Connacht v Ulster Fri 23rd Dec 7:35pm RTE2 / Viaplay Sports 2 / Super Sport / URC TV

[big mervyn]

The injuries are mounting up. I thought Luke was our best back. Murphy was not offering any protection to the players. These guys will have a substantial case if they begin to experience neurological symptoms in later life.

Can't help feeling that it is sadly inevitable.

I was looking at the average age of the dead Engerland world cup winners. 9 gone, several with dementia including still alive Bobby Charlton, average lifespan mid 70s. Not great for professional athletes.

[kingofthehill]

The injuries are mounting up. I thought Luke was our best back. Murphy was not offering any protection to the players. These guys will have a substantial case if they begin to experience neurological symptoms in later life.

Plenty back for Munster match


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[justinr73]

Good news.

Hopefully Bobby is one of them.

[Big-al]

The injuries are mounting up. I thought Luke was our best back. Murphy was not offering any protection to the players. These guys will have a substantial case if they begin to experience neurological symptoms in later life.

Plenty back for Munster match


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What about Stockdale, Baloucoune and postlewaithe.

Ulster need more power/pace in the back 3. Lyttle, Mcilroy and Lowry are just too small as a trio.

[MightyRearranger]

It's quite a backline we've got injured at the minute, just need a scrum half...

9.?
10. Burns
11. Stockdale
12. Marshall
13. Hume
14. Baloucoune
15. Addison

[Dave]

The injuries are mounting up. I thought Luke was our best back. Murphy was not offering any protection to the players. These guys will have a substantial case if they begin to experience neurological symptoms in later life.

Plenty back for Munster match


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good to hear.

[Dave]

The injuries are mounting up. I thought Luke was our best back. Murphy was not offering any protection to the players. These guys will have a substantial case if they begin to experience neurological symptoms in later life.

Can't help feeling that it is sadly inevitable.

I was looking at the average age of the dead Engerland world cup winners. 9 gone, several with dementia including still alive Bobby Charlton, average lifespan mid 70s. Not great for professional athletes.

It's tragic. I think they could look back to specific incidents where the refs did nothing with inconsistent law interpretation.

[UlsterNo9]

After the last few weeks a win of any description was the order of the day, and we got it, what was even more pleasing was the fact it was an away inter pro, at a sold out Sportsground, not a happy hunting ground for ourselves. Not a happy hunting ground for many, only Leinster (in a game Connacht could have won) have taken a win there this season.

Was it perfect? Not by any stretch of the imagination but we were by far the better side. We made a lot of in roads in the first half, only to cough up possession which allowed Connacht to boot the ball down field when we were out of position. Frustratingly forcing us to start again. We hit our straps for the first half hour of the 2nd half and got the job done. Read a few comments that Connacht (at full strength) were poor, could the be grudgers give our own side a little credit that we put Connacht under pressure, forced errors, didn't allow them to play the game they wanted and ultimately made them look below par?

We were playing like a team low on confidence and it showed. Deciding to go for the posts rather than the corner with 10 to go allowed the doubt to creep in, you can argue that ultimately those 3 points gave us the win however a team playing with confidence whose maul had been a weapon all match should have been going for the jugular and the bonus point. It sounds odd scoring a penalty was a momentum shift in the wrong direction but for me it certainly was. Left for an exciting last 10 for the neutral mind you.

Doak was solid at 10 behind a pack in the ascendancy. Tom Stewart if fit come Six Nations time will be knocking on the door for an international call up, a few stupid penalties yes, but a smart lad who will take his learnings. His darts were most pleasing. The tight five did a number on Connacht (few dodgy scrums aside), Henderson was my man of the match, most likely didn't get it as he was only playing to the standard that you would expect of him.

There is a lot still to fix, but at least there is a line in the sand now to start from again, we were in free fall. The biggest concern still has to be our mental fragility and defence which are both linked. On defence, when we play with possession, play in the correct areas of the park, do not concede penalities giving teams easy access to our half it's common sense that we'll keep the scoreboard against us down. There's a much bigger picture to be addressed than being in position in defence and making our tackles. Jonny Bell is far from off the hook and will continue to gain scrutiny but there is much out of his control in some respects. Last night we played in the right areas, didn't give away needless penalties and it most definitely aided the sum of the parts.

Happy Christmas to one and all.... and whilst in the mood and feeling festive dare I day it, I thought Frank Murphy had a good game.

[justinr73]

Yep - well said.

[Dharper]

Ulster have effectively had 4away games on the trot. Any kind of win was a must last night. A decent break of 9 days, and a home match is just what they need, with a few injury returnees.
Hopefully they had a couple of beers back on the coach last night, and took the positives from last night.

To be fair they’ve had the 2 best sides in Europe, and Sale are second in England, and an extremely physical side to handle in our crisis period.

Some thoughts on the game:

So many knock ons, scrappy breakdowns 1st half, noticeable in 2nd half ball presentation was miles better, and tackled player stretching the ball placement back far, stopping the Connacht disruption.
IH had a really good game, back in the 2nd row and more fitness miles in his legs. Hopefully seeing him at 6 was a break glass option rather than a strategy. Thought the backrow was decent enough, and good to see McCann - looked a very viable option at 6 going forward.

Stewart was superb, his defensive workrate was big, his speed, and footwork are super, his awareness of his positioning at the back of the maul, and ball protection when he goes for the line is impressive for a young player.

Doak was decent enough at 10, JC defo was taking a lot of pressure off him. I would say going forward-defensively he got stuck in, but was bounced several times, and was scraggy needing support from others to bring runners down. Defending against slow forwards close in and players running Down the 10 channel are totally different-but he had a decent night.

