On the Saturday in question back in 1999 as Harry Williams prepared his Ulster players to take on Colomiers in their biggest game ever, I was getting ready for work!
Around me my family were sitting down getting comfortable to watch the game. I had friends and club mates at Lansdowne Road cheering on the White Knights. As for me, I had to make do with walking into my local Tesco store to work my normal Saturday evening shift. That afternoon I would have given anything to be at Landowne Rd to cheer on Ulster, even to have stayed at home and watched the game with my family would have been brilliant but I had no such luck.
Since then I have had the been lucky enough to watch Ulster in some fantastic games and also be present at some big results in the Heineken Cup (first win on English soil against Bath jumps to mind). The thing is, nothing can match the only game I wanted to be at. Everybody remembers where they where when Ulster won their first European Cup, their local rugby club, bar or even lucky enough to have been on the South Terrace at Lansdowne Road, unfortunately I was working on the chilled aisle of my local Tesco!
After going over all this above I am not actually going to be able to make it to Twickenham for the final (even though it is less than 8 miles away) but I am going to do something else that I really wanted to do that Saturday afternoon 13 years ago. I am going to sit down with a few beers in-front of the TV and take in every single second of what happens in the game and the build up to it.
Do not get me wrong, I love going to live matches and if circumstances were different I would be at this final. But then there is the other side of watching a big match, the one that only a TV can bring you and that is the close up coverage of every angle of the game. Sometimes I want to be able to talk in detail about a scrum going down, a missed tackle or a world class try being scored without saying "I couldn't really see it right from where I was sitting" and only the TV coverage can bring you that.
Over the past 13 years since the 99 final was broadcast, coverage of rugby from around the world has improved more than 1000% and with that breakdown of the game and what happens during it. We can see within a few seconds of a try being scored for example just how it was scored, the lines players ran etc. to make it happen and sometimes, that is better than being there.
On 19th May at 17:00 I will be perched on the edge of my sofa for what will be the most exciting 80 minutes I will experienced as a rugby fan. It was great to watch Ireland win the Grand Slam in 2009 surrounded by friends at my local rugby club back in Ireland but there is something a little but extra special to be able to watch your provenance/team in the biggest club competition in the rugby world!
On the 19th May NOTHING will stop me watching my "1999 European Cup Final"!
Around me my family were sitting down getting comfortable to watch the game. I had friends and club mates at Lansdowne Road cheering on the White Knights. As for me, I had to make do with walking into my local Tesco store to work my normal Saturday evening shift. That afternoon I would have given anything to be at Landowne Rd to cheer on Ulster, even to have stayed at home and watched the game with my family would have been brilliant but I had no such luck.
Since then I have had the been lucky enough to watch Ulster in some fantastic games and also be present at some big results in the Heineken Cup (first win on English soil against Bath jumps to mind). The thing is, nothing can match the only game I wanted to be at. Everybody remembers where they where when Ulster won their first European Cup, their local rugby club, bar or even lucky enough to have been on the South Terrace at Lansdowne Road, unfortunately I was working on the chilled aisle of my local Tesco!
After going over all this above I am not actually going to be able to make it to Twickenham for the final (even though it is less than 8 miles away) but I am going to do something else that I really wanted to do that Saturday afternoon 13 years ago. I am going to sit down with a few beers in-front of the TV and take in every single second of what happens in the game and the build up to it.
Do not get me wrong, I love going to live matches and if circumstances were different I would be at this final. But then there is the other side of watching a big match, the one that only a TV can bring you and that is the close up coverage of every angle of the game. Sometimes I want to be able to talk in detail about a scrum going down, a missed tackle or a world class try being scored without saying "I couldn't really see it right from where I was sitting" and only the TV coverage can bring you that.
Over the past 13 years since the 99 final was broadcast, coverage of rugby from around the world has improved more than 1000% and with that breakdown of the game and what happens during it. We can see within a few seconds of a try being scored for example just how it was scored, the lines players ran etc. to make it happen and sometimes, that is better than being there.
On 19th May at 17:00 I will be perched on the edge of my sofa for what will be the most exciting 80 minutes I will experienced as a rugby fan. It was great to watch Ireland win the Grand Slam in 2009 surrounded by friends at my local rugby club back in Ireland but there is something a little but extra special to be able to watch your provenance/team in the biggest club competition in the rugby world!
On the 19th May NOTHING will stop me watching my "1999 European Cup Final"!
