Ulster coach Richie Murphy has had plenty to deal with during his first full season in charge of the province.
With experienced players leaving a young, transitional squad at the Kingspan Stadium, a spate of injuries – in large part to the more established names – has stretched the limits of playing resources.
They faced a hellish run of fixtures heading into the new year that featured three inter-pro matches and Champions Cup clashes with the top two teams in France, Ulster slid to run of five consecutive defeats.
They did end 2024 on a high note with a doughty display in Galway to beat Connacht in the United Rugby Championship, but are straight back into the fire this weekend when they visit Welford Road to face English side Leicester in the Champions Cup
And Murphy would rather not be faced with the new wrinkle World Rugby have introduced this weekend with four ‘law trials’ being rolled out mid-season.
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Aimed at “enhancing fan and player experience” according to the governing body, the changes will see a 60-second time limit for conversions, a 30-second set-up time for lineouts, play to continue when a ball thrown in to an uncontested lineout is not straight, and “scrum-half protection during scrums, rucks, and mauls” that will, among other things, see the opposition scrum-half prevented from crossing the midpoint of the scrum.
As well as disagreeing with the timing of the changes, Murphy is doubtful how much benefit they’ll bring – if any.
“I’m not sure changing the laws during the season is very good idea, it’s strange,” he said.
“Loads of systems have to be looked at. The nine not being able to go past the midpoint of the scrum, the change that makes to a defensive system is massive.
“I don’t really like this not straight one. People decide whether to contest or not to contest, but if you don’t contest now you get a free ball, no matter where it’s thrown.
“How many lineouts a game would that affect? Two, maybe three? I don’t know, so it’ll be interesting to see how it’ll all come out.
“The 60 seconds for a conversion is, I think, is wrong. I think it’s too tight. To score to try, come back, if you’re on the far side of the pitch for a tee to get all the way across the pitch – there are loads of little reasons why.”
Leicester away will be another daunting assignment for an Ulster side who can at least welcome back Iain Henderson and Ethan McElroy after recent injuries.
“We knew that chunk of games that we had that ended up in five losses were going to be a very difficult period but what we didn’t know is that we would be missing quite a lot of our experienced players,” said Murphy.
“Over the last renewal cycle quite a lot of senior players had left the club. We had a very strong first team and then we had a lot of young guys sort of propping that up.
“So to lose James Hume, Stewart Moore, Rob Baloucoune, Jacob Stockdale, Ethan McElroy, it’s a huge amount of experience that’s walking out of the room.
“You’re bringing in Ben Carson, who played one game before this season, never played in the European Cup, James McCormick, hadn’t played for Ulster and all of a sudden he’s eight or nine caps now and two of them in Europe.
“It’s a tough learning curve for a lot of those guys but they’ve taken to it.”
“They’re coming back, they’re getting feedback on a weekly basis, they’re going away, they’re working on their skills and they’re trying to get better every week. This will stand to us in the long run but it’s a difficult time.”
