Ulster V Biarritz Match Thread. Sat 15th Jan. Ravenhill. KO 15:30. SS 1

toomevara

Ulster

A D'Arcy; A Trimble, N Spence, P Wallace, S Danielli; I Humphreys, R Pienaar; T Court, R Best (Capt), BJ Botha; J Muller, D Tuohy; S Ferris, W Faloon, P Wannenburg

Replacements: N Brady, B Young, D Fitzpatrick, T Barker, C Henry, P Marshall, I Whitten, D McIlwaine.

Biarritz:

D Haylett-Petty; T Ngwenya, M Bosch, L Tranier, I Balshaw; D Traille, D Yachvili; E Coetzee, B August, S Marconnet; J Thion, E Lund; M Lund, I Harinordoquy, R Lakafia.

Replacements: R Terrain, Y Watremez, A Barozzi, P Taele, S Vahafolau, J
Peyrelongue, M Bond, I Bolakoro.

Huge game for the Ulster boys tomorrow. Pull it off and a QF berth is on the cards for the first time in a long time. Humphrys and Piennaar will have to continue their fine run of form, and the pack will have to really front up against the Basques. Something tells me Biarritz wont be fancying this one massively, a nice dirty Belfast day and I'd fancy Ulster to do it.

tolosenc

Ulster to win a scrappy one by 2 or 3 points.

CouchSmart

With all the money they've spent, they better win! It really is a do or die match, 11 years waiting. If they do make the quarters I wouldn't be too scared of them as a Leinster fan.

toomevara

CouchSmart wrote: »

With all the money they've spent, they better win! It really is a do or die match, 11 years waiting. If they do make the quarters I wouldn't be too scared of them as a Leinster fan.

Something about Ulster this year, think its the half back partnership between Humphries and Piennaar. Could be dark horses. I wouldn't fancy them at home in the QF.

thomond2006

You know how Biarritz will play with Traille at 10.

Anytime I see Haylett-Petty on a Biarritz teamsheet I always remember this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89rPDYwmUs8

jacothelad

CouchSmart wrote: »

With all the money they've spent, they better win! It really is a do or die match, 11 years waiting. If they do make the quarters I wouldn't be too scared of them as a Leinster fan.

There seems to be a startling misconception that Ulster have spent a huge amount of money on new players. This is tosh.

Muller costs a lot less than the Plank did and a bit more than O'Donohue did but not a lot and probably a lot less than Nathan Hines gets at Leinster.

Wannenberg is on much less than half the cost of Xavier Rush would have set us back plus we got a six figure compensation cheque from the Blues for his breach of contract. This pays for one yewars salary for Pedrie i.e. free for a year. He earns what any decent back row player would get. Probably around a quarter of Heaslips dosh for example

Pienaar gets a lot but we don't have to pay Boss his considerable salary so while there is a difference it is about £100,000 per year.

Botha is on £150,000. he is worth every penny. How much I wonder does van der Merwe collect or Nacewa or Stan. Maybe it's only Ulster who have to pay foreign players and the likes of
Hines,
van der Merwe,
Nacewa,
Berne,
Strauss,
Wright,
Galarza,
Newlands .........................all play for free at Leinster.
Of course we all know that.....
Borlase
Du Preez
Howlett
Mafi
Tuitupo...are all giving their services on a charity basis.

irishbucsfan

Well said.

There's a lot of rubbish here about how Ulster have tried to "buy" success by importing foreign players this year.

ambid

Just on this point by jacothelad, does anybody know how many NIQ players each province is allowed? I thought it was five and hadn't really realised there are so many at Leinster.

In fairness though, I think the reason the Ulster NIQs are an issue in the media is that Ulster haven't made the leap forward this year the imports were supposed to bring. Hopefully they'll get to the QF of the Heineken, but they're mid table in the Magners and their performances haven't been great.

I think Leinster & Munster would get the same criticism if their performances and results weren't as good as they are.

irishbucsfan

ambid wrote: »

Just on this point by jacothelad, does anybody know how many NIQ players each province is allowed? I thought it was five and hadn't really realised there are so many at Leinster.

In fairness though, I think the reason the Ulster NIQs are an issue in the media is that Ulster haven't made the leap forward this year the imports were supposed to bring. Hopefully they'll get to the QF of the Heineken, but they're mid table in the Magners and their performances haven't been great.

I think Leinster & Munster would get the same criticism if their performances and results weren't as good as they are.

Ulster are 6 points off Leinster with a game in hand. I wouldn't necessarilly say that's disappointing at all.

And going into this weekend they are arguably in a stronger position than Munster in the H Cup with regards to qualification.

CIARAN_BOYLE

ambid wrote: »

Just on this point by jacothelad, does anybody know how many NIQ players each province is allowed? I thought it was five and hadn't really realised there are so many at Leinster.

