ULSTER HAVE ANNOUNCED the signing of Australian Sam Windsor from Worcester Warriors on a one-year contract.
The 27-year-old will join the northern province in the summer and provide depth in the out-half position next season, with Paddy Jackson potentially heading for the World Cup with Ireland in September and October.
Windsor is Irish-qualified through his parents and spent some time with Matt O’Connor’s Leinster last season, appearing for the province’s ‘A’ side on a number of occasions while also playing club rugby with Trinity.
The out-half was previously a member of the Brumbies academy in his native Australia, the same club O’Connor played for and coached in the past.
Windsor was contracted by Blackheath in England’s third-tier National One league from 2010 to 2012, before he returned to Australian club rugby.
Following short-term contract with Leinster, the 92kg playmaker joined the NSW Country Eagles in Australia’s inaugural National Rugby Championship in 2014, guiding the side into the semi-finals with some strong performances.
The out-half’s 88 points in that competition made him second on the list of top points scorers, behind only Jack Debreczeni, now playing Super Rugby with Tony McGahan’s Melbourne Rebels.
Windsor joined Dean Ryan’s Worcester – who have Irishmen Niall Annett and Darren O’Shea on their books – as recently as December, but a dislocated shoulder while playing for the club’s A side soon after arriving means he has yet to make a first-team appearance.
“Sam is an intelligent and very professional individual, evident in his play from the outside half position,” said Ulster team manager Bryn Cunningham of the new addition.
“Possessing the full skill requirement, it is his control of the game that we have been most impressed with.
“At 27 he has the experience to make an impact within the squad right from the off and we are fully expecting him to challenge for a starting position within the squad.
“Having a ten who can release the quality outside backs we have at our disposal is absolutely key and Sam is the type of player that reads the game well and has the passing requirements to put people into space.”
Highly doubt a guy of 27 years of age in a position like outhalf will make any huge addition to the ulster team when he has never played a game in the top division of any league. Surely they’ve an academy outhalf that they’d be better off promoting to the senior panel?
The problem is highlighted by the number of Ulster Youth in the Irish representative teams. 5 in the schools and 0 in the youth. Ulster rugby do not match their aspirations with investment in youth rugby to ‘find’ players such as Tagdh Furlong and SOB. Would rather see the IRFU go further by requiring the provinces to match their investments in foreign players with the same amounts in youth rugby.
I wouldn’t think much of junior team numbers really, of the irish u-19 team that won the world championship, how many can you name? it’s a professional sport and the brutal fact is a lot of those guys won’t break through from underage teams, they need to be a prodigious talent like Bo’D or the colossus that is Donncha O’Callaghan.
He’s played in the NRC. He’ll be fine for the pro 12.
The point of junior teams is to feed senior teams. Without the numbers at junior level there is nothing to come through at senior level. Case in point Munster.
Realistically though Christy, Munster have never had a significant presence in underage teams. I don’t put much stock in u-20 numbers as representative of the talent coming through provinces, mostly because arguably the two best players in this years championship, Zach McCall and Stephen Fitzgerald, came from the two least represented provinces. It’s quality not quantity basically. I’d be much happier to get one Jack O’Donoghue rather than a bunch of lads that’ll never play beyond the AIL, as we see in Leinster.
I’d imagine that the only thing He needs to do to be a permanent starter at 10 for ulster is not miss in front of the posts.
If you want to be trolling Ulster better try the Uafc forum where they might be interested.
I didn’t mean to troll, really, but if Kelly Haimona is the only pro12 kicker with a worse percentage than jackson, you desperately need backup for Pienaar.
Where are you getting your statistics from Eoghan. I assume you are making no allowance for Jackson suffering a bad back injury at the end of last season and being injured for a good part of this season. He has hardly kicked at all.
http://www.pro12rugby.com, look for the longlist of golden boot contenders. You know kicking percentage doesn’t get affected by the number of games he’s played in the season, only the number of kicks he’s hit/missed? Or are you thinking that his injury hampered his more recent performances? never assume. Realistically though when was the last time you saw a senior, capped international miss a kick in front of the post?
I’m talking about literally in front of the posts about ten yards out but thanks for your input as always Quinner.
Again Quinner, Madigan’s kick wasn’t directly in front of the post, ten yards out. He’s on the shortlist actually.