Ulster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

Zippy1991

We're being written off by the English and Mexican media (Corcoran gave us no chance on RTE this morning)

I love it.

The satisfaction of turning over the Wolfpack :rolleyes:

Can't wait here, gonna be a long day at work.

bilston

Zippy1991 wrote: »

We're being written off by the English and Mexican media (Corcoran gave us no chance on RTE this morning)

I love it.

The satisfaction of turning over the Wolfpack :rolleyes:

Can't wait here, gonna be a long day at work.

It's actually surprising me how much we're being written off. Matt Dawson said on 5Live the other night that he expected a comprehensive win for Saracens. I think a lot of these predictions are based on our form without up to 24 at any one time and also on the performances of Ireland in the 6Ns.

This is supposedly the Ulster team

15 Payne
14 Trimble
13 Cave
12 Marshall
11 Gilroy
10 Jackson
9 Pienaar
1 Court
2 Best
3 Afoa
4 Muller (c)
5 Tuohy
6 Henderson
7 Henry
8 Williams

16 Herring, 17 Black, 18 Lutton, 19 Diack, 20 Wilson, 21 Marshall, 22 Olding, 23 Bowe

That will be confirmed or otherwise later. Anyway apart from Afoa there shouldn't be any rust and I believe Afoa has been training with the Auckland Blues which I'd imagine is fairly intense stuff.

Zippy1991

bilston wrote: »

It's actually surprising me how much we're being written off. Matt Dawson said on 5Live the other night that he expected a comprehensive win for Saracens. I think a lot of these predictions are based on our form without up to 24 at any one time and also on the performances of Ireland in the 6Ns.

This is supposedly the Ulster team

15 Payne
14 Trimble
13 Cave
12 Marshall
11 Gilroy
10 Jackson
9 Pienaar
1 Court
2 Best
3 Afoa
4 Muller (c)
5 Tuohy
6 Henderson
7 Henry
8 Williams

16 Herring, 17 Black, 18 Lutton, 19 Diack, 20 Wilson, 21 Marshall, 22 Olding, 23 Bowe

That will be confirmed or otherwise later. Anyway apart from Afoa there shouldn't be any rust and I believe Afoa has been training with the Auckland Blues which I'd imagine is fairly intense stuff.

I hope so!!!

I've just got a massive erection at my desk after reading that 1-23
Tommy on the bench nearly set me off

.ak

Sarries are the definition of average - you had better beat them.

irishbucsfan

Its going to be absolutely ferocious.

If ever there was a game you wanted Ferris around for, this is it.

Zippy1991

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Its going to be absolutely ferocious.

If ever there was a game you wanted Ferris around for, this is it.

Absolutely but we have known he's not going to feature for a long time now and our back row is definietly up to it against Sarries.
He'd be great to have but it's not like he was injured on the eve of the game either.

My main worry is the amount of guys coming back from injury and this is the first "proper" test they're gonna get.

irishbucsfan

.ak wrote: »

Sarries are the definition of average - you had better beat them.

Average? I think every team below them in the premiership (ie, everyone else) would disagree!

Zippy1991

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Average? I think every team below them in the premiership (ie, everyone else) would disagree!

I think you're getting into a different debate there.

The GP is the definition of average. Just because SKY and ESPN devote hours and hourse and millions of pounds towards it, doesn't make it good.

I think the top 6 french side and the top 3 Irish sides would be well up there in the top 4 n the GP were they to compete in it.

Sarries are a good side this year. They are not a patch on say Leinster 2010-2012 or Toulouse etc prior to that.

Also they are a horrible bunch of pricks and a gimmicky crowd of bellends.

I would love it, LOVE IT, if we beat them.

However I think we have to be underdogs on Saturday.

.ak

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Average? I think every team below them in the premiership (ie, everyone else) would disagree!

Let them. They play an awful, statistic based game. That might good enough for their league, but it's not good enough for Europe IMO

Zippy1991

Zippy1991 wrote: »

I would love it, LOVE IT, if we beat them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXpUdBlRZe8

Also, could someone do the match thread please!

C'mon nordies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBSFJglzmLk

awec

I really hope we wipe the floor with them.

irishbucsfan

Deleted User wrote: »

Also, could someone do the match thread please!

