ULSTER winger Tommy Bowe was in typically sanguine form at Tuesday’s Guinness PRO12 launch in Dublin as he looked ahead to the new season after sitting out most of the last campaign due to a knee injury sustained during the 2015 World Cup.
The Monaghan man is likely to miss the opening match of the season against Newport-Gwent Dragons at Kingspan Stadium on Friday week but, having waited so long for his comeback, he can afford to sit out the action for a little longer. After sustaining the injury in Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final defeat to Argentina last October, Bowe had initially believed he might have returned to the fray for the Six Nations but, instead, the frustration continued when his comeback for Ulster lasted only briefly as a recurrence of the injury against Zebre ended his season prematurely and before Ulster’s PRO12 semi-final defeat by Leinster.
“I’m feeling fit again, glad to say, and the last four or five weeks have been super after my knee’s been, well, a bit of a disaster to be honest,” he said.
“It was diagnosed as a bit of bone bruising which sounded quite innocuous at the time but there was very little that could be done about it. But I had a good rest over the summer and got a bit of sun on my back on holiday and now I’m putting the nuts and bolts on to my recovery.
“I’ve been trying to build up my quads and hamstring in order to take a bit of pressure off the knee and so far so good. It almost feels like a new knee now and I’ve been able to play pretty much a full part in training so I’ve been chatting to Les [Kiss] and we’ll see how it goes from here on in.”
Ulster director of rugby Kiss meanwhile is also looking forward to the new season - which will see the PRO12 decider played at the Aviva Stadium - albeit for a different reason, having stepped into the head coach’s role when last year’s PRO12 campaign was under way.
The affable Australian was on World Cup duty as his seven-year tenure as Ireland defence coach came to an end in that game against Argentina: “I’ve really enjoyed the pre-season, having come into the post a third of the way through last year, but I’m fortunate we had, and still have good coaches like Neil Doak and Allen Clarke around me as well as Joe Barakat who came in at the same time as myself,” said Kiss.
“‘Doaky’ is an exceptional coach in his own right and ‘Clarkey’ has a vast amount of experience at working with the forwards as well. From my point of view, it’s been nice to get my teeth into the new season from day one and to be able to have a clear vision from week to week.”
Ulster have made several new signings, two of them extremely high-profile in the shape of South African back row Marcell Coetzee and All Black back Charles Piutau, who played in last weekend’s friendly defeat by Exeter Chiefs. Coetzee will be sidelined until January with a cruciate knee injury sustained when playing for the Sharks, shortly after his signing for Ulster was announced.
However Kiss is resigned to being short-handed for another reason during the course of the season with an increasing number of Ulster players making it onto the national squad for games in November and the Six Nations: “It’s a nice problem to have and, at the moment, I think we provide around 23 per cent of the Ireland squad at the last count which is a source of great pride,” he said.
“Of course that will provide a challenge when they are away but there are a number of guys who have put their hands up during the preseason and hopefully we’re bigger and better than the challenge that will be presented when we are short. Although we have the friendly double header against Northampton Saints and Canada A coming up on Friday, the main focus will be soon be on the first league game against the Dragons on Friday week.
“At the start of the season, every team will believe they can be up there and challenging and we have to make sure we’re armed for that.”
