SOMETIMES, THE FASTEST way to get to the root of a feeling is to take the personal element.
For Ulster Rugby, there has been a gradual deflation of expectations with a variety of excuses offered up in mitigation over the last 15 years. Until they landed on their most convincing one of all: that Leinster were the best club team in the world, and they were just behind them.
Now, even that fig leaf has been callously ripped away. Leinster are no longer the biggest team in Europe, and Munster are struggling into the knockout stages of competitions but still beating Ulster when it counts.
And this is where we find ourselves before the second interpro game of the URC on Friday evening in the Kingspan Stadium. Munster have recent silverware in their locker with that 19-14 URC Grand Final victory over Stormers back in May. For Ulster? You have to high-tail it all the way back to 2006.
An entire generation came and went without experiencing that feeling of lifting a trophy above their head.
Among that number are cautionary tales. At the end of last season, Craig Gilroy was playing out his days for Bangor Rugby on bare sidelines with no stands, far from the Friday nights when he once lit up Ravenhill.
Back in November 2012, he was first capped by Ireland and helped himself to two tries against Argentina. Michael Aylwin of The Guardian was immediately suggesting him as a live prospect for the upcoming Lions Tour.
Just before that, he gathered up a hat-trick of tries against Fiji in an ‘uncapped’ game at Thomond Park.
He was named on the Pro 12 Dream Team two years running and scored a hat-trick of tries against Italy in the 2017 Six Nations only for Joe Schmidt to Joe Schmidt his performance afterwards as “a mixed bag”.
And yet, here he was at the end of last season, 32 years old, tropheyless and kicking around being starved of minutes.
“If I’m completely honest, I didn’t really enjoy the environment in the last couple of years,” he said in a recent interview with Jonathan Bradley of The Belfast Telegraph.
“I don’t want to sound ungrateful because I was so lucky and so privileged to have the career I had, but definitely towards the end, I wasn’t enjoying it, enjoying the environment.
“I was driving to work and it was, ‘I can’t wait for this day to be over’.
“You could ask staff or other players, I was training the last couple of seasons as well as I ever had, but I wasn’t really seeing the return in game-time.”
His career matches that of the team over the last few seasons. After the chaos of the Paddy Jackson trial and the exasperation of Les Kiss and Jono Gibbes, Dan McFarland has been an even-voiced calming influence. But the rugby is stodgy and, well, it’s all a bit beige.
Gilroy came up in a generation with the aforementioned Jackson, Stuart Olding and Luke Marshall who all made their international debuts in around the time of the 2013 summer tour to North America with Les Kiss as interim head coach.
With the other stars at Ulster such as Ruan Pienaar and an appearance in the 2012 Heineken Cup final, it seemed ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ Ulster were going to land the big honours.
That generation came and went.
A couple of years ago, a new crop emerged: James Hume, Nick Timoney, Michael Lowry and Robert Baloucoune came through to be capped. And yet, none of them made Andy Farrell’s wider training squad for the World Cup.
It would seem only Jacob Stockdale, Rob Herring, Stuart McCloskey and Iain Henderson are seen as elite players among the group.
This Friday represents a new beginning. Of the quartet mentioned, Stockdale and McCloskey both start, with Herring and Henderson among the replacements. The average age of a severely depleted team that lost to Connacht last weekend was only 23. All in, there were 19 absences and Steven Kitshoff has yet to arrive after his exploits as the most Irish-looking World Cup winner with South Africa. John Cooney and Marty Moore are still out.
If there’s a high point, it’s been the form of outhalf Jake Flannery of Tipperary.
In assessing the Connacht loss, they will do an instant write-off and put it down to absences and injuries. They have beaten Zebre and Vodacom Bulls so far this season. Munster will be a proper test.
Rumours of an unhappy squad last year and even Gilroy’s personal account have to be weighed up against the positivity of Flannery.
“What I love personally about Ulster, since I moved (last year), is how close the group is, it’s such a tight-knit group and you can feel it when you’re out there. Everyone is willing to put it in for each other,” he said.
“You’re willing to go to extra lengths because of the fella beside you is someone you really care about, and I think that’s going to stand to us in the long term.”
The long term starts now.
