THE FIRST ULSTER game Thomas Rea went to was the European Cup final in 1999. It didn’t take him long to become a season ticket holder at Ravenhill after that, making the journey from Ballymena to Belfast every week to see the team in action.
It wasn’t much longer before he would have company on the terrace in sons Matty and Marcus. Between them, the Reas would watch some unforgettable games and also their share of forgettable ones, but one thing that remained the same was their love for the game.
What Thomas wouldn’t have known all those years ago was that in the future his sons would stop attending the games with him. Not because they fell out of love with the game, rather the opposite: both would be on the pitch instead.
“(We’d go) every Friday,” recalls Marcus with a smile of his experiences as a fan. “I remember the game against Leicester (the 33-0 win in January 2004 and there were some huge games.
“I think we got my dad (a season ticket) and I was like I’d love to go as well and getting one later on.
“They are memories that I would always have dear to me when I think about the old Ravenhill and it is quite special when you get to run out there yourself you have all those memories from the days when you were the one watching from the stand.
Rea pictured with his brother, Matty. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
“I’d a dream when I was a kid kicking the ball around the garden, it was more when I got into secondary school that I thought it could become a job more than a hobby.”
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Both Reas would hone their craft at Ballymena Rugby Club before progressing into the Ulster system through the Academy and then onto the senior squad, where they both reside now as part of the back row stocks at Kingspan Stadium.
Matty has had a bit more of a straightforward path within the senior set-up, forging a fairly regular role for himself as a blindside flanker who could fill in in a variety of roles, but Marcus has found game time harder to come by in a competitive back row in Belfast.
A combination of an horrific jaw injury sustained for club Ballynahinch and the Covid-19 pandemic meant it was 18 months between his first and second appearances for the team, but in recent weeks he has started to come to the fore after hugely impressive cameos off the bench against Leinster and the Ospreys.
His reward was a first European appearance in the win over Clermont last week, the 24-year-old starting at blindside flanker and excelling alongside Nick Timoney and Duane Vermeulen in the 29-23 win at the bearpit that is the Stade Marcel-Michelin.
“That’s probably one I’ll remember to the day I die, going over and toppling a French giant in one of the biggest arenas in European rugby,” he says.
Rea and James Hume stop Clermont. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
“I don’t get to keep the jersey – I have to put it back on for this week! But I think it’s the memories. We have cards in the hallway with team memories and when we come to do them next year that one will definitely be on it for me.
“I tried to experience the crowd as much as I could and take everything in during moments in the game. The memories that are there will be as good a memento as anything.”
Rea has had to be patient to get to this point, though. Initially having broken through as an openside flanker, he’s had to reinvent his game slightly to become the player that Ulster need him to be – more of a jack of all trades rather than the specialist he had initially envisaged himself as.
“I’d be one of the guys that if (Dan McFarland) is not picking me, he is not picking me, and normally I would have a fair idea why,” he concedes.
“I’d already know what my work-ons are, so I kept working on them and I finally got a bit of game time where I could prove what I have been working on and it has came to fruition.
“One of the work-ons from my own personal stand point was the jackal stuff, it’s working and I am getting there. It’s good, having that confidence behind you is like everything, you want to have coaches that have faith in you.
“I was nervous going into the start of the week but knowing everyone there and boys that had played before. Having that confidence from the coaches is everything for me because I was there on merit.”
The likelihood is he will have that same confidence behind him for tomorrow’s second Heineken Champions Cup game against Northampton Saints at Kingspan Stadium (8pm) as Ulster look to back up that win over Clermont and take a significant stride towards locking down a last-16 place.
It maybe won’t be quite the same as running out at the old Ravenhill where he shared so many memories with his dad and brother would have been, but his first European start on home soil won’t be any less special.
“Hopefully with hard work I can stay here and get a few more caps to my name,” he finishes with another smile.
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'I’d a dream when I was a kid kicking the ball around the garden - now it's a reality'
THE FIRST ULSTER game Thomas Rea went to was the European Cup final in 1999. It didn’t take him long to become a season ticket holder at Ravenhill after that, making the journey from Ballymena to Belfast every week to see the team in action.
It wasn’t much longer before he would have company on the terrace in sons Matty and Marcus. Between them, the Reas would watch some unforgettable games and also their share of forgettable ones, but one thing that remained the same was their love for the game.
What Thomas wouldn’t have known all those years ago was that in the future his sons would stop attending the games with him. Not because they fell out of love with the game, rather the opposite: both would be on the pitch instead.
“(We’d go) every Friday,” recalls Marcus with a smile of his experiences as a fan. “I remember the game against Leicester (the 33-0 win in January 2004 and there were some huge games.
“I think we got my dad (a season ticket) and I was like I’d love to go as well and getting one later on.
“They are memories that I would always have dear to me when I think about the old Ravenhill and it is quite special when you get to run out there yourself you have all those memories from the days when you were the one watching from the stand.
“I’d a dream when I was a kid kicking the ball around the garden, it was more when I got into secondary school that I thought it could become a job more than a hobby.”
Both Reas would hone their craft at Ballymena Rugby Club before progressing into the Ulster system through the Academy and then onto the senior squad, where they both reside now as part of the back row stocks at Kingspan Stadium.
Matty has had a bit more of a straightforward path within the senior set-up, forging a fairly regular role for himself as a blindside flanker who could fill in in a variety of roles, but Marcus has found game time harder to come by in a competitive back row in Belfast.
A combination of an horrific jaw injury sustained for club Ballynahinch and the Covid-19 pandemic meant it was 18 months between his first and second appearances for the team, but in recent weeks he has started to come to the fore after hugely impressive cameos off the bench against Leinster and the Ospreys.
His reward was a first European appearance in the win over Clermont last week, the 24-year-old starting at blindside flanker and excelling alongside Nick Timoney and Duane Vermeulen in the 29-23 win at the bearpit that is the Stade Marcel-Michelin.
“That’s probably one I’ll remember to the day I die, going over and toppling a French giant in one of the biggest arenas in European rugby,” he says.
“I don’t get to keep the jersey – I have to put it back on for this week! But I think it’s the memories. We have cards in the hallway with team memories and when we come to do them next year that one will definitely be on it for me.
“I tried to experience the crowd as much as I could and take everything in during moments in the game. The memories that are there will be as good a memento as anything.”
Rea has had to be patient to get to this point, though. Initially having broken through as an openside flanker, he’s had to reinvent his game slightly to become the player that Ulster need him to be – more of a jack of all trades rather than the specialist he had initially envisaged himself as.
“I’d be one of the guys that if (Dan McFarland) is not picking me, he is not picking me, and normally I would have a fair idea why,” he concedes.
“I’d already know what my work-ons are, so I kept working on them and I finally got a bit of game time where I could prove what I have been working on and it has came to fruition.
“One of the work-ons from my own personal stand point was the jackal stuff, it’s working and I am getting there. It’s good, having that confidence behind you is like everything, you want to have coaches that have faith in you.
“I was nervous going into the start of the week but knowing everyone there and boys that had played before. Having that confidence from the coaches is everything for me because I was there on merit.”
The likelihood is he will have that same confidence behind him for tomorrow’s second Heineken Champions Cup game against Northampton Saints at Kingspan Stadium (8pm) as Ulster look to back up that win over Clermont and take a significant stride towards locking down a last-16 place.
It maybe won’t be quite the same as running out at the old Ravenhill where he shared so many memories with his dad and brother would have been, but his first European start on home soil won’t be any less special.
“Hopefully with hard work I can stay here and get a few more caps to my name,” he finishes with another smile.
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marcus rea rea of light Ulster