Richie Murphy has shed light on why Ulster have recruited recent Springboks call-up Juarno Augustus and Wallabies prop Angus Bell as their marquee signings for next season.
The Irish province struggled to impress in their head coach’s first full season at the helm in Belfast, finishing 14th in the 16-team United Rugby Championship after winning just seven of their 18 matches.
Murphy’s reaction has been to bolster his team’s pack with a pair of meaty ball carriers. Augustus was pivotal in helping Northampton Saints win the 2023/24 Gallagher Premiership in England and the uncapped number eight recently attended a virtual Springboks alignment camp ahead of their upcoming series of international matches.
Loosehead Bell, meanwhile, has made himself a front-row fixture in the Wallabies and Waratahs teams and is set to be chosen by Joe Schmidt to take on the British and Irish Lions in July before moving to Ireland.
Having allowed the now-retired Steven Kitshoff to rejoin the Stormers following an unfulfilled spell at the club in 2023/24, Ulster struggled at loosehead last term with the now-released Andy Warwick and the injury-prone Eric O’Sullivan.
“Gives you an idea of how we want to play the game…”
They also lacked a consistent level of punch in the back-row – something they haven’t had since Springboks legend Duane Vermeulen was on the books at Ravenhill.
With the dust now settled on Ulster’s disappointing season – their campaign ended with a 47-17 hammering at Edinburgh on May 16 – head coach Murphy has been speaking about the future and why Augustus and Bell are important acquisitions.
Speaking in an end-of-season video published on the Ulster YouTube channel, Murphy said: “Juarno will be a really important player for us. He is exactly what you see when you watch him, a massive big ball carrying forward.
“It gives you an idea of how we want to play the game as we progress, be a real focal point in the attack and defensively he tends to gather players around him so that will be a really big plus for us going forward.
“He is also only 26, just recently announced in an extended Springboks squad, so it gives you an idea of the calibre of player we are getting. Although he isn’t an international yet, he is right up there as international quality coming off the back of some really good work with Northampton.”
Switching to the capture of the 24-year-old Bell, Murphy added: “Again, it’s another international class forward coming into the building. Angus will have the experience of playing against the Lions under his belt at that stage.
“We’ll see him come in in early December for the rest of the season. In relation to some of those young props that we have in the building, Angus isn’t old but he has a bit of experience around him. It’s him being able to show us a different way of how the guys go around their business on a daily basis.
“Again, he is a massive ball-carrying forward, one of the most effective loosehead props in Super Rugby and at international level and we have seen in the past how effective he is. So adding both Juarno and Angus as our marquee signings will really help us strengthen up in that pack.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/ulster-explain-why-quality-springboks-hopeful-and-effective-wallabies-regular-became-marquee-signings-for-2025-26
