FORMER Ireland flanker Nigel Carr admitted last night that he was baffled by the news that Ulster head coach Jono Gibbes is to leave at the end of the season without fulfilling the second year of his contract.

BRIAN McLaughlin believes Ulster Rugby must work harder at grassroots level to harness homegrown talent in order to produce a successful professional team in the years to come.

Guinness PRO14: Ulster v Edinburgh (Friday, 7.

Jordan Larmour can bridge the Test match generation gap and produce his "devastating" best on his Ireland debut on Saturday, according to Rory Best.

Jordan Larmour should make his Test debut in Ireland's NatWest 6 Nations clash with Italy in Dublin.

FOLLOWING a run of poor results, it was last night confirmed that Les Kiss had left his role as director of rugby with Ulster with immediate effect.

SINCE the traditional curtain-raiser for springtime moved from Five Nations to Six in 2000 no team has won the championship three years on the bounce.

IAIN Henderson has questioned his team's work ethic, accusing players of having been 'a bit lazy' at times, as Ulster prepare for today's must-win European Champions Cup game with La Rochelle at the Kingspan Stadium.

ULSTER are set to confirm the signing of All Black Stephen Donald until the end of the season as a replacement for fly-half Christian Lealiifano, who returns to Australia later this month.

TOMMY Bowe will be out of action for up to eight weeks after sustaining a shoulder injury in Ulster's hugely disappointing 38-7 defeat to Leinster in Saturday night's PRO14 game at the RDS Arena.

THERE was little in the way of festive cheer for Ulster as their 2017 came to a hugely disappointing end with a humiliating 44-16 PRO14 defeat to Connacht in Galway, piling more pressure on under-fire director of rugby Les Kiss.

DESPITE having to settle for the runners up spot to England at the Six Nations there were many positives for the Ireland rugby team in 2017

Best atmosphere, best celebration, best putdown, dodgy assessment, waste of space and many more bests and worsts of 2017.