Roddy Grant: “The effort and commitment is awesome”

Ulster’s Forwards Coach, Roddy Grant, has been part of the Ulster coaching set-up since the summer. Four rounds into the Guinness PRO14, he has now had some time to get settled in and work with the squad. The 32-year-old has had a young group of forwards to coach - with an average age of 26 - and he has been really impressed by their enthusiasm. “They’re a really good bunch of guys who are very coachable. Obviously, we had a lot of good building blocks in place with Dan McFarland having been here and we’re still trying to improve. It’s still quite early on; obviously we haven’t had a perfect performance yet and that’s something I’m aware of. We just need to keep trying to build on performances week-on-week and we’re definitely going in the right direction. “The guys are great; their effort and commitment is awesome. Any professional coach would say the same, you just need to get the detail right, both from my coaching and from the players as well. You can marry up the detail with the enthusiasm, passion and energy; that’s when you move forward as a unit.” In assessing the game against Cardiff Blues last week, Grant is pleased with the win but conscious that it wasn’t Ulster’s best performance. “We were pleased to win,” he said. “It’s always good to win at home. We played well in spells and certainly in the opening 20 minutes when we went 17-0 up, but then Cardiff did really well to come back at us. We made a few errors and gave away a few penalties, then the momentum shifted. We didn’t quite get a grasp of the game again. “It’s a mix between being happy that we won but frustrated that it wasn’t an 80-minute performance. It was a performance that we want to keep pushing on from, but we’re looking forward to this week and another big challenge against Zebre.” Many might expect a routine bonus-point win from Ulster against Zebre on Friday, but the Forwards Coach is wary of Zebre’s defence following their 0-3 loss against reigning champions Leinster last weekend. “You’ll always get the answer that every game is a tough game, and it is, but it makes it slightly easier for us to say when you look at what Zebre did last weekend. Leinster are arguably the best team in the PRO14 and have gone pretty well so far this season, and to get a 0-3 score in that, it’s a pretty easy argument for us to say it’s going to be a tough game. “Any game at home you want a really good performance - you want to win every game anyway but certainly at home - five points or not - it’s a big game for us. We need league points, especially at this stage of the season, so we will be working really hard and the aim is to win the game.”