It took some hard contractual negotiations before the deal was sealed but South African Alan Solomons has finally been named to take over from Harry Williams as the province's Director of Rugby.

The 50-year-old former assistant Springboks coach and a respected Cape Town barrister will officially start his three-year tenure on June 1.
However, he has already begun assembling his back-room staff and has asked former Irish international centre Mark McCall to remain as assistant coach with responsibility for the backs -- an offer he is unlikely to refuse.

Solomons is also hoping to bring with him his assistant of many years Adrian
Kennedy, a highly-respected forwards coach from Canterbury.
Some may disagree with the choice of an overseas coach while ignoring the quality services that would be offered by the experience of locally-based Andre Bester and Willie Anderson who know what makes Ulstermen tick.

However, it's not as if Cape Town-based Solomons is just another run of the mill coach who is about to be wheeled in from south of the equator. He travels with quite an impressive portfolio, a man of proven ability who is very much respected around the globe.

Undoubtedly the Ulster squad will also welcome his choice of the up and coming McCall as one of his assistants. McCall visited Solomons' Western Stormers training camp last summer and was not only highly impressed, but obviously left his own imprint.

Solomons is due to begin his third term as head coach to the Stormers who were just pipped to a Super 12 semi-final slot by Free State Cats last May and were the first South African side to reach the last four shoot-out the previous season.
From 1997 the articulate Solomons was assistant to Springbok coach Nick Mallett for three years which included world record equalling 17 unbeaten games on the trot. He has under his wing at present some of the world's best players in his Stormers squad including Corne Krige, Robbie Fleck, Pieter Rossouw, Percy Montgomery, Robbie Kempson, and his close friend and talisman Bobby Skinstad, who is now back in action after missing most of last season with injury.

Solomons will have a direct input with regards filling the remaining 10 or so slots in next season's Ulster squad.
At present there have been a number of core players offered contracts already, and it's hoped that Solomons will be involved as soon as possible to help fill those gaps.

Ulster Branch Chief Executive Michael Reid said: "Overall everyone is glad that it's all over. Naturally everyone is going to have their own particular views on the subject, even those who do not know completely nothing about Alan Solomons."

"We did exhaustive studies on all candidates and in Alan's case an intensive trawl through South Africa which returned a very positive feedback," said Reid. "We were very pleased with the level of interest and standard of all the candidates. The procedure has taken longer than we would have hoped, but at the end of the day we are very pleased we got the man that we wanted."