Ulster vs Glasgow, Fri 1 Oct 19:05, RTE/BBCNI/ALBA. Ruan Pienaar starts for Ulster.

thomond2006

Ulster:
15 Jamie Smith, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Darren Cave, 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Simon Danielli, 10 Niall O'Connor, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Robbie Diack 7 Chris Henry, 6 Pedrie Wannenburg, 5 Dan Tuohy, 4 Johann Muller, 3 Tom Court, 2 Rory Best (c), 1 Bryan Young,

Replacements: 16 Nigel Brady, 17 Paddy McAllister, 18 Alan Whitten, 19 Tim Barker, 20 Willie Faloon, 21 Paul Marshall, 22 Ian Whitten, 23 David McIlwaine

Glasgow:
15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 DTH van der Merwe, 13 Max Evans, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Federico Aramburu, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Colin Gregor, 8 Richie Vernon, 7 John Barclay (c), 6 Robert Harley, 5 Richie Gray, 4 Tom Ryder, 3 Moray Low 2 Fergus Thomson, 1 Jon Welsh.

Replacements: 16 Pat MacArthur, 17 Ryan Grant, 18 Ed Kalman, 19 Aly Muldowney, 20 Calum Forrester, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Ruaridh Jackson, 23 Rob Dewey

Date: Friday, October 1
Venue: Ravenhill
Kick-off: 19.05 BST (18.05 GMT)
Referee: Stefano Penne

Good to see Tuohy back in the starting lineup but all eyes will be on Pienaar at 9. He could be taking the kicks as well. Paddy Wallace at 12 is good for Ireland rather then fly-half.

Glasgow have nothing to offer IMO so Ulster should be thinking comfortable victory here and with Trimble and Danielli in the side maybe even a try BP.

Teams taken from:
http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_6409423,00.html

outwest

this should be a win for ulster, a poor glasgow team.

but these kind of games are the ones ulster were messing up in.

irishbucsfan

Great to see Ulster finally put out a full strength team.

Hopefully they'll show what they can do. Only 22 Ulster players named?

Redsock

If we had a good 10 and maybe a fullback that starting lineup even without fez and bj looks very strong.

PhatPiggins

Redsock wrote: »

If we had a good 10 and maybe a fullback that starting lineup even without fez and bj looks very strong.

Whats the word on Ferris? The guy is turning into Mr Glass

Digifriendly

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Great to see Ulster finally put out a full strength team.

Hopefully they'll show what they can do. Only 22 Ulster players named?

Does that include Niall O'Connor and no Ferris or Botha?

irishbucsfan

Digifriendly wrote: »

Does that include Niall O'Connor and no Ferris or Botha?

Don't know what your point is with Niall O'Connor, but what I meant was it's good to see Pienaar, Danielli, Tuohy etc. back starting for the first time this year.

Botha would be nice to have, but Young has experience playing at the top level now and Ferris seems to be injured more often than not unfortunately.

Digifriendly

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Don't know what your point is with Niall O'Connor, but what I meant was it's good to see Pienaar, Danielli, Tuohy etc. back starting for the first time this year.

Botha would be nice to have, but Young has experience playing at the top level now and Ferris seems to be injured more often than not unfortunately.

Point about O'Connor is I simply don't think he is up to the job. Take his missed penalty vs Connacht towards the end of last week's game - it didn't just miss, it was miles off target. I still feel he can't get the backline moving as well as it should be. I would have experimented with Ian Humphries for this game as pressure of goalkicking could have been passed on to Pienaar. Until Ulster can get a decent out half they will fall short of being a trophy winning side.

thomond2006

Ruan Pienaar taking the kicks for Ulster tonight, just missed a penalty from inside his own half.

SomeFool

Digifriendly wrote: »

Point about O'Connor is I simply don't think he is up to the job. Take his missed penalty vs Connacht towards the end of last week's game - it didn't just miss, it was miles off target. I still feel he can't get the backline moving as well as it should be. I would have experimented with Ian Humphries for this game as pressure of goalkicking could have been passed on to Pienaar. Until Ulster can get a decent out half they will fall short of being a trophy winning side.

