Ulster Rugby vs Treviso

ULSTER RUGBY’S OLDEST SUPPORTER BILLY NOBLE

At 106 Billy Noble can look back over many decades of Ulster Rugby and reflect on the many great players the Province has produced and on the great pleasure he has derived from watching a large volume of exciting Ulster matches.

ULSTER’S OLDEST FAN

It is hard to believe that although he attended Belfast Inst he never played rugby there, his first love being football. However shortly after joining the Northern Ireland Civil Service in 1926 he started to play rugby at Civil Service. As a member of one of the lower teams they played a demonstration game against a gather up team from Ballyclare to encourage the setting up of a team in that area and had the distinction of being beaten! Billy’s time at Inst coincided with that of Tom and Frank Hewitt who played for Ulster and Ireland with Frank holding the record as the youngest player ever to be capped for Ireland at 17 years and 5 months, while still at school.* Other brothers, Victor and Hamilton also played for their Province with Victor gaining international caps while Hamilton played soccer for Ireland. George V Stevenson is regarded by Billy as one of Ulster’s and Ireland’s greatest internationals of this period with 42 international caps. In the 1923 England – Ireland match George was one of four of the backline who were from Inst and Ulster and in the Five Nations Championship of 1924 one of 6.* While Ulster has provided a goodly supply of backs to the international side some significant forwards have also been supplied including three captains of the British and Irish Lions namely Sammy Walker, Robin Thompson and Willie John McBride. Billy has appreciated the contributions to Ulster Rugby of forwards like Jimmy Nelson and Syd Millar whose contributions to British and Irish Lions and to the development of rugby have been significant. He is proud of the quality of backs over the years and of course, special mention must be made of the late Jack Kyle a real genius and much respected throughout the rugby world. He was capable of turning a match around with one side- step. Mike Gibson was another top quality player at the highest levels. David Hewitt, son of Tom Hewitt, was like his uncle Frank also a schoolboy international who toured with the British and Irish Lions. He was a dazzling player, very quick, especially over the first 50 yards. Willie John McBride recounts in his book ‘The Story of My Life’ how David Hewitt, when playing in a provincial match in South Africa, went on one of his runs, when nobody was able to put a hand on him, crossed the try line and found his way to the posts blocked by a big forward. He went back into the field of play followed by the opposition player whom he easily side-stepped and touched down between the posts! Years earlier, when playing for Ulster Schools against Leinster Schools at Ravenhill in January 1958, with snow lying on the pitch, the ball was passed to him under his own posts from a scrum. With a few side-steps and dummies he quickly broke through their defence and ran the

length of the pitch to score between their posts, really magnificent. A match that stands out for Billy was Ulster v South Africa in the early fifties when Ulster trailed 3-5 and had pinned down South Africa on their line for the last 10 minutes but just could not cross the line. So near and yet so far. A superb effort by the whole team who deserved to win. Another very memorable occasion at Ravenhill for all loyal Ulster supporters must be the semi-final of the European Cup against Stade Francais when towards the end of the match David Humphreys created the winning try. Obviously winning the final in Dublin was a red letter day for Ulster Rugby and its fans. Billy is looking forward to a repeat performance sometime soon! Over the years Billy has enjoyed many Ulster teams who have achieved many deserved victories. The Ulster Rugby scene and the significant contribution the players have made to Ireland and the British and Ireland Lions is commendable. Ulster has played its part in the development of the game of rugby. In latter years Billy took enormous pleasure from following the fortunes of Ulster on television or listening to Jim Neilly’s radio commentaries. Billy was pleased to see Ulster reach a new high a few years ago when they reached the final of the Heineken Cup and the continued development of new home grown talent to add to the existing pool of quality players from home and abroad is fantastic. He appreciates that the magnificent Kingspan Stadium is a major step forward and that much remains to be done to maintain Ulster Rugby at a level with other top class clubs. Good luck to Ulster this evening and in the future, I am sure there are many more memorable achievements to come! Written by Denis Noble (Son)

*The Royal Belfast Academical Institution – Inst Rugby 1872-2012 by David Haslett

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