Benetton v Ulster Saturday January 7 1pm KO (UK Time) Viaplay (Premier) Sports 1 / URC TV / Super Sport

[Soda]

Some fekkers with very short memories about here

Hardly surprising since the average UAFC member is so old that they actually remember ulster competing for trophies!

Some of us can even remember Ulster actually winning trophies...


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[Jetstream]

Bryn's title is 'Head of Operations and Recruitment '. What does operations entail? Was he responsible for the Sale travel fiasco and the frozen ground? In our rush to comment on the deterioration in performance we mustn't forget about these two major f ups..

[So It Is]

What is the current attendence figures at Raverspan this and last season, compared to say 2013-2015?

I remember if you didnt have a ticket lined up for a European game or Interpro back then, a few weeks in advance then you hadn't a chance of getting to the match. Can you just show up these days and pay on the night?

I don't have the interest in going anymore (3 kids aged 6 and under) and I assume a large section of the old faithful feel likewise post Jackson/Olding/Kingspan/Covid, judging by the number of empty seats I see on TV.

These kack performances, crap signings, lack of locally produced players (forwards) and the continued mental fragility aren't doing much to bring paying customers back. I'm not sure that having a Scot in charge (who maybe doesn't understand the complete frustration from supporters) is the answer.

[Jackie Brown]

Bryn's title is 'Head of Operations and Recruitment '. What does operations entail? Was he responsible for the Sale travel fiasco and the frozen ground? In our rush to comment on the deterioration in performance we mustn't forget about these two major f ups..

Hang on, that was the ECPRs fault

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[Dave]

Bryn's title is 'Head of Operations and Recruitment '. What does operations entail? Was he responsible for the Sale travel fiasco and the frozen ground? In our rush to comment on the deterioration in performance we mustn't forget about these two major f ups..

I'm not sure, but hopefully, he isn't repairing Marty's ACL.

[kingofthehill]

People are giving Bell a hard time, & rightly so. But if you can onto the URC stats page and scroll down to turnovers won & conceded. Ulster are comfortably amongst the worst in the league. Ulster coughing up the e ball way to easily this season.

Sorry , Bell is not very good and neither is Newby at that

Meanwhile, former All Black, Craig Newby, joined Ulster last summer on a one-year deal as Skills Coach from his role as Director of Rugby at St. John’s School in Leatherhead. Newby also held roles as England U20 Women’s Forwards Coach and was involved in the coaching setup for both Wasps U18s and Harlequins U16s. He has signed on with the province for a further two years

Someone tell me he is better than Campbell ?

So , we also now have a sports Psychologist brought in last year at the expense of a lot of dosh, not worth it , nice chap etc but a new head coach will have to swing the axe.

With regards Dan , what has he improved since he joined , go on tell us .

Petrie, time is running out , stop all the fluffy stuff, stop trying to reinvent the wheel, you are losing rugby supporters , Ulster Rugby is not a circus.

Academy : And KOTH might answer this, what big potential is coming through ?

Can’t disagree with much or any of that.

Academy wise I really don’t know. I liked the look of Hopes who doesn’t start for the Irish u20s. Mcnabney looked good but not sure how he’s been going of late. Wilson I thought would come through.

Going into the academy next year will be Josh Stevens (7), Lucas Kenny (back 3) and Mcfarlane (back 3 and hoping his current injury isn’t career threatening).

Stevens coming through would be welcomed but ulster need tight 5 and half backs. I look back to the methody team that had Thomas Armstrong at 10 (Ethan McIlroys year) who didn’t seem interested in pursuing a rugby career for some reason (I question ulsters tactics on him, I know he wanted to be a doctor but look at Jamie roberts). He looked like a star in the making.

https://youtu.be/Oqk0JeX9VLQ


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[Bart S]

People are giving Bell a hard time, & rightly so. But if you can onto the URC stats page and scroll down to turnovers won & conceded. Ulster are comfortably amongst the worst in the league. Ulster coughing up the e ball way to easily this season.

Sorry , Bell is not very good and neither is Newby at that

Meanwhile, former All Black, Craig Newby, joined Ulster last summer on a one-year deal as Skills Coach from his role as Director of Rugby at St. John’s School in Leatherhead. Newby also held roles as England U20 Women’s Forwards Coach and was involved in the coaching setup for both Wasps U18s and Harlequins U16s. He has signed on with the province for a further two years

Someone tell me he is better than Campbell ?

So , we also now have a sports Psychologist brought in last year at the expense of a lot of dosh, not worth it , nice chap etc but a new head coach will have to swing the axe.

With regards Dan , what has he improved since he joined , go on tell us .

