Abby Matthewson impressed by Ulster’s red-hot start to new Pro14 campaign

Mathewson’s first start of the new campaign yielded nine tries in the win over Zebre on Monday and the former All Black admitted he always cast a glance north when he was based in Limerick.

“I was with Munster, so I was following Ulster while I was there in terms of their form in the Pro14 and Europe where they were really excelling,” said Mathewson.

“To come into the environment and get to know the guys and get to see how hard they work and their skills, their work ethic, all that kind of stuff and how young they are, they’re a pretty young group.

“The way they play and the way they train, they want to get better and that’s really impressive.

“Talking to a few people, Ulster hasn’t always had the depth they have this season, so it’s good to see that, it looks like they’re going to be in good hands for years to come.”

Mathewson played 27 times for Munster and has been impressed with the youth in the Ulster squad.

“For me, here it would maybe be the age thing, Munster still have quite a few of the old boys, or they seem old, running about down there.

“You still have Pete (O’Mahony), Billy Holland who’s really old, you’ve got Earlsy (Keith Earls) in the backs and Conor Murray in there,” he said.

“So there’s more of a mix of older and younger guys there. Here they’re really young but it’s a really enthusiastic group in terms of wanting to learn, I think they’re right up there in terms of the extra skills stuff and all of the knowledge.

“You come to meetings and if a coach asks a question there’s five, six, seven, eight guys who could answer the question.

“What I do really like about the lads here is they want to get better, so like I said, the extra skills they do with the coaches [means] we’re lucky here, Munster doesn’t have the indoor gym section where you have the ability to do a lot of skills,” Matthewson added.

“Here we’ll be doing gym but in between we’ll be doing a lot of skills, that’s where the game’s won, with the skills.

“Having that room to work with is very handy, you can see it in the way the lads play, the forwards are very skilful here.”

Ulster put their unbeaten record on the line as the Scarlets visit the Kingspan Stadium on Sunday night.

The Welsh region are third in Conference B having won three and lost three of their six games.

“Another tough game, there are no easy games in the PRO14,” reasoned Mathewson.

“Scarlets, they have very dangerous backs, they play some exciting rugby, we’ve got a big focus on us again.

“If we can play the way we want to play, implement our style and game plan, then that can go a long way to getting us a result.

“We know whilst Scarlets do offer a lot, we’ve got a big focus on ourselves as well.”

* A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Irish and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. To subscribe, click here.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Thank you,

Alistair Bushe

Editor