Fickle fans! Hero to zero in 5 minutes!
It’s hard to know where to pin the blame for this one. Yes some players made mistakes, yes the referee was well below the standard required, yes the team selection was poor, yes the use of subs was mystifying and yes the decision making was appalling over the last quarter but in my mind I’d place most of the blame on the IRFU and the Magners League for Ulster’s humping last night.
Well, I say humping, but it wasn’t really, as for sixty minutes Ulster outplayed a pretty piss poor Munster side and had Ulster taken their opportunities they could have been well ahead before pressing the self destruct button in the final quarter.
Yep, this young Ulster backline did a lot better than most people anticipated before kick off and the fact that they looked for long periods as though they were capable of grinding out a win made the eventual defeat and the one sided scoreline all that harder to swallow come the final whistle. If Ulster had converted Paul Marshall’s break in the first half and if the atrociously poor referee and his assistants had realised, or had the courage to realise, that it was first Borlase and then Buckley that were collapsing and not Young then the game could have followed a different path.
It was a frustrating beating but Ulster’s season is far from over – we’ve got a least three more games. 
What was more worrying to me as an Ulster supporter is the expanding influence the IRFU appear to have in the match day selections for my team. There is no doubt that the success of Munster and Leinster in Europe has given the IRFU much power in the Magners League with their European Cup successes being the main factors giving the Celtic competition credibility. With the Irish sides being the only realistic hopes for future wins on the European stage the Magners League are happy to roll over and have their tummy’s tickled and convince themselves they are a power in European Rugby while the IRFU tells them in which games they will be fielding full strength squads and those that they wont.
A few years ago the IRFU could have sat back and congratulated themselves in the belief that they were doing it for the good of the Intentional Squad and while the squad was made up of the golden generation then maybe nursing these few outrageously talented individuals through the seasons was no bad thing. Now, however, the golden generation have been found wanting at the highest level and most of the next level are not up to speed through lack of international game time and should be tested by playing with and against the best out there rather than being rested. I’m sure Munster’s youngsters would have appreciated playing against the likes of Botha, Muller, Wannenburg and Pienaar as much as Ulster youngsters Luke Marshall, Spence and Gilroy would have liked to have played with them in such a high profile fixture.
The respective positive and negative aspects of player selection, resting and availability are all down to opinion and if two off Munster, Leinster and Ulster qualify for the European knock out stages, finish in the top four of the Magners League and Ireland go to reach the last four in the World Cup then the IRFU can justifiably pat themselves on the back and carry on. However if Ireland have a second successive World Cup disaster then it is time for a change and matches like last night should become a thing of the past.
I would argue that games like last night should become a thing of the past anyway when you consider that in Ulster’s last two games over 33,000 Irish supporters have forked out well over £500,000 on tickets alone (by the time you add the rest of the match day necessities probably closer to £1,000,000) and the fielding of second string teams is an insult to the paying punters.It’s hard to think of any other sporting or or entertainment venture that so miss-represents the public as to what is going to be on offer. Can you imagine the outrage if you’d paid to see Take That and instead got served up Westlife!
When the punters start voting with their feet it’s already too late!
More like this:
5 Responses to “View from the Sofa: Sold short!”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
The likes of Muller Pienaar etc being rested had little if anything to do with IRFU the only players with Irish potential are Best Trimble Court and Ferris with Paddy W a bench potential
of those only Trimble and Ferris took no part in the game.
My feeling is that the missing players where all carriying minors from monday and the management considered the risk was not worth the potential damage to the players with an easier match ? to played before the ERC.
I doubt if a true rugby fan worries greatly who is actually playing as long as the game is a matched set of XVs and the game is a worthy spectacle and played on a level field ( a consistent fair and equitable ref )
there are those who believe refs have small influence on a game unless it appears as points on the board nothing can be further from the truth a bad ref can inspire a team to make errors in the effort to compensate for previous decisions and or be less committed to the game for fear of the whistle.
I actually thought it was a reasonable performance by most of the players until certain players went individual in the last 10 minutes with rash foolhardy plays which gave away 14 points and 19– 10 would have been a reasonable result given the team on the field
Rate this comment. Like or dislike?
0 
0
Team selection was to blame a stronger bench should have been picked, why are professional sportsmen getting rested so often at least put them on the bench if they are needed, Best and Caldwell who gave away most penalties? i lost count
and Marshall isn’t as good as he thinks he is, needs to calm the head but also needs a leader to settle him which they don’t have when Best is on the field.
Rate this comment. Like or dislike?
0 
0
anyone see Danielli not sure if he was in Limerick?
Rate this comment. Like or dislike?
0 
0
Mote – It is still my opinion that the IRFU dictate what sides are selected in interprovincial matches. I’m double sure of this during the world cup build up. Wannenburg and Muller hardly missed a game in South Africa but the ferocity of the game is so brutal in the Magners League that they can’t be risked?
If you think the fans don’t worry about the quality of the players on show then I look forward to seeing 7,000 at the next Ravens match as lets face it three quarters of that starting team will be playing.
Rate this comment. Like or dislike?
0 
0