Weekend Warriors!

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Weekend Warrior #1. The wonderfully gifted Niamh Briggs appearing at Ravenhill for Munster.

Welcome to our new feature article on the weekend activities at FRU headquarters. Hopefully it will bring you up to date with some of the other rugby going on in Ulster at the weekend as well as the latest on Ulster and Ireland!

First up on a crisp Saturday morning was our weekly Schools match and as I’d to get up to Ravers for 12:30 for photography at the Women’s Interpro I decided to stick close to home and cover the old alma mater Larne Grammar in their match against Dalriada.

Things have certainly changed in the school’s scene since I last ran out at the Cairncastle playing fields as the Senior squad have just returned from a mid term tour to Canada.

In our day it was the school minibus across to Scotland for fixtures against Troon and Ayr round Easter time, the highlight being a few shandies in the legendary “Bobby Magee’s”, as they called the “night club” attached to our hotel! Night clubs were so much easier to set up in those days – all that was required was a “Wheels of Steel” type set of decks and a few spotlights and any grubby old hotel bar became a place of wonder and lust!

Schools rugby has certainly become more competitive these day, not so much on the pitch where I always remember it as being pretty full on, but off the pitch where competition for players is now apparently commonplace and these extended tours are all part of a list of benefits laid before our young stars. Good grief!

I was hoping that the tour would lead to a change of fortunes for the old school as their early season form has been somewhat patchy but unfortunately it was not to be as a rather slick Dalriada pulled away at the end for a comfortable win.

It appears to be Ballyclare High setting the pace this season, retaining the form from their successful pre season tour to New Zealand. Royal School Armagh, Bangor and Ballymena are three to watch outside of the traditional Belfast sides but this seasons surprise package could be Wallace who may just be timing their run right! Keep up to date on your schools progress with our Rankings Table.

The highlight of the weekend for me was covering the Ulster v Munster Women’s Interpro at Ravenhill where I had the chance to cast an appreciative eye over the sublimely gifted Niamh Briggs, full back for Munster and Ireland. Briggs was undoubtedly Ireland’s star of the world cup (sorry Eliza) and when this fixture was announced I was looking forward, with much anticipation, to seeing Briggs and Ulster’s Eliza Downey go head to head. Unfortunately injury in the Leinster game ruled out Eliza so it was left to our latest pick in “Four to Follow” Teah Maguire to test her progress against Ireland’s best. 

Though the Larne youngster was self critical at the end of the game, after being subbed midway through the second half , I thought that  Teah coped well in this high paced game and will certainly have learned a thing or two from the opposition, as will the rest of the team.

Despite the scoreline, Ulster were far from being blown off the park and the performance was another step up from last weeks opener against Leinster. You can check out the full report here and even though this comparatively inexperienced Ulster side have a long way to go I can’t help but admire, and be drawn in by, the grit and determination these girls have shown.

It is with much anticipation that I look forward to covering the girls next fixture against Connacht in a fortnights time.

The Ireland game was over by the time I’d made it back home and as I’d decided to get up early on Sunday and watch the Ireland, England and Welsh games on iPlayer while editing my photos I thought I’d have a quick look at Scotland New Zealand live. The first half was as much as I could stick of that one, Strictly Come Dancing being much more entertaining!

Catching up with the rest of the home nations on Sunday morning my initial thoughts were that Wales flattered to deceive, Ireland were lifeless and, surprisingly, England looked very impressive. Maybe not as good as the scoreline against the Aussies suggests. but good enough I’d say and good luck to them too.

At least England had the foresight to try out some new players, player combinations and varying game plans over the last few seasons, often facing harsh criticism for a few poor results, and it looks like they are timing their run up to the world cup just right.

Ireland on the other hand ignored systematic player development for years, while milking dry the Golden Generation, and now look to be going backwards at a rate of knots.

I don’t buy this crap that we didn’t have alternatives to Hayes, O’Gara, O’Connor etc. as so few were given a sustained chance or if they were they were expected to fit in to a pattern of  play so narrow and alien to their strengths that they were on the back foot from the start.

If the greatest player in the world for each position (except for centre obviously as he’s already here) had dropped into Ireland’s laps over the last ten years very few of them would have got selected because they “can’t lift in the line out like John” or  “can’t kick to touch like Ronan” or “can’t turnover ball like D’Arcy” so narrow and specific was Ireland game plan.

It’ll be interesting to see what team Ireland pick for Saturdays game against New Zealand. If Sexton doesn’t start then things are much worse than even I imagined!


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