Positive and Negatives: Ulster vs Munster

[King Ding]

Positives;
A win, of the foot of the table
Jimmy scoring some tries
Scrum and backrow
10-15 playing well

Negatives;
Caldwell - idiotic
Willis-very slow at times to get the ball away and got caught alot, he played very like boss does on a bad night.
The lineout - lost numerous times in the second half


All in all a good result and hopefully a kick start to the season

[pip14]

positives : We Won, Timoici scored twice, Ian Humphreys finially played for more than 10 minutes!, i actually thought our lineouts were very good untill Brady came on, scrums are good, paddy played a blinder, credit to the whole team !! C'mon ULSTER!!!

[colwynvet]

Positives:
Paddy has played himself into the Irish No 12 shirt.
Timmy - MOTM (maybe not, but certainly heading the right direction)
Scrums, obviously.
Lineouts (until Rory went off)
Back row - good balance.
Defense, were Munster actually in our 22 at all tonight? Actually the defence has been good all year compared with other facets of the game.
Ian Humph has made a strong case for starting against Portugal. I'm not saying he's better than Niall O'C, just that he appears to be on form atm. If we beat Portugal we'll have a bit of confidence going into the Connacht game. Possibly 3 wins in a row et voila the season has turned around!
Off-loading in the tackle.
Quicker ball from both Willis & Boss (noticeably so!)

Negatives:
We're in trouble if Rory doesn't play. Is there any other hooker or front row player who spends more time on the pitch than Rory. Most play 60 minutes & then get a breather.
Goal kicking!!!!!!!!!
Fitness - Lots of guys cramping up towards the end (yes, I know they all ran their legs off tonight)

[againstthehead]

who's stolen my positives and negatives post-match thread... I have a patent in this... JK.
Positives
- the pack fronted up yet again - massive performances from 1-8. Okay it wasn't their 1st choice pack, but we competed strongly at the set-pieces and the breakdown.
- the backrow. AT LAST we have some balance. Thought they were all excellent. Pollock has made big strides this season. Ferris should be kept in a cage and Diack is turning into Mr Reliable.
- Botha should also be locked up. An animal at scrum time but his attitude is superb - keeps a cool head and motivates the troops: great leader.

- Humph. I thought he and PW marshalled the game very well in the 2nd 40. Pegged munster back time and time again. I tihnk he shoud get a run of games now.
- The backline, in general, looked good defensively and going forward. The scrum halfs both offer something, PW had confidence tonight and Cave is improving game by game.
- Both wingers had very good games going forward. Timmy comes off his man a bit too much in defence but is coming along.
- Bryn was sound in defence.
- cracking atmosphere - just like the good old days.

Negatives
- Probably should have claimed a bonus point.
- Missed a couple of goal kicks that we should have got
- Lack precision in the final third - but the backs are beginning to hit the lines at pace - big improvement.

Conclusion
A massive confidence building performance for both players and fans. To be honest, I though we'd get beaten tonight but the lads really fronted up. This is a young side which had displayed potential tonight. One or two good signings and we could be good team next season. Can't wait for the next game.

[Cap'n Grumpy]

One moment of lunacy by Caldwell in an otherwise very good performance by him. One too many maybe, but it could have been worse. Quinlan was trying to needle him later in the match and looking for a reaction; took a couple of cheap shots at him, but Ryan held it together and didn't rise to the bait.

Maybe he CAN learn!

[Snipe Watson]

Caldwell really needs to wise up. He said sorry to the bench when he was binned. How about saying sorry to the entire crowd if it happens again. For if read when.
Other than at the breakdown (which now appears to be a free-for-all with no off side laws at all) Rollers was good. I thought Willis was good so were the centres and the back row and the second row and the back three and IH played well; but the front row were only superb. BJ IS the player of the season.

However there were 2 first choice players starting for Munster.

[browner]

POS....................

We took the points.

Ian Humph big time.

Neg................

No bonus.

Bradys throwing cost us the bonus imo.

[bigchiefally]

Positives -
We won!
Scrum again.
Back row looked very good. Best games I have seen from Diack and Pollock.
Wings and centers were excellent.
We won!

Negatives -
We really should have won by a lot more, they were appalling
They killed us at the ruck, we didnt commit enough players but we didnt seem to figure this out and adjust.
Still to many silly aimless kicks.
Any great team needs a good 9 and 10, I am not sure we have either.
Caldwell sillyness. He could be such a good, maybe even great, player for us and Ireland.

[FNMilk]

+ ves
A much improved performance, with the 15 working as a team.
The tries were top drawer.
The build up to Paddy's nearly try was sensational.

- ves
Support play is getting better but we still imho pass or off load the ball too many times to a man standing still.
Lost the ball too many times through not being savvy enough* and playing the way it was being reffed.
Missed the 4th try.
Our two no. 10s: NOC limping off injured and I.Humphs limping at the end.
BJ off injured.
Bryn limping off.

*
A bit unfair maybe? Did this happen? You know what it's like, standing there looking across the pitch at play on the far side but you don't really know what's going on.
Did the ref allow Munster to take 1 or 2 quick penalties / throw ins but when we tried it he called us back twice?

