Match Thread: Ulster v Edinburgh Ravenhill 03/10/14 19:35 BBC 2 NI

awec

Ulster
15. Louis Ludik
14. Andrew Trimble
13. Jared Payne
12. Stuart McCloskey
11. Tommy Bowe
10. Paddy Jackson
9. Paul Marshall
1. Ruaidhri Murphy
2. Rory Best (Captain)
3. Wiehahn Herbst
4. Alan O’Connor
5. Franco van der Merwe
6. Robbie Diack
7. Chris Henry
8. Roger Wilson


Replacements
16. Rob Herring
17. Andrew Warwick
18. Bronson Ross
19. Lewis Stevenson
20. Nick Williams
21. Michael Heaney
22. Stuart Olding
23. Darren Cave

Edinburgh
15 Greig Tonks
14 Jack Cuthbert
13 Sam Beard
12 Andries Strauss
11 Tim Visser
10 Phil Burleigh
9 Sean Kennedy
1 Rory Sutherland
2 Ross Ford
3 John Andress
4 Anton Bresler
5 Grant Gilchrist
6 Mike Coman (captain)
7 Roddy Grant
8 Cornell Du Preez

Substitutes
16 James Hilterbrand
17 Allan Dell
18 Willem Nell
19 Ollie Atkins
20 Tomas Leonardi
21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
22 Tom Heathcote
23 Nick McLennan



Ulster return to Ravenhill / Kingspan tonight aiming to get their league campaign back in gear after last weeks poor defeat away to Zebre. A much improved performance will be required, with Ulster hopefully finishing the game with 15 men.

Jared Payne has been recalled into the side at 13 to partner Stuart McCloskey. It will be interesting to see how this centre partnership fares, Payne being the fancier player of the two while McCloskey is a big unit who is capable of running over the top of men. On the bench Ulster have Cave and Olding who many would argue are Ulster's best midfield combination - not a bad option for bringing off the bench.

Elsewhere Ruadri Murphy gets a start at loosehead with Ulsters first choice hooker and tight head beside him. Alan O'Connor is handed his debut in the second row, the highly rated player getting a chance to impress alongside the experienced Franco van der Merwe.

Diack, Henry and Wilson make up the back row with Nick Williams again on the bench.

Prediction
Surely, surely a bonus point win for the home team?

bilston

awec wrote: »

Ulster
15. Louis Ludik
14. Andrew Trimble
13. Jared Payne
12. Stuart McCloskey
11. Tommy Bowe
10. Paddy Jackson
9. Paul Marshall
1. Ruaidhri Murphy
2. Rory Best (Captain)
3. Wiehahn Herbst
4. Alan O’Connor
5. Franco van der Merwe
6. Robbie Diack
7. Chris Henry
8. Roger Wilson


Replacements
16. Rob Herring
17. Andrew Warwick
18. Bronson Ross
19. Lewis Stevenson
20. Nick Williams
21. Michael Heaney
22. Stuart Olding
23. Darren Cave

Edinburgh
15 Greig Tonks
14 Jack Cuthbert
13 Sam Beard
12 Andries Strauss
11 Tim Visser
10 Phil Burleigh
9 Sean Kennedy
1 Rory Sutherland
2 Ross Ford
3 John Andress
4 Anton Bresler
5 Grant Gilchrist
6 Mike Coman (captain)
7 Roddy Grant
8 Cornell Du Preez

Substitutes
16 James Hilterbrand
17 Allan Dell
18 Willem Nell
19 Ollie Atkins
20 Tomas Leonardi
21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
22 Tom Heathcote
23 Nick McLennan



Ulster return to Ravenhill / Kingspan tonight aiming to get their league campaign back in gear after last weeks poor defeat away to Zebre. A much improved performance will be required, with Ulster hopefully finishing the game with 15 men.

