Stormers v Ulster Saturday June 11 2pm UK Time Premier Sports / RTE / URC TV / Super Sport

[Neill_M]

According to a post on Face Book, Ulster left from Dublin this morning via Doha. Will get there tomorrow afternoon etc.

Split onto two planes I think?

Can anyone think of another competition in which you need to fly 14,000 miles between knockout rounds?

Apparently so at least some of them in Business Class.

[big mervyn]

According to a post on Face Book, Ulster left from Dublin this morning via Doha. Will get there tomorrow afternoon etc.

Split onto two planes I think?

Can anyone think of another competition in which you need to fly 14,000 miles between knockout rounds?

Davis Cup pre 2019?

I suppose if a Russian federation soccer team from the far east was to qualify for one of the UEFA knockout competitions and draw a team from Iceland the distances involved would be considerable.

[justinr73]

Probably about half the distance but would take twice as long no doubt!

[volvo]

Mike Adamson (Scotland) will referee Ulster’s URC semi-final against the DHL Stormers on Saturday. He will be assisted by Sam Grove-White (Scotland) and Adam Jones (Wales).

The TMO is Ben Whitehouse (Wales).

My premonition as reported on Saturday in Other Sides thread was spot on unfortunately! "Mike Adamson"

You shouldn't have flagged up the idea at all!! Now look what you've done.

Yea! really sorry for even thinking it never mind putting it in print

[Dharper]

UR have to play with maturity, and impose their gameplan. We were opened up by 2 tries within 10 mins last time playing headless rugby against a back 3 scoring tries for fun. Once we switched on, we were the better side albeit a hybrid one.

The addition of IH, and Timoney in the pack should increase the firepower upfront. TOT is starting to solidify in the tight, and should cover for Marty who is a big miss (get well soon, brilliant player for UR).

If we go with the same back 3 v Munster it is an upgrade on the stormers match.

Couple of points of interest:

The breakdown was a complete farce last time with the weak ref, and their backrow constantly off their feet unpenalised and getting illegal penalty turnovers. Hopefully with a northern hemisphere ref & tmo, we will get a fairer contest, plus you throw in IH & timoney meaning more breakdown firepower.

My concern is travel fatigue, and heat/injury hangovers from Munster. Toe to toe Id back us v stormers.

As an aside what’s the score with Luke Marshall? thought he was super in SA, hopefully no reinjury and he’s good to go - looked like he was never away. Time for this group of players to show they are mentally tough enough to back performances up. What is very very noticeable is D McF is STILL spewing over the stormers result and publicly stating we owe them one. Big & rare opportunity to turn over a saffer side in their own back yard - big eyes watching that I’d say in ire coaching camp.

[Neill_M]

DHL Stormers: (6-2 bench split)

15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Seabelo Senatla, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Hacjivah Dayimani, 6 Deon Fourie, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 JJ Kotze, 1 Steven Kitshoff (captain).

16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Adre Smith, 20 Ernst van Rhyn, 21 Nama Xaba, 22 Godlen Masimla, 23 Sacha Mngomezulu.

[Dave]

Looks weak

[Neill_M]

Unchanged 23 from last week.

(15-9) Stewart Moore, Rob Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Ethan McIlroy, Billy Burns, John Cooney;

(1-8) Andrew Warwick, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Iain Henderson (Capt.), Marcus Rea, Nick Timoney, Duane Vermeulen.

Replacements: John Andrew, Eric O’Sullivan, Gareth Milasinovich, Kieran Treadwell, Matty Rea, Nathan Doak, Ian Madigan, Ben Moxham.

[Dave]

No complaints there. It's the right side to play. Warwick's scrummaging is required.

SUFTUM

[StandUp]

A good test for O’Toole v Kitshoff.
He has been scrummaging well recently. Keep it up big lad!
Great to see Warwick starting. Wouldn’t necessarily have said that 2 or 3 years ago.
Hopefully the officiating team will be slightly more reasonable this time.
16-19 Ulster

[Neill_M]

Stormers 4/6 Ulster 5/4, Stormers 2 point favourites with bookies. So basically they reckon it is a 50/50 game.

[Neill_M]

Interesting looking at the two 23s named for tomorrow v from last time in March, for the Stormers - 11 of the starting team tomorrow started in the game in March, 3 were on the bench (Jantjies was rested etc) and 1 wasn’t involved. 2 of the bench started last time with 2 on the bench and the other 4 not involved.

For Ulster 11/23 named for tomorrow – Baloucoune, Hume, Warwick, O’Toole, Henderson, Timoney, John Andrew, Matty Rea, Nathan Doak, Ian Madigan and Ben Moxham didn’t feature in the game in March.

10 started the game – Stewart Moore (at centre), McCloskey, Burns, Cooney, Herring, O’Connor, Marcus Rea, Vermeulen, O’Sullivan and Treadwell and 2 – McIlroy and Milasinovich were on the bench. Obviously no Mike Lowry or Marty Moore who both started the March game.

[justinr73]

It’s a tough ask, as it should be at this stage, but the huge plus is that our lads are pretty much all in cracking form.

Our two talismans, John and Hendy, are unquestionably playing their best rugby of the season.

Hume was magnificent last week, Bobby is so sharp he could cut himself, the props are in fine fettle, Herring is an 80 minute dynamo and Nick is back to his best.

Stu, Al and Duane just churn it out every week.

They’ll have to be on it to beat us.

[StandUp]

I have no doubt the boys CAN pull off a really good result but that fear of the last 20 min mental fragility still looms. If they have managed to work that out, then Ulster are favourites in my mind.
IMO herring is imposing himself more and more in each match and should undoubtedly be in green (FIRFU) this summer.
Choice for player of the season is going to be a ballache which is a wonderful situation to be in. (The choice, not the ballache).

[allezlesverres]

The bookies have this one wrong. We beat them last time around and we will definitely beat them again. We aren't just going to beat them, we are going to totally gub them a la Munster last week. We will have 4 tries plus before half time. Not only have we got some of our key players back for this rematch, but we have a raft of players in the form of their lives. Look at the recent form of:

Warwick (best season he has ever had)
Herring (returning to best form after slight dip)
TOT (early promise stalled but recently starting to deliver - upwards trajectory)
Hendy (has been playing as well as at any time in the last 5 years)
Timoney (minor mid season dip, back now better than ever)
Cooney (as for Timoney)
Burns (much maligned on this forum but unfairly so - has proved his worth in recent games and may just be at the start of something special)
Stu (has never had a dip in form, but is playing incredible rugby in the last few games)
Hume (best Irish Centre since BOD?)

They are all playing something close to the best rugby they have ever played. And the players that are omitted from that list are only omitted because they are either ever evergreen (DV, AOC) or are young and consistently doing well (BB, McIlroy, Moore, Marcus [not sure where Marcus fits on this but he is doing well]).

The only problem with this game is that we are going to be so dominant we will go into the final against Leinster with false hope.