Connacht v Ulster Sat Oct 23rd 5:15pm KO

[Dave]

It is a straight fight between a not a great Ulster side and a not a great Connacht side. It's a neutral venue. No excuses for McFarland. I want to believe he is different from the rest (Kiss, Williams etc.). Still to face Leinster A,B and C, Munster, Bulls, Stormers, Sharks and Clermont etc...

[Snipe Watson]

A disorganised shambles, outplayed and outworked by a limited side with guts.
Several substandard starting players and plenty of guff coming off the bench. Not good enough Dan! Do you have any answers?

[Cap'n Grumpy]

There can be no excuses - we had our internationals back and a good squad but we simply lacked passion and basic skills. The reffing was poor to say the least but it was not the difference between the sides! Do

It was good to see Murphy, Cooney, McGrath, Stockdale, Addison, Madigan, Carter, Marshall, Moore (Marty) and Reidy back in the team today, yes.

Still not an excuse though.

[Cap'n Grumpy]

Not good enough Dan! Do you have any answers?

Does he even know the questions?

Just askin'

[Marco]

To paraphrase Bernard Jackman, Ulster don’t have the stomach for a fight, and O’Connor’s shoulder into a defenceless guy’s back was a cheap shot, not to mention blindingly dull. A camera shot of three subs behind the post summed it up for me, Shanahan, Treadwell and Jones, putting the fear of God only into Ulster supporters if they come on. Leinster, Clermont and Northampton coming up….

On the same day as I read Garry Doyle’s brilliant piece (the42.ie) about the all conquering Ulster side of the 80’s, it was sad to witness.

[Hans Indaruck]

There can be no excuses - we had our internationals back and a good squad but we simply lacked passion and basic skills. The reffing was poor to say the least but it was not the difference between the sides! Do

It was good to see Murphy, Cooney, McGrath, Stockdale, Addison, Madigan, Carter, Marshall, Moore (Marty) and Reidy back in the team today, yes.

Still not an excuse though.

OK so I omitted the words “fit and available” - so your point is ……..?!

[UlsterNo9]

Ospreys beat Munster and deny them a lose bonus. Only positive I'll take from this weekend.

Connacht have had our number for some time now, that's four wins from seven for them in the head to heads.

[Gary]

McIlroy at full-back will be an interesting one. Not really seen him defend too many high balls, nor kick, but I seem to recall reading elsewhere on here that he has played a lot there ?

It's interesting that Lowry seems to be solely seen as a 10 this year. I thought he played well at 15 last year. I just like having him on the pitch tbh. With Addison suffering a long term injury and Lowry seemingly not considered an option there, the 15 shirt is up for grabs.

Lowry apparently , and rightly, wants to play in his proper position, and has said so. Understandable when you see Burns playing. At the moment you wouldn't blame Lowry for jumping ship.

[bangorboy]

My first live game in two years - bad timing or what?

How many years have we watched one out passes with players taking the ball with little to no momentum?

How often do we just try the same tactic for 80 mins?

I swear Ulster hardly need to play 15 on the pitch as the backs rarely get to touch the bloody ball…

Ruck, pass, crash, ruck, pass, smash repeat ad nauseam

[jean valjean]

To be fair Dan threw the towel in when he switched the entire front row, took off Hendy and put Jones on the pitch alongside Rea. If I was left out there with that coming on my head would go down as well. I said before the fear was that connacht needed it more and we wouldn't cope with the intensity.
Our defence was so passive on set plays connacht crossed the gainline without a hand laid on them at times. Another heroic failure at the RDS beckons to paper over the cracks but our weakness in the pack is still there for all to see. Tough day for doak but hopefully he will have learnt a lot.

[Jackie Brown]

McIlroy at full-back will be an interesting one. Not really seen him defend too many high balls, nor kick, but I seem to recall reading elsewhere on here that he has played a lot there ?

It's interesting that Lowry seems to be solely seen as a 10 this year. I thought he played well at 15 last year. I just like having him on the pitch tbh. With Addison suffering a long term injury and Lowry seemingly not considered an option there, the 15 shirt is up for grabs.

Lowry apparently , and rightly, wants to play in his proper position, and has said so. Understandable when you see Burns playing. At the moment you wouldn't blame Lowry for jumping ship.

Seems Burns is undroppable, probably because he is so consistent. Consistently sh1t. Wouldn't start for a struggling English Premiership side.

[Snipe Watson]

McIlroy at full-back will be an interesting one. Not really seen him defend too many high balls, nor kick, but I seem to recall reading elsewhere on here that he has played a lot there ?

It's interesting that Lowry seems to be solely seen as a 10 this year. I thought he played well at 15 last year. I just like having him on the pitch tbh. With Addison suffering a long term injury and Lowry seemingly not considered an option there, the 15 shirt is up for grabs.

Lowry apparently , and rightly, wants to play in his proper position, and has said so. Understandable when you see Burns playing. At the moment you wouldn't blame Lowry for jumping ship.

Seems Burns is undroppable, probably because he is so consistent. Consistently sh1t. Wouldn't start for a struggling English Premiership side.

That's why he's here...

[Big-al]

McIlroy at full-back will be an interesting one. Not really seen him defend too many high balls, nor kick, but I seem to recall reading elsewhere on here that he has played a lot there ?

It's interesting that Lowry seems to be solely seen as a 10 this year. I thought he played well at 15 last year. I just like having him on the pitch tbh. With Addison suffering a long term injury and Lowry seemingly not considered an option there, the 15 shirt is up for grabs.

Lowry apparently , and rightly, wants to play in his proper position, and has said so. Understandable when you see Burns playing. At the moment you wouldn't blame Lowry for jumping ship.

If Burns plays the next game then McFarland needs his hole kicked. O'Connor, Rea, Burns, McIlroy, Warwick, Kane, Treadwell, Jones, Shanahan... Simply not good enough. O'Connor and Rea have no place starting in a pack than want to challenge good teams.

[BR]

Dan is still a Connacht supporter!

[rumncoke]

It was one of those nights when after 15 minutes a group loops into a realisation that this is not our night and the group talks during play breaks when someone tries group motivation only reinforce that idea.

Connaught went at Brace with a penalty frenzy in the first 15 minutes with pure physical disregard of the laws -- tackling people with out the ball from offside positions that Brace in the end accepted it as lawful play and without the right to deck Ulster had no means to counter the physical attack .

O Connor assists a Connaught player to the deck ( the guy was already going down and was riding the blow from behind ) and gets a red card -- while the Connaught players illegally holding Henderson get to play on ----- I think it only goes to reinforce the perception.

As for the list of players not good enough -- some are reasonable and some are not and will never really achieve the appropriate standard

i could not understand the substitution of Lowry on the wing when Moxham was on the Bench and defensively Ulster where too narrow all night leaving too much space beyond the inside centre which enabled Connaught to get three running at two or four running at three against an inexperienced" make do back three"