ulster v connacht sat 5th Nov 17.35 ko ravenhill live on bbcni/rte

seanin4711

hope we can get a performance and not deflate at the start on the second half a la the last two games.

GWAN THE MEN FROM THE WISHT

thomond2006

I notice you never say "slán!" anymore!

freyners

ulster squad announced. says on the website that afoa, best and ferris are all expected to take part
FORWARDS

Tom Court, John Afoa, Paddy McAllister, Adam Macklin, Callum Black, Andi Kyriacou, Nigel Brady, Rory Best, Johann Muller, Tim Barker, Lewis Stevenson, Dan Tuohy, Neil McComb, Chris Henry, Robbie Diack, Mike McComish, Pedrie Wannenburg, Willie Faloon, Stephen Ferris

BACKS

Ruan Pienaar, Paul Marshall, Ian Porter, Ian Humphreys, Paddy Jackson, Paddy Wallace, Ian Whitten, Nevin Spence, Darren Cave, Andrew Trimble, Craig Gilroy, Simon Danielli, Adam D’Arcy

seanin4711

thomond2006 wrote: »

I notice you never say "slán!" anymore!

slan awan.
gwan Connacht

Robbo

Pienaar is apparently injured but Frank Murphy is carrying a knock and will probably bench. Should be a good chance for O'Donoghue to make a serious case for himself because Murphy's not been setting the tone for the backs.

GerM

Big blow for both sides. I don't hugely rate POD or Marshall. I think Marshall could provide a bit more spark than POD though and, if his passing is somewhat acceptable, he should win that battle. NOC outside POD does not exactly inspire confidence. Connacht could have Nonu, Fourie and Clerc outside them and they'd struggle to score tries. iHumph and Marshall will fancy a few cuts at that channel in broken play. There actually isn't a huge amount between the packs in my opinion but the return of Ferris and Best will set Ulster apart.

Ulster to win by about 10.

Brendan97

I really like the look of the new ulster front row with afoa, best & court

GerM

Ulster Match Day Squad to face Connacht, Saturday 5th November, Ravenhill, kick-off 5.35pm
(15-9): S Danielli; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, C Gilroy; I Humphreys, P Marshall;
(1-8): T Court, R Best, J Afoa, J Muller (capt), D Tuohy, S Ferris, C Henry, P Wannenburg;
Replacements (16-23): A Kyriacou, P McAllister, A Macklin, L Stevenson, R Diack, I Porter, N Spence, A D'Arcy

Unavailable due to injury: Jared Payne (achilles), Luke Marshall (jaw), Jerry Cronin (neck), Declan Fitzpatrick (ankle), Ruan Pienaar (hamstring)

GerM

Disappointed to see them retain Danielli at 15. I think he's far too lumbering to play there. No sign of Terblanche. I thought they'd have tried to get him on the bench for this weekend if there was a chance of him playing against Clermont. Aside from Henry and Wannenburg, that's a good pack. But back row is too important an area to have passengers and I don't think those two have the required quality to compete in the HEC against the best. Wannenburg just doesn't seem interested because he has the talent just no brain or intensity. Interesting to see Spence jettisoned which could be as a result of the defensive mishap for the Scarlets second try last week. Cave is a more rounded player at this moment in time anyway. I really hope he stays injury free this season because he has a shot at being on the plane to NZ next summer if he does.

freyners

GerM wrote: »

Ulster Match Day Squad to face Connacht, Saturday 5th November, Ravenhill, kick-off 5.35pm
(15-9): S Danielli; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, C Gilroy; I Humphreys, P Marshall;
(1-8): T Court, R Best, J Afoa, J Muller (capt), D Tuohy, S Ferris, C Henry, P Wannenburg;
Replacements (16-23): A Kyriacou, P McAllister, A Macklin, L Stevenson, R Diack, I Porter, N Spence, A D'Arcy

Unavailable due to injury: Jared Payne (achilles), Luke Marshall (jaw), Jerry Cronin (neck), Declan Fitzpatrick (ankle), Ruan Pienaar (hamstring)

thats a mean looking 15 there....

GerM

Connacht backrow! Muldoon dropped. First start for McSharry. Duffy's versatility to the fore again. They need to get him involved more as he has a bit of composure. Right call dropping NOC I reckon. Still, with that back row, I can't see Ulster losing this one especially with the likes of Best in the team who can be like an additional flanker.

15 Tiernan O’Halloran
14 Fetu’u Vainikolo
13 Gavin Duffy (C)
12 Dave McSharry
11 Brian Tuohy
10 Miah Nikora
09 Paul O’Donohoe
01 Brett Wilkinson
02 Adrian Flavin
03 Rodney Ah You
04 Michael Swift
05 Mike McCarthy
06 TJ Anderson
07 Eoghan Grace
08 George Naoupu



16 Ethienne Reynecke
17 Ronan Loughney
18 Dylan rogers
19 Dave Gannon
20 John Muldoon
21 Frank Murphy
22 Niall O’Connor
23 Matthew Jarvis

Robbo

That's a mental amount of (seemingly) unforced changes in the backline. Eric must have read the riot act to the backs after last weeks game. Interesting though. We were always going to be lacking from 9-15 against the Olstermen so why not go for broke?

Hagz

Yes! It's about time that McSharry got a start. Can't wait for this game now.

porterbelly

Lots of Connacht lads rested ahead of HC. Only one result here lads

freyners

porterbelly wrote: »

Lots of Connacht lads rested ahead of HC. Only one result here lads

connacht by 20 points ya


losing bp here i would take.

porterbelly

freyners wrote: »

connacht by 20 points ya


losing bp here i would take.

