There is a saying, ‘when the rat’s away the mice play’. Well the e-steamed Dewi Barnes is currently slumming it up in Cape Town, languishing on the balcony of his hotel, wiling away the hours before dawn with august rugby company and a healthy glass of cape red in hand, to the background sound of the pounding ocean roar. I envy him, I really, really, do. Someone must play the Dad’s Army part and stay at home to guard the rear and of course watch the mice play.
This is Warren Brosnihan’s take on home and away in 2004. Having returned to home he has enjoyed the surf and warm water that Durban has to offer. Training with the Bulls he offered this little summary of home in South Africa and away in Belfast.
“Since arriving in Pretoria on the 5 July it has only rained ONCE!” says Bros. “And that occurred last week Wednesday during training. The rain was awesome and made me feel like I was back in Belfast save for a few degrees in temperature. We do miss those days in Belfast when the low cloud has been sitting over the city for days, only to wake up one morning to find the air crisp, the skies heavenly blue and the fields luminous green.”
Well Dewi may well have thought himself back in Belfast at the Western Province game yesterday with the winds and rain. Perhaps he took the weather with him as it’s been rather bucolic here yesterday and into today. I do digress though. I said earlier that the mice do play and so it has been with the UAFC messageboarders and moderators resting easier once more as ‘view frae the hill’ will not be confused with the sayings of Richard Hill, Ulster’s once likely head coach candidate, who is now history before even a tracksuit has been pulled on in anger. Hill must be thinking sweetie mice was all the Branch have had to offer him as he came away believing he had a job in the bag and found before he could eat the sweets they’d been taken off him.
The Bele Tele with a new writer on the block, was off the mark faster than anyone could have anticipated, especially the Branch who issued an unusually peeved refutement that Hill was their man, citing absent mice in the shape of the IRFU RATifications committee. Not to be outflanked by mere procedural denunciations, the Hill was in full flow, elaborating to Talksport that he’d been offered the job as he understood it and in a twinkling of an eye didn’t have it.
For weeks now denunciation with a whiff of cordite characterised the UAFC messageboarders as they sought order midst the chaos of counter rumour, rumours countered and much innuendo as to who was running whom and what. Bottom line for this writer is that Mike Reid took the plaudits post 1999 and has lived off them to a certain extent ever since. Never mind what the mice of the PTMC get up to the buck stops with the king rat Mike Reid, he is Mr. Ulster Rugby, front man with the hand unmistakeably on the tiller. FOUR coaches in TEN years and one temporary coach is as high a turnover in the professional game as you can get and quite honestly given the mess apparent it is becoming extremely difficult to attract a front line coach to Ulster when the provincial team management exhibit all the apropos of the national front in their attitude to outsiders. The little ulsterman (small u), well and truly lives on.
The supporters have grown increasingly restless and in my humble opinion have a right to question what they have bought into. Certainly given the high seat prices in the new stand it’s understandable that you might be forgiven for questioning where your brass is being used when such a public relations disaster surrounds the Ulster Rugby’s dealings with the previous coach and now with a potential new one.
Ulster Rugby need to reconnect with the supporter, not just court the corporate’s who’ll sit in the new shiny corporate boxes. That connection as exhibited in this programme article by Mike Reid illustrates what I mean. Writes MR:
“I cannot start this programme without reference to the fantastic day in Galway last weekend. The Ulster support while numbering only 100 – 150 were in fantastic voice and those hearty souls that made the trip to the west had a fantastic impact on the game…
One poor soul seemed to spend most of the match in the portaloo beside the changing rooms and despite his inability to watch the match there was the constant shout of Ulster! Ulster reverberating from the Blue Box during most of the second half.”
That was pre McCall resignation conflagration with some sections of the support and clearly the link with the grass roots was broken and is still in a state of disrepair.
UR’s publicity machine continues pump up the volume of the Ravenhill despite the obvious downturn in sound from the Ravenhill faithful as they are sometimes viscerally known. The player interviews on the website are plain embarrassing, almost like signed confessions, yes we admit the mythical Ravenhill roar is still a known entity! Alan Solomons expressed things rather well and in slightly exuberant terms by his standards:
“I believe this afternoon is one of the great occasions at our beloved Ravenhill. May both the Ulster players and supporters rise to the occasion and make it truly memorable.”
Both did and Ulster recorded one of the great victories of the modern era 33-0 against the Tigers. It is difficult for us little islanders to appreciate the magnitude with which South Africans such as Bros and Solomons once held the allure of Ravenhill and its fans in. Here is Warren speaking about returning to Ravenhill with the Blue Bulls.
“I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would return to Ravenhill so soon after leaving. It will be an honour to hear the famous Ravenhill roar once again! Ulster have a proud record at home. Your form in the European Cup over the last four years has been the envy of many more illustrious clubs. The Bulls are well aware of this and realise how privileged they are to run unto your hallowed turf. For me personally it will be a surreal experience, an experience I’m looking forward to.”
Aah for what we have lost, the innocence of those days just 4 years ago seems an aeon ago as cynicism has filled the void of poor team performance and mismanagement on and off the field. I have no doubt Bros and Solomons remain emotionally attached to the dream of where we were going in those times. For cynics they will point to the poor away record but one feels that the continuity that could have been preserved by retaining Solomons and players like Matt Sexton in a coaching capacity were lost when decisions were taken at UR level to replace that continuity with a new order and one feels a cheaper version. A price we continue to pay to this very day.
Matt Sexton speaking from NZ spake thus:
“We certainly miss a lot about Ulster as it’s one of the most beautiful places that we have travelled and feel very privileged to have called it home for three years…on a personal note, Sunday lunches with David and Anne Edwards in Bangor, the doc’s stories and craic with the lads at Cafe Mocha are all fond memories I will treasure. Without a doubt the highlight of my career was the chance to run out to a packed Ravenhill with my son
Jack on my last home game.”
I remember after we had lost one of only two home games during Solomons time at Ravenhill when Sexton’s overthrow at the lineout led to Edinburgh winning by the odd point from a Laney penalty and we met Sexton at the railings. My daughter was wanting his autograph. He gave it, but it was clear Sexton was distraught at losing and one could feel only extreme sympathy for the guy such was the distress on his face.
That was what it meant losing for Ulster in those days at Ravenhill, one wonders does it hurt that bad now? We are getting used to losing, the effect of defeat means little in the way of genuine sorrow and has been replaced by cynicism and a certain fatalism. We need to rediscover that proud identity. It starts at home in Ravenhill and resides within you and me the Ulster supporter. It does though require the mice to be gotten rid off and a fresh broom to sweep the chalkboard clean, wind up the ante rediscover our mojo. Can a new and local coaching team do that? The jury’s out here I’m afraid, meanwhile the same old rat rules the roost.
As BJ Botha might say in Homebase, so much to see so little to buy into!
Corrections, comments or questions?