C'mon nordies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBSFJglzmLk

I'll do one now

Digifriendly

Zippy1991 wrote: »

I think you're getting into a different debate there.

The GP is the definition of average. Just because SKY and ESPN devote hours and hourse and millions of pounds towards it, doesn't make it good.

Grand National Fever getting to you?

Zippy1991

Digifriendly wrote: »

Grand National Fever getting to you?

Chicago Grey baby!!

MolBee

I'm surprised RTE are writing us off too. Saracens are good but not spectacular, and they would know exactly the injury issues the Ulster squad has had the last couple of months and that it's only being resolved in a big way now. And isn't there room for a little partisan hopefulness regardless, a la Stu Barnes envisoning 3 English teams in the semis? :P

bilston

From the IT

“Jack of all trades, master of none,” says Iain Henderson finding self-deprecation the easiest refuge a few days before Saracens. The one time number eight, occasional lock and current blindside flanker was playing club rugby for Queen’s University a year ago until a spotter in the IRFU liked the cut of his jib and turned him towards steeper trajectory.
A foot soldier beckoned to sit with knights, Henderson was called into Declan Kidney’s squad at the end of October and found himself in the Aviva Stadium less than two weeks later losing to South Africa. Careers have been lost at that speed before but precious few minted so quickly.
“The target at the end of last season was to get towards getting off the bench a couple of times for Ulster, ” says the 21-year-old. “Fortunately for me and unfortunately for Stevie Ferris, he had a few injuries and that gave me a slight opportunity. I played a couple of matches in the Rabo and the Heineken and then kicked on from there.”
The scary thing about Henderson, who now has five caps, is that he’s still maturing physically. A big lump of a student still, he possesses the dog of a lock to be rugged and in opponent’s faces as well as the fitness and athletic ability of a ball carrying flanker. At six feet five and a half, lineouts are also part of the armoury, that in the company of Johann Muller he hopes to expand.

Adolescent dream
Not the normal over reaching sporty school kid, professional rugby was never made available as an adolescent dream and the natural option for Henderson was university. Academically able he was originally offered a place in Edinburgh to study actuarial science but ended up in economics and finance at Queen’s. He went there with a degree, not rugby in mind.
“Coming through schools I was not in any Ulster or Irish schools set-ups, so professional rugby wasn’t an option,” he says. “I had never considered it. It was only after school that it became an option and I kind of exploited it then.
“My dad played rugby and he obviously understands the game and knows quite a lot about it but he is very keen for me to get my studies because obviously the next game could be your last. My parents were keen to push academics and I was happy enough to go along with that.”
In the last six months when eyes were on Craig Gilroy and Paddy Jackson, it was Henderson who signed his first professional contract and after just two appearances for Ulster at European level lined out for Ireland. Already he is smarter, tougher, more able.
Playing a position that demands an abrasive physical presence, he’s not a glimpse of the future but a real part of the present, who has precociously delivered everything asked from him, a try five days ago against Leinster at the RDS framing a more dogged all-round game. He may look like the transition year student with his shy awareness but Henderson has already balanced some of the more difficult equations of backrow play. Judge on appearance at your peril.
“At Ireland you are surrounded by international quality players. You are coming back to Ulster and you have the likes of Johann, John Afoa, even Ruan Pienaar,” he says. “If I thought I had learned everything I would be massively deluded.”
A student then in every sense.

thomond2006

Muller injured again and will miss season run-in: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/22059639

Afoa gone back to New Zealand again and will miss Dragons match.

awec

We should be able to beat Dragons without both mind.

Muller will be a huge loss for any playoff game.

And I'm convinced that Afoa will go at the end of the season now.

decisions

I hope the medical staff give Marshall the rest of the season off. Three concussions in a month for him ain't good.

opinionatedfan

Marshall shouldn't be anywhere near the field until next september.

Tox56

decisions wrote: »

I hope the medical staff give Marshall the rest of the season off. Three concussions in a month for him ain't good.

Have they confirmed it was a concussion?

decisions

Tox56 wrote: »

Have they confirmed it was a concussion?

