Women & Girls

Murray Houston on interpro preparation

9th August 2023

Murray, congratulations on being appointed as Ulster Senior Womens' Head Coach, how happy are you to get going with the interprovincial starting this Saturday?

It's nice to get this opportunity, I'm looking forward to seeing how the team perform once we get into the series. Training has been good, I have been impressed with the commitment of the players and there has been a good attention to detail. We are looking at ways that we can improve.

There has been a lot of change with a new coaching team in place, what new ideas have been brought in?

I think the type of rugby we want to play is new, my philosophy might be a bit different to the previous coach, Neill Alcorn, and it's been great to work alongside Neill, Grace Davitt, Kathryn Dane, Amy Davis and Eric O'Sullivan to find the best solutions for the team.

It's great to have people like that working for us, they have been here before and they bring in standards and expectations. They know what it takes to perform at the highest level.

The team had a difficult campaign last season, what have you done to try and boost belief?

It's looking at where we need to develop most and what will make the biggest difference to improving performances. We have had a number of meetings about that and looking at what will make the biggest difference.

You have named a 37 player squad for the interpro series, how important is it to have that competition in the squad?

Competition gets the best out of people, we need to have players driving them on and having to push each other if they want to start.

Obviously you have only been in position for a few weeks, what has impressed you so far?

Really impressed by the commitment and effort from the players, they are travelling from all the province and Dublin to come to training. They take a lot of time out from their personal time and when they are that committed it makes it special.

Munster up first, what is your assessment of our opener?

Munster are possibly the strongest side, coming in as champions and it will be a really big challenge. We have to look at our own performance, improve on our areas and take care of our own game.

A number of our squad have received international call-ups in recent months, how good is that for building confidence?

That opportunity is really hard earned, its not something that happened by accident. It shows the quality and calibre of players we have at Ulster and we are working hard at improving that belief in the team.