Pienaar at 10 and Marshall at 9 would be interesting to see, probably won't happen though.

thomond2006

Glasgow go 3 up and then score a try.

DTH VDM is a good winger.

Missed conversion, 0 - 8.

outwest

not a great start for ulster,

8 0 down to what hook says is the worst team in the magners,


finnaly seeing the ulster of old this year

outwest

ruan just about gets the kick,

SomeFool

Ulster starting to get into it now

sock puppet

Ulster playing well now. Even O'Connor is passing well.

Zuffer

Where do I go to say how much I hate George Hamilton's commentary?

Good game so far.

SomeFool

Tis on the beeb too if you don't like Hamilton.

thomond2006

Try on debut for Pienaar. Excellent conversion too.

His passing is very good, the backline are benefiting from it.

thomond2006

Monster kick from Weir. :eek:

16-17

pappyodaniel

^^^we might have another


phew that was close

wixfjord

**** me! What a boot!

CIARAN_BOYLE

SomeFool wrote: »

Pienaar at 10 and Marshall at 9 would be interesting to see, probably won't happen though.

Pienaar won't play at 10. He came to Ulster because Ulster promised to playhim at scrumhalf.

sock puppet

**** Weir has some boot. No matter what the rest of his game is like he'll have a future if he can kick like that

sickpuppy

How kidney rates that joker O connor ahead of Keatley the mind boggles terrible kicking and some brutal passing tonigt.

gally74

Weir has a big future fine game

ironingbored

Pienaar's passing is so crisp and inch perfect it's a joy to watch.

TitoPuente

You lose a Boss, you gain a Pienaar. I doubt Ulster are losing too much sleep. He's playing a blinder tonight. Well... aside from that bad miss just there. Haha. Spoke too soon.

RuggieBear

oops

sock puppet

TitoPuente wrote: »

You lose a Boss, you gain a Pienaar. I doubt Ulster are losing too much sleep. He's playing a blinder tonight. Well... aside from that bad miss just there. Haha. Spoke too soon.

Yeah he played well. Though he's proven time and time again that he can't handle the pressure of kicking. No idea why he was chosen as their kicker.

Stev_o

Treviso manage to beat the Dragons that's 3 wins for them so far !

duckysauce

t r y time good man mark

pappyodaniel

Pienaar was a joy to watch tonight, he's light years ahead of any scrum half operating in any of our provinces.

TitoPuente

sock puppet wrote: »

No idea why he was chosen as their kicker.

Because O'Connor is worse?

SomeFool

TitoPuente wrote: »

Because O'Connor is worse?

Wallace is pretty good, would be happier to see him kicking as he might have to do it in a green jersey some day!

TitoPuente

SomeFool wrote: »

Wallace is pretty good, would be happier to see him kicking as he might have to do it in a green jersey some day!

Yeah. Why wasn't Wallace kicking?

Redsock

Another poor performance and a win. Frustrated as he'll with mclauglin's outdated kick and defend rugby. One crumb of comfort, apart from the win, is o'connors injury- hopefully it keeps him out of the 10 jersey for the season because a lack of talent hasn't. I know it's wrong to gloat over one of your own getting injured but I have reached that point with o'connor.

thomond2006

The selection at 10 next week is intriguing. They can play Humphreys who hasn't featured all season or move Wallace or Pienaar from positions where they are performing really well.

PhatPiggins

thomond2006 wrote: »

The selection at 10 next week is intriguing. They can play Humphreys who hasn't featured all season or move Wallace or Pienaar from positions where they are performing really well.

I'd go with Humprhreys to be honest. Pienaar is very calm and would take a lot of pressure off iHump. O Connor stands so deep that he wasted most of the quality ball he got. Wallace is a better at 12 by some distance but he still offers more at 10 then O Connor.

I'd really like Ulster to play a more attacking game, they've a backline bursting with pave and verve. Like Redsock I hope O Connor is done for a while.

Captain Commie

Have to say that I really wasnt impressed by Ulster's performance tonight, they really didnt play to their best strengths and gave Glasgow too much room to move.

