Dan Soper in praise for Nathan Doak’s ‘really smart rugby brain’

Connacht are likely to have Ireland international Jack Carty in the No10 shirt while Ulster will be missing Billy Burns, who suffered a concussion in the defeat last weekend to European champions La Rochelle.

Nathan Doak came off the bench for Burns at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday after 20 minutes and helped steer Ulster to gain two match points.

Doak is likely to don the No10 shirt from the start in Galway and Ulster assistant coach Dan Soper is backing the recently-turned 21-year-old to have the same impact as last weekend.

“I think if you've ever had the pleasure of spending a bit of time with ‘Doaky’, he is wise beyond his years when it comes to rugby, I can't speak for what happens outside of here,” said Soper. “He's a really smart rugby brain, obviously with Neil, he spent so much time here as a kid and that upbringing he had, he understands the game, he's a smart rugby guy.

“He's a real competitor, he also has a calmness about him when he's playing.

“He has great leadership qualities in how he behaves within the group and how he contributes.

“It's one thing covering 10 off the bench and sort of thinking it might end up being 10 or 15 minutes off the bench at the end.

“So, to get 60 minutes and to do as well as he did is a real compliment to him, we have a huge amount of confidence in ‘Doaky’, he has a real bright future in the game.

“It was a big challenge for him but we weren't surprised he was able to step up and do a good job.”

Michael Lowry won three Schools’ Cup under Soper’s tutelage at RBAI playing out half and the coach hasn’t ruled out the full back switching back to 10.

“Tactically on the weekend we saw his role at 15 as so important in terms of what we wanted to get out of counter-attack that we were reluctant to make that as the initial cover at 10,” said Soper. “There's been other games when he has been the cover but on the weekend the decision was that ‘Doaky’ would cover 10 and Mikey would stay at the back.

"But he's still an option, he drops in there at training from time to time and has been the cover in games.”

Soper is weary of the threat Carty poses.

“He's a player I really admire, he's an excellent skillset,” he said. “You look at how he manages games in the Sportsground, his quality of kicking in a place where it can be windy and have tough conditions.

“He has a phenomenal kicking game but also the way he runs his team, Connacht play a nice brand of rugby and he's at the heart of that.

“It's a hell of a challenge going down there. I'd expect the weather to be December weather so it'll be a challenge.”