings

Pro12

2015–16 Pro12
	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Diff	Tries For	Tries Against	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
1	Ulster	14	9	0	5	265	177	+88	34	16	5	4	45
2	Connacht	14	9	0	5	311	260	+51	36	28	5	4	45
3	Leinster	13	10	0	3	284	147	+137	32	13	3	1	44
4	Scarlets	14	10	0	4	303	258	+45	30	30	1	3	44
5	Edinburgh	14	8	0	6	241	195	+46	23	14	1	5	38
6	Munster	13	8	0	5	233	250	−17	25	20	2	3	37
7	Ospreys	14	7	1	6	270	265	+5	27	31	2	2	34
8	Glasgow Warriors	12	5	1	6	242	234	+8	26	21	3	5	30
9	Cardiff Blues	13	5	0	8	289	284	+5	33	33	3	5	28
10	Newport Gwent Dragons	14	4	0	10	231	278	−47	19	31	0	6	22
11	Zebre	13	4	0	9	176	350	−174	19	47	1	1	18
12	Benetton Treviso	14	1	0	13	198	345	−147	20	40	0	7	11
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:[8] number of matches won; the difference between points for and points against; the number of tries scored; the most points scored; the difference between tries for and tries against; the fewest number of red cards received; the fewest number of yellow cards received.
Green background (rows 1 to 4) are play-off places, and earn a place in the 2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup. Blue background indicates teams outside the play-off places, that earn a place in the European Rugby Champions Cup. To facilitate the 2015 Rugby World Cup, there will be no play-offs for the 2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup with the 20th place going to the winner of the 2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup if not already qualified. Plain background indicates teams that earn a place in the 2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup.

European Rugby Champions Cup

Pool 1

Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
Saracens (1)	6	6	0	0	220	73	+147	26	8	4	0	28
Ulster	6	4	0	2	169	109	+60	21	12	2	0	18
Oyonnax	6	1	0	5	99	218	–119	10	30	1	2	7
Toulouse	6	1	0	5	85	173	–88	11	18	0	1	5

Honours

• Heineken Cup
  • Winners: 1 (1998–99)
  • Runners Up: 1 (2011–12)
• PRO12 (Formerly known as Celtic League)
  • Winners: 1 (2005–06)
  • Runners Up: 2 (2003–04, 2012–13)
• Celtic Cup
  • Winners: 1 (2003–04)
• Irish Inter-Provincial Championships
  • Winners: 26

Colours and crest

The flag of the Province of Ulster

The current crest was introduced in 2003. The new, stylised crest is made specific to Ulster Rugby as it incorporates the red hand with two rugby balls.^[9] The Ulster Rugby crest is on all official club merchandise including replica jerseys.

Ulster's home kit is primarily white.

Sponsors

Home ground

Kingspan Stadium

The Kingspan Stadium, known as Ravenhill Stadium until 2014, has been the home of Ulster Rugby since 1923. It has hosted two Rugby World Cup matches and several Ireland national team matches.

The first redevelopment of the stadium was finished in 2009 with the opening of the New Stand.

Due to the increased support of the team in recent years, the redeveloping continued in the stadium. Two new stands have been built at the Aquinas and Memorial ends of the ground. The old grandstand got demolished in order for a new, modern stand to be built, which saw its first use in the Heineken Cup quarterfinal against Saracens on 5 April 2014. The reconstruction of Ravenhill was completed in early 2014 and the stadium was officially opened in May 2014 at a Pro12 match against Leinster.^[10] The reconstruction increased the capacity of Ravenhill from around 12,000 to 18,196. The stadium is now capable of hosting European Rugby Champions Cup quarterfinals and Pro12 finals.^[11] The new Aquinas Stand houses a new training centre for Ulster.

Current squad

2015–16^[12] Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union John Andrew Hooker Ireland Rory Best (c) Hooker Ireland Rob Herring Hooker Ireland Paul Jackson Hooker Ireland Jonny Murphy Hooker Ireland Callum Black Prop Ireland Wiehahn Herbst Prop South Africa Ricky Lutton Prop Ireland Kyle McCall Prop Ireland Ruaidhrí Murphy Prop Ireland Bronson Ross* Prop New Zealand Andrew Warwick Prop Ireland Peter Browne* Lock England Iain Henderson Lock Ireland Alan O'Connor Lock Ireland Dan Tuohy Lock Ireland Franco van der Merwe Lock South Africa Robbie Diack Flanker Ireland Willie Faloon Flanker Ireland Chris Henry Flanker Ireland Conor Joyce Flanker Ireland Sean Reidy* Flanker New Zealand Clive Ross Flanker Ireland Frank Taggart Flanker Ireland Nick Williams Number 8 New Zealand Roger Wilson Number 8 Ireland

