Ulster focused despite Petrie exit, says Grant
CEO’S departure won’t affect Stormers duel
YOU couldn’t help but feel for Roddy Grant, the coach thrown to the wolves on the day that the news broke that chief executive Jonny Petrie would be departing Ulster despite being over 6,000 miles away from Ravenhill.
After swatting away questions on the future of the man who is essentially his boss, whose departure from the province was confirmed within an hour of Grant hopping on the Zoom call, the forwards coach tried to direct attention back to matters on the pitch — not an easy task all things considered.
“Pro sports teams are well used to focusing, keeping the head down and getting on with the job,” said Grant.
“Especially this weekend, you have got some big South Africans that are going to be physical, so you don’t have much room for anything else to consider other than what’s in front of us.”
That’s a fair comment, especially when there are enough questions swirling around the team that are currently based in Cape Town ahead of Saturday’s URC clash with the Stormers before you even consider the tempestuous maelstrom that has engulfed the province off the pitch.
Namely how do they start to find the results they require to move up the table rather than peering precipitously over their shoulder. Now in seventh after last week’s defeat to the toothless Sharks, only the Durban-based outfit’s second win of the season, Richie Murphy’s charges are staring down the barrel of dropping out of the Play-off places if they lose both games of their mini-south African tour.
While there is grace to be applied, with the squad still adapting to Murphy’s style after the new coach only arrived last Monday before hoping on a cross-hemisphere flight a day later, time is not on Ulster’s side. Bedding in his philosophy will take patience but, with crucial games upcoming, that patience will wear thin quick enough.
“As Richie said, there are small tweaks. He’s not coming in and rewriting and changing everything because he can’t. It’s not pre-season, it’s performance match week,” explained Grant.
“There’s things we’re tweaking and there’s some things that are new that we’re trying to change quickly. The fundamentals of the game need to be continually worked on. Those things we’re chipping away at.
“As long as everyone works hard and cares about the team and winning, it doesn’t solve it all but it certainly helps. We want to win. We’re driven, we’re proud.