Like most frontline Irish players, Andrew Trimble has plenty to consider and aspire to this season. There are Ulster's opening forays in the Guinness Pro12 and the European Champions Cup, an exceptional November window featuring Tests against New Zealand in Chicago and Dublin, and then the remainder of Ulster's campaign either side of the Six Nations, and all topped off with a Lions tour to New Zealand.

So, naturally, he's taken on the Ulster captaincy as well.

Of course, it's a hell of an honour for a player entering his 12th season with his native province, and someone has to do it. Rory Best managed it on top of captaining Ireland as well. But it was no surprise either when he stepped down as Ulster captain.

Still, it was somewhat surprising that Trimble would succeed him, albeit as joint captain with Rob Herring (who also assumed the role during the Test windows while Best was away last season). After all, wing is not the most obvious place, nor easiest, to be a captain, as Trimble admits himself.

Easy decision

“It certainly was an easy decision for me to make. To be honest, it wasn’t something I’d been targeting or looking forward to. It’s something I wasn’t sure if my role would be suitable for – that sort of responsibility. But it’s amazing how when Kissy [Les Kiss] suggested it, I was 100 per cent keen to do it and really up for it.

“Rob Herring is the same and hopefully the two of us can be on the same page. The leadership structure is different for us moving forward and I think it will be good for us.

“There’s a lot of leadership throughout and we’re introducing the concept of everyone taking responsibility and standing up. ‘Leading each other’ is the way Kissy phrased it and certainly it’s something a lot of us can get behind. I think that’s one of the ways we will get to the next level.”

Ah yes, the next level. For Ulster that means silverware, which has eluded them since their sole league title a decade ago.

For the last four seasons, Ulster have reached the Pro12 playoffs, losing the final in 2013 when forced to relocate the final to the RDS.

Nine ventures

There was also one European Cup semi-final defeat in 2011, in tandem with three quarter-final defeats, as well, of course, as the loss to Leinster in the 2012 final – all in a four-year period from 2011.

Commendably consistent in many respects, but just three wins and nine defeats in knockout rugby gnaws at them.

So the pressure is on again.

“You could say that alright. The last few years we have been consistently banging on the door and not getting anywhere. We’ve been getting ourselves into positions where we can capitalise or take advantage of an opportunity, and not quite getting over the line.”

“It’s something we need to look at and address, and find ways of getting around that. But it’s going to require an awful lot of mental strength and believing we are good enough to win something.”

While Trimble makes this sound like a mental issue, he admits there’s more to it than that, not least the quality of opposition. After all, five of those defeats have been to Leinster (four at the RDS), one to Northampton (away) one to Glasgow (away) and two to Saracens (one away).

“At the same time, every team in the league is going to get better this year. It’s important that our skillset, our fitness levels, our game awareness, everything moves up. That mental ability to deal with the big occasion has to move up with that.”

Horizon

Looming large on the horizon are the All Blacks, as they do, and Trimble was part of the 45-man Ireland squad that had a two-day camp earlier this week, with Joe Schmidt focussing their primary attention on that first meeting in Chicago on November 5th.

These were the “the really basic building blocks,” according to Trimble.

“Our exits, getting out of our 22, our defence and looking at the South Africa tour, a couple of errors we made and things we need to get ironed out.”

There was plenty of footage. “The All Blacks are a side that can play 10 different ways and they’re not a side that’s easy to prepare for.

“It’s an even more daunting task when you’ve got to play them twice, so it didn’t surprise me or any of the boys that there was a lot of homework squeezed into two days. And it’s really important that we go away and have thoughts on how we’re going to beat them and how we’re going about winning that game, approaching that game.”

Schmidt’s ability to de-mystify the All Blacks and come up with a game plan almost yielded a famous win the last time the countries met in November 2013.

“It’s important that we have an appreciation of how good this team is, but as well as that they are just 15 guys on a pitch and it’s important that we know that if we perform as well as we can – as we did a few years ago when we did everything but beat them – who’s to say we can’t increase that performance level another one or two per cent?”

“It’s good to have that balance. To be daunted or just to have the right amount of respect for your opposition but at the same time have a good level of self-belief and know how good we can potentially be.”