Ulster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

thomond2006

22-20 with 2 minutes to go!

CIARAN_BOYLE

drop goal from tovey who hadn't managed to get it between the posts earlier on

EDIT RP DG to win the game

Pienaar does just that. Ulster 1 point win

damianmcr

AHHHHH

Brilliant. Amazing.

Jesus that was a nerve wrecking ending.

CouchSmart

My heart!

GerM

So what you're saying is that I made a mistake choosing to watch the U20 side instead of Ulster?

thomond2006

Wow what a finish!

25-23 FT

CIARAN_BOYLE

GerM wrote: »

So what you're saying is that I made a mistake choosing to watch the U20 side instead of Ulster?

I think so

GerM

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

I think so

Arse.

Brewster

Amazing last five mins. Ulster are learning to win tight games without playing well. That is always a sign of a good team. To win that game with less than a minute to go when they kicked off is fantastic stuff...

CouchSmart

Ulster are becoming a bit of a dark horse to win something this season. I can see them beating Northampton in the quarters.

Digifriendly

CouchSmart wrote: »

Ulster are becoming a bit of a dark horse to win something this season. I can see them beating Northampton in the quarters.

Not a chance if they play like that. Remember Gloucester destroyed Dragons last weekend in the LV Cup. Ulster will have to up their game considerably if they are going to compete with Northampton.

CouchSmart

Digifriendly wrote: »

Not a chance if they play like that. Remember Gloucester destroyed Dragons last weekend in the LV Cup. Ulster will have to up their game considerably if they are going to compete with Northampton.

Ye but last nights team was fairly callow. They were missing players like Botha, Court, Best(Starting front row), Ferris, Wannenburg(On the bench), Humphreys, Wallace, Trimble, Danielli. All in all not a bad result realistically.

jacothelad

Digi is correct. If Ulster were to play like that they'd lose by a cricket score. The saving grace of last night is that of the 15 who started, only Muller, Pienaar, Spence and D'Arcy are going to start against Saints.

Court, Best, Botha, Muller, Tuohy, Ferris, Wannenberg, Henry (Faloon), Pienaar, Humphs, Danielli, Wallace, Spence, Trimble, D'Arcy.

Those in red to come in. I'd hazard a guess that that team would have ripped the Dragons a new orifice last night.

Players like Luke Marshall, Jackson, McAllister, Gaston, Gilroy and eveb Spence are novices. Some have hardly played AIL rugby never mind M.L. stuff and it looked like it once the adrenaline had worn off.

Digifriendly

jacothelad wrote: »

Digi is correct. If Ulster were to play like that they'd lose by a cricket score. The saving grace of last night is that of the 15 who started, only Muller, Pienaar, Spence and D'Arcy are going to start against Saints.

Court, Best, Botha, Muller, Tuohy, Ferris, Wannenberg, Henry (Faloon), Pienaar, Humphs, Danielli, Wallace, Spence, Trimble, D'Arcy.

Those in red to come in. I'd hazard a guess that that team would have ripped the Dragons a new orifice last night.

Players like Luke Marshall, Jackson, McAllister, Gaston, Gilroy and eveb Spence are novices. Some have hardly played AIL rugby never mind M.L. stuff and it looked like it once the adrenaline had worn off.

You make a fair point. Must still be a question over Ferris's fitness and what's the story with Botha at present? Is he still injured? Think if Cave plays well over next 2 ML games that he might still come into contention alongside Wallace in centre for HC match.

jacothelad

Digifriendly wrote: »

You make a fair point. Must still be a question over Ferris's fitness and what's the story with Botha at present? Is he still injured? Think if Cave plays well over next 2 ML games that he might still come into contention alongside Wallace in centre for HC match.

Not sure about Botha. He needed an operation (to reattach a tendon I think) to his elbow. If he isn't fit for Northamptom we will get screwed in the scrums. Ferris will be fit according to the info available at the moment. I'd actually play Spence at 12 and Cave at 13. Spence would be more than a match for Downey and bring Mincer on at 50. Whitten also coud come in to the reckoning at 12. He is a very under rated player who has a lot more to his game than simply trying to batter a hole in the opposition.

jolley123

Just in case no one saw it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCU_fLJXlQg&feature=feedu

damianmcr

What is it chap? Not showing for me.

Digifriendly

damianmcr wrote: »

What is it chap? Not showing for me.

Ulster v Dragons Comic Relief shown at half time on BBCNI's coverage of the game.

CouchSmart

jolley123 wrote: »

Just in case no one saw it.

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

^

damianmcr

Ah. Seen it last night. Fair play to them, all for charity;)

[Jackass]

[Jackass] wrote: »

Surprised this didn't come up, but Ulster have been awarded finance to finish the redevelopment of Ravenhill, and put 3 new stands (excluding the new corporate stand) and it will make Ravenhill a modern, top of the range stadium, with capacity of 15,000 - 20,000.

