ULSTER CEO SHANE Logan has been under fire through most of the calamitous season at the Kingspan Stadium, and so he took to the province’s YouTube platform to issue a 13 and a half minute response to some of the flak he has received.
The province’s video was timed to release at 5pm yesterday, 49 minutes after Ireland had recorded their bonus point win over Scotland and just as it was becoming clear that England would no longer be able to challenge them for the Six Nations Championship.
To the province’s credit, the questions set in front of Logan were pertinent, ranging from asking whether he intended to resign, to why there had been such a high turnover of coaches and a call to assess the Ulster academy.
The answers were not all satisfying, however, reaching a nadir when Logan brushed off the suggestion that there had been a high turnover of coaches by only counting the two directors of rugby who had worked under him over the course of the last eight years.
“In that time we’ve achieved a brave bit,” Logan said on the subject of his resignation.
“We’ve a stadium which is the envy of rugby in Europe. We’ve cleared many millions of debt and we’re one of the few clubs in Europe which is now debt-free. Our commercial revenues are up towards the top end which allows us be competitive in the long-term.
“What people don’t realise is that Ulster Rugby isn’t just a professional team… arguably the best thing we’ve done in my time is to have 20,000 of the most deprived young people in Ulster on significant rugby programmes.
So most of the foundations are in place. If I didn’t think we could build on the foundations and get through this storm then I would resign. There’s plenty to be done yet.”
Much of that action plan centres around recruitment, with Logan maintaining that the structures under the pyramid’s peak have been solidified.
“There’s no doubt we’re in a storm, you might even call it the perfect storm. The storm is in relation to the performance of the professional team,” he says.
“Up to half a dozen of our best players have been unavailable for a range of reasons. I don’t think any team, where margins are so fine, could cope with that.
“Putting it right, three things we’re looking at doing:
“First, strengthening the ranks, bringing in fresh talent. We have Marty Moore and Jordi Murphy coming in, we should have a fit-again Marcell Coetzee and we’re looking at one, two or maybe more signings to strengthen the squad.
“The second thing is, younger players (fast-tracked due to injury and unavailability) will be a year wiser.
“The final part of the jigsaw… we have to move to a place where we can have world class players in our overseas group.
“We need to work with the IRFU, increasingly well, to ensure those five (NIQ) players are there to make the disproportionate difference as they did when we qualified for the (knockout stage of) four European Cups.”
Logan paid tribute to the departing Jono Gibbes for remaining on as head coach until the end of this season despite the family issues which have convinced him to return to Waikato.
The search is on for the Kiwi’s replacement, with Logan saying that Bryn Cunningham and David Nucifora have a long list with ‘six to eight’ attractive candidates to pursue.
The dispiriting Champions Cup exit away to Wasps in January was the final nail in Les Kiss’ tenure. But results worsened after the Australian’s departure and Ulster now sit fourth in Pro14 Conference B – five points behind Edinburgh and seven ahead of Benetton – in real danger of missing out on a Champions Cup place for next season with Conference A leaders Glasgow and Munster still to face.
The most positive boost the province could provide in the closing weeks of the season would be contract renewals for their Lions Iain Henderson and Rory Best. If and when that news comes, you can be certain it won’t be timed to be immediately buried by good news from the national team.
The elephant in the room is the court case. How could any team perform well with that going on?
@Kieran Magennis: ulster were not in a good place before the trial. Too many good rugby people have either walked or been pushed away from Ulster rugby. Chop the head off the snake sometimes is the best option
A simple replacement is the man they got rid of, Brian McLaughlin, brought Ulster to dizzy heights in the Heinekin Cup but more importantly, the team wanted to really play for him. He clearly had the support of the players. Ulster have been in decline since the Heinekin Cup final v Leinster.
Jim Mallinder would be a smart choice for me , if they continue to ignore the home options …
@Limón Madrugada: absolutely. I was hoping he would go to Munster last time. But not to be.
@Limón Madrugada: Definitely not. Harry Malinder got his job because of nepotism, definitely a poor choice fly half, no where near the standard of Stephen Myler with a very experienced number of caps. He ran out of ideas for the Saints 3-4 years ago.
@Keith Osborne: you obviously didn’t see Harry Malinder in the under 20 World Cup
@Limón Madrugada: We’ve seen enough of him in the premiership to know hes not top level tho, Northampton were in trouble once the scrum laws changed and and their biggest strength suddenly was depowered almost entirely, they couldnt adapt and suffered for it. The blame is mainly with Mallinder and Dorian West for me, the game has passed them by IMO
They need a new CEO more than anything. The number of new coaches they’ve had during his time in charge is insane.
@Rudiger McMonihan:
To post an update, with no media or public to ask him hard questions in the middle of the day when six nations is pathetic.
He is hiding.
Where was he on thurday night when Bryn Cunningham had to front up to the supporters.
@IR1111: Logan is full of hot air. His interview proved nothing.
Connor O’Shea maybe??
Has anyone got any insight into the real source of all the issues at Ulster? What is it that isn’t being said?
ULSTER are going through a rough patch,but it may well be the making of them ,lets all be patient ,continued success in any arena challenges the best of teams and management .in order to get to heaven ,one must walk past the gates of hell .
I’ve backed Logan in the past but can’t anymore. His no show with the season ticket holders sending Cunningham (who I have more respect for) to face them instead was cowardly, releasing this video instead of meeting fans and releasing it at a time it will wuickly be glossed over and papers will have more important stuff to print is more cowardness.
Damage limitation
Get it out there at the best possible time and sit back and hope it goes away.
Plus there will be another disaster story coming along soon and just hope it’s not from your side
@Mark Smith: There are a number of other potential disasters to come.
Cowardly posting this and not being man enough to take the hard questions