BLUES BANISHED?

Whether it’s in search of redemption of a therapeutic nature, looking to banish the blues or wash away the worries of the stress of modern living, invariably many are drawn to sport for that cathartic experience.

Inevitable then that Ulster supporters including yours truly looked to the rugby team to provide the spark. We were looking for a performance that would pale the burst pipes, endless days of freezing cold and snow lined roads into a minor inconvenience at least for 80 minutes on a cold Ravenhill night.

Sadly the team left their heads in the dressing room and wore their hearts in the very sole of their boots. The team named for Munster failed to lift the air of heavy gloom that pervaded the Ulster Rugby scene following the Leinster debacle.

So it proved, despite a promising start, the team imploded when it really needed cool heads to minimise the pressure and focus tiring bodies. Add to that the refereeing and mindless acts of indiscretion round the fringes and you had a recipe for disaster.

The last two games have left a gnawing uncertainty about the team that refuses to go away when presented with this week’s team sheet. The feeling of a team filled with unfulfilled potential is an ever present thought.

Quite why Ulster have not so far set the world on fire without being intrinsically bad is almost beyond my modest reasoning. A few thoughts of a naive kind are ruminating in my head.

These are that the coach is not getting the best out of the players at his disposal. Secondly, in the rush to drink in the new signings it was conveniently overlooked that we opted for another back rower when in fact many correctly in hindsight, felt that no. 10 might be a problem position.

Factor in the coaching staff falling out with players and placing undue optimism in others and you have a continued dilemma at outhalf. Minus the unpredictable iHumph, Ulster end up with a leaden attack. Watching Niall O’Connor lie ever deeper against Leinster and one could see the problem.

Ruan Pienaar continues to be a source of discontent amongst a section of Ulster fans but it is hard to see what Rue can do when your outhalf loiters half hidden amongst sundry forwards. What do folk expect here from Pienaar?

One senses the same antagonism towards foreign influences that was rife amongst a section of Ulster supporters when Solomons held the reins. It’s difficult to explain but it perhaps lies in the little Ulster mentality that bedevils people hereabouts and has them deluded as to the depth and nous of local talent available.

Integration of the South Africans into the Ulster team is ongoing and though it means the Boks themselves buying into the Ulster brand, there is also an element within the locals who simply cannot buy into the type of game the South Africans in particular like to play.

Watching the lines some of them run in support of each other is intuitive. In my humble opinion we need to buy into the support play of the South Africans and instead of standing wide waiting for the killer or the big pass, look to get on their tail and take the short pass and then make the ball available.

The southern press have lost no time in getting on the ‘shoot the foreign imports’ bandwagon, at least were Ulster are concerned. The post Boxing Day game against Leinster provided them with the kind of ammo normally used by snipers.

The caustic comments were focussed on the likes of Ruan Pienaar and Botha. It rather neatly eclipsed the fact that one of the Leinster stars is in fact a foreigner, namely Isa Nascewa, who of course is keeping a fledgling Irish player out of a fulltime job.

Yet in amongst the snide and the plain disinterested there were a few southern journos offering nuggets of analysis and special credit must go to Liam Toland for his measured assessment of Ulster against Leinster, Toland was critical of Niall O’Connor but not in a ‘he was crop’ sort of comment but in an analytical manner as befits the more thinking and less sensationalist journalist.

In the independents match report by, I think Farrelly, he mentioned the poor refereeing by Dudley Philips and how it was detrimental to the Ulster effort. These are but isolated nuggets in a sea of mediocre reporting though worth mentioning as it balances my criticism in the last blog.

Overall the season has been as mixed and extreme as the Ulster weather. The highs have been intermingled with the lows and all the way through it Ulster have yet to hit top gear. That time will come and I suppose if you want to be motoring it is towards the end of season rather than before Christmas.

Despite the punishing defeats and mediocre wins we remain spectacularly in contention for both the Magners and the Heineken. We do need to find that top gear the weekend next and the one after that.

This is the best chance of Heineken success in probably the last 11 years. It would be a sterling return on the South African investment and a thumbs to the nose against all those prophets of miserly reportage.

We can do it, I really believe we have the potential to reach the Heineken quarter finals but we need to play an 80 minute game and maintain our focus. The coaches need to reach for consistency and maintain an even approach rather than giving the appearance of people with more resources than they are capable of handling.

It all starts tomorrow night with the game against Treviso. Never mind the 5 pointers and probable paltry crowd, this is the preliminary bout to the main event next Saturday and we need to show a consistency of approach and a will to win.

I need something to lift my spirits, put fire in the belly and inveigle belief.

A win will do nicely irrespective of whether it’s by one point or many.

C’mon Ulsterrrrrr!!!