White rose tops red hand

Despite being here for a little while now I had not yet visited the Kingspan, the home of Ulster Rugby, until today that is. Once parked up and ticket bought, I was straight in to the Ulster Rugby shop where a lovely ladies Polo and training T shirt were bought!  Their Kukri kit is great, they have two, yes TWO, Ulster Rugby Onsies…..we are lucky if we can buy a shirt!

The Kingspan is a great stadium, a lot of money has been spent on it in recent times. Ulster have a fierce, loyal fan base, in fact the week before they had 15000 passionate Ulster men in there for the visit of Glasgow.

Ming didn’t travel so Tommy was taking the reins. Those who know Belfast will be aware that it has its own weather system, today was no exception. Bright and sunny one minute, swirling winds the next, overcast after that. The wind must have concerned Dig Dave and Christian enough to warrant them taking a cheeky kicking session before the rest of the boys came out.

Lead out by Wakka, there was lots of energy from the boys during the warm up, hopefully this would remain when the whistle went. I am not going to give a blow by blow account of what went on, you can read all manner of Club Twitter Feeds, Match Reports, etc. I want to mention some of the things, both positive and negative that happened during the game.

Early on, the Ulster fans around me were worried, our pack was clearly on top, a couple of great scrums and a line out near the Ravens’ line resulted in a great driving maul seeing Wakka dip over the white wash for a try. Initially it was given to Harry but later corrected as Wakka’s. Big Dave missed the conversion, but things were looking up. A note on Big Dave and his appearance as Fly Half, he never played there for Ulster I was informed by their faithful, so this would be interesting to see how he faired. During the first half he, Big Dave, had what you could describe as a ‘mare’. He missed his first Pen and also with another Pen, he missed touch, giving the ball back to Ulster. His little grubber kicks were not coming off and on a restart, yes, a restart, we again lost advantage due to an error. You could clearly see his frustration when he dropped the ball from a kick, knocking on and again, giving the advantage back to Ulster. However, in the second half, he stuck at it and played a lot better. He wasn’t the only one wishing the ground would swallow them up.

On one particular Ulster first half kick, Christian caught the ball, called the mark, and then knocked whilst taking the free kick, that was quite embarrassing for the lad, and it was only a try saving tackles by Clarke and Christian that didn’t let Ulster in for a score.

Our second try of the day was really well worked and enjoyable to watch involving our two young wingers. After good work by the Walker brothers, young Taylor Prell made the yards and Dan Tai scooted over for his first of the day. We went into half time the scores 12 - 12, Ulster getting a cheeky drop goal with the last kick of the half. The drop goal coming from another one of Big Dave’s errors. However, we were two tries to nil up.

We came out for the second half with no changes. At the beginning, Matt Dudman had an excellent run and only a knock on from Jack Barnard stopped an assault on the Ulster line.

Then we had three great moves, with Vicks at the centre of all of them. His deft handling nearly put Christian in for a try and then, he set up young Dan Tai who pegged it towards the Ulster line and after a few rolls (more then is supposedly legal according to the Ulster men), he got over the line for his second. Also, had it not been for several knock ons, we might have had the BP.

Same went for Ulster though, they had two great moves down the left thwarted by handling errors. So, with a last gasp Ulster try we came out on top, 22 - 17. To sum up the afternoon. The boys stuck at it and won, it was a shame Ulster got that last ditch try, however it was nothing less than they deserved, however, our boys soaked up a lot of Ulster pressure in the last 5 minutes or so. The pack worked well together, I thought Jared Williams had a great shift. Vicks’ handling in the second half was great, I want to see more of that. Still too many silly errors though. Not Big Dave’s best game, however he was out of position.

My friends the Ulster men were perplexed too, I mean it wasn’t wet so why all the handling errors, they probably made as many as us. Unfortunately, Oli Goss went off injured not long after he came on, looked like his ribs, hope it isn’t too serious, that is the last thing we need.

Oh, and we had no Yellows, yes you heard it right, no YELLOWS, and had all 15 on the pitch, at the same time! So, a great afternoon, not just the win but the great hospitality shown by the Ulster fans, they had as many there as we get for a League game! Lets hope this win boosts the confidence of the lads and they come out fighting next week, with League matches fast approaching, we need it!

So, on 3, Yorkshire, 1, 2, 3, YORKSHIRE!