Another week for Ulster and more off-field developments setting the agenda, this time the apparent departure of marquee signing Steven Kitshoff at season’s end.
The 32-year-old double World Cup-winning Springbok prop has been strongly linked with a return to former club the Stormers after only arriving in Belfast last November, meaning that yet again the narrative surrounding the northern province is anything but standard fare, just over seven days after the sudden departure of CEO Jonny Petrie.
Ulster skipper Iain Henderson addressed the Kitshoff situation by dubbing it as “speculation” and as such would not be distracting the northern province from Sunday’s trip to Montpellier for the last 16 tie in the Challenge Cup.
“Obviously, there is a huge amount of speculation goes on all over the place, about not only Steven’s position, or players’ positions, but that kind of comes with the territory of professional sport,” said the Ireland lock.
“I’ve sat down and had dinner with Steven last week on Tuesday night [in Cape Town while on Ulster’s two-match tour] with a handful of us and I don’t see it being any issue that we are going to foresee or read into too much between now and playing the game at the weekend.
“So, I don’t think there is a huge amount to comment on,” Henderson added.
“He’s been brilliant for us, for some of the young lads, in that scrum environment. Around the park he’s really filling the boots that he’s put on the international field.
“He’s an ultra-professional guy and we’ll expect nothing different from him working through this week [and] working towards an exciting game this weekend.”
That was as much as Ulster were willing to say in relation to the story, which emerged in South Africa last weekend, that Kitshoff is heading for an early exit.
Assistant coach Dan Soper focused on how the trip to South Africa – Ulster lost against both the Sharks and Stormers for interim head coach Richie Murphy’s first two games in charge – had been a useful distraction when Petrie parted company with the province last week, a month after Dan McFarland had been axed as head coach.
“Having the two weeks away, in terms of Jonny [Petrie] leaving and us being away, meant we were removed from it all,” stated Soper.
“The two weeks away were a brilliant opportunity for the group to get together and Richie to get in with the group and put his mark on things.
“From a squad point of view, it was excellent timing to be on the other side of the world in that it was far easier to focus on what we were doing and get on with things.”
But Ulster also must attempt to pick themselves up on the park where they have just tasted victory once in their last six games and Soper made clear that team bonding in South Africa would count for little enough unless the province can start winning again.
Currently sitting in a precarious eighth spot in the URC table is not a good look and now they face a challenging trip to France for what will be their third straight away fixture and their first taste of knock-out rugby this term at an also struggling Montpellier.
“It’s all well and good saying we had a couple of good weeks and we all bonded and everything’s smelling of roses,” said Soper.
“But ultimately, I don’t know how many league games we’ve got left plus knock-outs but essentially given the nature of the league, every game is [now] a knock-out game.”
Pointing out that the Challenge Cup is by no means being watered down in view of the URC situation, Soper added: “It will be massive.
“We’ll go to Montpellier on the weekend and hope we perform really well. If we do, we give ourselves a chance to play in a last-eight game.”
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