Ulster Rugby vs Bordeaux Begles

Heady thoughts of success in Europe this season were effectively, yet again, consigned to the ‘what might have been’ file in Exeter last Sunday. TIME FOR ALL TO JOIN THE TEAM!

In truth Ulster’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions Cup knockout stages were fatally undermined by a literally pointless opening Pool 5 trip to Bordeaux in October, and today’s lunchtime rendezvous with the same opposition does offer the opportunity of avenging that reverse - though it won’t alter the remainder of the team’s diary for this season: sporting Brexit was triggered earlier than planned. The Guinness PRO12 will become the sole, committed target for Les Kiss and his players, and there is much ground to be made up in that competition if the semi-finals are to become a realistic target. There was, of course, widespread disappointment in the squad and amongst supporters that the annual European odyssey was to all intents and purposes at an end, though the spirit and style of Ulster’s performance at Sandy Park on Sunday deserved – and received – some plaudits. This afternoon a real boost for the panel and – very definitely for the Kingspan fans – would be a convincing win and a rousing performance today against Bordeaux-Bégles as we bid ‘au revoir’ to the Cup tournament which so thrills and excites us all. Ulster famously became the first Irish team to win the European Cup in never-to-be-forgotten days and nights in 1998/99, games which have since inspired an increasingly fierce desire to repeat that wondrous feat by Harry Williams’ collection of talented players, a few truly professional, but most of them earning livings outside the game. Somehow the coach organised training schedules to suit his ambitious and determined group, but as Ulster came to terms with the professional era at a rather more gentile pace than other clubs in the world the triumph of Lansdowne Road in January 1999, against French opponents Colomiers, wasn’t even a pipe dream: surviving at Ebbw Vale and Edinburgh were the immediate concerns of early autumn! These are very different times. The professional game is firmly established, and with that demands of everyone, from coaches to supporters, have become more intense, the relationship with players more complex as the training and playing environments have been become so sophisticated that clubs – and international sides to an even greater extent – feel they must have some influence, if not control, over matters off the pitch. The contrast with the amateur game of just 20 years ago is startling, the effects on the sport varied and subject still to debate: the technique and technical

quality of the modern player is unquestioned, and with the specific, specialised coaching which has developed in parallel the overall standards on the field have soared. Alongside the progress in identifying, nurturing and maturing talented rugby players whose gifts can earn them handsome livings so too has grown a slick, truly professional administrative arm to the most ambitious clubs, and Ulster has set the template in terms of a state-of-the-art stadium, a priority on supporter welfare and in the provision of a rugby ‘experience’ at Kingspan Stadium. Identifying Friday night rugby as a trigger for expanding the game’s appeal is something that has worked superbly. A whole new audience was instantly created in the 90s: players, officials and supporters of clubs committed – as now – to Saturday afternoons suddenly were able to watch the Province in competitive action, and shrewd marketing made a night at Onslow Parade an attractive social proposition for all the family. The media was quick to reflect the growing interest in the Ulster team as it travelled ever more widely each year as the Celtic League grew into today’s Guinness PRO12 Championship, while the European challenges added real exotica to the sporting calendar. From three Inter-Pros and a few friendlies each season, illuminated occasionally by the visit of a touring international team, to a diary of games which stretches from early August to the end of May illustrates the phenomenal change in Ulster’s season. With tangible silverware rewards at stake, hopes and aspirations each late summer are always high, the relish for combat palpable, the atmosphere in a wonderful sporting amphitheatre electric. At what we like to call ‘grassroots’ level there have been consequences, some of them very challenging in an age when professional sport is so dominant in the public psyche. ‘Managing Change’ is one of the modern mantras, to some a pretentious and rather glib description of sometimes irrevocable transition, and it is an ongoing process as the sport and its governing bodies continue to wrestle with their responsibilities and obligations beyond 80 action- packed minutes from the best players in the world each week. On that top tier of the professional game results are king, rich tradition which makes the sport so uniquely appealing can be swiftly swept aside if the owners or managing bodies decide that in the balance sought between development and actual success

GUEST ARTICLE - ROD NAWN

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