Hopefully Marshall’s head Knock isn’t serious but I wouldn’t be surprised if he misses Munster, could be Moore at 13 without Hume. Should help the unpredictability of the attack but may loosen up the defence.

As mentioned our back 3 is an issue - although a nite in Connacht isn’t common for a highlights reel. Mcilroy was bounced and missed numerous tackles through out the game, and that interception (nice read) unfortunately starkly demonstrated his lack of top pace. Lyttle took a nice try but also exposed a lack of size defensively.

As I mentioned on the LAR thread, I’d have Moore at 15 over Lowry at moment. He’s running it back like Rob Kearney at the moment, stepping miles from contact committing no one, and dropping his pace in the process, and his panic’d last second crap pass to no one shows his lack of confidence / clear thinking.
Addison is a pipe dream unfortunately-Balacoune and to a lesser extent Stockdale can’t get back quick enough.

Thought Sutherland did well looks a good signing…..sorry Rory!!

4g pitch……really dislike them. Played a few games on them before hanging my boots up. If I was a player susceptible to ankle knee hip issues, or just an oversized/pumped up forward I’m not sure I’d be overly happy playing on it as a home ground. It may suit a “fast style” of play, but personally I wouldn’t want ulster going Down this route….was this or partially why DV wasn’t playing last nite. Hopefully Santa keeps Stu Mccloskey fit, he gets injured we are in the brad pitt.
SUFTUM

Merry Xmas to you all, Dan and everyone at UR.

[HammerTime]

If we can get past a resurgent Munster with a win (I think we will), that will be many of the toughest fixtures out of the way. Munster, Leinster and connacht home and away done and dusted and overall we will have done quite well. Home and away wins v Munster (hopefully) and Connacht is not to be sniffed at. And to think we should've beaten Leinster home and away on top of that. Looking at our nearest rivals we have the Stormers and Bulls at home coming up soon so there is a chance to put some points between us and them. Hopefully we don't lose too many to Ireland 6N's and the Sharks lose a good few to the SA'n training camp and we may well be able to give them a game. We should be aiming for 2nd place at all costs.

[Big-al]

If we can get past a resurgent Munster with a win (I think we will), that will be many of the toughest fixtures out of the way. Munster, Leinster and connacht home and away done and dusted and overall we will have done quite well. Home and away wins v Munster (hopefully) and Connacht is not to be sniffed at. And to think we should've beaten Leinster home and away on top of that. Looking at our nearest rivals we have the Stormers and Bulls at home coming up soon so there is a chance to put some points between us and them. Hopefully we don't lose too many to Ireland 6N's and the Sharks lose a good few to the SA'n training camp and we may well be able to give them a game. We should be aiming for 2nd place at all costs.

Yep, 2nd place and a home URC quarter final & hopefully a home URC semi-final to try and make up for the loss in funds from last weekend.

[jean valjean]

Agree 2nd in the table should be our key target for the rest of this season. As mentioned above we have the stormers and bulls at home but tricky games away to Cardiff and Glasgow where we have came a cropper in the past.
The stormers game could be key for us in our chances of getting 2nd although they have some tricky games themselves before the end of the season.

[Big-al]

Agree 2nd in the table should be our key target for the rest of this season. As mentioned above we have the stormers and bulls at home but tricky games away to Cardiff and Glasgow where we have came a cropper in the past.
The stormers game could be key for us in our chances of getting 2nd although they have some tricky games themselves before the end of the season.

I looked at their (stormers) fixture list, they have a tricky run in. Not many 5 point bankers.

The ulster vs Stormers/bulls games will essentially determine our fate this season. Two key games. 8/10 pointers.

[Columbo]

Given the gloom and doom, I'd say most Ulster fans would have said they'd be delighted with a win of any kind away to Connacht beforehand - it's kind of bleakly amusing that Ulster somehow managed to deliver the win in such a way as to remind everyone of all of the things which make the team so fragile, and have lead to the big implosion in the first place! namely poor game management, inability to put sides away, and choking under pressure..

However, it was messy but I actually thought it was a really solid performance for 70 mins, I thought we were thoroughly dominant all over the park (even the scrum pens we leaked looked to me like Buckley boring in at 90 degrees!). I saw a Connacht podcaster tweeting that he was disappointed because "Ulster were there for the taking", er what match was he watching?? They didn't have a look-in for 70 mins, and their crowd was absolutely silent. The positives: physical dominance, good set piece and some signs of rediscovering our mojo in the maul and in attack. Great performance from Stewart who just looks better and better, and also great to see McCloskey completely outshine Aki coming up to 6N selection time...

The bad: loads of errors, although I'd put at least some of that down to tightness given the last few weeks. Failure to build a score - we should and could have been 25+ points ahead at HT, and the game should have been completely buried not long after.. Poor game management - bewildered at the decision to kick 3 points with 8 mins to go. Fragility under pressure - the last 10 minutes epitomised our problem of complete loss of composure under pressure, our defence (which had been very good until then) was in complete disarray and the second try was an absolute shocker..

The in-between: Doak at 10 was ok, but IMO is a ways away from being the kind of composed back-up at 10 that we desperately need. He always looked rushed and a bit indecisive. In fairness some of that will be down to inexperience at this level, and so should improve. He was certainly solid in defence - Connacht were consciously sending Aki after him a lot and he stood up pretty well.

Anyway we badly needed a win, and a win we got, and there was certainly enough good in the performance to build on. I'm interested to see how Munster go against Leinster, but I'm confident of a good win there, and hopefully we'll be going to Treviso looking for 3 from 3..