Player Position Union Paul Marshall Scrum-half Ireland Ruan Pienaar Scrum-half South Africa Paul Rowley Scrum-half Ireland Ian Humphreys Fly-half Ireland Paddy Jackson Fly-half Ireland Sam Windsor* Fly-half Australia Sam Arnold Centre Ireland Darren Cave Centre Ireland Luke Marshall Centre Ireland Stuart McCloskey Centre Ireland Stuart Olding Centre Ireland Jared Payne Centre Ireland Tommy Bowe Wing Ireland Craig Gilroy Wing Ireland Rory Scholes Wing Ireland Andrew Trimble Wing Ireland Louis Ludik Fullback South Africa Peter Nelson Fullback Ireland

• Internationally capped players in bold
• Players qualified to play for Ireland on residency or dual nationality *
• Irish Provinces are currently limited to 4 non-Irish eligible (NIE) players and 1 non-Irish qualified player (NIQ or "Project Player").

Ulster A

Ulster A is the team that represents Ulster in the British & Irish Cup and in the All Ireland Inter-provincial Championship.^[13] Pre-professionalism and a formal Celtic league structure, the main Ulster team competed in the AIPC. Since the advent of professionalism the provinces have fielded lesser teams in order to concentrate on the Celtic League and Heineken Cup. The team is composed of Senior Ulster squad players requiring gametime, Academy players and AIL players called up from their clubs.^[14]

Academy squad

The Ulster Academy squad:^[15]

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union Jake Byrne Prop Ireland year 1 Peter Cooper Prop Ireland year 1 Ross Kane Prop Ireland year 1 Michael Lagan Prop Ireland year 2 Craig Trenier Prop Ireland year 2 John Donnan Lock Ireland year 3 Alex Thompson Lock Ireland year 2 Nick Timoney Flanker Ireland year 1 Lorcan Dow Number 8 Ireland year 2

Player Position Union David Shanahan Scrum-half Ireland year 3 Liam Free Scrum-half Ireland year 1 Connor Young Scrum-half Ireland year 2 Andy Magrath Fly-half Ireland year 1 Jonny McPhillips Fly-half Ireland year 1 Jacob Stockdale Centre Ireland year 1 Jack Owens Wing Ireland year 2 Rob Lyttle Wing Ireland year 1 David Busby Fullback Ireland year 2

Staff

Position	Name	Nationality
Director of Rugby	Les Kiss	Australia
Head Coach	Neil Doak	Ireland
Operation Director	Bryn Cunningham	Ireland
Assistant Coach	Allen Clarke	Ireland
Assistant Coach	Joe Barakat	Australia
Head of Strength & Conditioning	Jonny Davis	Ireland
Strength & Conditioning Coach	Kevin Geary	Ireland

Player records and statistics

Rugby Champions Cup

(correct as of 2 January 2016)

Pro12

(correct as of 2 January 2016)

British and Irish Lions

The following Ulster players, in addition to representing Ireland, have also represented the British and Irish Lions.^[16]

Note: Phillip Matthews played for the Lions in their victory against France in Paris. The game formed part of the celebrations of the bi-centennial of the French Revolution, but did not count as a "formal" Lions international. Robin Thompson and Willie John McBride both captained the Lions.

See also

• Pro12
• Rugby Champions Cup

References

1. ↑ Irish Interprovincial rugby championship BBC Sport, 1 September 2000
2. ↑ "Ulster coach quits". Sky Sports. 13 November 2007. 
3. 1 2 "Williams leaves Ulster". Sky Sports. 21 May 2009. 
4. ↑ "London now calling for Ulster". Irish Times. 29 April 2012. 
5. ↑ http://ulsterrugby.com/News/LatestNews/TabId/149/ArtMID/793/ArticleID/1604/Ulster-Rugby-Update.aspx
6. ↑ "Rory Best relishing return to Ulster captaincy". Irish times. 1 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014. 
7. ↑ "Neil Doak named Ulster coach with Les Kiss to return after World Cup". Irish times. 7 October 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2014. 
8. ↑ Competition Rule 3.5 "Summary of Key Rules". Pro12. Retrieved 13 November 2013. 
9. ↑ http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/6878.php
10. ↑ http://www.irishrugby.ie/provincial/31699.php
11. ↑ RaboDirecct Pro12, Competition Rules, Season 2012–13, http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/statzone/competition_rules.php
12. ↑ http://www.ulsterrugby.com/Team.aspx
13. ↑ "Fixtures and Results : Ulster Ravens". Ulster Rugby. Retrieved 10 October 2012. 
14. ↑ "Ulster Ravens". Ulster Rugby. Retrieved 10 October 2012. 
15. ↑ http://www.ulsterrugby.com/team/the-academy-plus/
16. ↑ Cronin, Ciaran (2007). The Ireland Rugby Miscellany. 

External links

• Official site
• The UAFC – Ulster Rugby Supporters site
• The UAFC – Ulster Supporters Forum
• Videos of Ulster Matches
• InTouch Rugby Ulster Rugby Online News
• The FRU Ulster Supporters Fanzine
• ercrugby Profile