[FRB]

Positives:

- A win
- Best collective backline performance in both offence and attack for months. Humph controlled the game well I thought.
- Scrum. Well done Reggie.
- Pollock - MOTM IMHO. Great support running in the first half, won some penalties in the second and is more vocal on the pitch. Future Captain? If Ulster keep that back row then it will only get better as the season progresses
- Discipline -apart from Caldwell (who came back well in 2nd half I thought)


Negatives

- Goal kicking
- Failure to get a BP 3 tries with a full 20 minutes to go, Munster look down and out, the crowd behind Ulster and we botch it. FFS!!!
- Ruck time. Ulster are technically poor. Munster players were lower and had better body positions going into contact. Quinlan gave Ulster all sorts of problems at the breakdown. Ulster have got to get to grips with ball presentation and delivering better protection to the scrum half ASAP. If they manage that then they really will threaten teams - not doing it is slowing their whole game down.
- Leadership/decision making. To go for a lineout 5m out when the scrum was in control and with a No8 like Diack beggars belief. Even MW was shouting for them to scrum from his seat! Ulster then lost the lineout!

A good night with some entertaining rugby, abrasive performances and will hopefully give the boys a much real dose of confidence tempered with reality - they beat Munster 2nd XV.

[Shem]

Positives +

* Nagusa showed what he can do! He is growing in confidence and gradually adjusting to our game and climate.
* Trimble was most excellent tonight, looks like he's getting back to his form that seen him break into the Irl squad.
* Cave and Pollock were immense, in my opinion, they must start every game.
* Wallace was a different class and I'm also of the belief that he has staked his claim to the Ireland 12 jersey
* The Scrum was great, Botha has really added the missing ingredient and Corrigan has done a great job!
* Crowd showed we will do our part if the team do theirs. Great atmosphere tonight!


Negatives -

- Caldwell, although he's great at the breakdowns, he showed again tonight that he still lacks discipline
- No bonus point. Its a real shame because I believe it was there for the taking!
- Willis stands with his hands on the ball in the ruck, this enables players to charge forward and force the turnover.

All in all, a great performance tonight! I hope this is the spring board that enables us to push on and chanllenge for the ML and push the HC group to the wire! Proud to be and Ulster Supporter Tonight!

[darkside lightside]

The biggest positive for me was simply a more calm and controlled performance, much better managed. The back row were excellent, and Pollock was outstanding - MOTM by a country mile, superb in support, carried ball well, tackled excellently and was all over the ball. The whole pack showed up well and laid down a big marker at the first scrum..

Our backs are looking more coherent, Jim had a good game and showed that if he gets put in space there aren't many players who will live with his pace. He has also improved noticeably in terms of his discipline in contact - holding the ball up and looking for the runner from deep, which is obviously something they have been doing in training, and didn't throw any ball away this time. The best thing he did I think was that slip to Paddy for the try that never was.

I think everyone is being harsh on Caldy - yes it was a bit clumsy but wasn't a yellow for me. Otherwise he was excellent again.

Negatives - far too many turnovers in the first half, we need to be more switched on and play with our eyes open, and if more forwards need to be commited to the ruck, then commit them!! We should have won by more, and should have scored a BP. Goal-kicing - poor again. The kickers should be spending extra hours practicing, talking to shrinks whatever the feck that we need to do - continuing to kick at 40% could make a big difference to where we end up this season..

I also don't think the ref was that great - he let the breakdown get far too messy, particularly letting players encroach offside and from the side, and Munster, being cute like they are, took better advantage of this than we did.

I watched a replay so was able to FF the gobsh1te-fest at half time, but I thought Liam Toland was ridiculously partial in his comments - he came out with a cracker excuse for Munster just before half time, saying that they had changed a load of players and were coming up against a team "in a rich vein of form" Then he must have realised what a tool he sounded so tried to clarify by saying "that is, in the last 40 minutes"

[FNMilk]

and were coming up against a team "in a rich vein of form" Then he must have realised what a tool he sounded so tried to clarify by saying "that is, in the last 40 minutes"

HaHaHaHaHaHa
Yeah, Ulster have been the team of the season ................. this last 20 minutes.

[darkside lightside]

also positive - cave, i must say i wasn't convinced before this season, but he seems to have rather improbably both bulked up and got faster.. I think he's deceptively quick, he glides quite well and carries himself well in contact, and has lovely soft hands in the offload.

[darkside lightside]

He has also improved noticeably in terms of his discipline in contact - holding the ball up and looking for the runner from deep, which is obviously something they have been doing in training, and didn't throw any ball away this time.

what i actually meant here wasn't in contact, but rather when the ball is spread to him but the defenive cover is there - earlier in the season he didn't seem to know what to do and tried some leftfield passes or offloads, or just got turned over, but in this match when that happened, he passed inside before the tackle, which changed the point of attack. so i think he must be responding pretty well to coaching.. sometimes his defensive positioning looks a bit suspect to me though..