DEWI KEEPS HEAD UP WHILST OTHERS JAWS GO SLACK
Not quite ‘da missive massif’ Dewi is expecting but the sight on TV of him waving his Ulster flag at the Scarlets match and manfully keeping up appearances was a sobering reminder that fans are paying good money to travel to see the team play and offer support. That the team responded in such an abject manner is a further reminder that some work round the paddock is required during the summer recess.
I wondered briefly should I chuck my bottle of Bud at the TV in frustration at what I was seeing (I don’t mean at Dewi BTW!) but on second thoughts, the waste of beer, let alone a TV screen was more important than venting my anger at Ulster’s performance. Ulster reminded me of a squadron of kamikaze who crashed on take off. The changing room Ulster had recently vacated must have been littered with the debris of game plans, tactical nous, commitment and all sorts of other rugby mantras players normally take on to the pitch.
To take just two glaring examples. Declan Fitzpatrick was guarding the fringes of a ruck but lack of communication led to the Scarlets scrum half running round him and setting up a score. This was followed in the second half with the Scarlets prop leaving Niall O’Connor for dead and setting up another try. One wondered would Matt Williams treat O’Connor in the same manner he had Ian Humphreys after the Leinster game. On second thoughts we would need a small reservoir of No. 10’s at this rate of going. Better that the squad gets to know each other over the summer and Williams starts to use a settled squad of players whilst working on baseline stuff such as communication.
Sadly Williams has resigned following this match and going back to Aus, citing family reasons. This may well be the case, but one suspects the weight of expectation, restraints from UR and potential squad personality clashes may well have helped make up his mind. One does get a little fatigued with his repeated mantra about youth as it seems to hide a deeper problem that UR cannot/won’t pay for or attract a backbone of experience to the team. The size of task Williams faced may well have hit home once he’d been here a while. UR may well promote Davidson to head honcho. Whilst Davidson may have more experience than McCall one suspects he is in a similar situation of being too closely associated with people within UR to exercise the necessary pragmatism required to steer the team and its peripheral baggage.
Coaches come and go at UR, the attrition rate seems to rise steadily. A comparison with Leinster a few years back is interesting as they had a similar problem. Not that long ago Leinster flitted between Ravenhill lookalike Donnybrook and the occasional big game at Lansdowne Road before settling down at the RDS. Donnybrook struggled to meet its capacity most of the time yet at a stroke Leinster doubled their crowd figures by going to RDS and setting behind the scenes structures in place.
My recall of the details about Leinster are admittedly sketchy (FRU don’t do MP’s expenses and pay for researchers!) but the crux of it is that they re-organised the coaching regimes after several fiascos and the Leinster Branch to boot. It may or may not be as simple as all that at Ulster Rugby, but the point is, in parallel to coaching, the back room/ system was shaken up. For the moment the SS UR sails on regardless of what happens on the pitch. Such is the mess with the hiring /resigning, not re-signing of coaches you have to wonder why the problems are appended solely on the pitch with coaches and players. We have had 4 head coaches and 1 temporary head coach in 10 years. Difficult to see where the continuity is coming from on the pitch, whilst the off pitch control seems flaky at best.
ALFA MALES
The focus, nay you might say the microscope, falls on long time Ulster fan Mid Ulster Maestro. I recall one evening standing outside the gates of Ravenhill with Maestro and spotted a distant look in his eyes, that upon closer inspection revealed him to be staring in the direction of Paddy Wallace. PW had just got out of his Alfa Romeo, coupe, convertible dooby do sports car and was, some would say, posing alongside. Mum’s point of keen interest became clear, it was Italian automotive engineering, they are both Alfa males!!!
UNREQUITED WORLD MAKES A COMEBACK
With Gillian’s interest in Cillian Willis on the wane and UR’s interest in similar fashion by the sound of it, “Unrequited World” has been unreported of late. The ever industrious Gillian has however been hard at work helping to look after the Newforge Taggers team. A few weeks back in front of the Taggers new patron Mr. Isaac Boss, Gillian failed to impress him with the technical application of her refereeing, even at this humble level. Bossy ever the optimist though was reputedly impressed with her ability to let the game flow and as someone with former Super 14 experience, he has reputedly earmarked her early potential as a future Super 15 referee!
Last weekend Gillian was with the Taggers at a tournament in Worcester and with so many folks on the move it was claimed at the airport that their Taggers party was a bigger operation than the Lions. Just as well you were only going Worcester and not Cape Town I remarked. The Tagger’s kids acquitted themselves well at the tournament, reaching the semi finals of the event. So well done all those volunteers who travelled to Worcester and had a good time by all accounts.
THE CAPTAIN GOES BACK & FORTH, BACK & FORTH
Cap’n Grumpy sallied forth under the Grumps flag of convenience, armed with a salvo of sarcasm and a blast of bilge. You would expect the Ulster supporter’s club to dwell on such weighty subjects as to why the relationship twixt Ulster Rugby and the supporters remains fractured in the wake of McCallgate,
Alas no. Grumps wonders out loud why I don’t respond in detail to his overblown, overlong, 2 weeks late response to ballotgate. (You can read it in the comments column on the right hand side of the FRU homepage, if you are really keen.) The Monty Python ‘5 – 10 minute argument’ sketch springs to mind here. Sorry your outa time Grumpy and don’t insult me with this pram nonsense, the toys continue to be all yours. You’re welcome to them.
“Help, I’m a celebrity get me outa here”, as BJ Botha might say from the back of Grumps taxi. As BJ also might say, chat soon.
Corrections, comments or questions?