After having a good look around the all new Ulster Rugby website we can say without a doubt it is super. The Domestic & professional sections both work very very well and the massive picture space on the front is going to convey some amazing images game by game.
Having now seen the all new stadium and with Ulster provincial age grade sides both christening their 1st games in the stadium with wins and playing hard fighting rugby and excelling in the surroundings with powerful, energetic and deeply focused performances which took absolute grit and determination to stick to their task was literally spine tingling and breathtaking, commanding respect from the audience and in the end their opponents the proud guys were clapped off as champions into the brand new changing facilties.
Everything is new and fresh and really lifts the entire area, and as we all grow into these new surroundings like moving into a new house, the website also represents a new era, building Ravenhill has been a phenomenal journey for so many people and with the absolutely amazing performances of the Ulster Rugby squad over the past two years which is now history and the agonising defeats in the Heineken & RaboDirect Pro12 finals.
The Henieken cup was not in a way so hard to take because we not been in a semi or a final for so long so it represented a massive move forward, but it feels like the Rabo last year which followed on from the Saracens defeat was much much harder to take because we knew we were good enough to win both those games.
The injury list and so on and son on, its hard to talk about because we are not complainers by nature, we approach each new day as an opportunity but that period around last January in which we seemed to suffer injury after injury meant that in a way our heads were down when the Saracens and RaboDirect final occured and we just lacked that spark to get over the line.
It has without a shadow of a doubt been an incredible 3 or 4 years in which the province has grown into this incredible phenomena and every single person including the players has shared in the greatest of times and the desperate heart wrenching times, and though we feel bad about it and we have understanably also sliped into anger at the loss of games particularly the Rabo final, blaming this and that and the other and probably everyone has various reactions.
Maybe we have said its just a game, or i’ll take the money, or this person did this, or this person did not do that or why did this and that and other not happen.
However, if that continues we will fall down and be beat. That anger must be followed by change or else we will not move forward. Not necessarily a lot of change is required it could be as simple as letting go of the anger and the past. Reaching the finals is tantalizingly close, and you cannot get there unless you are able to win it.
Without a shadow of a doubt we are good enough. And it would be easy to say oh Ulster have not achieved their potential, but the same thing happens when you have won it 5 times in a row, you will start to think but what about next year, will we win it again, or will we be beaten, what will people say.
The answer for us is very simple we believe that if you take the hard yards and the times when you mind is full of dissapointment and the terrible disapointed looks on peoples faces and the coaches saying work harder, your not a man, and some blogger on the internet etc etc
All we know is that when we focus on the game, and whats happening in the moment in front of us and forget the crowd and the newspapers and the criticism and the mistakes and the FEAR and focus on man on man and fight together as if our lives depended on it by focusing on the moment and the man in front then incredible things happen, inspirational things happen.
Every single Ulster player has had there moment when they did something inspirational, and that inspirational moment came on the back of another player doing something inspirational and yes some players more than others but one man is nothing without a team and a team is nothing without every one of those inspirational moments. The togetherness and success that every Ulster supporter has felt over the past two years and the battle that rages in peoples minds as the highs and lows come and go, what about the players who are so desperate to get on the side wether its the I Xv at any club or school in Ulster or the Ulster side itself, how does it feel to be dropped from the side.
This is a furious game and you can rest assured that every team is dangerous, but when we focus on the man on man, not the reputations. If you have a big reputation that too can become a problem because you want to protect your reputation and that can create incredible stress in the mind. But the solution is always to focus on man on man tackling, fighting with tooth and nail for everything. And that is why no matter what the result, if you have fought hard then you can walk off that pitch with your head held high. Ignoring everything off the pitch and that menas everyting and focusing on beating the opposite number.
It is not in the final analysis the result that matters during the game. During the game, during those 80 minutes it is the man on man fighting that matters, that is what matters, the focusing on that is what matters, the seething rage not to be beaten, and when you make a mistake or get a talking to by the referee or if the referee makes a mistake its the getting back into line and refocusing on tackling and then it will turn around and then we will have our say in the matter and the harder it gets the harder we get and they will break.
Being the best is a great place and great people know that WE FIGHT BACK. We have a right to feel good about ourselves.
