Ulster and Ireland captain Rory Best has revealed that he will make a decision on his career after Ireland’s end-of-year internationals.
The hooker, who turned 36 earlier this month and has a contract which runs until Ireland’s Rugby World Cup campaign, said he will decide on his future after his country’s upcoming Tests against Italy, Argentina, New Zealand and United States in November.
“I think I’ll make a decision on that in due course,” he told the Belfast Telegraph at the PRO14‘s season launch in Glasgow on Tuesday.
“It’ll not be something that I’ll leave until the last minute because if it is my last season, the club means too much to me to do something in the 11th hour and say ‘that’s it for me’ and leave them no time to replace me.
“We’re at the stage now where I’m contracted to the end of the World Cup and a big focus of mine is going to be getting back, getting fit, getting rid of the injuries and the niggles, and focusing on this (first) part of the season with Ulster, and then the autumn internationals, and then we’ll maybe sit down and have a look at it.
“I’ll have played PRO14, I’ll have played Europe and I’ll have played international so we’ll see how the body is holding up.
“If it’s to be another 12 months, 16 or 18 months we’ll make a decision then, and that’s obviously even if there is anything offered post World Cup if we do want it. Where I’ll end up afterwards, we’ll wait and see.”
There have been major changes in the coaching set-up at Ulster with new head coach Dan McFarland replacing Jono Gibbes and Best is excited by the prospect of working with the former Scotland assistant coach.
“It’s really important that Dan arrived,” he said.
“To have no contact with him, not even up until the middle of the season but even September or October, it would have been really difficult to change things when you’re going week to week and game to game.
“But now he has a week leading into a pre-season game where we want to play well and want a result, but if we don’t get it this week and get it the following week, then that’s the important thing.
“Dan has two weeks now (before the first league game against Scarlets) to get his head round everything and us to get our heads around everything that he expects from us. That’s really good for us and it allows us to get used to him and used to his voice.
“I think clean slate is an interesting term. There were moments from last season that were really unpleasant but you have to remember them as those sort of things that drive you on.
“We made a decision after Cardiff last season, when it wasn’t about results, but about performances. We were so afraid to lose a game that we didn’t go out and win it. We didn’t want to make mistakes so badly that we made loads.
“For us, we had to change that attitude. You should enjoy playing in an Ulster shirt and for the two or three months, from the end of Europe to the end of the Six Nations, boys didn’t look like they enjoyed playing rugby and playing rugby for Ulster. That had to stop.
“But at the end of the season we showed a real attitude during games.
“In terms of a clean slate, yes, we are in terms of league position and league points, but there’s things we have to remember too.”