The big ‘un…

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Darkside lightside looks at Sunday's battle between good and evil!

For any given sports team, matches billed as the ‘biggest since […]’ seem to roll round pretty regularly, but Ulster’s game at the weekend definitely merits the billing, for a number of reasons:

  • last year Ulster got to the quarters and made the league play-offs, which counted as definite progress – not having got out of our group in Europe since ’99, and just the season before getting involved in a last-gasp bottom-of-the-league dogfight with Connacht just to qualify for the HEC. With a top 4 league spot this season by no means assured, a routine exit in the QF will not feel like progress.
  • the idea (or ‘hope’ if you’re an Ulster fan / ‘fear’ if you’re a Munster fan) that a changing of the guard could be in the offing in Irish rugby, with a resurgent young Ulster passing out a Munster squad in transition, has been slowly and quietly gaining ground in the Irish rugby consciousness. However for it to gain real traction, Ulster need to cross swords with Munster in a serious match, and come out on top – if Ulster were to win well (and by well I don’t mean by 20 points, but something like the Leinster victory last Saturday for example) the Ulster up / Munster down narrative would inevitably seize the Irish press, and we would be in new and very interesting times in Irish rugby…
  • the ultimate shop window for international selection – Kidney has been spared truly widespread criticism for some poor international selections of his favourites in the last couple of years for two reasons, firstly the tameness of the main rugby writers in Ireland, and secondly, in the case of Ulster players not getting the nod, the fact that while Ulster have shown some signs of stepping things up in the last couple of seasons, we have still not come near winning anything since 2006. This is the perfect opportunity for the Ulster players, with the eyes of the entire Irish rugby public focused on them, to take on the guys getting the nod ahead of them at the minute, and come out on top – in particular I’m thinking of Tuohy (vs DOC), Cave (vs Earls) and Henry (vs POM), as well as Marshall (vs TOL) if they both make it onto the pitch. Not to mention Paddy Wallace, much-maligned by many Irish fans who don’t watch Ulster much, and think of him as the same player he was about 7 years ago, and Tom Court who I’m sure would love a big match after being the fall guy against England.

Can Ulster do it? I think it’s possible, but Munster will deservedly be clear favourites. For all they are not the force they were a couple of years ago, not many people have made money betting against Munster in big matches, especially in Limerick. They have some big players, notably POC and ROG, who, whatever else about them, know all about turning it on in big games, and if they get a head of steam, and a few points on the board, to use Phil ‘gloom’n’doom’ Matthews favourite phrase, it could be a long afternoon for Ulster.

That said, while I wouldn’t read directly across from the match against Leinster at the weekend, Munster were poor. Their lineout was a shambles, they arguably were lucky not to have the book thrown at Horan in the scrum, and offensively they brought nothing. Yes they have a few big players, but the team sheet doesn’t have the same fear factor as the one from 3 years ago, and while they epitomised mental toughness and belief on the rugby pitch for a good 2-3 years, I just get the feeling that there are some doubts huddled below the surface – in the last 30 minutes of the match last Saturday, it seemed to me that Leinster didn’t believe that they would lose, and Munster didn’t believe they could win.

So there are definitely slivers of light for Ulster – it’ll be a day for trying to achieve superiority in the lineout, and at least the balance in the scrum; for big performances from key players and leaders down the spine of the team; and most importantly for composure and mental toughness, so that our skills and execution survive the pressure, something which has let us down in the past. But if we can bring it together, and catch a break or two, we can definitely do it – and with a home semi in prospect, we could truly be on our way back onto the map in Irish, and European, rugby…

 SUFTUM!!


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