Juggling the northern and southern hemisphere seasons can be both a rewarding and sometimes costly exercise for players. Now back in the Wallabies fold after his Ulster sojourn, Angus Bell has admitted that the province’s failure to reach the URC playoffs was a bitter pill to swallow, yet had a silver lining fir him.
Bell has been on the rugby treadmill pretty much without an off-season since February last year, making 13 starts for the Waratahs and featuring in all but one of the Wallabies’ 15 Tests in 2025 before playing 17 games for Ulster. That’s 44 games in 16 months.
Missing out on the URC playoffs by two points inadvertently afforded Bell an extended six-week break after Ulster’s 59-26 defeat to Montpellier in the Challenge Cup final to the opening Nations Championship fixtures against Ireland at a sold-out Allianz Stadium in Sydney next Saturday.
“I had ongoing conversations with Joe (Schmidt) and certain people at Rugby Australia and even the Waratahs to sort of find that happy medium.
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“It was disappointing not making it further in that competition (URC), but silver lining, I got a bit of a break, which was great to get away and do some of my own training and stuff like that. So, I’m back now and I’m ready and refreshed.”
On a wet and relatively chilly day by Sydney’s standards, Bell admitted of his Ulster team-mates, “I miss those fellas already”, adding he achieved what he wanted from his six months in Irish rugby.
“When some of the guys asked me what it’s like back home, I feel like Super Rugby’s very tidy, even from a scrum perspective. I feel like everywhere around the planet has a pretty similar shape and speed of the game, but it’s very tidy in Super Rugby. Whereas in the URC, you’ve got South Africa, Wales, Scotland, Ireland; there’s different pictures every week.
“There’s definitely heaps of learnings in there and, as a squad, the whole of Ulster, we were a pretty young front row, a pretty young forward pack, so to experience new things with them and try to get everyone on the same page, it was an awesome experience as someone who was actually one of the older players in the forward pack.”
His time with the province also gave him more of an insight into the Irish mentality. “They’re very similar to Australians, like very similar people, very similar cultures.
“They love a beer, they love going to the pub, they love hanging out. It’s very similar to what the Australian identity is, even around the changeroom, it’s very similar as well. I’ve made friends for life from Northern Ireland and in Belfast.
“It’s going be interesting going up against them, but they’re top fellas. I couldn’t speak any more highly of them, just like I couldn’t speak any higher of the boys here at the Wallabies squad too.”
Bell was backup to Australia’s most capped player of all time in James Slipper for last season’s three-match series against the Lions and the Rugby Championship. Following Slipper’s retirement, Bell started all five of the Wallabies’ end-of year Tests.
Yet, despite the competition for a starting place, Bell has warmly welcomed Slipper’s return to the Wallabies squad after the 37-year-old went back on his decision to hang up his boots.
“I’ve been speaking to Slips all the way through, even when I went to Ulster. Slips was one of my mentors growing up; from when I was first in the squad at 19, he looked after me and taught me what I know.
“To see Slips being called back in, it’s been awesome. He’s great around the group. I know he hates the father figure sort of name, but he genuinely is.
“If there’s ever trouble or we’re trying to fix something within the forward pack, it’s always Slips and Al (Allan Alaalatoa) to help us around those issues. It’s awesome to see him back.”
Bell adds Slipper is “still top quality, top class” having kept as close an eye on the Super Rugby action as possible “without throwing out my sleep schedule” during his time in Ireland.
“That’s why he’s here again, because he’s doing a job for the Brumbies. It’s awesome to have Slips back.”
