Leinster 32 Ulster 6, Sunday 29th March 2009.

Bemused Ulster fans at another away day disaster!

Ulster are drifting towards their worst season in the Magners League with another passionless and error strewn display, this time against Irish rivals Leinster.

The promise of Matt Williams first season in charge appears to have gone spectacularly wrong and now over one third of the way into his three year plan there appears to be little improvement on the pitch despite the rhetoric from the media astute manger. If only the team could perform as smoothly and comfortably on the pitch as Williams performs in front of the cameras!

For each step forward that Ulster have taken this season it appears that they have taken two steps back. Their performances since their win in Limerick have been some of the worst in recent years and it has to be asked if Williams’ visits to Australia during the Six Nations had something to do with this. While there is every sympathy for Williams personal predicament, with his family deciding to stay in Australia, one wonders if the current coaching staff are capable of pushing the team on while Williams is away, particularly when it has been announced that his number two was to be replaced at the end of the season.

To be honest, the second half display from Ulster was as bad as anything witnessed during the period of player unrest under McCall. The line outs and first up tackling were woeful and team selection needs to be questioned. Surely Brady, O’Donoghue, Caldwell and McCullough have been available the last six weeks to perfect line outs so why did Brady not start? Do the coaches not have any confidence in him or was the call made that Rory’s leadership was needed on the pitch? Both bad calls as Brady has put in some great displays this year and Best was struggling so much with his own game that his leadership was nullified.

However, leadership on the pitch has been Ulster’s greatest problem over the last few years and no one on the pitch appears to command the respect of the current squad. Botha commands the scrums, but very little else, Best needs to concentrate on his own game as does Isaac. Caldwell and O’Donoghue seem to be at odds in second row with Ed ignoring Caldy when he calls the line outs and no one else seems capable of putting themselves forward when the going gets tough. Yes, Humphreys, like his brother, is peerless, voluble and a great controller of the game when Ulster are going forward, with good ball he can destroy any team, but when he’s on the back foot and missing his tackles his game falls apart. Some one else is needed to take control and the pressure when Ulster are on the back foot, it can’t be Ferris all the time, and it will be interesting to see if Williams recognises this as he continues to bring in more players.

Having said all this I won’t be surprised in the slightest if Ulster turn over the Ospreys this weekend after a week of bollickings from the gaffer and if they do he must realise that his most important match this season, even the most important of his tenure, is the game against Glasgow. This team is past trying out the youngsters on away days they must become a team which puts in consecutive good performances. The travelling supporters are owed that much at least.

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• Squad for Cardiff at home
• Ulster 16 Leinster 14
• Seven Days – Seven Games. Our top seven Ulster games!