Ulster clash against La Rochelle was like playing a computer game … – Belfast Telegraph
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Ulster head coach Dan McFarland
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Ulster head coach Dan McFarland lambasted the decision for his side’s Heineken Champions Cup game against La Rochelle to be moved to an empty Aviva Stadium, comparing the game played without fans to watching a computer game.
At the end of an horrendous fortnight, the northern province fought back from a 29-0 deficit at half-time to claim two consolation bonus-points, but the aftermath was dominated by talk of whether the game could have been kept in Belfast.
The playing surface at Ravenhill was deemed unsafe on Friday afternoon but Ulster believe that it would always have been fine come the game's 5.30pm kick-off the next day.
"My personal opinion is that we were there this morning at 10 o'clock, 9.30am, and that pitch was playable," maintained the head coach.
"I was there the night before and the people there predicted that it was going to be playable. The work that the people did, the staff and volunteers, to get that pitch ready was phenomenal under the circumstances. It was ready.
"We knew it was going to be ready because the weather was predicted to change overnight. But that decision was taken away from us.
"The bottom line is the decision was wrong. It could have been played at Ravenhill."
With only a handful of what were deemed La Rochelle delegates in attendance – another point of contention for the supposed hosts – McFarland said what should have been Ulster's most glamorous fixture of the year was like watching an "e-sports competition", comparing the experience to empty stadiums during Covid.
"We've got to remember. I said before the game, I've been involved in European rugby for more than 20 years," he said. "I played in the first season of European rugby in what was then the Challenge Cup with Richmond, I played Challenge Cup with Connacht, I've coached in the Champions Cup with Glasgow and with Ulster and with Connacht.
"There is more to European rugby than a game played between four lines. There's more than that. It's an occasion.
"Whether you're in Thomond playing Toulouse, whether you're in (Ravenhill) playing against Racing, whether you're in Welford Road watching Dan Cole win his 300th cap, it's an occasion. It has spirit, it has feeling. If you want to reduce it to the word product, the product is more than just the game.
"To me, that should be remembered in the decision making in this sort of thing.
"We all remember what games were like during Covid. Where's the heart and soul in those games? You'd watch it in the same way you'd watch an e-sports tournament.
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"Whether you watch it on TV or sat in the stands, the occasion is lost without fans in the stadium. The game isn't lost, the occasion is lost.
"The product is more than just the game."
Asked why the pitch inspection had to be carried out so long before the game, McFarland replied: "I don't know. I wasn't very politic in saying that.
"I understand what I understand from my perspective. People sat on the other side of Zoom cameras have different perspectives.
"All I know is the pitch was playable and we didn't play on it. As a consequence, it wasn't an occasion, it was a game."
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