Zac Ward’s Ulster Debut Marked by Personal Joy and Team Defeat

Zac Ward made his initial appearance for Ulster, finding personal satisfaction despite the team’s 40-19 loss to Bordeaux in the Investec Champions Cup match held on Saturday. In Belfast, Ulster held a 19-14 advantage at halftime, but the French side, Bordeaux, then scored 26 consecutive points during the second half. Prior to his move to Ulster on a trial basis at the beginning of this season, Ward had distinguished himself playing for Ireland Sevens at the Paris Olympics. The 26-year-old wing commented on his feelings, stating, “Yeah, very conflicting [emotions] – I was personally really happy to get my first cap, it was a bit of a boyhood dream come true.” He continued, “But obviously it would have been quite nice to top it off with a win. We started really well, we had a really good first 40 minutes. We stuck to our gameplan, we imposed ourselves well and cause Bordeaux a lot of trouble.” Ward also reflected on the latter part of the match, saying, “In the second half – I’m not too sure what happened – the next thing we knew we were 30 odd points to 19 down so we’ll have to look back and try to fix what went wrong for next week against Munster.” This loss marked Ulster’s fourth consecutive defeat as the team gets ready to play their Irish rivals at Kingspan Stadium this coming Friday night. Ward has adapted effectively to Ulster and expressed his desire to maintain his position in the squad for the upcoming encounter with Munster. He shared his positive experience, stating, “I’m loving it – I was definitely ready for the change off the back of the Olympics and ever since I’ve come into Ulster I’ve felt really welcomed.” Regarding his performance against Bordeaux, Ward commented, “I was relatively happy with how I played [against Bordeaux] and I thought I played to my strengths which was with ball in hand.” He concluded, “So hopefully I can get in the team against for next week and try to do more of the same.”