I am indebted to the man from the FRU for nursing my computer back to full health last week. It lost the will to live a few weeks back after involuntarily sending out an e-mail on my behalf that i was blissfully unaware of.
Watching SKY in the run up to the Heiny quarter finals, I was reminded that Ulster Rugby had actually won the competition in 1999. Not that I’d forgotten of course but it was startling to see it in full technicolour and relive the giddy times in Dublin on a January day when the city was transformed for a brief moment in history into an annexe of Belfast by thousands of Ulster supporters sporting all manner of red and white livery.
It has become an increasingly distant memory, as if the intervening years have conspired to airbrush history and repaint it with a tired old mixture of underachievement, chronic mismanagement and illusions to glory. The journey down that road of perdition is imbued with brief flickerings of shadowy light as if the Ulster battery somehow found renewable sources of energy in an era when sustainability is keynote.
Ulster Rugby have not embraced sustainability in an all embracing fashion. Rather they have given it a nod but continue to regress in an amateur fashion, preferring to dwell in old time attitudes, utilising old boy connections to the detriment of modern business standards with cronyism a seam of dubious gold being mined for all its worth. That is the picture being painted via the dogs on the street, bush telegraph and of course that relentless source of ever increasing speculation, the internet messagebard. As a would be blogger, it is my life blood in the absence of a fly on the wall source, not being present at every single or even one meeting in UR and not knowing Stephen Ferris personally. One must speculate based on all these sources and mix it all up with a spoonful of experience to tease out a story. That story is Ulster rugby’s decline and standing are about to hit rock bottom with a potential last place finish in the Magners League, exit from European rugby’s premier competition and repeated rumours of continued nepotism at headquarters.
All this in a season when we actually led the Magner’s League in November time and came within a whisker of European qualification of the knockout stages. Ultimately, as when we won the Celtic cup and then the Celtic League, these have mainly been bursts of illumination in a usually downward trajectory. When people gush on about Connaught and how wonderful they are doing against our fading star, pause for thought and remember Connaught haven’t achieved any of the above competition success nor are they likely to do it this year in the Amlin, however helpful it would be to Ulster. Folk may well rattle on about Connaught not having our resources and indeed they may have a point but resources aren’t the key element that brought success on the pitch in 1999.
The key ingredient way back then was the sense of identity, never better illustrated than by the 20K folk who crammed Ravenhill to its rafters and beyond in a memorable Saturday for the semi final against Stade Francais. The sense of identity which crystallised at Ravenhill and was further enhanced when 48000 plus descended on Lansdowne road for the final has since been diluted and now presents a caricature of the provincialism and little Ulster mentality at its worst. It’s epitomised by the way appointments have been made and in the way UR has and is run.
Brian McLaughlin is a good man and passionate about his rugby and Ulster, no one can doubt that. Few ships captains ever intentionally ground their boats but many have driven them unto rocks and foundered through inexperience, and incompetence. Right now the Ulster ship is in danger of foundering and some of the blame for that can be attached to Master McLoughlin. In an effort to avoid the dressing room unrest that partly doomed McCall, McGlocks has unfortunately created unease in the squad and caused players to exit either unwillingly or voluntarily due to receiving mixed messages on their future. The team has been bedevilled by poor selection, dubious tactics on the pitch and a lack of understanding of how the game’s laws have altered leading to indiscretions on the pitch of the daftest kind. For this McGlocks must take some of the blame as he professed not to understand clearly what was happening at the breakdown and this ultimately transferred itself to the players and their on-pitch performance.
It is off the pitch that the most worrying signs have manifested themselves with appointments to head the good ship Ulster that rankle badly given the nature of them and the individuals involved. First the good news though as Kimble reliably informed me last Tuesday that the next phases of ground redevelopment will go ahead as the money is available and that planning permission is being sought to develop the Aquinas end. I wish them well with their planning application as the planners behave like God only less benevolent, less approachable and are truly invisible.
Money seems no object off the pitch in the number of appointments being made to the administration team and one senses a proliferation of managers developing in UR to enable a spreading of the responsibility for what is rapidly assuming a debacle on the pitch. There is no defence coach, nor does it appear to be a priority to get one despite the obvious lack of cohesion in defence. Still we have all manner of suits off the pitch who will no doubt add their tuppence worth when the ship finally hits the rocks. We have gone through 4 coaches in the last 4 years and had a chief executive who posted one of the longest corporate resignations in the history of business. Even more spectacular is his rumoured return to that business wearing a different suit. It all adds grist to a busy mill and begs the question are UR serious about business.
