Its the most simple thing in the world. The actual crossing the line. Its a white line on a piece of grass, it extends the entire width of the pitch, but if you let it, it can be the hardest 4 inches you ever had to travel in your life. Watching games every week at all levels teams go 40 50 metres fairly easily and then stop at the 4 inches.
Those 4 inches are the difference between winning and losing. Having played the game and been in that position we can only tell you what happened to us was it felt like a dark black weight and almost indescribable how we advanced slower and slower the closer we got to the line! Like the paradox of the snail and rabbit racing.
Crossing that line requires violence, it requires will and it requires 15 hungry and like animals all crossing that line.
When we fail to cross that line it is because we have stopped being a team, we have lost connection with the goal. For in reality the goal is not real, it is just 4 white inches on a piece of grass. What is the importance of that.
The importance is that all around us are clubs who want us to lose because they want what we have. So when we do not perform it is not the fault of individuals, it is the group. That group can run out of steam, so can we as individuals. That group can decide that only certain personnel deserve or can cross that 4 inches and while those certain individuals most certainly can cross that line so can the rest of us.
Going back into ourselves and asking the questions of ourselves personally. Have i given, have i begun to detest my neighbour, have i got what it takes myself, we call these the seven deadly sins and what these questions do is divide us, or if division has taken hold then they are the cause.
Greed, Jealousy, Laziness etc etc
They are normal and they happen to every single person. But we have a choice, we have a choice to step back from the circus, as a group together and let go of all the nonsense and reach a higher place mentally and join once again in the circumstances that we find ourselves and decide that yes we have coming up the biggest games of our lives.
Sometimes it feels crazy how we lose motivation but don;t know why. We arrive at the battle having done nothing wrong but we are not there, not zoned in, not the same as we were just a few weeks ago, and how we watched it slide away a little bit a week at a time, until the horror of defeat happened and we were beaten. Hell on earth.
Now all those around us are hoping that we will stay defeated, will stay in the vacuum.
The coach is right when he says to focus, he has engaged with us and delivered. We must let go of the past and look toward that future which before Christmas seemed so far away, and we settled into a great we run and just played. Now the weight of whats coming weighs heavy and each day is a day closer, and a week closer, and then before we know it its upon us, and we are on the pitch!
Fear is what we fight and each game is what we focus on.
We believe in Ulster Rugby and we will not stop believing. We will not stop believing and fighting for the light, sometimes with fire and vigour, sometimes with animal power, sometimes with resolute strength of character, sometimes frantically, sometimes all together and the great white ball will roll on down that pitch and across that line and we will prove that Ulster Rugby will turn up. We will turn up because this time no one is going back, no matter what we will turn up, and there will be no crowd and there will be no circus, there will just be 15 against 15 and what do we do when we are 15 WE FIGHT! WE FIGHT THEM!
Because we have been growing, we have been growing every year for 5 years now, we have seen sights that most people never see in a lifetime. We have seen cross field kicks sweep over the pitch and caught in mid air and grounded for the try, we have seen scrums where great opposition front rows wilted under the pressure after a few more seconds they went back and the ball was taken against the head and distributed out to the centres and passes, we have seen passes on the wing that are so beautiful that the air carried them like they were on a rope, we have seen so many amazing sites and crossed so many mental and physical lines and we will not be going back.
We will arrive at our destination.
What will we do then, we will focus on the youth and continue to build for their future.
