Spent nine hours of last weekend on the road, but thanks to some excellent rugby the trips were well worth it.
Saturday morning started off inching the FRU mobile up to a steady 60 and zooming off down to Donnybrook for the Ravens against Leinster A. On arrival the Ravens were warming up and I was pleased to see Niall O’Connor putting Patrick Jackson through his paces. Most of the chat however was on the Irish economy and and the expected departure to foreign fields of some of Ireland’s youngsters post World Cup as it seems that the Republic’s tax allowance for sports stars may be a victim of their bale out. Maybe this might be the biggest factor that drives Ulster back to the top of the Irish tree over the next four or five years – interesting times indeed for our near neighbours.
The match itself worked its way into quite a spectacle in the second half. You can read the report here, but if truth be told I thought the Ravens were going to be hammered after the opening skirmishes and were somewhat fortunate to bag their two tries in the first half. The third quarter was simply astounding though as Jackson and Marshall threw the ball about like a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition game. At times I just set the camera down and watched the feast of rugby unfold.
Jamie Smith seemed to thrive in the open running rugby as did Seymour and his replacement Gaston. Dungannon’s Ali Birch was a rock in the loose and “my boys” McGuigan and Henderson had excellent games. McGuigan particularly worthy of note as he has only had 20 minutes of senior rugby in the last month and what an engine big Henderson has with a phenomenal work rate throughout the 80 minutes. If he fills out in all the right places he’ll be a real prospect.
It was a quick dash back to the north after the game to catch Ireland v New Zealand on TV. Despite an old fashioned “spirited effort” from the boys in green it was a depressingly disappointing match with New Zealand scarcely needing to get out of second gear I’m afraid. It’s a great pity that Ireland have wasted the last 18 months.
Sunday saw a dash down to Enniskillen for the Enniskillen v City of Derry match and chief on the agenda was the match up between the No. 8’s, ex Ireland and Ulster player Diane Nixon for CoD and the young pretender Gemma McCutcheon who forced her way into the Ulster Squad this season after a great season in Schools Rugby last year, the highlight being winning the Schools Tag competition last season at Ravenhill alongside fellow Ulster squad member Shirelle Wilson.
You can view the match report here but unfortunately for Gemma she came up against a veteran at the top of her game as Diane settled a young Derry side’s nerves by scoring their opening two tries as they went on to win this entertaining game 10 – 22.
So this weeks Weekend Warrior award goes to Diane Nixon for her match winning display in this game.
Corrections, comments or questions?