Best Relishing Ulster’s Montpellier Mission

As someone who has captained Ulster, Ireland and the British & Irish Lions this past summer, Rory Best knows a thing or two about leadership.

Ahead of Ulster’s Heineken Cup Pool 5 match against Montpellier in France this weekend, Rory Best has urged the young players in the squad to prove that they are good enough to play and to win on the biggest stage.

“We have a lot of internationals in our team and a lot of boys that aspire to be internationals,” explained the experienced Ulster hooker.

“For those boys that are aspiring to play for Ireland, this is their big chance to show everyone else that they can do it in the Heineken Cup.

“This is why they are picked on this team. This is why they are part of this squad that, on the big occasions, they step up and reach that high level of consistency and performance.”

The Stade Yves du Manoir is one of Europe’s most intimidating venues and there on Saturday afternoon Ulster will face a Montpellier side renowned for their direct style of rugby:

“It is going to be a tough place to go. It is probably going to be considerably warmer than Belfast, they are going to look to play at a very high tempo, which obviously suits us because that’s the way that we want to play too.”

Ulster will be able to draw upon the fact that they have already played one of Europe’s top teams in the tournament – Leicester Tigers – and won.

“We went into the Leicester Tigers game under a bit of pressure because you have to win your home games,” reflected Best.

“Starting off, first up at home against one of the top teams in your pool…it can be a tough ask, with a lot of pressure, but we played well – we got the four points that we knew were important to us, so from an all-round team performance, we can be very happy.”