So Dan, how has the first block of pre-season went from your perspective?
"It’s been brilliant, the guys have came back in really excited and have worked hard.
From the first week we started about four weeks ago, it was 17 weeks until we play out first competitive game. I've had this experience before of working going into a World Cup and it has to be done the right way. It's important not to go too hard early on in the rugby side of things, so we do three blocks with two recovery periods in between.
The first block was full of individual development and skill work, our next block will be around putting the rugby aspects of the game into practice. That would be working on our phase play, attack, defence, building our set- piece, working on our scrum, lineouts and leading into more specific game related work in the third block. The planning has to be specially nuanced, given the gap to the start of our season."
Is there anything new you have brought to pre-season training this year?
"We have added an element of grappling to the start of pre-season, which we haven’t done before. We have Roddy Grant (Forwards Coach) who enjoys Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and and the guys have been liking it, it's really tough!
We have also been doing a fair amount of scrum work too, with Tom Stewart, Rob Herring, Tom O'Toole in Ireland international camp, Marty Moore injured and Steven Kitshoff away with South Africa, there is an opportunity there for young guys to get an opportunity to learn and develop."
We now know our fixtures for 2023/24, what is your assessment?
"It seems a long way away but its exciting! Our first fixture, Zebre Parma away, is always a difficult one. Zebre Parma are a team that will be a good test for us, we won't have our World Cup players so some guys will get an opportunity to stake their claim. Then we play one of the big South African teams in the Vodacom Bulls at Kingspan Stadium, so that will be a huge test for us.
We then have two interpros and we don't need to say what the Connacht away game means to us."
How encouraging is it to see those young players and development players stepping up over a pre season, are you encouraged by the results of the player pathway?
"There is a big contrast in the squad this year from last, we had a larger squad going into last season and for a lot of reasons, mostly to do with the cycling of the team, the older more experienced players have moved on. We have filled that with development and academy lads which naturally leads to a new cycle."
"Guys like Harry Sheridan have already shown they can step up and do it on the big stage. Conor McKee, Ben Carson, Reuben Crothers and James McCormick have came in and are really enjoying pre-season. They will be looking to make an impact and put their hands up to say 'look I deserve a shot this season'."
And we also have the inaugural Ulster Rugby Gala Dinner this summer, how much are you looking forward to it?
"It’s a really important opportunity to recognise the hard work that goes in across the province, not just on the professional side of the game but also on the domestic side of the game.
Im really looking forward to it, it’s the first time Ulster have hosted a gala dinner like this. It will be an opportunity to celebrate past players, what we are doing at the moment and a look ahead to the future.
On the night, a lot of people in the organisation, staff, players coaches are looking forward to meeting with sponsors, business community and supporters, it's hopefully going to be a great evening and I always enjoy being able to put on a black-tie!"
Want to be a part of the celebrations?
Ticket information about Ulster Rugby's Gala Dinner, in partnership with Heineken, can be found here.