Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Ulstermen on road to rebuilding
ULSTER operations director Bryn Cunningham has shot down claims the province ever had serious designs on becoming the best club in the world.
The lofty claim, made by chief executive Shane Logan shortly after his appointment in 2009, has been used as a stick to beat Ulster with recently.
The derision intensified last week when Les Kiss became the fourth coaching figurehead to leave the Kingspan Stadium in six years.
Cunningham said: “I think you’ve got to have a lot of ambition. Certainly with that, it can be misinterpreted – that we literally need to be the best club side in the world.
“That’s not really what the aim was. It was just about being the very best in every facet of the game, both on field and off field.”
Cunningham views the end of Kiss’ 26-month tenure as a reality check but also an “opportunity” for Ulster to initiate a root and branch review of its future direction.
He said: “Let’s take stock and have almost a bit of realism of exactly where we are. We’ve got to mark ourselves against where we are and what we’ve got to do going forward.
“When Les first came in, I think everybody was hugely excited. He’s a really good guy and put a huge amount of effort into making things work.
“Unfortunately for a variety of different reasons, things haven’t panned out the way he probably hoped. There’s change now and as far as we’re concerned it’s an opportunity.
“That’s the way we look at it. It’s almost starting from the foundations and build back up again.”