Limp Ulster cannot afford to let another season pass them by
“Mapping out what was important to the fellas, one thing that came back was a really competitive attitude. That married in perfectly with what I’m about — that’s me. We’ve framed that as ‘fight for every inch’, so when we look at the matches and analyse them, we look for the behaviours that demonstrate that and we celebrate those.” Dan Mcfarland, September 2018
“I personally reckon that game was won and lost on the sofa last night watching Glasgow losing. I’m searching for a reason why we didn’t have the spark that I was expecting. “Teams that end up winning Championships put in better performances in games that don’t mean anything.” Dan Mcfarland, August 2020
THE most irate of Dan Mcfarland’s words were presumably still ringing in the ears of Ulster’s players last night as they sat down to watch this week’s edition of Edinburgh v Glasgow from the most uncomfortable chair in the house.
Rugby may be back a full week on these shores, and Ulster may have a Guinness PRO14 semi-final and a Champions Cup quarter-final to look forward to, but there has been little to celebrate at Kingspan Stadium over the past seven days — other than the fact that tonight’s game at the Aviva Stadium was able to go ahead after all.
I feel for Ulster’s fans. Every time the team appear to have turned a corner, they somehow seem to reverse to their old, underwhelming ways.
On the back of last week’s static performance, I fear another great opportunity to win some silverware, or even just reach a final, may slip through the province’s fingers.
Last weekend was a cause for celebration, the return of the game so many of us adore. But the only accolade Ulster could claim was the ‘worst performance by a province with nothing to play for’.
We expected ring rust, but to display such lethargy, having been starved of competitive action for six months, beggared belief.
Mcfarland (below), as a former player of ferocious intensity, would have been seething. A team is a reflection of their coach, and last weekend’s limp effort against Connacht was offensive to the 48-year-old’s values.
I used to enjoy duelling with McFarland. He was tough and confrontational on the field, and I expect he has maintained those traits, while incorporating many others into his repertoire, since graduating to the coaching ranks.
He is a very intelligent man and he has done a superb job with this group of players since his arrival two years ago, but he will know that Ulster, particularly given the profile of this playing group, are at a critical juncture.
It is seven years since they’ve contested a final and they are 14 years without a trophy. Ulster are now the least qualified of the Irish provinces when it comes to handling end-of-season business. That’s an indictment of how far they have fallen since the heady days of Brian Mclaughlin. Progress has been made under Mcfarland, particularly in Europe: humbling Racing and Clermont on wild nights in Belfast, and home-and-away successes against English giants Leicester, Bath and Harlequins.
Even in defeat to Leinster at the Aviva 16 months ago, there was genuine confidence to be taken from the performance in a game they probably should have won.
As Mcfarland highlighted solemnly last weekend: “Teams that end up winning Championships put in better performances in games that don’t mean anything.”
And that is where the real concern lies — whether the players are mentally ready to take the next step.
Successful teams don’t let their standards slip, when internationals are absent — on duty or injured — or when nothing is at stake.
Last weekend was Ulster’s prime time to sharpen up, to produce a performance they could build on for next weekend’s trip to Edinburgh, and even with their trip to Toulouse on September 20 in mind.
Perhaps they will take some motivation from how abject their performance was against Connacht, maybe they can find a fire that was desperately lacking.
But Ulster fans must have been so frustrated to see Connacht run in the tries they did: the poor communication in the lead-up to John Porch’s score; Bundee Aki barrelling under the posts, through three tacklers, off the back of a five-metre scrum; the lacklustre chase after Kieran Marmion; and Jack Aungier burrowing his way under three Ulster forwards from two metres out.
Ulster were without Iain Henderson, Rob Herring, Will Addison, Luke Marshall, Matt Faddes, Sean Reidy and Robert Baloucoune, shorn of leadership, nous and pace, but their match day squad still contained 12 internationals with a combined 235 caps, to Connacht’s 88 caps across six players, and yet they should have been beaten by more.
The leadership was sorely lacking. The empty stadium’s acoustics were dominated by the hollering of Aki. Ulster’s voices vanished, their heads dropped.
I felt for Jordi Murphy; he was one of the few Ulster players who played the game with the respect it deserved. His match-leading tackle count of 22 illustrated the work he got through, with just three other Ulstermen reaching double figures.
Stand-in captain Billy Burns said after the defeat: “We’re a team that plays best with confidence, and you only get confidence through results.”
I’d politely disagree. It’s not a chicken-and-egg scenario. The performance must be the priority with Edinburgh in sight.
A rare win in Dublin would be welcome, but the primary goal is a return to the intensity that smothered Clermont in Belfast just nine months ago — a level that could earn them a win in Murrayfield next weekend, their best opportunity to reach the final of a competition since 2013.
Ulster’s record in inter-pros and knockout rugby over the past eight seasons is grim reading. If they have any realistic expectations of changing that, they must address some home truths.
If the submissive showing against Connacht turns out to be more than a blip, they’ll find little comfort on the settee for quite some time.