HEC Round 5 - Ulster Rugby v Montpellier, 10/01/14 20:00, Ravenhill, Sky Sports 2

awec

|
J Payne | A Floch
A Trimble | Y Artru
D Cave | A Tuitavke
L Marshall | T Combezou
C Gilroy | L Dupont
P Jackson | E Selponi
R Pienaar | E Escande
T Court | N Leleimalefaga
R Best | C Geli (C)
J Afoa | M Bustos
J Muller (C) | M Demarco
D Tuohy | R Tchale Watchou
R Diack | J Galletier
C Henry | A Bias
N Williams | J Beattie
Replacements|Replacements
R Herring | T Bianchin
C Black | M Nariashvili
D Fitzpatrick | P Fa'anunu
I Henderson | M Ivaldi
R Wilson | F Quercy
S Doyle | B Paillaugue
P Marshall | P Berard
M Allen | T Nagusa

Ulster go in to round 5 of the Heineken Cup as the only remaining unbeaten side in the competition. A win for Ulster would secure them a quarter final spot come Sunday night barring a seriously unfortunate set of results in other fixtures. Ulster however will be aiming for a bonus point win which would mean they require only a losing bonus point away at Welford Road to top the group.

Rory Best and Johann Muller return from injury and go straight back in to the team. Muller has been sorely missed by Ulster in recent weeks - a lack of leadership and organisation in the pack has been evident at times. Best is a vital piece of the Ulster machinery and his work at the breakdown will be vital for their campaign going forward.

Elsewhere Nick Williams returns to the starting line up after his cameo return in the victory at home to Munster. Ulster will be hoping for some of the ball carrying they saw from the New Zealander last season that so many teams struggled to deal with. Roger Wilson moves to the bench.

Ian Henderson also benches for Ulster, covering both flanker and lock he is a great player to be able to call upon from the bench and a tired Montpellier could find his introduction late in the game to be painful in every sense of the word. Ulster have a 6-2 split on the bench the same as last week, undoubtedly to cover some of the players returning from injury. And speaking of injuries Ulster will be desperate to avoid any this week.

Montpellier as expected have sent a bit of a weaker side but should not be underestimated. Either way, Ulster will clearly target 5 points from this game.

Prediction

Ulster should get the bonus point if they put in a good performance. Use Williams to smash them about a bit.

Hopefully we've done a bit of training on defending mauls.

awec

ULSTER LINE UP

CatFromHue

Interestingly enough Ulster have only conceeded 2 tries in the HEC (that's joint with Castres for the least conceeded) and only 14 in the Rabo (which is the third lowest after Glagow and Munster).

mfceiling

*bing bong*

Can pienaar and williams please step back from the camera.

awec

Really looking forward to this now!

thomond2006

Getting very Top14 style with those pics!

Zzippy

Ooh, fancy tables!

ps that pic of Williams is hilarious, his head is massive!!!!

bilston

Zzippy wrote: »

Ooh, fancy tables!

ps that pic of Williams is hilarious, his head is massive!!!!

Williams looks as though he has just told the photographer that he is about to eat him.

awec

thomond2006 wrote: »

Getting very Top14 style with those pics!

Took me a while, had to get all the images and resize them!

Utah_Saint

awec wrote: »

Really looking forward to this now!

me too. Got my tickets for the east terrace

Utah_Saint

hoping for a BP win. Bringing a Rugby Virgin to the game tonight so it needs to be entertaining to get him hooked!

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

awec wrote: »

ULSTER LINE UP

The bar has been raised!

.ak

They need to be icon size, and on a pitch, and you need to do it for the opposition as well. Nice attempt awec, but keep working on it.

Maybe a flash module wouldn't go amiss...

awec

The tactic for tonight should be to get right up their arse for the first 10 to 15 minutes. Batter them about a bit, make them chase, get a few scores on the board and then they won't want to know and will be dreaming of their flight back to France.

mfceiling

Williams to get on the score sheet....with 6 defenders hanging off him as he smashes through another 2 to score.

Need to get the game won early as Awec says, then the only thing on their minds will be the journey home.

Williams is 4th on the PP betting list to score a try in the game - ahead of Pienaar, Cave and Marshall!!

ulster_Beef

Utah_Saint wrote: »

me too. Got my tickets for the east terrace

Where is this east (the) terrace you speak of ha?

