Ravenhill roar still echoes from 1999

RUGBY: JOHN O'SULLIVANtalks to the former European Cup winner who believes today's match is the most important one for Ulster since that famous year

GARY LONGWELL neatly straddles the past and the future of Ulster rugby. This afternoon at Ravenhill the Irish province will try to take an appreciable stride towards bridging a 12-year hiatus from the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup when they square up to Biarritz Olympique in a match that will define the final throes of the pool.

That period is ostensibly a litany of disappointment, the pain occasionally sharpened by narrow failure but it is also bookended by the greatest triumph in the history of Ulster rugby. In 1999, under coach Harry Williams, Ulster recovered from a stumbling start to their pool where they only recorded a first victory in their third game to go on and win the European Cup. A momentous journey culminated in a coronation at Lansdowne Road.

Longwell, then a 27-year-old secondrow, played an integral part in the success, going on to win 26 caps for Ireland and amassing an Ulster record of 152 appearances. His influence and importance to the fortunes of the province haven’t diminished since retirement because in 2005 he accepted the offer to become the high performance manager of the Phoenix Ulster rugby academy, a role he continues to discharge today. He heads a staff that nurture, cajole and fine tune Ulster’s elite young rugby players.

The current senior squad offers a resounding vindication of the work conducted in the academy, a production line of real quality and depth: Ian Whitten, Willie Faloon, Nevin Spence, Tommy Seymour, Luke Marshall, Paddy Jackson, Conor Gaston, Niall Annett, James McKinney, Craig Gilroy and Paddy McAllister represent a random sample of the province’s indigenous young talent.

Longwell explained: “We have a fantastic staff. It starts with the work being done in the schools and clubs. We can’t create talent; it’s there in terms of the development of players in those clubs and schools. Our job is just to accelerate the progress and to prepare them for the professional game.

“We are there to help them but they are the ones putting the work in. They’re doing the hard yards, putting it in at club level which is so important to us up here. We want to back our clubs as much as we can. We want them (the young players) to be shining lights for their clubs.”

He possesses a keen appreciation of the importance of today’s match, what it means to the players, the management team headed by coach, Brian McLaughlin and the Ulster supporters. The province has endured a long exile from the business end of the tournament.

Longwell said of that fallow period: “We lost six out of six (pool games) the following year (after winning the European Cup). We should have been building a dynasty for ourselves at that point like Munster have done subsequently in getting to the quarter-finals every year. Regularly missing out created financial difficulties as well as building pressure with each season that passed without achieving that landmark.

“We have ourselves in a fantastic position after winning and the players of that time blew it. We just couldn’t perform the next season and the whole momentum we created had gone. We have certainly been unlucky from time to time: there were probably two or three seasons when we had the quality (of personnel) but maybe didn’t have the luck. We might have used up all the luck the year we won it.

“We made Ravenhill a fortress over the years but away from home we struggled to get the wins we needed to progress. It was only last season we won in England for the first time. We have managed one draw in France and are still searching for a first win.

“We didn’t develop that mentality of winning the close games, which I think we have now. They’re (the current squad) starting to win those tight games that allows us to be in the position we are now. We have a real chance going into the last couple of games whereas in the past we have been largely out of it at this stage.”

The venue for today’s game against Biarritz can not be overstated. Ravenhill was an impregnable citadel in 1999 where Toulouse twice and Stade Francais failed to scale the ramparts. In recent European campaigns several visiting teams have managed to plunder the points but in certain instances the home side’s interest in the competition at that juncture was largely academic.

That isn’t the case now and Longwell argues that despite Ravenhill’s modernisation it can still be an intimidating cauldron. “The crowd is very close to you. There’s not the running track that you see in so many other stadiums. You can feel their (the crowd’s) proximity. You can also hear what’s been said on the terraces; they can affect you. There’s an intensity to the Ravenhill atmosphere.

“You have to walk through the crowd at Ravenhill and for the home team that’s a huge plus. You literally get pats on the back. The closeness of the support motivates you as a player. In some of the French stadia the crowd are very far away from the playing surface and no matter how much noise they make it’s not as intimidating as when supporters are right on top of you. You don’t have to walk through the crowd to get to the changing rooms. You’re more isolated in a physical sense.

“One memory from 1999 revolves around the semi-final against Stade Francais. It was played on a Saturday afternoon and someone 20,000 supporters managed to get inside the gates of Ravenhill. It was full to bursting point. The atmosphere was wonderful: here we were, our crowd backing us to the hilt on our pitch against a top French side who had more internationals on their bench than we had on the pitch.

“When you spoke to them afterwards, they singled out the noise of the crowd, the cacophony of sound that resembled an unbreakable wall. They saw it as the difference.

“This year the performances have been better. There have been some great passages of play; the team is playing an open brand of rugby that is both effective and entertaining. They are playing a more rounded game.

“The supporters have had to endure a lot of years of failure and yet the support never waned; they still bought the tickets and that’s to their credit. The Ulster rugby public has stuck with us and hopefully they will now get their reward.

“It’s the most important game we have had since 1999. If we can win this game then we will give ourselves a great opportunity to go and win the group next weekend. Everybody here knows that’s the goal of Ulster rugby. There has been the odd year when we have been trying to squeeze into a runners-up spot but this year we have a chance to go through the front door as pool winners.”

So does he receive due deference from his young academy charges if he tries to regale them with tales of 1999? Longwell laughs: “Some of them were still in nappies at that stage. I am a dinosaur in their eyes.”

A dinosaur with a winner’s medal though.

Ulster's successful European Cup campaign 1998-1999

Pool (all matches in which Ulster name appears first at Ravenhill with the exception of the final which took place at Lansdowne Road).

Ulster 38 Edinburgh 38

Toulouse 39 Ulster 3

Ebbw Vale 28 Ulster 61

Ulster 29 Toulouse 24

Ulster 43 Ebbw Vale 18

Edinburgh Reivers 21 Ulster 23

Quarter-final

Ulster 15 Toulouse 13

Semi-final

Ulster 33 Stade Francais 27

Final

(Lansdowne Road)

Ulster 21 Colomiers 6