The arrival of Tamaiti Horua in Belfast this week saw the finalisation of the Ulster squad for the forthcoming season. Before his arrival was confirmed, a will-he, won’t-he debate raged about the New Zealand-born, Australian flanker. There was suggestion, from more than one source, that some breakdown of the deal to bring Horua to Ravenhill would be no bad thing but The Archipelago, for one, is happy to see his arrival.

There is no doubt that in Stephen Ferris, Ulster possesses the stand out blindside flanker in the Northern Hemisphere but this quality comes at a price – Ferris will spend chunks of the season away with Ireland and, unlike the Ulster benchwarmers, will not be released back into the fold on off-weekends. It would not be a satisfying position for Ulster to go into the new season expecting to play Matt McCullough, Chris Henry or Thomas Anderson at 6 on a quasi-regular basis.

This is said as no slant against McCullough, Henry or Anderson. McCullough has proven himself to be an excellent wet-weather blindside over the past two seasons but lacks the pace to make any meaningful impact when the game opens up and while Henry has acquitted himself well for both Ulster and Ireland in the past season, he looks much more suited to playing 8, where he should be kept and allowed to develop has natural game. At this stage, the jury remains out on Anderson – he has youth and time on his side but his mixed bag of cameos last season is not enough to suggest he could have been a meaningful solution for this season.

The fact that Horua offers specialist and experienced cover at blindside is important for a squad that, in places, is already threadbare and seriously lacking in experience. There will be questions and speculation about his price-tag, about his quality and concerns will continue to be raised about his performances in the Super 14. At this stage, these questions are mere speculation and Ulster are not so blessed with resources to assume that a player who makes the bench in the Super 14 will not add something to our own matchday 22. At this stage last year, few expected Ed O’Donoghue to be anything other than a squad player for Ulster, yet went on to be one of the consistent performers throughout the season.

Just as importantly, perhaps, Horua comes to Ulster having had the experience of captaining Australia at under-21 level. This may not sound like much but Ulster are a team, especially in the absence of Rory Best, that are woefully and worryingly short of leaders. Any sense of leadership in any new recruit can only be a good thing.

In this lack of leadership is both Ulster’s single biggest problem and an indication of one of this squad’s most significant attributes. It is a young team and an even younger squad. At the start of this season, Justin Fitzpatrick, Nigel Brady, Bryn Cunningham and Clinton Schifcofske will be the only players in the squad over 30; compare that to Munster – a team that includes no fewer than seven players over that same age in a first choice starting XV. It is not inconceivable that a first choice Ulster team, at least at the start of the season, will contain only one player to have reached this arbitrary age barrier.

The average age of the full 33-man Ulster squad this season is under 26. Youth has its advantages, of course – many already feel that much can be expected of Caldwell, Cave, Pollock, Whitten et al and as they develop, Ulster can only improve but it isn’t without its problems. Focus, at times last season, was lacking from young and inexperienced Ulster sides. The talent is there but consistency isn’t, and may well not be there this season either. It is in these times of lost focus and inconsistency when leaders show their true colours and have their most profound effects and, in many ways, that is what this Ulster team are missing.

In the absence of Rory Best, exactly who should captain the side is almost a mystery. Isaac Boss has been with the squad for a number of seasons now but questions remain about his decision-making and faith in the inexperience around him. That is not to mention that, this season as last, his position will come under threat from Cillian Willis and Paul Marshall. Arguably, Ulster’s first-choice at scrum-half will take a horses-for-courses approach and it is not, at all, desirable, to lose this to maintain the selection of a captain.

BJ Botha, Ed O’Donoghue, Stephen Ferris, David Pollock and Paddy Wallace may all have their own claims but there is no exceptional candidate. Botha and O’Donoghue may well have the respect of players in the squad but have only just finished their first seasons at Ulster and Pollock will be unavailable at the start of the season and will face stiff competition for his shirt from Faloon. Ferris may be the logical candidate but the question of who would captain the side during the international then arises. The fact that there is no outstanding candidate to replace Best as captain is a microcosm of the leadership vacuum that currently exists at Ulster.

If leadership is problematic, the lack of strength or depth in the squad is almost terrifying. Especially in the backs, it is clear that Ulster will be relying on the versatility of a number of players but even with reshuffles, resources eventually run dry. Wallace can act as a third out-half, Boss as another option at fullback and Trimble as a fourth centre if required but if Trimble moves off the wing, resources in the back three will be stretched. It is not inconceivable that three injuries in the backline would see an untimely debut from a talented youngster and even less inconceivable, given the frequent injuries to Danielli, Nagusa and Wallace, that such an eventuality could easily arise in the course of a normal season.

Spence, especially, comes with a big reputation from age-group rugby but that is not an excuse for fast-tracking him into a starting team before he is ready. In ways, this rushing of talented youngsters into Ulster’s first team has been problematic in the past – the list of hugely talented Ulstermen who made early-career debuts but never fulfilled potential may not be endless but it’s longer than it should be. Neil McMillan and Roger Wilson are obvious examples but there are others. One wonders what these players, McMillan especially, could have achieved had he had more time on the sidelines to develop, both physically and mentally?

Compare that to teams like Munster; in recent times Munster have had the luxury of slowly allowing players to develop. Donnacha Ryan, for example, is 25 and seems primed for a big future with his province and with Ireland but has been allowed to develop his game fully, without the pressure to perform week in, week out. This is not a luxury that Ulster have had in recent seasons and not one that Ulster will have in coming seasons but never before have resources seemed so stretched. No player should be introduced to a squad too soon simply to bridge a resources gap, yet one must worry that the paper thin nature of the squad at Ulster this season could lead to such a necessity and lead to setting back the natural development of inchoate talent.

It’s not all doom and gloom, of course. It wouldn’t be an Archipelago column if there were no rays of sunlight and optimism, after all. What this squad lacks in experience and depth it, no doubt, makes up for in potential and youthful zest. Cave and Pollock may have ended last season with a bit of a whimper but we should not forget their performances throughout. Both will face stiff competition in the future from the likes of McFadden, Earls and O’Brien for Ireland starting shirts but both are future regulars in Ireland teams. Caldwell may have dipped through the season but he is still more than capable and with two of his old mentors now Ulster’s coaching team, may well reach the heights that have been long-expected. Trimble, with a full pre-season and free of niggling injuries has every chance to show the form he is capable of. And all of this is not to mention the potential for the likes of Faloon, Henry and Whitten to stamp serious claims for shirts.

Realistically, significant improvement this season may well, once more, be shown through performances, rather than results; number of points, rather than league position; improved attack and defence rather than playoffs and quarter-finals. To some Ulster fans, this may not be enough but reality bites hard at times. Ulster still have a young team, a very young team, in fact – that age of 26 makes Ulster look prepubescent compared with other professional squads – that has plenty of room for improvement in significant, if not extravagant ways. This team may lack experience and certainly lacks depth but there is every chance that, given time, both of these problems will be naturally resolved through the development and increased experience of the current squad and from the advancement of the likes of Cochrane, Porter or Spence in the academy.