Citing Marketing Department restlessness and an overwhelming urge to demonstrate his powerful financial acumen Ulster Branch CEO Mike Reid has expressed a desire to "focus exclusively on what we do best - making fans part with their money." Reid added, "This means that we must cease playing rugby in order to devote ourselves to the creation of a hugely successful commercial organisation. Over the last few years it has just become impossible to maintain a high standard of profitability while faced with the daily distractions of playing rugby. By stopping the entire playing side of Ulster Rugby we will be in a position to ensure that Ulster Rugby becomes one of the most profitable rugby clubs in the world and can remain so well into the 21st century".

It is expected that up to 95 per cent of the current Ulster Rugby staff will be made redundant, along with all the players and support staff. Only some Marketing and IT staff will remain to take the club forward.

The first big idea from the new regime will be to launch a new jersey every fortnight for the fans to purchase. This will be accompanied with a blaze of publicity at the Ravenhill ground. Season tickets will be sold, colour denominated, to allow fans to book, in advance, their place at the launches. Also for sale at each new jersey launch will be a full colour catalogue showing the entire range of Ulster Rugby merchandise from copper toe rings with the famous red hand logo to Ulster Rugby sink plungers.

A giant screen will also be employed at Ravenhill in the build up to the sale of the Ulster Rugby jerseys. But as CEO Reid says "When the jersey appears dramatically on the screen we are not just saying 'Buy it !'  We are saying, 'Live Your Dreams In An Ulster Jersey You Sons and Daughters of Ulster. Make It Happen, Children of the Earth...Find the Courage To Go Out and Make the Most Out of Life.' I don't want that message of hope and inspiration to be tarnished by crass commercialism."

The digital effects and hyper-realistic alien space battle sequences in the new jersey presentation are said to represent a major breakthrough in special effects and also require the construction of a new Quantum MX5 amplifier and 15 kilotons of pyrotechnic explosives. In the presentation's climactic finale, Reid said that the Cregagh Estate could be completely destroyed !

"In the past with so much of our resources going into things like player's salaries, the Academy, etc., a project like this would not have been feasible. Now, from a financial standpoint, our ability to convert our support from being fans into being consumers through a barrage of arresting images and high volume rock music is limitless. Let's just say that my ambition is to make Ulster Rugby the most profitable rugby club in the world. First of all I've got to get the Ulster Rugby credit card launched, then start charging for paying by debit card, then..."

The Referee Colonel W S D Craven was so unhappy with the scrummaging in the France-Wales international in 1920, that he fed the ball into the scrum himself to ensure a straight feed.

The French crowd were also unimpressed when Craven overruled his own award of a try, following the intervention of the touch judge - who was Welsh. Wales won by a single point: 6-5.

From THE TRIVIA LOVERS' GUIDE TO RUGBY