Petrie, time is running out , stop all the fluffy stuff, stop trying to reinvent the wheel, you are losing rugby supporters , Ulster Rugby is not a circus.

Academy : And KOTH might answer this, what big potential is coming through ?

Gerald - Dan has been here for a lot more than the last 6 weeks and for most of this period things have improved considerably. Regular European knock out rugby, semis and finals of the URC and believe it or not, squad depth is better albeit nowhere near where we needed it yet. Some big away wins regularly achieved when prior to his time we crumbled everywhere.

And even harking back to the mcglock era and the win in Thomond you have to remember that team had 5 NIQ's comprising 3 world dup winners, 1 tri nations winner and 1 super rugby winner plus 3 Irish grand slam winners who were all already established at ulster.
The bench that day was mcallister, Brady, macklin, stevenson, falloon, Marshall, Spence and D'Arcy. None of them were used. Only Spence would get into an ulster 23.

Whether you feel Dan's time is up is one thing bug to say nothing has improved during his tenure is off the mark overall.

[Marco]

A lot has changed in the last 10 years, some good, some bad.

Good is a first rate stadium (free by the way), much better than somewhere like RDS or Thomond as it’s built for 18,000, on all four sides, plus better facilities. Good is also to see more diversified crowds. the numbers will return but we’re still recovering from the shitshow that was Covid plus let’s remember that a fill of oil at £800 doesn’t leave a lot for £45 rugby tickets.

Bad, and at the risk of sounding like I’m stuck in a different age, which I may well be, is that it doesn’t seem to mean as much to play for Ulster as it used to. Of course its hard to expect that if you went to Blackrock or Grey College, you’ll bleed red and white, although Muller made a good fist of it, but even so, the culture has changed, and the different fan base (which I think is good to see as its bigger) don’t care as much, complete disengagement at times. Bad is also that we haven’t changed the management structures enough, we’re like Leinster in the noughties, soft centred, until Cullen came back from Leicester and woke them up. The quote was “You’re having a laugh” when he returned and saw the set up compared to Welford Road at that time.

What I don’t like is being told that fans who aren’t waving yellow flags, playing trumpets and singing SUFTUM ad nauseum, regardless of what’s going on on the pitch, and, God forbid, are criticising the team, are labelled as ‘haters’, as I saw on a Twitter thread. I responded to the person that, as a ST holder of 22 years and counting, who sees 5 losses out of 6 plus school boy tackling plus lack of effort (Sale last quarter) plus plain stupid tactics (Cooney’s box kick at the end plus Burns then kicking the restart to the Benetton 22, exactly where they wanted it) as unacceptable, that it should matter to supporters that we achieve what we are capable of achieving, and, politely, to get a grip.

[ljsulster]

People are giving Bell a hard time, & rightly so. But if you can onto the URC stats page and scroll down to turnovers won & conceded. Ulster are comfortably amongst the worst in the league. Ulster coughing up the e ball way to easily this season.

Sorry , Bell is not very good and neither is Newby at that

Meanwhile, former All Black, Craig Newby, joined Ulster last summer on a one-year deal as Skills Coach from his role as Director of Rugby at St. John’s School in Leatherhead. Newby also held roles as England U20 Women’s Forwards Coach and was involved in the coaching setup for both Wasps U18s and Harlequins U16s. He has signed on with the province for a further two years

Someone tell me he is better than Campbell ?

So , we also now have a sports Psychologist brought in last year at the expense of a lot of dosh, not worth it , nice chap etc but a new head coach will have to swing the axe.

With regards Dan , what has he improved since he joined , go on tell us .

Petrie, time is running out , stop all the fluffy stuff, stop trying to reinvent the wheel, you are losing rugby supporters , Ulster Rugby is not a circus.

Academy : And KOTH might answer this, what big potential is coming through ?

Can’t disagree with much or any of that.

Academy wise I really don’t know. I liked the look of Hopes who doesn’t start for the Irish u20s. Mcnabney looked good but not sure how he’s been going of late. Wilson I thought would come through.

Going into the academy next year will be Josh Stevens (7), Lucas Kenny (back 3) and Mcfarlane (back 3 and hoping his current injury isn’t career threatening).

Stevens coming through would be welcomed but ulster need tight 5 and half backs. I look back to the methody team that had Thomas Armstrong at 10 (Ethan McIlroys year) who didn’t seem interested in pursuing a rugby career for some reason (I question ulsters tactics on him, I know he wanted to be a doctor but look at Jamie roberts). He looked like a star in the making.

https://youtu.be/Oqk0JeX9VLQ


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Was reading on the munsterfans forum about the u20s and someone said “Ulster have a gem in McNabney”, must be going alright. Hopes is u19 so him being in the squad is impressive.

