Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Kiss wary of Jacko influence
Ulster v Dragons PRO14, tomorrow 7.35
FORMER Ireland hooker Bernard Jackman wants the Dragons to breathe fire – and his arrival as the Welsh team’s head coach has put Les Kiss on high alert.
Ulster hammered the Dragons home and away last season and will be expected to make it four PRO14 wins out of four this season when they host the Welsh region tomorrow.
However, Jackman has the respect of Ulster’s director of rugby.
“Bernard’s on a mission, you can tell he knows what he wants to try and do there,” Kiss said. “I know him, we get on well and we have spoken a lot about rugby.
“I haven’t spoken to him in the past two years but I know he is a passionate man about the game and has some really good ideas.
“It makes you wary when you know someone is in there doing the work that he does.”
Kiss wants Ulster to avoid a bumpy ride this season.
They’ve made a decent fist of life in the all-new competition, winning the opening three games to sit second in Conference B behind Leinster.
But Kiss remembers how Ulster won their opening five league games last season – and then lost four of the next five.
“We are probably being harder on the lads this week than we would normally be because we want to make sure we stay on track,” he warned.
“Momentum is fine but you can suddenly hit a pothole. We do not want to hit a pothole. We want to continue with the momentum we have.”