The team was not the issue, the side that Les Kiss sent to Parma had
talent in abundance and was more than capable of returning to Belfast with all
five points. Indeed, had a neutral compared the two team sheets before the game
began then the sheer weight of international quality for the visitors would
have been enough to hand them the bonus point before the game began.
Consider the names that lined out for Ulster. Tommy Bowe and Craig
Gilroy were potent threats on the wing and from full-back. Paddy Jackson was
starting at fly-half. Callum Black, Rob Herring and Declan Fitzpatrick formed a
very strong front row that was boosted by Franco van der Merwe from the second
row and Roger Wilson and Nick Williams in the rearguard. Not to mention the
benefit of having Rory Best and Andrew Trimble to spring from the bench.
Yet it was a disjointed performance from the Ulstermen, and for the
first time at the Stadio XXV Aprille they were punished for their negligence.
Zebre, and Aironi before them, have been a side that Ulster have notoriously
struggled against and on Saturday they finally triumphed for the first time
over an Irish province, despite not possessing the big names that Ulster had.
Yes Andrea Cavinato was able to utilise several household names like
Mauro Bergamasco and Luciano Orquera, but they had nowhere close to the quality
that Les Kiss was able to choose from (and leave at home). Who could honestly
say they’d ever heard of Giulio Bisegni at outside centre before Saturday? Or
how about Oliviero Fabiani making his third appearance for Zebre off the bench?
Or even Kiwi fly half Kelly Haimona who scored eight points to hand the hosts
their victory?
However it happened, they were good enough to secure Zebre’s first win
of the season and condemn Ulster to their first loss. True, there was a slight
issue of a red card to Declan Fitzpatrick which may have aided their cause
marginally, but the bottom line is these guys are not close to the standard of
Ulster’s, and even then they weren’t even playing good rugby.
Think about it: with an extra player on the field they still could
only find one try and muster a measly 13 points against us, saved by the grace
that their opposition could only amount 8. And in truth, that sums up what a
drab contest it was when only 21 points were scored and the TMO was called into
action too many times by referee Peter Fitzgibbon – not the first time I have
criticised him this season, and we’re only four games old.
Only a portion of blame can be placed on the officiating team, with
TMO Carlo Damasco (from Italy no less) just as culpable as his hapless
colleagues on the field, as for the fourth week in a row Ulster put in a
sub-par performance and this time they were found out. Not to be a broken
record, but yes the dismissal of Fitzpatrick did mean they were facing an
uphill battle, but it’s not like they were exactly playing scintillating rugby
before that either.
And indeed they got their just rewards for how they played. A losing
bonus point against Zebre is never something to be proud of, and yet it is
probably all that Ulster deserved, if not less. With misfiring backs, a scrum
that was reeling from the loss of a player, and a set piece that looked shakier
than it has for a long time, Ulster rightly slipped to a first defeat of the
season, and one that the rugby world has laughed at over the weekend.
It’s not one of Les Kiss’s more memorable coaching moments, and it
isn’t exactly one that he’ll want to remember very often. His fourteen men
never showed any kind of belief that they could come back after Dario
Chistolini’s try, and when Kelly Haimona landed that impressive drop goal, you
just knew that the final nail had been hammered into the Ulster coffin.
And yet despite the set-back we still inherit third place in the table
thanks to Glasgow’s mauling of Connacht and the Ospreys’ shock win at Thomond
Park. There is a six point gap between us and the two pace-setters admittedly,
however that is a gap that can be closed, especially since we take on Glasgow
in front of the Sky cameras in a couple of weeks. And that has to be the
platform to build on for the visit of Edinburgh this Friday night.
Mainly because there isn’t much else we’d want to take forward…
No comments:
Post a Comment