Belfast Harlequins Website

19 January 2004
The Strategic Planning Group of the IRFU has published a document summarising the content of the 9 meetings held in September and October as part of the public consultation process on the future of Irish Rugby. 
The document was written by Genesis Strategic Management Consultants, who facilitated each of the nine meetings in Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick. The summary is being posted to every rugby club and IRFU-affiliated school in Ireland. It is available to the public through this website. 
The development of the strategic plan for Irish rugby's development over the next four year's and beyond is currently being progressed through the auspices of the IRFU's four standing committees, namely: The Domestic Game; Professional Game; Finance and Commercial & Marketing Committees. Each Committee are currently developing policies and strategies for inclusion in the final strategic plan which will be presented in the Spring of 2004.
The consultative meetings produced a great range of debate and issues for consideration, however there was a notable degree of consistency around the key issues that need to be addressed. According to Genesis Strategic Management Consultants the following questions and issues raised at the meetings appear to be the most significant requiring resolution before any strategy is finalised:
1) Can more be done to strengthen the development of clubs?
2) Should expansion of the playing base be a separate goal?
3) What if anything should be done to the AIL structure?
4) What more can be done to strengthen the rugby model and to bridge the gaps perceived in the pathway it describes?
5) What can be done to grow the numbers of volunteer administrators, coaches and referees?
6) How can the facilities issues be moved forward?
7) What financial model is possible to set the framework for the strategy?
8) How can clear targets and timeframes be built into the strategy?
Download the PDF Document from the link below.
http://www.irishrugby.ie/pdf/IRFU_summary_of_consultative_meetings_021203.pdf'  
 

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16 January 2004
Andre unhappy with choice of Referee for Garryowen game
WHILE Grafton Belfast Harlequins will be firmly focused on beating visitors Garryowen tomorrow, they are also taking more than a passing interest in the game's referee.
The scheduled referee Dermot Moloney AND Garryowen both hail from Limerick and Quins are understandably not delighted with the situation.
"It was the same (a Limerick referee) two years back when we were going for promotion over Bohemians," Quins' coach Andre Bester said.
"Back then I had a word with the referee before the game and I will be doing the same tomorrow.
"The match video will definitely be going to Dublin and I will be fiercely critical of his refereeing, though I do understand that he has to do the game and that he will be under pressure," Bester added.
Indeed, earlier in the campaign Mr Moloney officiated when Quins narrowly lost out at home to Cork Constitution - a late penalty giving Con a 24-22 win.
With a play-off place in range, Bester has targeted the tricky Garryowen clash (the visitors have won their last two games) as a 'must win' situation.
"We have a score to settle with them. When we met last season, a drop-goal from a free kick won it for them and I felt that they shouldn't have been given the free kick," Bester said.
"They have a strong pack of forwards and the weather, if it's bad, could be an equalling factor," Bester added.
Quins will be seeking to replicate the form they showed in their 47-12 demolition of Galwegians two weeks ago when scrum-half Reece Spee grabbed four tries.
They have named an unchanged side from the win over Galwegians with the only alteration being on the bench where Conor Keown comes in for John Andress.
With Quins sitting in fifth spot, a first win over Garryowen (currently in 10th) in three AIL meetings is needed to keep Bester's campaign in good shape.
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16 January 2004

Ulster team uchanged for return match at Welford Road
Alan Solomons has named an unchanged Ulster line-up for the away leg of their back-to-back Heineken Cup fixtures against the Leicester Tigers at Welford Road. 
The result from last weekend's fixtures have really opened up Pool 1. With the Gwent Dragons defeating Stade Francais at Rodney Parade, the competition has now reached the half-way stage with none of the pool 1 sides having won away from home. 
Alan Solomons and his team are expecting this weekend's match to be a very different enounter, the Tigers will be wounded animals following their heavy defeat at Ravenhill last weekend. Solomons commented; "This weekend is a massive challenge for us, but this is why we're involved in professional rugby, we live for matches like these and are really looking forward to it." Everyone with in the squad was available for selection this week apart from long-term injury Jonny Bell, and Ryan Constable who has a shoulder problem. Both Neil McMillan and Ronan McCormack played club games last weekend and have been back training with the Ulster Squad since last week. 
Ulster: 15 - Paddy Wallace, 14 - James Topping, 13 - Shane Stewart, 12 - Paul Steinmetz, 11 - Tyrone Howe, 10 - David Humphreys, 9 - Neil Doak, 1 - Robbie Kempson, 2 - Matt Sexton, 3 - Simon Best, 4 - Matt Mustchin, 5 - Rowan Frost, 6 - Andy Ward (Captain), 7 - Neil Best, 8 - Roger Wilson 
Replacements: 16 - Rod Moore, 17 - Paul Shields, 18 - Matt McCullough, 19 - Warren Brosnihan, 20 - Kieran Campbell, 21 - Adam Larkin, 22 - Bryn Cunningham

