Ulster v Zebre Friday November 25th 7.35pm UK Time BBC NI

[Cap'n Grumpy]

Flannery wasn’t injured was he?

Why not give him the full game?

Unless the match is at stake, all subs get game time, even if for some it's only a 2 minute cameo.

Them's the rules these days.

Spose it's better than the days when a sub only came on if a player had a leg or arm completely severed, or rather than losing a contact lens, the player lost a whole eye.

[justinr73]

Flannery wasn’t injured was he?

Why not give him the full game?

Unless the match is at stake, all subs get game time, even if for some it's only a 2 minute cameo.

Them's the rules these days.

Spose it's better than the days when a sub only came on if a player had a leg or arm completely severed, or rather than losing a contact lens, the player lost a whole eye.

Could have taken Doak off instead Cap’n.

[Cap'n Grumpy]

Flannery wasn’t injured was he?

Why not give him the full game?

Unless the match is at stake, all subs get game time, even if for some it's only a 2 minute cameo.

Them's the rules these days.

Spose it's better than the days when a sub only came on if a player had a leg or arm completely severed, or rather than losing a contact lens, the player lost a whole eye.

Could have taken Doak off instead Cap’n.

True, but he'd already pulled a 10 minute break and Dan maybe wanted him to play a full 70.

[justinr73]

Perhaps Billy is injured and Flannery is our only 10?

If not, the boy is on a one year deal and needs the minutes to show what he can do.

[Cap'n Grumpy]

Perhaps Billy is injured and Flannery is our only 10?

Madigan listed as injured, but no mention of Billy in the most recent casualty-list.

[rumncoke]

My take on Flannery /Doak replacement

Would be with three big games a head McFarlande may be looking at a bench of Doak and two others say Moore and McIlroy and omitting the normal s/h ,O/h and a/n .

Thus wanted to give Doak time at outhalf

At the moment McCloskey and Hume might be injury prone similarly Balocoune and Stockdale

Because truth is Stockdale didn’t look like he was 100%

[justinr73]

Yeah that’s perfectly plausible Rum tbf.

It’s not easy getting minutes into the younger lads, which the likes of Nucifora are rightly conscious of.

[Dave]

Since when has the head contact framework been relevant to contact with the ground?

Ref's are just making shît up now.

Was that for the Doak yellow card?

At the match we obviously couldn't hear what was being said by TMO and ref etc, but it looked to most around me that Doak lifted the player above the horizontal - not terribly high, but still above the horizontal. He then didn't bring him down safely - due to the height, there wasn't much danger, and his hand came down before his head, so a clear and obvious yellow card accepted by most around me on the terrace. In the current climate a penalty only was never gonna happen, but it was never a red card. What boiled our pi$$ was the amount of time the officials took to arrive at a pretty obvious decision.

The Carter yellow card was just lazy and petty by him - he knew exactly what he was doing. It's such a pity because otherwise in the match and for several matches recently, he's been worthy of his place in the team.

Point of note was that we played 20 minutes with 14 men and won those 20 minutes 7-5.

This happened right in front of me. I'm convinced that no 14, forced his body down head first. Same manoeuvre Devin Toner did a few years back. Fully accept the ref had no choice but it was weird behaviour. Doak was stupid to lift the guy as well.

Agree that Carter's was dumb.

[justinr73]

In other news, from my admittedly poor vantage point, I thought Reid showed some decent footwork and Moore has a real spark about him.

V poor atmosphere despite/because of the part-timers.

Not sure if I want to see us keep trying to score rolling maul tries when we’ve got a game like this one won.

[justinr73]

Since when has the head contact framework been relevant to contact with the ground?

Ref's are just making shît up now.

Was that for the Doak yellow card?

At the match we obviously couldn't hear what was being said by TMO and ref etc, but it looked to most around me that Doak lifted the player above the horizontal - not terribly high, but still above the horizontal. He then didn't bring him down safely - due to the height, there wasn't much danger, and his hand came down before his head, so a clear and obvious yellow card accepted by most around me on the terrace. In the current climate a penalty only was never gonna happen, but it was never a red card. What boiled our pi$$ was the amount of time the officials took to arrive at a pretty obvious decision.

The Carter yellow card was just lazy and petty by him - he knew exactly what he was doing. It's such a pity because otherwise in the match and for several matches recently, he's been worthy of his place in the team.

Point of note was that we played 20 minutes with 14 men and won those 20 minutes 7-5.

This happened right in front of me. I'm convinced that no 14, forced his body down head first. Same manoeuvre Devin Toner did a few years back. Fully accept the ref had no choice but it was weird behaviour. Doak was stupid to lift the guy as well.

Agree that Carter's was dumb.

I also thought he did incredibly well to get his head in that position.

[BR]

Yip
. Doak was unlucky in the tackle and at the same time lucky they decided it wasn't head first.

I'd have judged the lift as horizontal; rather than beyond horizontal. And it was the BC's actions that brought his head below that.

I couldn't really disagree with any of the 4 possible decisions. (Other than perhaps
PK), although I'm not convincedthe process at which it which it was arrived was sound.

I don't normally criticize refs, but your man was poor imho. But if Ulster want to compete, they should be using a poor ref to their advantage.

And as Capn says, the decision to compete in the last scrum was unfathomable. Id like to think, had the game been in the balance, they'd have put a bit of thought into it, but i fear I'm being too kind.

[HammerTime]

Is Doak overrated?? Early days obviously but not sure all the talk is warranted.

[BR]

Is Doak overrated?? Early days obviously but not sure all the talk is warranted.

Depends who you're listening to, i suppose.

Will he play for ireland ? Yes (injury and countenance-congruity allowing)

Will he be a world great? No.

[Cap'n Grumpy]

I'd have judged the lift as horizontal; rather than beyond horizontal.

Seeing it live my reaction was that Doak was in trouble, but I wasn't convince he raised the opponent beyond the horizontal. On watching replays though it looked apparent to me that he had done so - the guy's feet were higher than his head. Again, not particularly high, but by the letter of the law, he was lifted beyond horizontal.
A definite yellow card, no more, as he wasn't dropped or driven in a dangerous manner.

Is Doak overrated?? Early days obviously but not sure all the talk is warranted.

Not one of his better performances last night, far from it, but I don't think he's over - rated.

Every player has an off night every so often - the fact that he had a relatively poor one last night just indicates how high the bar is for him. But he's the one who has set that height, so again, no he's not over- rated.

[HammerTime]

Not just going on last night. Been poor/average for a while now.