‘The hair went when I was 22. That’s the beauty of ageing young’
IT’S a statement that applied to so few of his predecessors in the role of Ireland captain but Rory Best has fond recent memories of Paris.
Touching down in the French capital yesterday for this evening’s Champions Cup clash with Racing 92 (5.30pm kick-off), he was returning to the scene of his second Six Nations title, coming in 2014 after Brian O’Driscoll’s final game in green.
His first game as Ireland’s permanent skipper came in Paris too, although ending in defeat and of course, who can forget last season and Johnny Sexton’s famous drop goal?
While Ulster’s away form in this competition has been far from great, the days of French trips feeling a wholly futile exercise are a thing of the past, too.
“Ultimately, we will gladly take 40-odd phases 85 minutes in and hit a drop-kick to win the game in Paris again,” Best said, smiling.
“We will take whatever we can get to win this game, whether it is up front, out wide or through the middle.
“I think there is a different approach to away games for us and we have tried to bring it in this season. I think it is something we did lose a little bit and tried to bring in last year and the year before.
“It didn’t matter where we went, we felt we could win and I think there is that belief back again. It doesn’t always correspond with results but I think if you have that relief, you can always set foot on the pitch on an even footing.”
Best is likely aware that few neutrals will see it that way, with last season’s beaten finalists the overwhelming favourites on their own patch.
Bankrolled by Jacky Lorenzetti, and determined to win European rugby’s biggest prize no matter how many euros it takes, it is perhaps the Parisians’ depth that is most striking.
“Look, they have world-class players all across,” Best said.
“It is not like playing a lot of the other teams, you cannot guess their team because they have so many to pick from.
“We were doing a bit of stuff on the scrum and really which of their international props are they going to pick?
“We do our homework on them all, but we fine-tune that after the teams are named and that goes right across the board for them, (they’ve) so many talented players, so many threats.
“But that’s European rugby and that’s the challenge and whenever you go away to the number-one seeds in your pool, that’s the challenge you have to face.
“I think they will look at us and hopefully see a collective. With Donnacha Ryan, Simon Zebo and Finn Russell, to a slightly lesser extent, they are going to know a little bit about us and we hope that they will be expecting a bit of a physical battle.
“When you have that much talent, you probably spend a lot of time looking at yourselves and we understand that. We are going there as massive underdogs and have to use as many of those little edges to our advantage.”
If Ulster are to have any success, it is likely they will need their leader to the fore, just as he was in last week’s win over Leicester Tigers, a performance highlighted by the unlikely twin sights of the 36-year-old charging down a George Ford drop goal and nudging a grubber into the opposition 22. Even as his career nears its conclusion, Best says he is still striving to add more strings to his bow.
“You try to work at training and you try to get better and it shouldn’t matter if you’re Michael Lowry at 20 or me at the other end at 36, if we can get that mindset within the squad that every opportunity you get on the pitch, whether it’s training or playing, that you try to get better, it’s a great attitude to have and one I’ve tried to live my rugby career by.
“Look, there are some days it goes for you and some days that drop goal goes over your head and nobody notices that you’re one of the people trying to charge it down, so you have to take the rough with the smooth.
Grindstone
“Ultimately, if you can have a goal to get better each week, and when it doesn’t happen you keep putting the nose to the grindstone and keep trying to get better and better, you hope over the course of a pre-season or a long period off that you actually come back better.”
Despite Best’s stellar record in the role, there remains consistent chatter in some corners about whether he will skipper Ireland in next year’s World Cup in Japan.
“I don’t really,” he said when asked if he feels his age.
“I probably creak a little bit more than I used to but the hardest thing is to try and avoid everyone talking about it. “I understand it’s part and parcel and people want to know but as long as I feel good and feel I can perform... I think the biggest problem I’d have is if I felt I couldn’t perform and felt you were only in the team solely for your leadership or in the team because they were afraid to drop you or you were holding someone else back or blocking a pathway, I think once you start feeling that, you go.
“But I’m fairly competitive and I just want to get better. These guys are coming up behind me and they’re coming up behind very fast and you want to stay ahead of them.
“It’s not easy and it’s not straightforward, yeah, you do feel a little bit older but the beauty of ageing so young is that you don’t actually change that much. The hair went when I was 22 so there wasn’t a whole lot else to go.
“As long as the body holds up, I know I’ll be hopefully a really long time retired so I want to try and make the most of it.” A result in Paris this evening would certainly be seen as doing just that but, Ulster know they’ll have to be at their best to halt the hosts’ creativity. Zebo (left) starts at fullback after starting on the wing at Parc y Scarlets and with Argentinian Juan Imhoff back in the side and Les Bleus’ winger Teddy Thomas returning as well, Racing have a more than decent back-three to call upon.
Ryan misses out but All Black Dominic Bird will tower at the lineout.