As ever with Ulster, Leinster loom large on their horizon as we reach the business end of the season. They have only won one of the sides' last seven meetings, and Rory Best knows it is a must-win game at the Kingspan Stadium on Saturday in terms of play-off aspirations.
Yet the Ulster skipper says Leinster aren’t their bogey side.
“No, I don’t think so. There’s a lot of teams who have lost to Leinster in knock-out rugby over the last five or six years, we just happen to be the one in the league they continually beat,” he says.
“They won competitions because they’re a quality side. We just didn’t have the same level of accuracy and mental strength possibly at that time.
“We feel that with Les coming in and really addressing that side of things, we’re a more difficult side to beat. I know we haven’t shown that at times this year, but I do think when we get our strongest side out we are very tough to beat.”
Last weekend, Best and every other Irish player had the option of watching the European Champions Cup semi-finals, which included the three English sides who completed pool doubles over Irish provinces.
“It was my wee fellah’s first birthday, so that took a bit of the attention away from it,” said Best, referring to his youngest child, Richie. “The only problem I had was the eldest boy [Ben], all he wanted to do was watch the rugby.”
Humiliation
“Ever since Saracens beat us here, he thinks they are the greatest team in the world. He’s become a Saracens fan nearly, not quite more than an Ulster fan but the more it annoys me, the more he supports them.”
Last week’s respite also afforded him time for a little farming. Bearing in mind the tour to South African in June and recalling how the comparative tour to New Zealand at the end of a World Cup season ended in a 60-0 humiliation, Best said the provinces’ enforced rest from European knock-out may not be completely unwelcome.
“It’s obviously disappointing as you want to play in quarter-finals and semi-finals, and nothing annoys you more than sitting at home watching these games. But yeah, the flip side: in a World Cup year . . . to get little windows in the middle of the season, to take a long weekend off, let your body have some time when it’s not having the crap beaten out of it, it’s a silver lining,” Best said.
Sideshow
Reflecting on his first
Six Nations
as captain, Best said he enjoyed working alongside
Joe Schmidt
, but “probably underestimated” what the “sideshow” and “pressure” that came with the captaincy, which he felt more acutely after
Ireland
failed to win their opening three games. The 10-9 defeat in Paris is still the one that got away.
“We did well for 20 minutes, and then just sat back. If you do that, especially in France, you’re not going to perform and I think now the Six Nations is over and you see their results since beating us, they were there for the beating and it’s not often you take the foot off the gas against France and still almost sneak the win.”
