BOD WORDS ROCKED ME
Best hurt by ‘basket case’ remark
IRELAND and Ulster captain Rory Best is unsure if he will play on after next year’s Rugby World Cup but will give the IRFU advance notice of any decision to hang up his boots.
Best also admitted that he was hurt by former Ireland team-mate Brian O’Driscoll describing Ulster as a ‘basket case’ last season, while also welcoming the arrival of Dan McFarland to the province as head coach.
The hooker is still nursing a hamstring injury that has troubled him this past year, admitting he is unlikely to feature for Ulster in the early rounds of the Pro14, but hasn’t made any decisions on retirement just yet.
‘I think I’ll make a decision on that in due course,’ he said. ‘It’ll not be something that I’ll leave until the last minute because if it is my last season, the club means too much to me to do something in the 11th hour and say “that’s it for me” and leave the club no time to replace me,’ said Best.
‘We’re at the stage now where I’m contracted to the end of the World Cup and a big focus of mine is going to be getting back, getting fit, getting rid of the injuries and the niggles, and focusing on this part of the season with Ulster and then the autumn internationals and then we’ll maybe sit down and have a look at it.’
Missing out on the Ireland tour to Australia because of that hamstring complaint was a frustration for Best, but Ulster teammate Rob Herring was one to benefit as he was involved in all three games. However, the skipper of club and country says he is not worried about the threat to his number two shirts.
‘I was really looking forward to going, and then the hamstring broke down the day before we left. The coaches wanted me to have a strong pre-season, they didn’t want me breaking down over there and standing on the sidelines,’ said Best.
‘Saturday mornings about half 11 though, the house wasn’t a good place to be. When a team means that much to you, it doesn’t help you when you’re sitting helplessly at home for games you want to be involved in.
‘There’s always stuff reported about your place [in the team], and my place in particular. I’ve been worried about my place for 14 years.
‘Anyone who gets comfortable with their place isn’t someone you want at the top level anyway. They’re not ambitious. If you sat down with players, and heard 100 per cent how they felt, our better players are the ones who are most concerned about their place.’
A season of turmoil in the province ended in disappointment as Ulster failed to reach the play-offs in the Pro14 and the Champions Cup, but the hooker admitted it was difficult to hear former colleague O’Driscoll being so scathing in his assessment of the club.
‘It didn’t drive us as a group. It hurts obviously when players you played with say things like that. He’d probably admit to it, that he didn’t mean to go as far as “basket case”. It sort of came out.
‘But it does hurt when players that you played with, and you feel you’ve been competitive with in terms of Ulster and Leinster games, it sort of does make you rethink “what are we doing that this is the perception of us?”
‘In terms of the group, there were things written about us that was probably accurate enough and there were things that were wide of the mark. It’s important we don’t let that define where we’re going.
‘We made a decision after Cardiff [losing greatly hindered Ulster’s chances of qualifying for the Champions Cup], when it wasn’t about results, but about performances. We were so afraid to lose a game that we didn’t go out and win it. We didn’t want to make mistakes so badly that we made loads. For us, we had to change that attitude.’
Securing the release of McFarland from his Scotland contract in time for the new season is a real coup for Ulster and Best says his influence will be significant.
‘Dan has two weeks now to get his head round everything and us to get our heads around everything that he expects from us. That’s really good for us and it allows us to get used to him and used to his voice.’