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16 January 2004
IRFU FOUNDATION COACHING COURSES
The above mentioned courses are being run on the following dates
Mon 9^th Feb        6-9pm
Wed 11^th Feb      6-9pm
Mon 16^th Feb      6-9pm
 Anyone interested should contact me directly and I will forward them an application form.  This course is especially useful for aspiring coaches of underage and Junior rugby and there are no previous coaching qualifications required to enrol.
 I can be contacted on email or 07775 778771.

 Barry Dowling 
barry@cmmarketing.co.uk

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Sunday Independent Interview with Neil Best
'Mongrel' with attitude Sunday January 11th 2004
THEY are keen to talk about their young forwards in Ulster. Behind the scrum there is not too much to occupy Eddie O'Sullivan between here and the next World Cup. Up front the story is more cheerful. In the tight five there are perhaps four who will make the grade, if only they could get regular game time. They have been undermined, however, by Ulster's need to get a grizzled pack, and fast. So the imports arrived and the development was arrested.
The back row dresses their shop window. That they are Irish is part of the attraction. Number eight Roger Wilson was described by one in the Ulster set-up as the most talented player he ever worked with. Flanker Neil McMillan was accorded the status of the most professional. Both of them, seemingly, certainties for Ireland. And then there is Neil Best. He wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.
First he went to a school where sport was well removed from the top of the curriculum. Then he transferred to a school best known for hockey. According to himself, he has "no pedigree at all." It is appropriate that he should choose that term because he thrives on his mongrel status.
Aggressive and raw and with no respect for the reputations of the people he plays against, Best is at home in this game. He may never play it at the highest level, but he is further proof that a country as small as Ireland cannot afford to ignore the late developers. Certainly not when they come in this sort of package.
He will charge onto the pitch at Ravenhill this afternoon and you know at least two things that will not be cluttering his brain: first, that two seasons ago, when his opposite number Neil Back was recovering from a Lions tour before being part of a successful assault on the Heineken Cup, Best was plugging away on the side of the scrum for Belfast Harlequins. And second, if Robbie Brink had not retired through injury last year, and Warren Brosnihan was match fit now, he could still be on the side of the same scrum, glamming it up in the All Ireland League.
When he was plucked from the club game last year for the Ulster squad it was on a development ticket. His uncle gave him some useful advice ahead of mixing with the big boys.
"When I went in first I remember him saying to me not to worry about these people. 'They're human beings on the same pitch as you,' he said. 'Respect them but don't let them worry you. Be yourself, be aggressive, be hard and work at it.' I knew I was with good players but I wasn't worried by being with them, if you know what I mean."
Best was a late starter. Indeed he is an advert for those who miss their appointed train that there are other modes of transport. He was derailed early enough in life. Nowadays teachers in Northern Ireland will play down the importance of the 11 Plus, the gateway to second level education, but still it is recognised as the first step on the ladder to success. Score there and you're on the conveyor belt. Best drew a blank.
"I'm not sure about now but when I was doing it there were four grades: get an A grade and any school you applied for will take you, and it works down from there. I got D. People said to me since then that I must be clever doing a masters in university but I ask: 'so why did I fail my 11 Plus?' That's the Government telling you that that's their way of determining intelligence - where you stand. I suppose I just didn't work hard enough.
"When I failed it my dad told me not to worry, just work hard in (secondary) school and see how it goes. At first I really felt it when people would say it to me that I failed it. I sort of feel it even now. But when I raise my children I'll tell them they can go to any school, it doesn't matter where. The idea that it's going to determine if you're a success in life is just untrue."
He took a slightly circuitous route to where he is today, and if anything is better for the journey. There is no trace of the self-importance that often attaches itself to professional sportsmen. His apparent wonderment with his new-found status is visible in the set-up for this interview. Standard procedure is to meet the victim on either neutral ground or the training ground. I suggest Ravenhill. "Fine," he says. "I live two minutes from there. I'll nip down and you can follow me back to the house." Clearly a novice.
