Two competitive games into the season. I’ll make that 3 as I was still fine tuning this article when the deadline ran out. Its time again to ask how your opmo levels are fairing. Are you ecstatically excited by the performance of the Ulster team so far or are you at the other end of the spectrum and dangerously depressed? For me, my mercury levels are where rising, having seen a marked improvement Friday week ago in the way the team played, (against Cardiff). I’d say I’m edging over the halfway mark and into positive optimism, if still a little tinged with pessimo acid due to the repeitition of mistakes and of course words. Sadly as Cardiff was a step up the stairway Friday night saw us fall down the stairs.
In my last optometer article I mentioned 6 areas of the game that were important for various reasons. These were:
(i) Mental strength as a unit
(ii) Team/squad unity
(iii) Physiological robustness
(iv) Tactical nous (or in plain language – being streetwise).
(v) Clinical precision in executing a game plan
(vi) A certain cynicism towards the laws of the game.
In the Cardiff game I thought many of these objectives were met to some degree but unfortunately when we threw away the game it came down to tactical nous and mental strength going awol when it was needed most to close out a game. For the most part there is the squad togetherness and team unity. There was a precision in executing a game plan especially in the first half.
It is clear the team is still gelling. As an example, Robbie Diack is emerging as a key ball carrier, but he is a typical Saffie provincial back rower, big strong and very quick off the mark. The team need to read his game and support him. That will come with time as will the gelling of other key players into the team. Whilst not underestimating the Dragons and for sure they’ll not want another drubbing, we should be going out against them with a certain mindset which is to annihilate a team that is shaky on its feet after 3 successive defeats. I’ve left these, pre Dragons comments in because last Friday night, yet another basic aspect raised its head which is skills level.
Neil Doak is the skills coach, newly appointed. It seems to me, change things too quickly and players suddenly look as if they are playing with two heads. Friday night the number of knock-ons in contact were criminal to the point that some players should be penalised by court martial and fined for neglecting their basic duties such as, holding on to the ball. In mitigation your honour, they appear to be of two minds in whether to offload or hold on. This to me is something you cannot simply drill into players overnight, therefore the forced attempt to offload when the natural instinct is to hold on to the ball and wait for support/ set up a ruck. Late in the game Diack attempted to off load to Nagusa but it didn’t quite come off, this is something that comes natural to these players and it shows. There is work to be done to get players used to offloading in contact when they have been trained in going to ground and setting up rucks. There is little point in forcing the change as seems to be the case at present, with appalling results.
We need to come good and bring together all those elements that are beginning to gell and register the promise that is visible but tantalisingly just out of reach. Williams clearly is working at various areas to improve things both on and off the pitch. He may point out it is a 3 year plan but as he found out with Scotland, when the team is clearly struggling in basic skills, through no fault of the coach, it matters little when competition begins and results somehow magnify into the be all and end all.
In the end no matter how much you say it hurts not getting a result, the fans are looking to the next game to see if the old mistakes are being eliminated and the team is adapting. Again the coach can talk about tactics, the ref, the weather or the team failing to close out a game, as he did last Friday night. Ultimately he’ll only get away with that a few times before someone asks why he can’t communicate to his players or ask if his players have stopped listening to him. Frighteningly that evolved as the straw that broke McCalls back late into his tenure, though it was clear the team had stopped listening well before Mark McCall resigned. I doubt that a similar situation now would be allowed to drag on for as long as it did then.
This then is scenario that is taking shape even as Williams methodically approaches repairing the decline and neglect that was allowed to accumulate under Mark McCall’s tenure. That is not to lay the blame at McCalls door by any means because there were far deeper issues which stretch well beyond the coach and can be laid at the door of UR and individuals who run it.
Words are not enough we need to see results.
It’s only words, words, words, we have had endless, repeated verbal offerings on everything from team togetherness to tactical tartiness. In fact I believe the URSC choral society plan to stage a high school musical based on words!
‘It’s only words‘, starring lead suprano Mattie Williams, team tenner Rory Best, ably backed up by the Ulster team choir and the Supporters Club Choral Society. Together they will sing the hit song ‘Words‘. Here’s how it might go with the various singers named in front of the lines they’ll be expected to sing.
Mattie Williams: Talk in everlasting words and attribute them all to me, and I will give you all my thoughts, I’m here if you should call on me.
Ulster team: You think that we don’t even hear a single word you say. They may be words but words are all you have to blow us all away.
URSC Choir: They think that he thinks that they don’t even hear, a single word he says.
Everybody sing: They may be words but words are all he has to blow us all away.
CHORUS:
URSC choir: This team has lost its glory, lets start a brand new story now, dear team. Right now there is no other time the coach will tell you how, dear team.
Mattie Williams: I’ll talk in everlasting words and dedicate them all to me, and I will give you all my thoughts, I’m here to tell you what to do.
Ulster team: We think that we might even hear every single word he says. They may be words but words are all he has to talk the day away.
URSC choir: They think that they might even hear every single word he says.
Everybody sing: They may be words but words are all he has, to blow our minds away.
Sung to the tune of that old Bee Gees chestnut ‘Words’ I’m sure you’ll agree words have become very important in the Williams set up. From a spectator viewpoint the talking at some point has to stop and actions become louder than words. Slow handclapping and booing show just how impatient supporters are.
Me I’m prepared to wait and sing the coach’s song.
I would be hard put though to stomach another knock-on performance of last Friday evening’s calibre.
Corrections, comments or questions?