Do Ulster lack mental toughness?

Hotspur · Post by **Hotspur** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:12 pm

The outstandingly brilliant performances of Munster and Leinster at the weekend gave me cause for thought that Ulster lack mental toughness when it comes to the BIG games. I have the impression that Munster and to a slightly lesser extent Leinster don't give a fig about who they play or where they play them because of their inbuilt confidence that they have the players with the attitude to handle it. In Ulster we appear to get uptight about playing teams like Saracens away from home when we should be thinking about our own game and how we are going to put them to the sword. It's almost as if we think before the match that this is a Guinness Premeirship team and we will be lucky to get a bonus point. Instead we should be saying we won this trophy before and we are confident we are going to beat you. Eat our dust Fez boys! We ran the French champions close away, whilst Saracens capitulated. What made us think that Saracens should have been a threat? MMcCall talks a lot about confidence or lack of it sometimes but team confidence comes from belief in ability of ones self and the others around. The coach can help by motivating individuals and most importantly by picking the right team. If the team has the confidence then the mental toughness required to close out tough games will come.Add to this the fact that Ulster have a very strong identity and playing for that shirt and that red hand should be motivation in itself. Lets sort out this Celtic League this year from here on in!

dead ball · Post by **dead ball** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:48 pm

craftynick · Post by **craftynick** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:58 pm

yep i think they do

barney · Post by **barney** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:01 pm

If we lack anything mentally, I think it's the kind of streetwise/cynical (delete as you prefer) approach to the game that we've seen from the likes of Leicester in the past and Biarritz recently. Leinster (in Corrigan, for all his faults) and Munster (in Foley, likewise) have old heads who can play the ref and I'm not sure we have that at the moment.

for dog and ulcer · Post by **for dog and ulcer** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:15 pm

Yes. I believe the coach is at fault in tactics and team selection which demotivates the team.

ballpark · Post by **ballpark** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 7:46 am

Yip, I agree with Barney that we allowed ourselves to be roughed up upfront by Saracens and became distracted by niggle when we should have concentrated on our own game. Again particularily in the first half of the Biarritz game at Ravenhill they deliberately slowed the momentum of the game up by going down for pretracted treatment and Balan doing the lacing of the boot trick early in the second half and so on. We could have done something similar in the first 20 minutes of our game in Biarritz. I noted on Saturday there were very few players going down for treatment in the game against Sarries presumably because B.O. where on the front foot.

We in theory do have streetwise players such as Harrison, Humphreys and aggs, very experienced guys who should know a trick or two but perhaps you have to imbue the whole team with a mental attitude rather than just a few of the seasoned campaigners and that is the coaching staff's job as much as senior players.

As regards Leinster they are a great team when they are playing for each other but there were times in the past in big games when that has not always happened. As against the Tigers in the quarters last season.

bogboy · Post by **bogboy** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:44 pm

As someone once said " If I have to motivate you -- you ain't worth the contract and you ain't playing"

Selection is a different problem and what different players can do doesn't make it easier

if a combination of players defend well that same combination may not attack as well as a different combination who may not defend as well as the first.

Which conbination do you choose?

Heads they win and tails you lose

for dog and ulcer · Post by **for dog and ulcer** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 10:03 pm

We are talking professional rugby here not the BB Old Boys' Wednesday 15. Professional players should be able to attack or defend or both as the occasion demands.

for dog and ulcer · Post by **for dog and ulcer** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 10:08 pm

Sorry Bogboy not well argued on my part but the coach choses the combinations and professional players ought to be able tom adopt differeing roles is what I meant to say, probably.

ballpark · Post by **ballpark** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 11:36 pm

By the same token BB, props and second rows traditionally did all the grunt and grind and left the passing and fancy things like that to the backs. Times have changed and yer average prop can throw a pass and second rows appear on the wing taking scoring passes. I admit there are still props and locks who can't do that but they are increasingly as rare as policemen on the beat here.

Unfortunately most backs are expected to pass as well as tackle and Maggs like Shane Stewart before him and to a lesser extent Johnny Bell are archaic and from a past era of crash ball dudes with no strings to their bowe.