In my last post, I stated that I had never been cheered by a big crowd. But a coincidental flick through an old scrap book has since proven me wrong (not that I'm desperate or anything).
Let me quote from an article that appeared in the Coleraine Times on 28 February 1990:
"Right-wing Barry White also gave the large home crowd something to cheer about with some crunching tackling."
And here it is black and white (Jamie thinks all things were in black and white in 1990).
Of course, what you can also see is that we were hammered. And my Coleraine Inst teammates and I were reduced to running around trying to catch the opposition because we rarely had the ball.
Indeed, here is proof of that too - that's Malcolm Beck (wearing the headband), me and Matthew Dobson trying to grab hold of Methody and Irish Schools' international scrum-half Alan Martin. Without success.
And whilst I have your partial attention, here is a picture of our 21-man match day squad taken shortly before kick-off.
Didn't we look mean? Or maybe just terrified.
In the middle row, second from the left, is Jonny "Dinger" Bell who I mentioned in my April Fool post earlier in the week. Dinger went on to be capped by Ireland before being appointed Assistant Coach for the Ulster senior side.
And, tomorrow, he will be in the coaching box at Twickenham as Ulster take on Saracens in the Heineken Cup Quarter Final. Many of the others featured in the pic will undoubtedly be in the stands with me, getting hammered once again - albeit in a very different way from 23 years ago.
Ah, what might've been...