Jared Payne has been recalled into the side at 13 to partner Stuart McCloskey. It will be interesting to see how this centre partnership fares, Payne being the fancier player of the two while McCloskey is a big unit who is capable of running over the top of men. On the bench Ulster have Cave and Olding who many would argue are Ulster's best midfield combination - not a bad option for bringing off the bench.

Elsewhere Ruadri Murphy gets a start at loosehead with Ulsters first choice hooker and tight head beside him. Alan O'Connor is handed his debut in the second row, the highly rated player getting a chance to impress alongside the experienced Franco van der Merwe.

Diack, Henry and Wilson make up the back row with Nick Williams again on the bench.

Prediction
Surely, surely a bonus point win for the home team?

The weather might put pay to any bonus point.

awec

Pitch ok according to Neilly.

.ak

Thought ulster were lucky to get the penalty in that scrum.

Mccloskey looks like he's been eating his wheetabix over the summer...

awec

McCloskey is feckin huge.

awec

3 nil.

PJ pen.

.ak

Lovely run by visser.

Was that best with the turn over?

.ak

Harsh penalty IMO.

awec

.ak wrote: »

Lovely run by visser.

Was that best with the turn over?

Yea, great turnover.

Buer

.ak wrote: »

Harsh penalty IMO.

Nah. Unfortunate but went straight into his legs whilst the player was airborne. Had to be a penalty.

Kanrith

Brilliant.

awec

TRY!!!

McCloskey runs and passes to Trimble to get over for the try.

Great work by big McCloskey, he is some unit.

.ak

McCloskey is the real deal.

ssaye2

Choo choo all on the mccloskey train

awec

Interesting. Olding on for Jackson - want to see how he does at 10.

Kanrith

Best again.

awec

Ah Rory Best take a bow.

awec

Jackson back on.

awec

Did I hear that right?

McCloskey is 6'4" and 17 stone? :eek:

Honestly - what are we going to do with our embarrassment of riches at 12?

Also, BBC NI not impressed with Payne at 13.

Buer

That's correct. He's just shy of 17. Great to see Chris Farrell going well in France too. Good interview with him in media this week. Ulster offered him a new deal but he wanted a new start.

Ulster have an embarrassment of riches in the centre. Give us one. Go on. You have AOC and Shanahan. You owe us.

bilston

Buer wrote: »

That's correct. He's just shy of 17. Great to see Chris Farrell going well in France too. Good interview with him in media this week. Ulster offered him a new deal but he wanted a new start.

Ulster have an embarrassment of riches in the centre. Give us one. Go on. You have AOC and Shanahan. You owe us.

Scary to think that right now if I were to give up a centre it would be Marshall.

Us fans are fickle beasts...

Edit - Happy with AOC so far.

awec

Wow.

A penalty for a crooked feed. :eek:

postitnote

Payne to 15. Cave to 13. How it should be forever more.

awec

Can't see how he can give this, can't see anything.

awec

Big Nick. Try.

.ak

That set piece was a thing of beauty. Thought Henry was in.

.ak

Lol nick Williams... Pinned him down to force the penalty. A better ref probably would've pinged him.

awec

TRY Best!

Was never a penalty though.

postitnote

There haven't been many things of beauty in this game so far. But the 3 tries are deserved. Olding squeaking the conversion through the posts. A kicking centre/out half. Ulster's Ian Madigan perhaps?

awec

Surely that's a yellow ref?

awec

TRY! Trimble.

Bonus point in the bag.

.ak

Beautiful from Marshall, who I have to say has had a great game.

Awkward Badger

Bonus point win and kept Edinburgh scoreless. Can't argue with that.

awec

FULL TIME.

30-0.

postitnote

Huzzah. We finished with 15 men!

30-0 and TBP final score.

ssaye2

Ah trimble great finisher

is bowe still struggling

The Pheasant2

Best my MOTM, with special mention to Trimble and Williams and Warwick with big shows off the bench.