When we get there he admits that his girlfriend Suzanne has whipped round the place like a dust inspector on speed. A comfortable and tastefully decorated townhouse off the Ravenhill Road, it suggests young, upwardly mobile professionals. The attitude says decent people who want to ply you with food and send you away glad that you called. He offers a packed lunch for the journey home. It is 9pm. He has an affinity with the traveller.
"My family were like nomads, moving about the place and then setting up camp," he says. "We've been in 10 different houses." Bizarrely this was not a business: move in, do up, sell at a profit and move on. It was more like an obsession. "My mum just has this thing: she sees a house and goes 'have to have it.' And dad, for an easy life, goes 'ok, we'll do it.' Initially, as a child, all the moves were around Belfast so there was a base, and then it was way out to the country which my dad loved. It was a wee place called Raffrey in Crossgar, well out towards Downpatrick. Then it was back to Saintfield, then Comber."
That is an abridged version. Mercifully the hopping and trotting didn't mean switching schools with the seasons. After his inglorious affair with the 11 Plus, Best put in three years in Newtownbreda High School, nose to the grindstone. His grades took him upmarket to Wellington College where he got his first taste of schools rugby, having been introduced to the game through the youth system at junior club Cooke. But Wellington were at the snacking end of the foodchain. A typical conversation with his father Cecil would go:
'Dad, we beat Methody today!'
'Oh yeah, what side?'
Eh, the fours.'
He wasn't bothered. He played because he liked running around, carrying a ball, and whacking people. This tendency towards the physical endeared him to Malone where he fetched up as a 16-year-old. Midweek with the school; weekend with the club; Best's sporting appetite was sated.
There was no ambition for bigger things. That didn't materialise until he had got through his first year of pint drinking in Queen's University. Around the time he had to apply himself to the books again, in pursuit of a degree in chemical engineering, he took a look at himself in other ways. He always enjoyed running and was good at it. Rugby too had come easily enough, so perhaps it was time to give that some serious consideration.
The impetus for his attention to the game had arrived through a season with the Ulster under 21s, which had come about more by being in the right place at the right time than any master plan. Now it was time to move on.
"I looked at Belfast Harlequins and knew they had a bit of money, and I knew that they were serious. At the time in Malone we had a coach called Jeff Webster from Australia. He was good but he didn't have the players to do anything with. I was living in Gilnahirk and I would put a backpack on and run to training, do the session and then run home. I took it seriously. I worked hard. But I saw other guys not trying and it really pissed me off. I felt like I had a 14-man saddle. That annoyed me. With three months to go to the end of the season I put the feelers out. I liked the guys in Malone but I started to think about myself."
The point is, he stood up when asked and evidently has the ability to play the game at a high level
Life at Harlequins brought a mix of good and bad, between the satisfaction of playing in the First Division to the ignominy of going straight back into the Second. Also it brought him into contact with Andre Bester who succeeded Brian Robinson as coach at Deramore. The player speaks highly of the coach, and vice versa. "I would rate him as the best gain line stopper in the Irish game," Bester says.
Certainly Bester's input helped the flanker get on the merry-go-round at a relatively late stage in his career. He is at an age when those who came through the elite system would be wondering would that first cap ever come, if it hadn't come already. Best is only starting.
"I like to think of myself as a late developer because I haven't really achieved anything yet. Like Roger (Wilson) is 22, and Neil (McMillan) is 21 and played last year and scored two tries against Northampton. They've done all these things and people call them the young guns, and I'm going: 'I'll be 25 in three months, what have I done? Not really a great deal. I'd better get my finger out!'"
In fairness the digit has long since been extracted. Ulster's form in the Celtic League and their success in the Celtic Cup had as much to do with their open side as any of their imports. With Brosnihan and McMillan both near match-fit again, his rawness will be seen as a drawback rather than an endearing feature. The point, however, is that he stood up when asked and evidently has the ability to play the game at a high level. There are others like him around the country, late developers with much to contribute.
The good news for Best is that he got his chance. Watch this afternoon and you'll appreciate that he won't die wondering.
Brendan Fanning

