Funeral 1
If I could plot ‘almost famous’ Seamus’s texts unto a graph of negativity starting with < negative, it would have shown a plummeting effect as Ulster’s match with Treviso progressed.
I was ensconced in Day’s Inn Hotel just outside Wetherby in Yorkshire, having travelled down from Stranraer via Hawick and the Borders region, earlier in the day. Given the strenuous nature of the drive I was looking for a cheering up effect, to be elicited from the Ulster team to assuage away the feelings of mild embarrassment of their previous two performances.
A few weeks back, I caught a brief shot on TV, of a member of the Ospreys coaching staff walking off the pitch at half time in the Liberty, shoulder to shoulder with the referee’s assistant and it caused me some anxiety.
It was the first instalment of Ulster’s PRO12 Welsh double header and the portents were decidedly ominous. The second instalment was almost but not quite a carbon copy of the first when we subsequently played the Dragons 6 days later.
In the 1st instalment referee Dudley Philips looked like a featherweight amidst a flock of street bullying birds and acted accordingly. Ulster bore the brunt of his fragile demeanour.
By contrast in Newport, Ulster behaved as though they were resigned to their fate at the hand of another blinkered refereeing performance.
As it happened, by the time they woke up and decided it might not be all bad, it was too late and the Dragons had eased in front by too much.
By most accounts I missed a bullet by not being at Ravenhill last Friday. I have spoken and consoled some of the traumatised survivors and read others accounts of what happened and it seems the performance may have been a return to the latter stages of the McCall era.
The experienced spine returned to the team and made things go from bad to worse. Perhaps there was an element of refereeing fragility but my gawd they should be used to it by now and learned to overcome the idiosyncrasies of the whistle-blowers
I sincerely hope its not a symptom of a return to team disunity that wrecked the McCall tenure. There are reports of big headedness amongst some of the guys. This appears to range from being a bit of a big ‘ead to having your head up your bum so to speak.
It may have been Crozier hype but when Ireland weren’t going too well in the RWC, Cave was talking about how he and Spence amongst others are the next generation of Irish centres/backs.
Apologies if I may have misrepresented him here but as Trimble has found out, you need to be stellar compared to the likes of the McFaddens and Earls, if you are to make your way as an Ulster player, into the Irish set up.
First priority would be to have a stellar season for Ulster and then think about an Irish contract. Whether the big ‘ead syndrome has happened amongst some of our youngsters or not, the return of uncle Johann and Rory can’t come soon enough.
Back At The Day’s Inn – Funeral 2
Uncle Pete meanwhile was rising early to view the Welsh game. A disappointing result, as Ireland were outplayed and some star names frankly didn’t live up to the hype whilst others failed to fulfil their obvious potential.
As with the last World Cup, it was O’Gara again who failed to grasp the concept of competition for places in a team.
Unlike Trimble who kept his counsel, O’Gara clearly has his ‘fans with typewriters’ who are prepared to play his game for him in the media.
Having saw off competition by virtue of media hubris and some accurate place kicking, O’Gara proceeded to be undone by Welsh tactics and Irish arrogance which saw Ireland eschew potential 3 pointers in lieu of lineouts and big wins.
The sight of him of repeatedly trying to take the ball up himself was laughable were it not for the fact that Ireland were heading out of the World Cup.
That’s it for another 4 years but worryingly O’Gara, far from reading the words of the prophets on the subway wall, has read the writing in the news columns by the ‘fans with typewriters’ and decided Irish rugby owes him a few more years.
I groaned at the thought. Seems we will have to put up with the contemptibles of Irish rugby fading into an extended sunset.
No Bragging Rights – The Wedding
I hoped to proceed to the wedding reception with an Ireland victory assured and a chat with the Welsh about where it all went wrong for them. As it happens the nephew’s new Welsh relations were from the Newport region and were happy but not gloating about Wales winning.
The wedding was a multi cultural affair with a mixture of Northern Irish, Yorkshire, Pakistani & Chinese origin, Welsh and Scottish all combining to have a jolly decent afternoon and evening.
Best quote of the evening was from the Chinese origin doctor with the Yorkshire accent who advised a Northern Ireland A level student that if he wanted to become a doctor he had to become an alcoholic first!!
Carry On Doctors
This reminded me of the doctors I played alongside in various teams. I admit to having second and sometimes third thoughts about arriving in A&E and coming face to face with one of them!
I recall big Keith going down with a shoulder injury during a match and Dr. Charlie’s resultant diagnostic efforts. Thumping him on the shoulder, (the injured area), several times the good doctor announced a clearly struggling Keith fit to play on.
Six weeks off work was the end result of that encounter. At the point of death, your route to life is in their hands, so I shouldn’t be too critical.
The Remnants
It is in tandem with Stephen Ferris that has brought out the best in Sean O’Brien and earned him deserved plaudits this RWC.
Ferris has defied medical expectations whilst not being I suspect, 100% fit. It is to be hoped that he has not played through the pain barrier before retiring into the sunset with a legacy of a permanently damaged knee.
Let’s hope he returns to boost Ulster’s fragile mindset and strengthen the back row!
It was interesting to see some old fashioned rugby grit as both Ferris and O’Brien targeted Italy’s iconic prop Castrogiovanni. I’d long thought this sort of thing had gone out of fashion in modern rugby.
NIMBY’s
With admirable NIMBYism the Southern Irish are agreeable to Martin McGuinness participating in government in Northern Ireland but are definitively less so towards him on the red carpet of the Aviva to greet rugby teams in the guise of President of Southern Ireland.
I was reminded of this NIMBYistic behaviour when watching the World Cup. Tricolours galore have emerged amongst the crowds of Irish who wave the flag in enthusiastic fashion.
Imagine the outcry via the messageboards, twitter and newspaper if the Northern Ireland flag were waggled with the same gay abandon. We’d see an outbreak of fleg NIMBYism on a par with the presidential race.
Corrections, comments or questions?