HOORAY HENRY
Ulster newboy Speight already being cheered by fans...even in his local Tesco
IT took one amble down a food aisle at Tesco to hammer home the scrutiny Ulster newboy Henry Speight will be under this season.
The 19-times capped Wallaby, signed on a short-term contract until January, has arrived in Belfast with a big reputation that belies his bespectacled, soft spoken persona.
Much is expected of the versatile back who follows in the footsteps of Brumbies team-mate Christian Lealiifano (below) who spent a similar spell here last season.
Something he’s been made all too aware of when out shopping in Belfast.
“It’s been awesome so far,” he said. “People have been very welcoming to me and my missus and we have seen that already just in Tesco and stuff like that.
“People coming up and saying, ‘Hi’ or ‘Christian had a ball last year, hopefully you can kick some goals too’. So a bit of pressure there already, I guess!
“I come with a clean slate and it’s a new club so I feel like a new kid at school. I just want to put my best foot forward and contribute. Wherever the team needs me, in midfield or on the wings, I want to leave a better player than I arrived two weeks ago.”
Speight, raised in the South Pacific Islands, drew laughter when he recalled his first ever visit to a chilly Belfast as part of Fiji’s U19 World Cup squad in 2007.
The 30-year-old likened the Fijian teens to the Jamaican bobsleigh team in comedy movie Cool Runnings.
“The first ever rugby trip I made was to Belfast, all the way from Fiji,” he said. “They said winter was finishing here but we were like Cool Runnings when we got off at the airport. Whatever layers we could put on, we put on!”
So why return to Belfast now?
“It was a no-brainer,” he said. “I’m always looking for an experience other than Super Rugby after over 100 games with the Brumbies. Christian had an awesome time here. The only thing he had to say negatively was he couldn’t stay longer. That speaks volumes.”
Speight makes his debut today in coach Dan Mcfarland’s first game in charge.
He is joined in the backline by fellow new arrivals Will Addison and Billy Burns while Marcell Coetzee makes a long-awaited return from injury.