I will be attending the URSC’s AGM in the guise of a reporter for the FRU. I got my press accreditation from Chairman Kimble on Tuesday and though my appearance at this event will be non participatory. I hope others will make clear their unhappiness at the way Ulster is heading as Logie Bear, McGlocks and Dr. Dave will all be there.
On Thursday night I believe there will be another chance to question Logie Bear. Definitely going to this event is my old mate Royster who is sure to fire a few pertinent questions in the direction of Logan and his ever expanding empire of the sun. When Mark McCall once waxed lyrical about Matt McCullough’s potential to become the next O’Driscoll, Royster informed him we wanted him to be the next O’Driscoll NOW! Logan and company can look forward to a few more of these comments which should help engage minds as to the attitude of the supporters. It is important that anyone attending this event should make their feelings on events on the pitch clear and question the direction things are going off it.
Other than attend the above events and ask questions there is little the supporters can do except watch and vent their feelings on the messageboards or as happened on Tuesday night again, leave early. The war of the words broke out on the UAFC last week with Brigadier Brill, the inaptly named OAWUF heading the charge of the Brill Brigade. The ‘O’ stands for original by the way as if anyone would have the gall to imitate this individual. Ulster were ‘A’ OK beamed the Brigadier only to be met by a counter charge from the sceptics who are led by the increasingly fraggled Red Hand Hero. Hero’s literary urgings on the messageboard have deteriorated in recent times becoming increasingly hysterical as they have tracked Ulster’s deterioration on the field of play and it’s empire expanded off it.
Last Tuesday night I stood on the Terrace with the Original Kimble, the supporter’s club chairman. He represents all that is nicey about Ulster rugby and their supporters. Increasingly Kimble reminds me of Custer’s last stand as he, the second barrier crew and their flags stand alone, banners bravely fluttering in the wind surrounded by all manner of hostile elements, hypocrites, disillusionists, critics, carpers, castigators and contrary supporters. Kimble and the 2BC flags flutter in the breeze at every positive sign of an Ulster renaissance though the sense of doom gathers momentum with every minute the clock ticks down on the pitch.
They were attacked off the pitch on the UAFC messageboard for chanting offside when in fact they hadn’t a clue about offside, alleged one disgruntled poster. Cap’n Grumpy, Kimble’s side kick and chief chanter repelled this attack almost single fingered by admitting he had in fact perhaps accidentally chanted offside when there wasn’t any. Disenchantment grows amongst the support, will there be enough fans to fill even one side of the ground when it is refurbished.
I digress, for it is to Ulster Rugby that this blog is addressed and when I saw the old 99 clips I was reminded of the big red hand on the chest that symbolised our sense of identity. Like that now diminished identity, a smaller red hand now sits in a swirl of a corporate logo, enveloped by a half hearted attempt to move with the times. We have conspicuously failed to move forward in other areas and the failure to spend however costly short term it was in keeping a professional and forward thinking coach has proved to be disastrous in the long term. Solomons offered us a coherent approach to professional rugby and a consistency in the coaching arena which we turned down and turned inwards preferring world domination to begin and end at Ballynahinch rather than Ballymore and beyond. It is has come back to bite us big style and there is little to encourage as we continue to pull along the coat tails of 1999 and our European cup win. If there is one thing to be taken from that event it would be to rediscover the true meaning of our identity and embrace the big red hand on the chest.
As I type Super 14 is on the telly and two sharks reputedly leaving the shark tank for the Ravenhill bare pit are playing. Pienaar is doing a decent impersonation of a scrum half and if he has signed for us will be a good signing. What is not clear is his and other signings dependent on Heineken cup qualification? If it is it will only add to the sense of calamity surrounding Ulster and its team. Super 14 is sanitised rugby where you don’t win the ball until the other team makes a mistake or they score. I wrote about this uniformity in my last blog and now note that denizen of rugby writers Hugh Farrelly has echoed my sentiments. (Just thought I’d mention it!)
See you all at the AGM.
As BJ Botha might say, ‘keep the beard up!’
Corrections, comments or questions?