It’s nine years since he left but Williams is still puzzled by Ulster’s repeated failure

MATT WILLIAMS shakes his head reufully. He will be gone nine years from Belfast next May, yet the same roadblocks that hampered progress during his 18 month tenure still hold the club back under Les Kiss. ‘There is so much potential but it’s just consistency. One week you have a great performance, two weeks later a bad performance against a lower side. It’s very frustrating. In my time we beat Munster in Munster by five tries, first time since 1914 or so. Went across to Edinburgh the next week and lost to a very ordinary side. ‘When I was there we were building, had come from last, but after making the Heineken Cup final (in 2012 under Brian McLaughlin) when there was so much hope... they haven’t really built on it. ‘I know Rory (Best) and all the boys are just shaking their heads over it. I know they’re a happy club, know they’re very close, wonderful people and I have got nothing but respect for them, but I know everyone is frustrated.’ The Ulster job has too often been a career graveyard. Williams, McLaughlin, Mark Anscombe and Neil Doak have never been as high profile since leaving the role. However, Williams doesn’t want to heap pressure on Kiss that the same anonymous fate awaits him, preferring instead to highlight how Mark McCall went on to achieve magical things in England and Europe with Saracens after he quit Belfast in November 2007. ‘I’d no problems with players or the community, have nothing but respect for Darren Cave and guys I keep in touch with. There was just a different group of officials I didn’t really agree with. ‘I don’t want to get into [the Kiss situation]. I know there has been some changes in staff but it’s very frustrating and that builds pressure on a coach, and on the organisation itself and that puts pressure back on the players. ‘If something happens over the short-term you can blame a coach but when you are going over 10 years, it’s something more than just a coaching issue. It’s a cultural issue of concentration, longevity of senior players and so on. It’s a very difficult one, because Rory is probably the best captain I ever worked with. You have men like Andrew Trimble, Tommy Bowe, Chris Henry, really quality human beings, but they can’t seem to string it together.’ Williams, confirmed by TV3 as one of its pundits for the forthcoming Six Nations, doesn’t believe McCall will succeed Joe Schmidt in the Ireland hotseat. ‘I don’t think Ireland are going to get him back. He will try and do a Guy Noves (Toulouse) and stay at Saracens for 20 years. He’s very happy there, very successful, and still the same, lovely, wonderful bloke I knew 20 years ago.’