Ulster Head Coach, Matt Williams spoke about Ulster aims and objectives in the pre-season training programme:
“It’s great to be back with a squad that includes talented young players like; Niall O’Connor and Tommy Anderson and the first of Ulster’s new signings; Cillian Willis and Daniel Roach, who started training with us this week.”

“For the next five weeks we are working six days a week with an emphasis on muscle gain, lower body power, strength, speed and foot work.   We’re also coaching in core tackle techniques and running lines.   The coaching staff are in the process of putting in place our new systems of attack, defence and analysis.  This is very time consuming but also very rewarding.”

“This phase of training will take us through to July 12th when the Churchill Cup and International players return” continued Williams.  

Each player has both personal objectives as well as overall team goals they wish to achieve in their training.  When speaking to some of the players back in training about how things were going, both Nigel Brady and Paul Marshall spoke about their pre-season training was going and the tasks that lie ahead.  When asked about how he felt to be back training with the squad, Ulster Hooker Nigel Brady remarked: “I’m feeling good about being back in training with the rest of the lads, I had a great relaxing holiday in Gran Canaria with brilliant food and glorious weather, which I unfortunately didn’t seem to bring back with me,  so I’m ready to get stuck into some serious training now.”

“My personal aims in pre-season training are to increase my muscle mass and body weight as well as improve my over power and performance on the pitch.  The main goal I have for the forth coming season is to compete for a starting place on the team; there are a lot of good players competing for the same places on the team, which really makes you train hard and push yourself to your best.”

Ulster scrum-half Paul Marshall spoke about his personal goals in training for the season ahead:
“I would be keen to put on a bit of weight this year which should help my game both in attack and defence.  I also want to continue working on my core skills of passing and kicking with the aim to improve consistency and variety in both fields.  Furthermore, I want to keep working on my acceleration and foot-work for evading the opposition, as I feel this is a strength of my game that I want to remain, with hopefully increased body weight.”

“My hopes for the season ahead on a team basis are that I want us to provide an honest account of ourselves and that we play to our full potential.  I hope we welcome the new players in and gel together as a team, which became more apparent in the latter parts of last season.  On a personal note, I want to play in every game as everyone obviously does.  There will be stiff opposition in the forms of Isaac and Cillian,  but I feel if I can work hard and keep improving then I will get an opportunity and then it’s up to me to perform!”

With all this training ahead did Paul get any time to relax on his recent holidays?
“I had a good holiday, unfortunately didn't manage to get away due to a couple of my friends having commitments out of my control but it was great to get a bit of time to relax and I have to admit, as I'm not a morning person, I did enjoy some long lie-ins.  I got a few rounds of golf in and I really enjoyed playing with the great weather we have been having here but my golf could do with a lot of work as I'm rather poor at it.  I managed a few days up to the north coast too which is always a great place to go and relax” commented Paul.

The week being Monday 14th July will see the full Ulster team training together and perfecting their team skills in anticipation for a successful season ahead.