Pienarr played really well for his debut match, just hope that he improves his form, was pretty gutten for him that he missed 3 kicks

stephen_n

thomond2006 wrote: »

The selection at 10 next week is intriguing. They can play Humphreys who hasn't featured all season or move Wallace or Pienaar from positions where they are performing really well.

Strange I thought Wallace was awful tonight, his handling was dreadful with several knock on's and generally far less assured than he was this time last season. He had some good carries with the ball alright in traffic but never really looked threatening in the time I was watching. Ulster on the whole lacked any real creativity, was one of those games when having the ball seemed to be a liability for both sides.

irishbucsfan

PhatPiggins wrote: »

I'd go with Humprhreys to be honest. Pienaar is very calm and would take a lot of pressure off iHump. O Connor stands so deep that he wasted most of the quality ball he got. Wallace is a better at 12 by some distance but he still offers more at 10 then O Connor.

I'd really like Ulster to play a more attacking game, they've a backline bursting with pave and verve. Like Redsock I hope O Connor is done for a while.

I think the fact we haven't seen Humphreys yet shows that we're very unlikely to see him slot straight in to 10.

I think 10. Wallace 12. Whitten 13. Cave, is far more likely.

thomond2006

PhatPiggins wrote: »

I'd go with Humprhreys to be honest. Pienaar is very calm and would take a lot of pressure off iHump. O Connor stands so deep that he wasted most of the quality ball he got. Wallace is a better at 12 by some distance but he still offers more at 10 then O Connor.

I'd really like Ulster to play a more attacking game, they've a backline bursting with pave and verve. Like Redsock I hope O Connor is done for a while.

What is the deal with Humphreys anyway? Is he injured/unfit? Pienaar is a better than 10 than Humphreys but a Pienaar-Humphreys combo is better than Marshall-Pienaar IMO.

Yeah Ulster do need to attack more. They're a bit pedestrian atm and looked afraid to try something outside the box. They were the same last week against Connacht and they blew a bonus point against Edinburgh earlier in the season.

On Wallace playing at 10, it wouldn't be the worst situation because Whitten looks good at 12.

LFC5Times

What did people think of Diack tonight? I was watching in bits and pieces while trying to do something else, but he seemed to get himself around the place.

sweetthing

The selection at 10 next week is intriguing. They can play Humphreys who hasn't featured all season or move Wallace or Pienaar from positions where they are performing really well.

Wasn't there a stip written into Piennar's contract that he'd see the majority of his game time at 9 with Ulster? Think he said he'd only slot in at 10 if there were injuries (and never, ever at fullback!)

Digifriendly

Point I made earlier in this thread was surely in evidence last night again- O'Connor cannot get what is on paper at least a strong backline moving. As regards line kicking O'Connor's opposite number Duncan Weir overshadowed him by some way. Brian McLaughlin needs to make a change at out half now - Aironi is perfect opportunity before the bigger test at Biarritz.

sweetthing

In fairness to O Connor, anyone would have paled in comparison to Weir last night. The lad seems to be a bit of a prodigy and had an absolutely stunning night with the boot. You're right though, so far this season O'Connor hasn't looked the business at all...surely it's worth giving Humphreys a shot again, he did quite well last season judging from the few matches I saw

danthefan

Weir seems to rely heavily on kicking in absolutely every situation. There is actually more to OH play, they'll score more tries with Jackson at 10.

PhatPiggins

danthefan wrote: »

Weir seems to rely heavily on kicking in absolutely every situation. There is actually more to OH play, they'll score more tries with Jackson at 10.

He's 19 and I'd imagine he was playing exactly to Lineens game plan

danthefan

Didn't realise he was so young. From what I've seen though so far he doesn't look like he has a well rounded game.

thomond2006

Weir could be capped in the autumn. Phil Godman, normally Parks' back up, is injured.

PhatPiggins

danthefan wrote: »

Didn't realise he was so young. From what I've seen though so far he doesn't look like he has a well rounded game.

Thats the first full game I've seen him play in so I can't judge him with any great confidence to be honest.