Four games into the season, it feels like we can start gleaning some learnings about this Ulster team and what they are going to offer throughout the season.
For instance, the obvious assessment is that this is an Ulster team that will be heavily reliant on young players and, therefore, there will be teething problems as they learn their way in the game.
But there are positives, of course. The emergence of the likes of Ben Carson, Charlie Irvine and James McCormick has been exciting, as has been the resurgence of James McNabney.
There has also been the continued improvements of Jacob Stockdale, who looks like he is close to returning to his world-class best while, similarly, Werner Kok looks like an inspired signing given his enthusiasm. Corrie Barrett has had a solid start to life with the province, too.
True, not all has been smooth, the scrum issues that have plagued them all season showing no signs of abating while the defence has been rather porous, particularly when it comes to defending against physicality.
It is worth putting context into it, of course, namely being that their opening four games have been against the URC defending champions, two South African teams in the southern hemisphere and a full-blooded inter-pro. In that context, being in eighth place with 10 points from four games is nothing to be sniffed at.
But don’t ask any of the coaching staff to give any reflections just yet. Nor ask them to look at the table, as Dan Soper expresses when he has to ask where the province are even sitting in the URC standings at present.
“At the end of this block, that break through November, we’ll reflect as a coaching staff on what’s going well in our game and what areas do we need to drill down on in that training time,” explains the assistant coach.
“We’ll probably have a look at the League table then, what’s coming up and how it’s panning out. All we can control is how well we play week-to-week and the League table is so out of our control in terms of all the other results.
“We just have to keep getting better as a team and if we get results then we’ll end up in a place that we want to be towards the back end of the year.
“But, yes, we’ll reflect at the end of this block and then it’ll be when we start coming into the last few months we’ll start looking at every match, not just our own. But we’re well away from that right now.”
Instead, the focus is on the week to week and reflecting on a victory over Connacht that took them off the bottom of the League table and made it two wins from two on home soil — or turf as it is now.
That said, despite the outcome, which saw Ulster claim all five points on offer and the inter-provincial bragging rights, it was actually a disappointing night for Soper in the grand scheme of things, which may come as a surprise to many.
“I actually thought despite the result at the Bulls, a lot of the things we did with the ball were good and we were going in the right direction, but we were pretty disappointed with a lot of our attack on Saturday night, we went away from a lot of the principles we were working hard on and we allowed Connacht to come and get us and they did a great job at shutting us down,” reveals Soper.
“Still looking for that consistency of attack but from where we were in pre-season, we’re making good progress.
“We were a wee bit disappointed with the things we did on Saturday, albeit it was a wet night but that was probably more reason for us to lean on the principles and fundamentals of what we build our attack on.”
Still, to use that context word again, it is worth considering that the backline was shorn well short of its full potential and had the likes of Carson — making just his third appearance for the province — and Morgan in key positions.
While there was always an acceptance that Ulster would have to go with a much younger cohort this season, showing faith in the likes of Carson, Irvine and McCormick has shown a newfound dedication to seeing more of what their new stars have to offer rather than just giving them brief cameos here and there.
“Richie was pretty clear on that when he came in, the squad we have at the moment, we need to put trust in the young guys,” concurs Soper.
“Ben Carson is someone who has been around the squad for two or three years now and we need to give those guys an opportunity.
“You look at teams that do well in the League, generally they have a good depth of squad and you need to be able to lean on a wide group.
“The last few weeks have been pretty tough, you go to South Africa and the travel back is tough, you come back for a tough inter-pro and it starts to take its toll and that’s where you need to lean on the wider group.
“For us right now, the wider group does not have a lot of seasoned veterans who have flown in from around the world to help, it’s a lot of local guys that have to start somewhere.
“The likes of Ben has had two or three years of training around the squad, has now had his opportunity in the first few games and has done really well.
“We need to grow our squad from the bottom up rather than parachuting in the top is our focus at the moment.”
Their next chance to look at that wider group comes on Friday when they welcome the Ospreys to Ravenhill for round five of the URC aiming to climb the table ahead of the break for the November internationals and that meeting of the coaches to see where they are.
In the past, this is a game that Ulster might have felt like they should be winning in order to be considered a true top-eight team, but Soper warns against having that mentality in a bid to avoid complacency being the thing that proves to be their downfall.
“They’ve changed a wee bit this year from where they’ve been and certainly what I’ve been prepping around us with the ball, we’re expecting a lot of line speed from them and they haven’t always been a line speed team,” reveals Soper.
“That’s something that looks like it’s changed and that’s going to be a challenge for us. It reminds me a bit of the pre-season game against Exeter and we struggled against that on the day, so that’ll be a challenge, definitely.
“It’s early in the season, My impression is that the Ospreys have been on an upward curve for the last 12 to 18 months so we’re expecting a challenge there, they bring a physicality to how they play up front.”