FRU: Don’t Go Gently!

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With the Lions Tour ending in glorious victory last weekend we can now finally draw a line under the season that was 2012-13.

What a season it was too; new man in charge at Ulster, old man departing at Ireland and the most successful season ever in the history of Irish Women’s Rugby.

“Here Comes the Girls”… and there they go again!

Having covered women’s rugby in Ireland longer than any other media outlet, the long overdue success of the Irish women’s side was obviously my personal highlight of the season. It was wonderful to see the likes of Fi Coghlan, Niamh Briggs, Grace Davitt, Lynne Cantwell and Joy Neville finally get some of the reward and recognition that they deserved for dragging Irish Women’s Rugby kicking and screaming into the new decade. One wonders what they could have done if the IRFU had supported their efforts to the level their collective drive and determination  deserved?

Hammering England at Ashbourne was an obvious favourite, with Allison Miller breaking onto the world stage with her hat-trick of tries, but my personal highlight had to be the Grand Slam match in Milan! Shocking game, but a great result is just about as much as I can remember from that weekend, but what an achievement for the girls who catapulted themselves into the category of genuine contenders for the 2014 World Cup.

I left Italy looking forward to a few more  jaunts in 2013-14 as the Six Nations Champs put their final preparations to their 2014 World Cup campaign. Maybe the USA/Canada, maybe South Africa, certainly somewhere in Europe  but it appears that as quickly as the girls shot to stardom they have now been dropped by the IRFU in favour of the Sevens game. What should have been a year of celebration, consolidation and promotion of the Women’s 15 a side game now looks like one where they’ll be fighting for survival and rebuilding, the Grand Slam team decimated by call ups to the 7’s squad and subsequent injury!

No way to treat the ladies!

“Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Ulster moved from 14th to 6th in the European Rankings,  finished top of the league and top of their pool in the Heineken Cup but were beaten to the league title by Leinster and humiliated by Saracens in the Heiny. Was it really progress and are we, “As good as Leinster”, as Mark ” The Cowboy” Anscombe claims after his first year in charge?

Certainly a broader spectrum of talented players to choose from this past season, add that to the Spence inspired unbeaten run and Ulster ended up pretty much where they should have, hardly progress, more like marking time!

OK, there were a few injuries but the dross served up against Northampton at home and the complete capitulation to a very limited Saracens put a huge spoiler on the season for me as good teams, certainly teams as good as Leinster, don’t lose those sort of games!

And there’s the nub, despite talking a good game, apportioning blame with aplomb post match, Anscombe failed in the matches that would have signalled definite progress from McLaughlin, a failure right at the heart of coaching in my book!

The absence of Stevie Ferris does persuade me to cut The Cowboy some slack as Ferris is the only Ulster player, since Humph senior, that’s been able to change the outcome of a match through his own efforts. As good as they are the likes of Muller, Best, Afoa, Pienaar, Williams, Payne just don’t have that ability, which marks Ferris out as something very special indeed, and a huge loss; but, having said all that, I’ve still got that niggle that the coach should have made more of a difference!

So the jury’s out regarding Anscombe and, as Humph plans his next move in world domination, it may already be too late for any supporters verdict to count! Perhaps he should use this coming season to rage, rage against the dying of his contract and leave us with a team playing attractive and aggressive rugby!

“Whatever Makes You Happy”

And so Declan Kidney became the latest coach to fail to do enough to keep the IRFU happy, however given the expectations of the IRFU and the quality of players available it may be a long time before any coach makes the IRFU happy again.

Given the generation of players that have passed through the Irish International scene over he last decade the IRFU were right to have high expectations but their desire to win every feckin match in the Six Nations and practically ignore the World Cup has resulted in Ireland going backwards on the world stage after years spent under developing and under utilising the playing resources.  Relying on a few big names they have been content to cater to the day trippers at the Aviva and ignored the rugby supporters who would far rather see a team being built between World Cups with a view to being competitive.

Maybe they should have employed a team financial controller rather than Joe Schmidt and they could have carried out team selections based on box office popularity. (Yes girls it could lead to a whole team of Tommy Bowe’s!) Maybe a bit over the top but it does appear to me that they play rugby to raise money rather than the other way round.

No wonder the Aviva is a soulless hole, turning it back into a passionate sporting arena instead of a till would be a step in the right direction!

Now that would make me happy!


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