Dan’s Not the Man.

[CIMANFOREVER]

Have him in a heartbeat

[paddybrown]

So Dan was innocent? Shall we bring him back?

There was clearly something wrong, but I'm not convinced it was Dan that was the problem. Or at least not the whole problem.

This Ulster team peaked two seasons ago in that semi-final against the Stormers. The following season started well enough, but something clearly happened at half-time away to Leinster that set off an almost catastrophic slump. Despite that, Dan managed to pull the team together enough to scrape through to the last 16 in the Heineken Cup, and finish second in the table in the league, before we fell apart again in the quarter final against Connacht.

Something similar happened this season, with another catastrophic slump. We pulled together enough to beat Racing, Connacht and Leinster, and then fell apart again. Dan got fired, but we haven't got any better since. We beat the Dragons reasonably handily, but allowed them to score four tries, we had a decent defensive performance in the first half against the Stormers but couldn't hold on, and Montpellier gifted us the Challenge Cup game. Every other game, we've been as embarrassing as we were against Bath and Harlequins. This is the same group of players that beat Racing, one of the leading teams in the Top 14, and Leinster, the top team in the URC, and have it not look like a fluke, but whatever it is that's causing a team capable of putting in performances like that to play like they did against Clermont is still there. I hope Richie can figure out what it is. He seems to have got the backs finding space again, which is positive.

[Sir Ivor]

I don’t agree that it was “an almost catastrophic slump” against Leinster. Leinster played an international pack that day and they moved up several gears in the second half - I can’t think of any club side (outside the top half dozen in Europe) who might have withstood that pummelling. It is almost impossible to stop a top class side from scoring - look at the leads Harlequins squandered recently on two occasions in the Premiership.
There have been many embarrassing moments like Addison knocking on in our in goal area ( but Hogg also did things like that too), or when Ulster played at Ravers against a 2nd choice Munster team but allowed them to score from a rolling maul from the half way line, before my very eyes. Or Rikki Lutton’s silly non foul on the Diving Fijian at Glasgow which cost us a home final and probable trophy.
Many embarrassing moments but I don’t think that loss to Leinster was one.

[So It Is]

No loss against Leinster is embarrassing tbf.

But we did sh!t the bed in spectacular fashion from a winning position (how many times have we seen that over the years . . .), and then proceeded to be awful for a few months thereafter, and then mediocre for a while, before ultimately falling back down to being awful again currently.

It was the tipping point imo.