Used with Kind Permission

Ulster rugby fans battered and bruised by accusations

"New footage of the Kennedy assassination was broadcast on Monday night. The picture’s weren’t too clear, but it has been alleged that that a man in an Ulster rugby jersey was witnessed wielding a high-powered rifle. Twenty-four years ago, almost to the day, a suspect was seen riding Shergar around Ravenhill, the ‘jockey’ wearing what appeared to be white silks, although the actual material was probably cotton. The most recent sighting pinpointed a culprit driving a white Fiat Uno in Paris in the autumn of 1997, the car the same colour as his top – white.

Ridiculous? Far fetched? Certainly. But, after all, it’s open season on Ulster rugby supporters. Feel free to accuse them of anything. Don’t worry about actual evidence. Sure, there have already been accusations of sectarianism, and racism and, as everybody knows, there’s no smoke without fire. To that I say: “Oval-shaped balls!” The problem is that, to use a phrase more appropriate to rugby, mud sticks, especially if you sling enough of it.

Ravenhill is an intimidating venue for opposition teams, most of whom leave defeated. Now, some of them think they can achieve a ‘moral victory’ by claiming that Ulster supporters and/ or players indulged in unacceptable verbal abuse. Too often they make their unsubstantiated allegations in the media first.

Comment flows freely as a consequence, even though the vast majority of those pontificating on the subject didn’t actually attend the match (es) in question. Well, I happened to be at Ravenhill on Friday night, as a spectator, standing on the packed terrace opposite the main stand.

Time will tell if some idiot(s) did direct racial abuse at Dragons’ wing Aled Brew and replacement Colin Charvis last Friday night. I did not hear a single racist chant, although that’s not to say that some didn’t occur. However, it can be said confidently that no solid proof has yet been produced. What I did hear was several chants of ‘Dodgy, dodgy kicker’, the last word of which might have been misinterpreted as the ‘n’ word, that term of abuse against black people. Similarly it seems that Ulster forward Matt McCullough was accused of racial abuse during the HC campaign, what actually occurred was that he called London Irish’s Delon Armitage a ’spide’ – the Northern Irish equivalent of a ‘chav’, which was misheard as ‘spade’.

Amid all the wild speculation here are some facts:

1. Matt McCullough was cleared of the charge of racial abuse ·
2. Trevor Brennan himself stated that there was NO sectarian element to the abuse he received from some Ulster supporters in Toulouse
3. No racial abuse has yet been detected on the tapes of Friday night’s game.
   

One final thought: there may well be some bigots among the Ulster support, as they’re definitely not all angels; yet there’s clearly been more overt bigotry displayed by many who gleefully seize on any easy opportunity to demonise Ulster rugby supporters."

As written by Kenny Archer in The Irish News (my new local newspaper of choice) on Wednesday this week.

Well said that man.