On top of the Ravenhill development, Windsor Park, around the corner, is going to be built into a top class 20,000 all seater stadium and there will be a modern 10,000 seater stadium developed for League of Ireland side Glentoran along with an IFA training centre on the same site and the modernisation of Linfield and Derry city stadiums.

All in all, great news for Ulster and Irish rugby, as well as giving the IRFU a lot more firepower when looking at putting together a world cup bid down the line with modern stadia based around the country.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/local/stadiums-fit-for-our-heroes-on-way-at-last-15110370.html

Surely RDS / Leinster must be next in line for a modern, purpose built stadium, as well as a develolpment of a 10,000 municipal stadium of west in Galway city for GAA, Rugby & Football with corporate facilities.

Sporting infrastructure on this island has been appauling for the last 50+ years. It's nice to see us catching up now.

REQUEST: Someone posted plans to the new Ravenhill development showing the entire four new stands and capacity details, can someone please repost as I can't find it anywhere. Thanks

Just came across this, the council plans, confirming that Ravenhill will be a state of the art, brand spanking new 18,000 capacity stadium with corporate facilities etc.

Really excited to see this completed, with all 4 ends of the ground closed in, will still look for the sketches of the ground for when it's complete, as it's a lovely looking stadium and along with Thomond Park, gives Irish sides two state of the art home grounds. (and Ulster will have access to the 30,000 stadium in Belfast for bigger matches, and 50,000 Lansdowne if needd).

thomond2006

GerM

I believe there's a thread on one of the Ulster boards suggesting that Ferris won't be playing much longer due to injury. Poster claiming to be in the know and source is reliable. I'm aware several of these rumours have done the rounds in the past (D'Arcy, POC) but is there anything to substantiate this one? Ferris hasn't suffered one bad injury as was the case with the others. He's suffered repeated injuries to the same knee and seems to break down as soon as he tries to push himself which makes this more believable for me.

Any of the Ulster gang able to impart information?

jacothelad

Ferris has no cartilage left in his knee. He can't play on much longer unless there is a treatment for this. I suspect that without something like the use of stem cells it isn't fixable even in the context of everyday use never mind being a 17 stone rugby player. Maybe in the USA they have treatments in advance of what is available here. He has been in training but has had to pull out of it. Apparently when he tries running it just isn't right. He will almost certainly miss the ERC game ...after that ...who knows?

As the advance in medical science progresses and it is now possible to grow new cartilage to replace things like ears - who knows what can be done to reline the joint cavity.

GerM

jacothelad wrote: »

Ferris has no cartilage left in his knee.

Thanks, Jaco. I've heard much the same thing from a couple of people in relation to the cartilage. Very concerning and unfortunate for the lad. Hopefully, by some miracle, he can manage on for a while longer without causing long term damage.

jacothelad

Cheers Ger. Unfortunately, while cartilage replacement is possible, the current state of the art produces a less resilient version based on the encouragement of a patients own primitive stem cell growth. The new cartilage isn't able to stand up to the tension forces of normal fibrocartilage or the compression forces of hyaline cartilage. In a player the size of Ferris who must generate huge biomechanical shearing forces on his knees, I suspect it would disintegrate almost immediately. Strangely enough, if cartilage damage is severe enough to reach into a vascular area of the bone it repairs itself pretty well. The worst damage is done when the surface or articular cartilage is damaged as this fails to heal usually and just degenerates. I remember just before I retired in 2001 that it was possible to replicate the fibrocartilage repair mechanism by 'microfracturing' the bony surfaces of the joint. 10 years is a long time to be out of sports medicine but I don't think things have got much better.

SomeFool

I really hope that he can recover, he's a fantastic player. Very harsh on Ulster after losing Pollock to injury as well.

Risteard

jacothelad wrote: »

Cheers Ger. Unfortunately, while cartilage replacement is possible, the current state of the art produces a less resilient version based on the encouragement of a patients own primitive stem cell growth. The new cartilage isn't able to stand up to the tension forces of normal fibrocartilage or the compression forces of hyaline cartilage. In a player the size of Ferris who must generate huge biomechanical shearing forces on his knees, I suspect it would disintegrate almost immediately. Strangely enough, if cartilage damage is severe enough to reach into a vascular area of the bone it repairs itself pretty well. The worst damage is done when the surface or articular cartilage is damaged as this fails to heal usually and just degenerates. I remember just before I retired in 2001 that it was possible to replicate the fibrocartilage repair mechanism by 'microfracturing' the bony surfaces of the joint. 10 years is a long time to be out of sports medicine but I don't think things have got much better.

You seem to know a bit about this Jaco, and sorry for going off topic, but what would you say the effects of having no cartilage in your knee have on someone playing amateur club rugby, and obviously no where near the size of Ferris?

[Jackass]

Sketches of Ravenhill on completion:

http://epicdocs.planningni.gov.uk/ViewDocument.aspx?uri=116763&ext=PDF
http://epicdocs.planningni.gov.uk/ViewDocument.aspx?uri=116764&ext=PDF

Looks great.