Utah_Saint

I have a spare adult ticket for tonight and was planning on giving it to my 7 year old nephew for his first visit to ravenhill..

do you think there would be a problem getting in? Can't get through to Ravenhill office and can't see anything in terms and coniditions?!!

awec

Doubt they'd care about a child using an adult ticket, they'd be more concerned about adults using child tickets.

Nobody checks the tickets anyway, electronic turnstiles so nobody will even notice

Utah_Saint

yeah was thinking that....cheers...:)

awec

Less than 40 minutes to kick off in this round 5 fixture, anyone not heading to Ravenhill or watching other games can tune in here for updates like from awec's living room.

mfceiling

awec wrote: »

Less than 40 minutes to kick off in this round 5 fixture, anyone not heading to Ravenhill or watching other games can tune in here for updates like loike from awec's living room.

Thought you'd gone all D4 on us!!

awec

Superfluous 'like'.

Buer

Totes, awec.

Nice little piece there featuring Humph. He really was superb when he was on song. He's very much a forgotten piece of Irish rugby. When you ask people for the greats of the professional era, he's unlikely to feature but he was such a classy player. Definitely in the mix up for best Irish player never to go on a Lions tour.

awec

The sons of Ulster are in the dressing room preparing for battle. Adopted sons too.

mfceiling

Remember watching humph in the old landsdowne road when dungannon won the Ail in 2001....he was a class act that day...got MOTM as well.

awec

Wayne Barnes is our referee tonight. Joy.

Buer

mfceiling wrote: »

Remember watching humph in the old landsdowne road when dungannon won the Ail in 2001....he was a class act that day...got MOTM as well.

I think the last time I saw him in the flesh was an A game in Old Belvedere in 2007. It was actually a very promising, if very young Leinster side with McFadden, Toner, Healy, McLaughlin, SOB and Felix Jones in the side, all internationals within the next 4 years.

Good players have an extra second on the ball. He had an extra three seconds that night. It was just ridiculous.

awec

Ulster penalty in a kickable position.

awec

Missed by Pienaar :eek:

Montpellier #6 has to go off with a banjaxed face after trying to tackle Nick Williams I think.

Buer

I'm convinced Pienaar only kicks really well in the interpros! Bad miss. I'd rather see PJ take the kicks at goal. He's as good a kicker as Pienaar. Let RP take the shots to nothing from distance.

awec

Penalty scored by Montpellier, 0-3.

awec

I'm disappointed that we just seem to use Marshall as a basher these days.

Benny Cake

Ravenhill is fair quiet tonight, more atmosphere in a morgue...

Buer

Aside from one shuddering chop tackle, Bug Nuck Wulliams is having a nightmare start to the game. Two unnecessary penalties and a knock on in opposition 22 in the first 9 minutes.

awec

Why the fcuk is Afoa on the wing? :mad:

Wingers on the wing please!

Buer

Ulster are being rattled by the rush defence but there are massive gaps out wide if they can get it beyond the midfield shooters.

mfceiling

awec wrote: »

I'm disappointed that we just seem to use Marshall as a basher these days.

This x100

awec

Entire team needs a boot up the bangle. Sort if out Ulster, this is brutal.

Buer

Ulster's woes at the breakdown are really causing issues for them since the last round of HEC games. They badly need a Ferris or an 8 who can make a strong impact at the ruck. The discipline needs to improve too; each of those penalties were lazy.

If they win tonight with no BP and Leicester do the business with a BP win against Treviso, any sort of home win (assuming Ulster don't score 4 tries and lose) in Welford Road, will see the Tigers top the pool.

eyeball kid

Having to listen to this on Newstalk with Steady Eddie and Bryn Cunningham, really wish I was able to watch it but its better than nothing.

Buer

Crazy passage of play. Trimble's class gets Ulster down the field. Ulster need to just weather Montpellier and keep it tight for the first half and strike when the massive Montpellier pack implode.

awec

Their number 8 can kick?

Kanrith

Nice try, they needed that, if it's awarded.

clsmooth

Great kick, great finish

awec

TRY ULSTER!

A cross kick from Jackson is caught by Robbie Diack who finishes in the corner.

Barnes goes to the TMO.

vienne86

Kanrith wrote: »

Nice try, they needed that, if it's awarded.

Lovely kick from Jackson.

iamjenko

Wow, well done Diak, really well taken try!

A-Train

Great try, great kick, great catch.

Buer

Don't think he was offside, despite no conclusive angle. Good execution. Montpellier have acres of space left out wide. Kick has been on almost every time Ulster have gone through more than two phases.

awec

Ulster 7-3 Montpellier

mfceiling

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