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13 January 2004
Garryowen match preview
This Saturday we play Garryowen at the Grafton Arena, and will want to want to avenge last season’s defeat at Dooradoyle, Limerick. We lost that match in the dying minutes of the game when we infringed at a lineout and Garryowen were awarded a free kick. After a further infringement they were awarded a further 10m the ball was taken forward by the Garryowen scrum half who off loaded from the tackle and moved it wide to out half Killian Keane who dropped a goal to win the match.
As Munster and Ulster both play on Saturday both teams will be without their provincial players. Garryowen are likely to miss David Wallace, and Jeremy Staunton who should feature in the Munster squad.
The form guide re Garryowen is as follows they have played a total of 8 matches of which they have won 3 lost 4 and drawn 1. There victories were against Lansdowne (Away) 21 –13, Dungannon (Home) 21 – 8 and also Clontarf (Home) 18 – 16.
They have lost 4 games to Shannon 28 – 15 (Home), Cork Con 24 – 8 (Away), Buccaneers 28 – 10 (Home) and Ballymena 18 – 15 (Away). The drawn match was against St Mary’s 13 – 13 (Away)
Players to watch: Full back – Dominic Crotty, Back row – Peter Malone and Out half – Killian Keane. Quins defense will need to be sound to keep these useful players at bay. Quins played really well in their last match in Galway against Galwegians. The forwards were awesome and the backs ran the ball with great success. The whole team really clicked and we look forward to a repeat performance in front of a good home crowd.
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12 January 2004

2nd round draw for Ulster Schools Cup

Bangor Grammar School v Carrick Grammar School
Dalriada v Ballyclare HS
Grosvenor GS v Larne GS
Foyle & Londonderry College v Banbrodge Academy
Portadown college v BRA
Limavady GS v Portora Royal School
Omagh Academy v RBAI
Regent House v Rainey Endowed
Wallace HS v Down HS
Sullivan Upper v Friends School
CAI v Belfast HS
Campbell college v Wellington College

The four schools that will enter the competition in the third round are; MCB, Ballymena Academy, Royal School Armagh and Royal School Dungannon.

Second round matches will be played on Saturday 17th January.

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Ulster Trounce Tigers

HEINEKEN CUP, POOL THREE

Ulster (28) 33
Tries: Howe, Ward 2, Stewart
Cons: Humphreys 2
Pens: Humphreys 3

Leicester (0) 0
Ulster went from the bottom to top of Group One with their eighth consecutive home win in the Heineken Cup.
The Irish province overpowered a struggling Leicester side at Ravenhill so all six games in the group so far have ended in home wins.
Lions winger Tyrone Howe got the first try and skipper Andy Ward added two more as Ulster led 28-0 at half-time.
Shane Stewart's second half try secured the bonus point which took Ulster top.
Leicester were hit with two early injury blows, losing first-choice centres Darryl Gibson and Ollie Smith in the opening 10 minutes.

Match photos:
Ulster 33-0 Leicester

They were also bombarded by a fired-up Ulster outfit who made good use of their first half wind advantage.

Irish fly-half David Humphreys was the architect of the opening try, perfectly chipping over the top for Howe who beat Neil Baxter to the touchdown in the left corner.
Humphreys added a penalty before Ward scored the first of his tries on 20 minutes, taking a short pass from Simon Best to score under the posts.

To deny Leicester any points was a fantastic effort

Ulster's Andy Ward
Nine minutes later Ward went over again, brushing off Austin Healy's challenge, and Humphreys added his second conversion.
Two more penalties from Humphreys before half-time left Leicester with a mountain to climb.
The Tigers were expected to hit back in the second half but it was Ulster who scored again to secure their bonus point for four tries.
A great run from full-back Paddy Wallace set up centre Shane Stewart for the touchdown three minutes into the half.
The Tigers had surprisingly left England's World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson on the replacements' bench.

Thank God for Rotherham or we'd be relegated from the Premiership as well

From Prop Idol

Have your say on Scrum V
He came on 10 minutes into the second half but could do little to inspire the two-times cup winners.
It was Leicester's first blank scoresheet in the competition and the result leaves them in danger of an early exit.
The teams meet again in the return fixture at Welford Road on 17 January.
Skipper Ward was understandably elated with Ulster's display.

We're going through a bit of a hiccup at the moment but it can be put right

Dean Richards
Leicester director of rugby
"To deny Leicester any points in the second hald was a fantastic effort," said Ward.
"The boys performed well in all areas and it was great to get the bonus point because it could be crucial.
"Today was our day but Leicester are a strong side and we have to do it all again next week."

Ulster: Wallace, Topping, Stewart, Steinmetz, Howe, Humphreys, Doak, Kempson, Sexton, S. Best, Mustchin, Frost, Ward, N. Best, Wilson.
Replacements: Shields, Moore, McCullough, Brosnihan, Campbell, Larkin, Cunningham.
Leicester: van der Westhuyzen, Baxter, Smith, Gibson, Lloyd, Pez, Healey, Rowntree, West, Morris, L. Deacon, Kay, W. Johnson, Back, H. Tuilagi.
Replacements: W. Skinner, Richards, Nebbett, M. Johnson, Vesty, Myring, Gelderbloom.
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