I don't care if it was confirmed or not, how many serious hits to the head are not confirmed as concussions?

Marshall took a big hit to the head and didn't look like he knew where he was leaving the pitch, that's enough for me.

Tox56

decisions wrote: »

I don't care if it was confirmed or not, how many serious hits to the head are not confirmed as concussions?

Marshall took a big hit to the head and didn't look like he knew where he was leaving the pitch, that's enough for me.

Fair enough was only half-watching the game, just looked up on his twitter and he's talking about his head so must be concussion

Buer

awec wrote: »

And I'm convinced that Afoa will go at the end of the season now.

I'd be shocked if he stayed. This will be the third trip back in about 4 months. Ulster are being incredibly kind to him and, if I'm being honest, too kind. He's a professional player contracted to them. He missed out on the entire build up to their biggest game of the season and now is gone home again as they start the league run in. He looked tired with ball in hand at the weekend and didn't make the impact he normally does. If his mind is elsewhere, best to let him hit the road now and make a suitable signing for next season.

bilston

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/marshall-to-have-tests-after-latest-blow-1.1352937

This was in yesterdays IT. I don't think we'll see Marshall again until next season.

Also I didn't know this bit...

The return to play protocols laid out by the IRB led to former Irish international fullback Dr Barry O’Driscoll resigning recently from committee level of rugby’s governing body in protest.
“Rugby is trivialising concussion,” said Dr O’Driscoll.

I just hope the kid is okay. He is one of the more talented young players in this country and Ulster and Ireland need him moving forward especially in a post O'Driscoll world.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

I don't think that Marshall should be playing any rugby this soon after two obvious concussions.

I wouldn't want to be involved in the medical team that pass him and make him available tbh.

Deleted User wrote: »

Marshall's Ireland appearances and dates

24/02/13 - Scotland
09/03/13 - France
16/03/13 - Italy



http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/marshall-to-miss-leinster-showdown-1.1339207

So he got a second concussion within 1 week of the first. If 1 week is taken as the very very minimum that anyone should be out with a concussion. (Ignoring the old Grading systems, attribute all as a Grade 3 imo - 3 weeks - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57574918/new-concussion-guidelines-released-for-athletes-if-in-doubt-sit-it-out/)

New NFL guidelines here http://thesportdigest.com/archive/article/nfl-issues-stricter-guidelines-returning-play-following-concussion

It's been a case of exponentially increasing the time out from the game with concurrent concussions previously. There is no way that I'd be comfortable giving Marshall a clean bill of health at this stage.

The guy's 21, playing a high impact sport, and has had two injuries in quick succession that have seen a meteoric rise in claims and studies in the USA as the effects of them are coming to extreme visibility.

Even if you ignore the second concussion, there's no way he should have been training in the interim week. Compounding that mistake could be disastrous.

Deleted User wrote: »

start believing it.
http://www.drrugby.com/?p=114

Concussion is caused by the secondary impact of the brain hitting the skull.

A soft material is never going to make a reasonable difference.

In fact, a good mouth guard is probably a better tool to prevent concussions.

There's also the 'air of invincibility' that some people earn when wearing what they believe is protective. This is a counter-intuitive issue, in that players who believe that they are not going to be able to be concussed because of wearing a scrum hat, might attempt tackles in a manner that they simply wouldn't if not wearing one. The 'air of invincibility' can actually increase the likelihood of concussion as players are more liable to put their head where they really shouldn't.

ffs

mfceiling

[Deleted User] wrote: »

ffs

You don't like to say I told you so, but.....

mfceiling

mfceiling wrote: »

You don't like to say I told you so, but.....

just crazy that it was plain as day here that he shouldn't have been playing (for his health!) yet someone authorised it.

Buer

bilston wrote: »

Also I didn't know this bit...

The return to play protocols laid out by the IRB led to former Irish international fullback Dr Barry O’Driscoll resigning recently from committee level of rugby’s governing body in protest.
“Rugby is trivialising concussion,” said Dr O’Driscoll.

You should try and find the article in The Scotsman that interviewed Barry O'Driscoll recently about concussions in sport and his thoughts on how the authorities are failing the athletes. Very interesting and even more so considering his nephew is one of those going back out on the field concussed.