Ethan graham and James mckillop also joining academy next year?
Thomas Armstrongs brother David is a very talented scrum half- could also be near the academy next year

Also, what is mcfarlanes injury, I hadn’t heard?

[Dave]

Re: Thomas Armstrong. The prevailing evidence is that professional rugby could very possibly shorten your life, leading to greater instances of neurological issues. He's a smart kid if you ask me.

[flatpass]

Some fekkers with very short memories about here

Welcome to the board DingDong. Nice to see some new people joining.

Indeed welcome. Its not ding dong bell by any chance?

[flatpass]

A lot has changed in the last 10 years, some good, some bad.

Good is a first rate stadium (free by the way), much better than somewhere like RDS or Thomond as it’s built for 18,000, on all four sides, plus better facilities. Good is also to see more diversified crowds. the numbers will return but we’re still recovering from the shitshow that was Covid plus let’s remember that a fill of oil at £800 doesn’t leave a lot for £45 rugby tickets.

Bad, and at the risk of sounding like I’m stuck in a different age, which I may well be, is that it doesn’t seem to mean as much to play for Ulster as it used to. Of course its hard to expect that if you went to Blackrock or Grey College, you’ll bleed red and white, although Muller made a good fist of it, but even so, the culture has changed, and the different fan base (which I think is good to see as its bigger) don’t care as much, complete disengagement at times. Bad is also that we haven’t changed the management structures enough, we’re like Leinster in the noughties, soft centred, until Cullen came back from Leicester and woke them up. The quote was “You’re having a laugh” when he returned and saw the set up compared to Welford Road at that time.

What I don’t like is being told that fans who aren’t waving yellow flags, playing trumpets and singing SUFTUM ad nauseum, regardless of what’s going on on the pitch, and, God forbid, are criticising the team, are labelled as ‘haters’, as I saw on a Twitter thread. I responded to the person that, as a ST holder of 22 years and counting, who sees 5 losses out of 6 plus school boy tackling plus lack of effort (Sale last quarter) plus plain stupid tactics (Cooney’s box kick at the end plus Burns then kicking the restart to the Benetton 22, exactly where they wanted it) as unacceptable, that it should matter to supporters that we achieve what we are capable of achieving, and, politely, to get a grip.

Good post Marco

[Jetstream]

From Munster forum

"They have no leadership or quality at 9, 10, 12 and 15 to manage the game.
It's performances like this that show why Cooney/Burns/McCloskey/Lowry struggle to get irish caps."


I would incline to agree re leaders. All nice lads but are they leaders! Quality comment is rubbish.

[kingofthehill]

A lot has changed in the last 10 years, some good, some bad.

Good is a first rate stadium (free by the way), much better than somewhere like RDS or Thomond as it’s built for 18,000, on all four sides, plus better facilities. Good is also to see more diversified crowds. the numbers will return but we’re still recovering from the shitshow that was Covid plus let’s remember that a fill of oil at £800 doesn’t leave a lot for £45 rugby tickets.

Bad, and at the risk of sounding like I’m stuck in a different age, which I may well be, is that it doesn’t seem to mean as much to play for Ulster as it used to. Of course its hard to expect that if you went to Blackrock or Grey College, you’ll bleed red and white, although Muller made a good fist of it, but even so, the culture has changed, and the different fan base (which I think is good to see as its bigger) don’t care as much, complete disengagement at times. Bad is also that we haven’t changed the management structures enough, we’re like Leinster in the noughties, soft centred, until Cullen came back from Leicester and woke them up. The quote was “You’re having a laugh” when he returned and saw the set up compared to Welford Road at that time.

What I don’t like is being told that fans who aren’t waving yellow flags, playing trumpets and singing SUFTUM ad nauseum, regardless of what’s going on on the pitch, and, God forbid, are criticising the team, are labelled as ‘haters’, as I saw on a Twitter thread. I responded to the person that, as a ST holder of 22 years and counting, who sees 5 losses out of 6 plus school boy tackling plus lack of effort (Sale last quarter) plus plain stupid tactics (Cooney’s box kick at the end plus Burns then kicking the restart to the Benetton 22, exactly where they wanted it) as unacceptable, that it should matter to supporters that we achieve what we are capable of achieving, and, politely, to get a grip.

Cheika changed Leinster Along with Elsom.


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[kingofthehill]

Re: Thomas Armstrong. The prevailing evidence is that professional rugby could very possibly shorten your life, leading to greater instances of neurological issues. He's a smart kid if you ask me.

Not many people get the opportunity to play professional sport. Still think more could of been done!


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