Ulster Rugby vs Edinburgh

ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN FREELANCE JOURNALIST AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST @RODNAWN1

making. Often each or all of those failings can be put down, in part, to low confidence levels, and that restoring self-belief will have been high on the agenda within the squad. The players and management have been admirably forthright in accepting that the many sources of criticism this season have sometimes been - basic in fact. That the players work hard to improve already fulsome skillsets is undeniable, and glimpses of what all supporters crave have been frequently evident. Consistency of personal and collective performance has been an issue, but some of the complaints have been ‘cheap shots’ and often dubiously personal: the price we pay, perhaps, for the all-too-easy access to social media. But that is not something confined to Ulster, though when a side is battling to find composure and form criticisms can be less than informed, and they can be fuelled too by today’s fashion for the instant, the eye-catching, the boarding of bandwagons. When former players – most notably perhaps Stephen Ferris – go public with their frustrations they are offering constructive advice and also mirroring, sensibly, the fans’ irritation. But they want Ulster to do well, like the supporters, and just as the team can only win together so too must the Ulster rugby community unite, not tamely, with passion and purpose. One hesitates to use a phrase like ‘New Start’, but in rugby terms for Ulster this evening could be exactly that. Over the next month there are five games in the Guinness PRO12 from which a demanding but realistic points return can be realised. A win over Edinburgh this evening could do wonders for confidence for everyone before Glasgow come to Kingspan next week, and to complete a ‘double’ over the Warriors would get the juices flowing; on the last Sunday of this month there’s a trip to Zebre which will be tricky but potentially rewarding, with the other Italian side Treviso due in Belfast the following Friday evening. Then, on Saturday evening, 11 March, Zebre make their second trip to the Province to play the game called off at the eleventh hour pre- Christmas due to freezing ground conditions. It’s professional rugby, and every side is that,

but the neutral observer might look at the list of games, survey the talent at Ulster’s disposal, and feel that each of those five games is immensely winnable, and there is ample potential for a clutch of try-scoring bonus points. A sizeable points haul would definitely hoist the hopes of the fans and the side up the table, and the start-of-the-season aspiration for a tilt at the title in the knockout stages in the last two weekends in May revived. A pipe-dream? Not in the modern game of rugby. Ulster has a sporting mountain to scale, but there is a determination to equip properly, to get to grips with the challenge and to reach the summit – or the Top Four at least! It’s going to be fascinating, it will have moments of familiar frustration, but players, coaches and those marvellous supporters can, together, make the assault viable. We’ve had our moans, we’ve had our disappointments – particularly in Europe – but tonight could be like the start of a new season, a reduced, forensically-defined one. Let’s enjoy it.

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