Ulster assistant coach Jimmy Duffy says he has set a target of building a long-term squad at Ravenhill that will form the backbone of a competitive team for a decade.
The ex-Connacht man joined Ulster in the summer after leaving Australian side Western Force, linking up with long-time friend Richie Murphy in Belfast as a forwards specialist.
Even though he has only penned a two-year deal with Ulster, it is a long-term project that Duffy has signed up to given the age profile of the squad, which is predominantly players in their early twenties.
Indeed, a large portion of them will have worked with Murphy and Duffy with the Ireland Under-20s in the past and the latter admits the chance to help them take the next step in their development was hard to pass up when Murphy presented him with the opportunity.
“It didn’t take a lot of thought, just discussed it with the family. It’s a massive club with a massive history,” said Duffy.
“Richie and I go back a long way and we’ve built a relationship on honesty. He said it’s a really young group but a really exciting group. Probably the most pleasing thing for me is, particularly up front, a lot of the group are early twenties and I think if people get up and behind him then you’re looking at a squad of players that could be here for 10, 12 years, which is impressive.
“There’s been a lot of evolution in terms of experienced players but the new guard is ready to go and some of the older boys are relishing the teaching experience.
“Exciting times ahead. A young squad but an ambitious one, which is positive.”
Ulster will announce their travelling squad for their South African double-header against the Lions and Bulls this morning, with former Saracens and Leinster hooker Tadhg McElroy expected to be included as short-term cover.
It will be a much changed squad that will head to the southern hemisphere, particularly with the Emerging Ireland contingent of Cormac Izuchuwku, Jack Murphy, Harry Sheridan, Jude Postlethwaite, Zac Ward and Scott Wilson all unavailable.
Postlethwaite started in Saturday’s dramatic 20-19 win over the Glasgow Warriors to start the season, while Izuchukwu and Sheridan came on from the bench but, as part of that squad building that Duffy was talking about, he insists they will take it in their stride.
“It’s always a wee bit of a challenge but the fact of the matter is we want to build a team that can comfortably make changes and still be competitive,” he continued.
“That’s something that we need to do. You can’t run in this competition plus Europe — 18 games plus another batch of European games — you can’t rely on the same faces all the time, especially with the travel like to South Africa this weekend. You have to keep people fresh.
“It creates an opportunity for someone else when you rest someone.”
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For Duffy, the chance to return to Ireland after two years in Perth was one that was hard to pass up, especially the chance to link up again with Murphy, with whom he led the Ireland Under-20s to Grand Slam glory in 2022.
But the forwards coach, who had previously worked for 25 years with Connacht after playing for his native province as a second row, admits he loved his time down under in Super Rugby and believes he has grown for the experience.
“There’s not too many people in Ireland that get the chance to go south, the traffic generally tends to go the other direction,” he laughed.
“I was keen for a change to try and stretch myself. I was eight or nine years in Galway, I just want to freshen things up and challenge myself.
“The travel was tough, I’m not going to lie. Perth is absolutely beautiful but there’s quite a bit of travel, it’s five or six hours to get to the east of Australia and then even further for New Zealand or Fiji or wherever we were playing.
“Quite different in terms of styles. Ball in play, high scoring games. Generally the weather, apart from when we were in Fiji and we nearly got drowned, led to quite dry tracks. It was brilliant to see it, you were coaching against All Blacks and Wallabies regularly.
“Just really, really refreshing. I worked at a great club with great people. Great to broaden my horizons.”
But now he is back in Ireland and, more specifically, Belfast and he is eager to help Ulster create that new squad that will help them move towards a position where they can challenge for trophies again — and he’s already been encouraged by seeing the young players at his disposal at work.
“You like working with players that want to get better and there’s a constant stream of young players here that want to get better. We ask the questions continually and they’re not afraid to seek advice or ask questions of their own,” he smiled.
“I’ve been blown away by the commitment and learning within the group, it’s energising in the morning and they work hard throughout the day, they work for each other, they compete. It hasn’t been hard at all, it’s been great, refreshing.
“They’re a tight group, you can feel it when you come through the door, they work for each other. I’ve been starting to get to know the personalities a bit so they’re starting to loosen up around me. They’ve been great, they’ve been fantastic, working very hard.”