In fairness though, I think the reason the Ulster NIQs are an issue in the media is that Ulster haven't made the leap forward this year the imports were supposed to bring. Hopefully they'll get to the QF of the Heineken, but they're mid table in the Magners and their performances haven't been great.

I think Leinster & Munster would get the same criticism if their performances and results weren't as good as they are.

I think its 6 NIQs allowed, project players (like Strauss) don't count towards the allowance, nor do short term signings who replace a long term injured NIQ (Newlands)

As soon as Wright can play again Newlands is going to be released so they count as one

jacothelad

ambid wrote: »

Just on this point by jacothelad, does anybody know how many NIQ players each province is allowed? I thought it was five and hadn't really realised there are so many at Leinster.

In fairness though, I think the reason the Ulster NIQs are an issue in the media is that Ulster haven't made the leap forward this year the imports were supposed to bring. Hopefully they'll get to the QF of the Heineken, but they're mid table in the Magners and their performances haven't been great.

I think Leinster & Munster would get the same criticism if their performances and results weren't as good as they are.

I doubt if either would attract the criticism that has been thrown Ulster's way. Both have had highly paid overseas stars for a long time as well as the cream of Irish rugby. Leinster have won the same number of Heineken Cups as Ulster despite their superior playing strength and many more foreign players. Leinster and Munster are apparently immune from criticism about their overseas players. A lot of those nonentites have been pure shyte but that's o.k. if they are in Dublin or Limerick. C.J. van der linde springs to mind and that's without descending into the depths of Jowett, Hekenui, Williams and De Villiers.

Ulster's performances haven't been great though there have been patches of great play. Pienaar didn't arrive until the beginning of October and both he and B.J. were then away with S.A for a month. The Ulster team hasn't ever been the same from one week to the next due to plainly stupid selection. Pienaar has played with 3 out halves in the 7 or 8 games he has played and one of those was O'Connor so maybe he doesn't count as a 10. Wallace played 3 times at 10 on the instructions of Kidney. I wonder how Leinster or Munster would feel if they were ordered to play Darcy or Tuitupo at 10 for 3 games. I bet they wouldn't sit back and let it go quietly. Before people go chuntering on spouting a load of inaccurate gossip and half truths, perhaps a bit of knowledge or dare I say it, research, might make for more interesting and constructive posts. Maybe we have a lot of schoolboys or spolit children on here who expect instant gratification. bringing in new players doesn't make the existing ones any more talented and for those who haven't realised it, rugby is a team sport. Teams take a while to build and be successful. leinster's success, despite having Ireland's backs and quite a few forwards now took a long time to achieve - in 2009. What happened in 2010?

CIARAN_BOYLE

jacothelad wrote: »

What happened in 2010?

For Leinster they reached a HEC semi and the ML final, no silverware but its a decent season.

I like Ulster and am glad that they have improved so much from last season (and they have), I think Ulster need some level of success from this season for a lot of reasons. One is increased investment cause whatever way you want to spin it they are spending a lot more this year than last. The other reason is it has been a long time since Ulster got any success. That said I don't expect the world from them.

I have 3 ambitions for Ulster and will be delighted if they get one of them
1. QF of the HEC
2. Semi Final of the ML
3. Final of the ACC

Best of luck to Ulster today

thomond2006

Being so excited about Toulon I've forgotten how big a game this is!

Good luck to Ulster, they deserve to get somewhere this season.

CouchSmart

jacothelad wrote: »

There seems to be a startling misconception that Ulster have spent a huge amount of money on new players. This is tosh.

Muller costs a lot less than the Plank did and a bit more than O'Donohue did but not a lot and probably a lot less than Nathan Hines gets at Leinster.

Wannenberg is on much less than half the cost of Xavier Rush would have set us back plus we got a six figure compensation cheque from the Blues for his breach of contract. This pays for one yewars salary for Pedrie i.e. free for a year. He earns what any decent back row player would get. Probably around a quarter of Heaslips dosh for example

Pienaar gets a lot but we don't have to pay Boss his considerable salary so while there is a difference it is about £100,000 per year.

Botha is on £150,000. he is worth every penny. How much I wonder does van der Merwe collect or Nacewa or Stan. Maybe it's only Ulster who have to pay foreign players and the likes of
Hines,
van der Merwe,
Nacewa,
Berne,
Strauss,
Wright,
Galarza,
Newlands .........................all play for free at Leinster.
Of course we all know that.....
Borlase
Du Preez
Howlett
Mafi
Tuitupo...are all giving their services on a charity basis.

Leinster and Munster have won things with the money they've spent. My point was that if you're going spend, you have to start performing.

toomevara

Just seen Tyrone Howe interviewed live in Ravenhill on Sky. Lots of rain and some serious wind. Should suit Ulster I'd imagine.

