Allen Clarke: Our Destiny Is In Our Own Hands

Ask Allen Clarke what drives him and the management team and he has no hesitation in his answer: “We are determined because Ulster Rugby is unique - it’s the only professional sport in this part of the world, we have great facilities, and we have wonderful supporters.” He is, like Head Coach Neil Doak and Defence Coach, Jonny Bell, a proud Ulsterman and after a run of disappointing results they are confident that they will get things right.

 “We are focused on the Guinness PRO12”, the former European Cup winning hooker says. “We have lost four matches but when you look at the teams above us in the division, they have either lost four or three. We are fully aware of where we are, we are disappointed with the result at the weekend as we put a lot into it and created a lot of opportunities in the first half but didn’t complete them."

Clarke will be hoping that opportunities are completed when the side travel to Treviso this weekend. It is the first of a double header against the Italian side with the small matter of games against Toulon and Leicester Tigers in-between. In previous seasons you could be forgiven for not attaching huge importance to a PRO12 game when matches against the biggest team in England and the two-time European Champions are coming up, but that is not the case this year. For Clarke, Treviso is, in a sense, the biggest game of the season so far:

“It is because it’s our next match, he concludes. “It is going to be the game that makes sure that we remain within touching distance. When you look at the other fixtures you would expect the top sides to all get wins. However nothing is certain in this league. Look at Edinburgh beating Glasgow. Not many people would have expected that. Over the Christmas period, all the top sides won one and lost one. It is critical that over this next period of games that we are accruing victories when those other teams are playing each other.”

If Ulster do that, then Clarke believes, the province has every chance of being in the mix for the play off places and for the PRO12 title itself:

He says “I think our destiny is very much in our own hands. We are determined that at the back-end of the season, when a lot of our senior, quality players are back, that we will be competing for the PRO12 Championship.”