Cooney keen to continue getting his kicks at the Kingspan

IT all looks to be such a mechanically- driven process — essentially set up, aim and f ire — that you can forget that there is another altogether darker side to kicking the ball for position or points.

The bit when it doesn’t work, and not being able to get the ball to either sail between the posts or land in a specified part of the pitch, can happen to the best, prompting mental doubts as well as nerv y t weaks to routines.

A case in point is John Cooney. Last weekend the Guinness PRO14’s top points scorer nailed all of his f ive shots at goal, his 13 points keeping Ulster’s stuttering display at least ticking over on the scoreboard to beat Cardiff Blues, and he produced some on-the-money high kicks to be chased.

At the end, he even walked away with the man of the match award for another useful evening’s work.

But all had been any thing but well in the run-up. A dif ferent Cooney was at large then.

As the player who will win his 50th Ulster cap tonight when sprung from the bench against Zebre explains, he wasn’t in a great place last week before show time at Kingspan Stadium.

“It’s f unny, I talk to Dan Soper (Ulster skills coach) and he’s basically like my counsellor during the week,” Cooney revealed, just in case you thought he was never beset by selfdoubt or just poor form.

“And that’s because some days you can have awful days.

“In the warm-up (against Cardiff Blues) I couldn’t kick for my life, and even goal-kicking on the Thursday, I couldn’t get any of them.”

Not an easy place to be, but for all the help available there is only one person who can ultimately banish the yips, and that is Cooney himself just getting the better of the situation.

Then again, maybe it ’s a good thing as well to be so off in the lead-in and suddenly f ind that, when it really matters, he can send the ball right between the uprights or falling on target for kick- chasers to challenge.

That’s how it all unfolded a week ago.

“It’s interesting how during the week you can be rubbish and can’t do any of it and then come game time it ’s like your concentration…” he said, before switching focus to another theme.

“Or maybe it ’s just that I get so worried I have done so badly that I feel I just have to get my act together.

“A good kick, a good kickchase makes a dif ference. It’s the same with a bad kick, which then allows a good kick- chase to turn a bad kick into a good one.

“What we have at the minute are wingers who chase hard. I thought Louis Ludik was brilliant in some of our kick- chases (against Cardiff ) .”

As long as it goes right when required tonight — hopefully the game will be won by the time he comes on — all will remain well, even if Cooney more than hints that some of his tactical kicking last week was rescued by his hard-working wingers.

The moral of the tale is that Cooney, and all kickers, must constantly edge their way along a ver y f ine line between success and failure.

In terms of points scored, though, he is having a pretty