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'Don't let your career slip by like we did'

Rory Best leads Ulster on a lap of honour after the Champions Cup win over Racing 92 in January (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Rory Best has issued a stark warning to Ulster’s young stars, insisting the team have a finite amount of time to break their trophy drought.

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The Irish province impressed this year, comprehensively beating Munster in the playoffs before losing by two points to the Stormers who went on to win the inaugural URC title.

Weeks earlier Ulster came within inches of knocking out reigning champions Toulouse in the Champions Cup, only for replacement tighthead Tom O’Toole to see red for a high tackle, helping the French outfit on their way to eventual victory.

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Amidst the disappointment, Dan McFarland’s side have cause for optimism, with plenty of young talent emerging throughout their squad. However, Best believes his former team must not become complacent and fall into the trap of trusting their time will come.

“I think they have to be very careful. We said it after the Toulouse game, this wording of ‘it’s a project’. The squad has enough talent to win a league,” Best told BBC’s The Ulster Rugby Show.

“These young players haven’t been bitten by failure, like we were in an Ulster jersey. But if you allow them to say, ‘ah sure, it’s just a project’ and ‘sure, I have 10 years to win it’. That is a poor mindset to adopt.”

Ulster last won silverware in 2006, when they topped the Celtic League, but have been without trophies for 16 years since then. To end this drought, Best thinks a culture change is in order.

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“For me, there needs to be a real message of don’t let your career slip by like we did. We had plenty of success elsewhere, but there wouldn’t have been anything more special than winning in an Ulster Jersey.

“If you keep excusing that, the same thing will happen every year.”

Former Ulster winger Tommy Bowe added to the conversation, saying that he hopes the new era will be more successful than his own.

“After 2006 we felt at that stage that this crop would win multiple titles, and unfortunately we didn’t,” he said. “It is something that still bites us.

“We both dream and hope Ulster can do it. We were all devastated last weekend, because we believe this team has the ability to do it. And we hope they do it very soon.”

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Tom 1 hour ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

That 2019 performance was literally the peak in attacking rugby under Eddie. If you thought that was underwhelming, the rest of it was garbage.


I totally get what you're saying and England don't need or have any God given right to the best coaches in the world... But I actually think the coaches we do have are quite poor and for the richest union in the world, that's not good enough. 


England are competitive for sure but with the talent pool up here and the funds available, we should be in the top 3. At the very least we should be winning six nations titles on a semi-regular basis. If Ireland can, England definitely should.


England's attack coach (Richard Wigglesworth) is Borthwick's mate from his playing days at Saracens, who he brought to Leicester with him when he became coach. Wigglesworth was a 9 who had no running or passing game, but was the best box kicker in the business. He has no credentials to be an attack coach and I've seen nothing to prove otherwise. Aside from Marcus Smith’s individual brilliance, our collective attack has looked very uninspiring.

 

England's defence coach (Joe El-Abd) is Borthwick's housemate from uni, who has never been employed as a defence coach before. He's doing the job part time while he's still the head coach of a team in the second division of French rugby who have an awful defensive record. England's defence has gone from being brutally efficient under Felix Jones to as leaky as a colander almost overnight.


If Borthwick brings in a new attack and defence coach then I'll absolutely get behind him but his current coaches seem to be the product of nepotism. He's brought in people he's comfortable with because he lacks confidence as an international head coach and they aren't good enough for international rugby.


England are competitive because they do some things really well, mostly they front up physically, make a lot of big hits, have a solid kicking game, a good lineout, good maul, Marcus Smith and some solid forwards. A lot of what we do well I would ascribe to Borthwick personally. I don't think he's a bad coach, I think he lacks imagination and is overly risk averse. He needs coaches who will bring a point of difference.


I guess my point is, yes England are competitive, but we’re not aiming for competitive and I honestly don't believe this coaching setup has what it takes to make us any better than competitive.


On the plus side it looks like we have an amazing crop of young players coming through. Some of them who won the u20 world cup played for England A against Australia A on the weekend and looked incredible... Check out the highlights on youtube.

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