Losing bonus point would be a minor miracle. We need a decent performance and to keep it respectable so we don't lose confidence for next week

eyeball kid

Gonna be a tough ask against that Ulster team. Just hope we can keep it tight
and sneak get a bonus point.

Fireball07

Eoin Griffin dropped, rested or injured?

porterbelly

Fireball07 wrote: »

Eoin Griffin dropped, rested or injured?

Bot of both I'd say. Midfield hasn't been clicking, we needed a shake up throughout the team, to get lads like Grace, McSharry and O'Donoghue starts, whether it's the right week to do it, I'm not so sure. Time will tell

ouncer

think it will be interesting seeing a new centre combination tried. existing combination try hard but wonder if maybe duffy will in fact help shore up mistakes. its a strange time to try a new combination but think it just might work. tuohy deserves a chance at winger, vainikolo has to prove himself after a shambles last week and o'halloran has done the full back job well with the irish u-20's so knows whats expected. great to see o'donohoe in at 9 and if only miah could kick penalties he might be a steady nr 10. the rest of his game is quality. the forwards have a lot of experience and can hold it together. so yes its experimental, but hey thats connacht rugby. when you have player turnover that these guys have to live with every game is an experiment.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Come on Ulster come on Connacht give me good game

Worried for Ulster in the HEC with no Pienaar

.ak

Hrmm. Anyone else use the RTE Player on the PS3? Thought it would be nice to watch this on it.. but doesn't seem to be available. Anyone else using this?

What was Muller up to there?

POD going down like he was shot there. Hate seeing that **** so much. Muller did nudge him, but O'Donoghue should be embarrassed by his reaction

.ak

Lovely pop from Ferris!!

..but lovely try saving tackle there from Duffy I think?

its_phil

Tony Ward and the other commentator havent a clue about any of the connacht players.They've mixed up the names about four times between them

CIARAN_BOYLE

Swift off Gannon on

its_phil

its_phil wrote: »

Tony Ward and the other commentator havent a clue about any of the connacht players.They've mixed up the names about four times between them

the boys on BBC NI are consummate pros, I watch as many games they cover as possible.

.ak

Marshall's having a good game.

Big Nelly

poor match

.ak

Lovely try... Long time coming though. Humphries has been at those inside passes all day.

LeeroyJones

Try Gilroy..
Nice line, well executed

Gilroy refuses to stop scoring

CIARAN_BOYLE

Gilroy a try

Thats 10 tries from 20+1 appearances

I!Humph misses the conversion.

porterbelly

Our scrum is is in dissaray. I suppose thats what you get when you have 2 pub players and Wilko up against an all black and 2 internationals. The difference hagan and Cronin would make there is huge.

Defence is good though but it's only a matter of time before Ulster cut loose.

Swifty is a huge blow for us, lets hope he's back for next week.

I'd say Eric wished he put out a full team now.

Mike McCarthy has been the best player on the pitch along with Ferris.

Shelflife

poor game and frustrating to watch, with my green tinged glasses on im finding the ref frustrating as well,

ulster man strikes a conn player, ulster no 7 runs in and gets involved with another conn player, no card.

conn twice denied the opportunity to take a quick tap but ulster allowed to do so.

conn player makes effort to get out of ruck gets penalised, ulster player doing the same isnt.

ulster players are running interference esp ferris and are not being pinged at all.

im not blaming the ref for being behind but he is helping them to keep the pressure on connacht.

porterbelly

I'll add to that a Muller punch on McCarthy straight in front of the ref and tj

No 10 metres, no card no nothing. Touch judge pulls a high tackle by Ah You back when the play had developed 5 minutes. Come on.

We aren't good enough though, ref or no ref

CIARAN_BOYLE

Tom Court try conversion to come

Shelflife

why was the lineout brought back to where the ball was kicked from?

duckysauce

Shelflife wrote: »

why was the lineout brought back to where the ball was kicked from?

hit off a connacht player so deemed to be brought back into the 22

ambid

porterbelly wrote: »

Our scrum is is in dissaray. I suppose thats what you get when you have 2 pub players and Wilko up against an all black and 2 internationals. The difference hagan and Cronin would make there is huge...

Is Ah You really that poor?

.ak

Jaysus I think Connacht seem to malfunction whenever they get into the 22 tonight, as if they're like 'Eh, we're here, what do we do now?'

Shelflife

duckysauce wrote: »

hit off a connacht player so deemed to be brought back into the 22

jasus thats both pedantic and harsh

.ak

Dunno if it's just me... but I'm watching this on the RTE player, and there's a weird sound in the audio.. like a fake/canned crowd soundbyte.. Anyone else hearing it? Or am I losing my mind?

.ak

Lovely take from Trimble... Ulster really trying out some exciting backline moves.

.ak

WTF? Connacht player picked the ball up whilst on the ground? Infront of the ref? Who is this.. Kaino?

its_phil

GET NIKORA OFF THE PITCH!

its_phil

.ak wrote: »

WTF? Connacht player picked the ball up whilst on the ground? Infront of the ref? Who is this.. Kaino?

ball came out hit ulster players legs went back in to ruck, so i think he can play it then

.ak

Some absolute bone crunching tackles going on in this match.

Rickwellwood

Credit to Connacht - defense has been immense - would love to see our tackles made stat - fair play. We dont offer anything in attack from the backs but we've been saying that a lot this season - pretty amazing Ulster havent pressed home their advantage in territory and possession

its_phil

serious dribbling skills from wallace!