The problems facing Ulster this season are Ireland's in microcosm. Nowhere has the haemorrhage of the country's best players to greener pastures across channel been felt more acutely. What's left is a shell of a youngish squad, eager if inexperienced, but essentially part-time and competing against full-timers when the European Cup comes around. Keith Wood made a telling point recently when asked why he was not playing for Munster this season, and said that two masters were enough. That the likes of David Humphreys, Jeremy Davidson, Paddy Johns and others have taken the same stance does not surprise Ulster coach Davey Haslett.
"You can't blame the players, or the clubs who they play for. They are their employers after all, and in effect they could be losing them for anything from six weeks to three months."
Ulster's problems have been compounded by Clive Griffiths' dragging of feet after the Welshman had initially agreed to assume the position of the province's director of rugby. Ulster, already burned once when Tony Russ availed of the six-month reciprocal notice in his three-year contract as director last season, were left in disarray last May.
The day before Haslett left for New Zealand as assistant coach on Ireland's A/Development tour, Ulster offered him the position as provincial coach, but that had still to be ratified by Brian Ashton and Pat Whelan.
The net result was that Haslett had four weeks to work with the squad before departing on an already booked holiday to Greece, after which the cancellation of the arranged friendly with Glasgow (when they were paired together in the European Cup) left Ulster with just one preparatory match against Richmond last Saturday.
Haslett accepts that all of this is far from ideal, and theoretically leaves their preparations some way behind their three rivals in the Interprovincial Championship. That said, the performance against Richmond was encouraging, having led the star-studded cosmopolitan London outfit 14-12 at half-time before going down by 41-19 as Haslett made seven substitutions and a dozen changes all told.
Nevertheless, Haslett is nothing if not a realist when setting targets for Ulster this season: "Qualification for the European Cup - I understand that Ireland have three teams for another season - through the interpros. In the European Cup we have Wasps, the English champions, Swansea, the Welsh runners-up, and Glasgow. Realistically, we're not going to go too far. The chances of Ulster beating both Swansea and Wasps are minimal. So I would like to think we'll certainly be looking for at least two wins, while developing the players and performing well."
Speaking of developing players and, more so, the team's style, Haslett has no great difficulty in adapting Brian Ashton's expansive philosophy to Ulster after working with the Irish coach in New Zealand this summer, though he adds the rider that some people are interpreting the new way as "an extreme."
Haslett explains: "It's more a case of modifying what we have and be prepared to do that. It's a state of mind actually, more than a state of fitness or ability.
"I've no problem with the style of game being introduced here, given that there's got to be a balance among a number of variable there might be. The variables are such things as the quality of the players, the conditions the game is being played under - simple little things like that. It is a balance."
Ask Haslett what the biggest problems facing the provinces are and he says: "The drain of players - and what's going to happen in the future. Ireland are producing good young players but very young players in Ireland are already being approached, if not poached, by foreign clubs and agents. I'm talking here about schoolboys. We've got to ensure that we can keep these guys for as long as possible. Who knows, the whole thing in England could blow up, but I still think there's a big danger in the future.
"There's no doubt that our own Irish coaches have to be encouraged and be developed. This is partly down to the clubs as well as the IRFU. I think there's definitely got to be continuing scope for aspiring Irish coaches of representative teams and, as well as that, the clubs should also be encouraging their own coaches."
As things stand, Ulster's part-time coach has five full-time players and 17 part-time players to work with - which will be put into some perspective when they come up against the full-time set-ups of the English champions and Welsh runners-up.
In Connacht, Warren Gatland has been repeating, mantra-like, that the IRFU has to ensure that the provinces have full-time squads if they are to compete on an equal footing. "I agree with that," says Haslett simply, "and the sooner that there's full-time provincial squads the better. That's another area of improvement definitely."
As to his own long-term position, this is even more shrouded in doubt than most. He has been appointed as coach on a part-time basis for the duration of the interpros and the European Cup. As with Munster, themselves burned twice by Derek Bevan and Andy Leslie, rumours abound that the union are trawling the southern hemisphere and Britain to fill the two vacancies in Ulster and Munster.
The lack of job security which the three-year contracts involve, combined with that reciprocal sixmonth notice period, does not appeal to Irish coaches hitherto combining professional careers with part-time coaching. Haslett, as a geography teacher and rugby coach for over 20 years at RBAI, who has coached the Irish Schools, the Irish under21s and A sides in addition to Dungannon, is no exception. He had initially applied for the Ulster job "on the basis that I hoped to get leave of absence from the school" but RBAI declined to do so, as a result of which Haslett withdrew his application.
"At present, I still have an interest but I'm wary because of the security angle to it. If I thought I could make a good job of it and I would be secure in it for a while, I would definitely be interested."
