It seems strange to come away from a win at Ravenhill disappointed and dejected, but that was the case after this scrappy match against Glasgow on another fine Friday night at Fortress Ravers. Ulster struggled to put away a limited Glasgow side in a match where they should have been targeting a bonus point win.
There was one bright shining light in débutante Ruan Pienaar, who bagged all of Ulster’s points, but you can’t help but think that the main thought flashing through the Springbok’s mind was, “What have I let myself in for?” as Ulster stuttered and stumbled to their win.
In the cool light of the morning after, things are looking a bit better as I re-watch the game on iPlayer. Ulster enjoyed the bulk of possession and had more opportunities than I remembered and but for a few fumbles, mistimed moves and the failure to use the men outside them Ulster would have won this game with a degree of comfort.
I’ve seen enough to think that it’ll come and, as Parky said before the game, now is not the time for a team to be on fire, much better that that comes at the end of the season. When it does all click some teams are going to take a bit of a beating.
Things were equally unsatisfactory off the pitch as I still struggled to find a suitable vantage point over on the modified Prom.
This week I chose to stand with Hockey Boy who was joined by some colleagues from the nose and ear hair trimming implements factory who seemed intent in turning every comment into a innuendo. In truth there was little on show on the pitch to distract the ladies and the conversation degenerated to shop talk and flagrant flirting with a certain sandy haired, obviously well groomed, lothario leading the way. As I was driving this week and thus stone cold sober (a state that for some reason leaves me unable to lick my eyebrows) I shuffled across the yellow line to the somewhat less charged company of the Dergs and Boys on Tour.
We’ll I say less charged, but with the welcome return of chief Fruette Mrs Derg, I’m sure I detected a glint in the cataracts of Pervyfan as he inched his Zimmer closer to the still shapely mother of 12.
Thankfully all the sexual chemistry had dissipated by the time we made our way into the somewhat sedate Scoop Bar, where we were joined by Andi Kyriacou and Ryan Caldwell who were on meet and greet duty for Ulster Rugby. Demonstrating that he had more faces than the Albert Clock, Raging Raven was a sight to behold as in full “Brucie” mode he told big Ryan that, “He was his Favourte” much to the amusement of Mr Derg!
On that I’d decided I’d seen everything and trotted off back to the car!
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4 Responses to “View from the Prom: Ulster v Glasgow”
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Still feeling a little ill after Albert Raven’s unprecedented level of toadying up to the yellow card machine, but thusfar, reformed 2nd row!!!!!
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Ah yes “toadying” exactly the word I was looking for yesterday when I was writing this. An apt description of the Raven’s performance.
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I merely congratulated young Ryan on his fine start to the season and suggested his fitness must be getting better as he was taking less self imposed rests during the game.
I feel it is as important to give credit for good performances as it is the castigate them mercilessly without fear of retribution when their performances do not match up to our high expectations.
Far better to be the man and acknowledge a players improvement than stand around like two giggling schoolgirls like the previous two posters.
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Ah but one has a chance of satisfying a giggling schoolgirl
After the initial hoorors of the first 10 -15 mins and Ulster finally got a narrow lead I always felt that Glasgow couldn;t win the match more that Ulster could lose it if they let Glasgow frustrate them into mistakes.
Glasgow seldom went beyond the one pass and into contact or a kick approach to the game
whereas Ulster were trying to string a few passes together and coming up against a sound defence.
its not that the Ulster backs are getting slow ball but that there is a lack of penetration in the mid field which might be down to either predictable ploys , mistimed passes or players running across the field trying to run round the opposition and then passing to the wing who has no space outside and has to run back in field and into the cover defence.
Hopefully any rust in the back line will washed away shortly
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