Quint2010

Back to the match...I think its a big ask for Ulster. Biarritz will be really up for this and I just dont think they quite haver the fire power to carry it off. I hope they do tho

CouchSmart

Come on Ulster.

wixfjord

toomevara wrote: »

Just seen Tyrone Howe interviewed live in Ravenhill on Sky. Lots of rain and some serious wind. Should suit Ulster I'd imagine.

See the said this on the Rugby Club during the week, and I just don't agree. BO are not a stereotypical French team and have a monster pack with monster backs. As we saw against Munster last month, Yachvilli will kick well and kick the penos and they'll stay in touch.

Cant wait for it though.

toomevara

wixfjord wrote: »

See the said this on the Rugby Club during the week, and I just don't agree. BO are not a stereotypical French team and have a monster pack with monster backs. As we saw against Munster last month, Yachvilli will kick well and kick the penos and they'll stay in touch.

Actually you're completely right wixfjord, I'm talking out me arse.

mfceiling

toomevara wrote: »

Just seen Tyrone Howe interviewed live in Ravenhill on Sky. Lots of rain and some serious wind. Should suit Ulster I'd imagine.

Always disappointed when i see this...ulster can play some great rugby if they get good conditions...used to be levelled at ireland in the past that the wet conditions suited them.
However as an ulsterman........i couldn't give a fiddlers if it's a force 10 gale with 2 feet of rain......please let ulster win this game!!

CIARAN_BOYLE

I Harinordoquy picked up a bit of a knock in the warm up, a comentator mentioned that he is limping

wixfjord

CMON ULSTERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

With a silver dome iHumph at 10!

LeeroyJones

That's some wind!

iamjenko

Wow! Tuohy really panned him out!!

wixfjord

Could be yellow coming for Biarritz.
Wind seems to have died down a bit.

LeeroyJones

wixfjord wrote: »

Could be yellow coming for Biarritz.
Wind seems to have died down a bit.

Right on Cue. Lund sent to the bin

LeeroyJones

Lovely stuff Ulster, desperately unlucky not to convert it.

Lineout to Biarritz 5 yards from their line

cson

Would it be considered a high tackle if you pulled him down by the beard? :pac:

wixfjord

Surprisingly quiet at Ravers.
Was expecting it to be hopping.

Quint2010

Ulster, despite being against the wind, have had all the play but are 3-0 down. Poor execution at times

cson

I don't like him but Iain Balshaw has been quality at covering the try line.

wixfjord

Cmon Ulster!

This is exactly the type of game Biarritz thrive in. Such an annoying team.

cson

wixfjord wrote: »

This is exactly the type of game Biarritz thrive in. Such an annoying team.

Correction; they're a great team are Biarritz.

wixfjord

****ing awful game tbh.
Ulster are so slow, and I hope that's a ploy and going to change in the second half when they have the wind.

dreamer_ire

Ulster comeback underway!

Huge pen from iHump makes it Ulster 3 BOBP 6

toomevara

Dire stuff. Biarritz are disjointed, ill disciplined and frankly look like they cant be arsed. Ulster are physical, committed and clearly up for the challenge but where are the scores coming from?

LuckyGent88

he could have kicked that from his own 22 nearly!!!! cleared it by 20 yards

dreamer_ire

toomevara wrote: »

Ulster are physical, committed and clearly up for the challenge but where are the scores coming from?

Reckon iHump will have another 5 pens

SuprSi

After all that, to knock it on, man that's tough. Ulster looking better this half though.

LuckyGent88

ulster totally deserve to win this game. Only team who actually want to play the game. totally dominated 1st half into wind and are now gettin the points they deserve

wixfjord

Cracking kick from Pienaar.

SuprSi

Agreed, and a brilliant kick by Pienaar puts them in a good position

wixfjord

Really not sure if Ulster are smart or experienced enough to win this game.

crisco10

they desperately needed to win a lineout there but they lost 2 or 3 in a row so Biarratz have just shifted up the pitch.

danger time now for ulster...

Edit: Good defense or ponderous attack there?

CouchSmart

Big turn over there.

wixfjord

Phew!
Cmon Ulster ten mins to kick a pen or DG.

LuckyGent88

good defence there when it was vital

toomevara

Looks to me like Biarritz are getting a slight edge...nervous times for Ulster. Long ten minutes ahead.

wixfjord

crisco10 wrote: »

they desperately needed to win a lineout there but they lost 2 or 3 in a row so Biarratz have just shifted up the pitch.

danger time now for ulster...

Edit: Good defense or ponderous attack there?

If ever there's a word to describe Biarritz it's ponderous.
****ing boring would be another.

Hyperbullet

Got out of jail there with that knock on. Awful game and Ulster really need a score, for all the possession they've had its been a poor return.

CouchSmart

Not looking good for Ulster.