Turn, Turn, Turn

To everything turn, turn turn,

There is a season, turn, turn, turn,

and a time for every purpose under heaven.

A time to build up, a time to break down,

A time to dance, a time to mourn,

A time to cast away stones,

A time to gather, stones together.

Most of us are now facing times of economic hardship, when everything comes with a value added tax price tag.   It is only natural that some will look to sport as some kind of comfort cod piece that will smooth away anxieties and troubles of our other real world.

A young man with a beard, a student I believe, though without the robes, not wholly convincing as a prophet, occasionally pops out of nowhere and speaks words of wisdom.   With a twinkle in his eye and a boyish grin on his face he tells me, “put that in your blog and smoke it!”

These are the kind of siren calls to arms that I am in no mood to elaborate and will not be drawn into a negative spiral of downward doom laden prophecies of crisis and caustic comment.  

Prophet Ithryn is a kindly fellow, who unlike many of his contemporaries refuses to be cowed by defeat or have his confidence blunted by mediocrity. Perhaps he is someone who dwells in the real world and not the ethereal regions of Ulster Rugby.

There is another fella who pops up occasionally and slips an aside or two of pithy comment.  “Look,” he yelled recently, “no Perpignan bandana!”   Indeed he sported this red piece of cloth tied around his forehead, making him look like a latter day Bruce Springsteen minus a trademark guitar and ‘Born to Run’ persona.

He is the totalitarian head of the Ulster Rugby Supporter’s Club.    Known as Kimble Il Sung , would you wanna be in his gang?   You can be in his gang for a cool ten quid, minus the value added price tag. 

Being in Kimble’s gang will get you in to the Autumn International preview evening for free and indeed I was lucky enough to have a ticket to the said evening soiree.

Prophet Ithryn was there, as indeed were any number of Supporters Club plebs including Kimble Il Sung.  At the top table, sorry tables were from left to right, Jeremy Davidson, Ulster’s Assistant and Forwards coach, Bryn Cunningham, BJ Botha, Johan Muller, Andi Kyriacou and Bryan ‘the Bear’ Young.

Ostensibly the evening centred on the forthcoming Autumn Internationals but of more interest to this pleb, was the honouring of Bryn Cunningham’s contribution to Ulster Rugby.

He duly accepted the supporter’s club presentation of a cut glass crystal bowl for his mantelpiece and a whole lot of warm hearted applause for this unsung hero from the unsung of the Ulster support who numbered one hundred plus, (my estimation).

Coach Davidson could have had the sobriquet, ‘grumpy’ attached to the back of his shirt, for he looked a tad cross. Nevertheless he answered amiably enough, even when he was asked about the continued requirement for a traditional openside in the modern game.   A pointed, if un-named reference to the absent Willie Falloon from the Ulster team.

Bryn comes across as an articulate guy who has a whole wealth of perspective on playing and the background side of rugby.  He is good to listen to as he does not appear to be corralled by team loyalty.   BJ wears his rugby as heavy as the Belfast rain clouds that blight his outdoor outlook.  He speaks in intense fashion and is articulate about the game.

Interestingly, both him and Muller started playing rugby about the age of five a few years before our locals start the game.   Muller is a relaxed individual at home in this sort of question and answer environment and not lost for a few words.  With Andi K beside him, the amiable Johann was spending most of his time laughing.

Andi K is something of a character and I missed most of his explanation for his painted fingernails, which he described as Ulster red but looked more Stade Francais pink.    He was unusually reticent about this misappropriation of a manicurist’s talents and spoke about it in an uncharacteristic low key and abashed way.  

Bryan ‘the Bear’ Young was sat to the far right, next to Andi and entertained Muller before proceedings started with a mock interview using one of the two underutilised microphones provided for the occasion by the URSC.   I couldn’t make out what the Bear was asking, but Muller was having difficulty answering due to laughing too much.

A good evening of question and answer which all helps to cement the reputations of the players present, who were happy to give up some of their spare time to come along and talk to the support. You can read more here.

Now is not the time to cast stones. There are enough of those flying on the UAFC messageboard for them to make a sharia court look reasonable. 

Ulster twits were much in evidence last week as Paddy Wallace attempted to turn on the entire Munster and Leinster Ireland contingent to tweeting. Alas, Paddy signalled a doomed conversion when he revealed to the wider tweet community that John ‘the Bull’ Hayes had just learned to text and tweeting could be beyond these humble capabilities.

Andrew Trimble made tweeting headlines in the Sunday Life with his attempt to compare Issac Boss with a Bobby Sands mural.   Issac doesn’t care as he doesn’t tweet his friends revealed to the Sunday Life and Andy, who according to the same paper has a quirky sense of humour remained in fine form as he made his way round the golf course on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the build up to the Munster match had a neat ring to it with the possibility of Brian ‘the Bear’ Young going head to head with John ‘the Bull’ Hayes a sporting matchmakers machismo publicity blurb.  Unfortunately for anyone wanting to make hay from this cataclysmic clash, it was unlikely to happen.   Both were down to play tighthead.

Yes I know Ulster played a rugby match on Friday night but now is not the time to cast stones or mourn but a time to gather stones together – for use later!

My sources tell me Munster travelled up on the day in cars and returned after the match to save money. Makes their win seem all the better.  

Is this the pro teams returning to the amateur era when the likes of me, travelled to Ballyshannon in a minibus and got changed on it pre match, with a teammates girlfriend sitting at the back, with a Hello magazine held up over her face! 

Returning to Ballyshannon we showered in cold water in the local leisure centre, before battered sausage throwing and chips in the local chippie.  The trip home in the back of the bus was characterised by singing vulgar songs, drinking loadsa beer, guys stripping off clothes, virtual fist fights and a whip round for the hard pressed bus driver!!