Can't help but admit that Payne at 13 was underwhelming - which is difficult because I want it to work so bad!

Sinbad_NI

Another game where JP did nothing going forward at 13... should be back at 15 in my book as he has offered nothing there since moved at back end of last season.

Edinburgh were pretty poor, game plan seemed to be high ball which didn't do much other than give us back the ball.

Though we were OK but should have them tagged and bagged long before the end. Scrum was pretty good all-night and second row did admirably well for a new partnership. McCloskey another good game as had Best and Trimble. Diack as well played well I thought.

madlad88

Very impressed with the pack as a whole.

Hard to break down, the new 2nd row partnership worked their backsides off all night.

Young O'Connor didn't look out of place at all.

bilston

ssaye2 wrote: »

Ah trimble great finisher

is bowe still struggling

He had a good second half this evening looking very lively. Hopefully he is feeling his way into the season. Most wingers in Europe would look inferior compared to Trimble right now.

ulster_Beef

Positives

The pack, front row especially

Mccloskey

Negatives

Payne at 13, as ever. Ludik at 13 done more with his appearances there this year, than Payne ever has.

bilston

ulster_Beef wrote: »

Positives

The pack, front row especially

Mccloskey

Negatives

Payne at 13, as ever. Ludik at 13 done more with his appearances there this year, than Payne ever has.

The second half front row were all excellent. Warwick and Herbst look like forming a great partnership in the years to come. Rory was his usual self. O'Connor impressed me and the back row went well. Good mauling as well.

Marshall was terible in the first half and then typical of the man was the complete opposite in the second 40. Trimble was excellent and as I said Bowe came into more as the game went on.

The big one for me is McCloskey. He is such a weapon to have. He is massive but he can pass and looks for the offload. I'm conflicted though because I rate Olding very very highly. Can one of them play 13? Then there's Cave and obviously Marshall as well. Nice problem to have. I still think Olding is special and would still be my choice to play 12 but feck it McCloskey is making it a tight call. The biggest loser AT THE MOMENT is Luke Marshall... No wonder Farrell felt he had to leave!

By the way by all accounts there is another gem of a centre in the Academy in Sam Arnold, as if we don't have enough! We could do with a back row coming through, maybe McCloskey could play 6!!

mfceiling

So...jumped (read fell) out of bed this morning at 6.30 to watch this - Simon Cowell's karaoke competition now takes over the tele in our house on Friday, Saturday and Sunday apparently, so Ulster Rugby is now resigned to the Horizon box which has coped admirably by not f*cking up the last 2 recordings.


Firstly Murphy can't scrummage properly. The man is bent at a 90 degree angle and gets minced when the squeeze comes on him. Is he too tall or is his technique so poor that he either collapses or gets stood up in every scrum?

Front row looks balanced with Herbst, Best and Warwick together - all seem to be of the same height and build - don't know if this is a thing that makes a difference but from a scrummaging point of view it seems to work for Ulster.

Wouldn't be concerned about the back row as Rory Best seems to cover 6 and 7 now!!

Good balance in the back row with Wison, Diack and Henry all playing well - Wilson in particular had a good game. Big Nick seems to come off the bench well when tired legs are in front of him.

Marshall was middling in the first half but came good in the second - his pass to Trimble was top drawer - the last try was a perfect 9, 10, 14 move.

Centres are becoming ridiculous - Marshall, Cave, Ludik, Payne, Olding, McCloskey, Allen - take your pick. Where you talk about a 12 having "dancing feet" or being able to "pick the lock" of the defence, it isn't bad to have someone who just smashes through with the subtlety of a sledgehammer....Marshall is unlucky here as this is what he is being pushed towards. McCloskey is an inch or 2 taller and about 2 stone heavier so he is tailor made for this game plan - looks to have good hands as well so I wouldn't be chalking him down as a one trick pony yet.

Payne isn't a 13 - pretty much a given now. Ludik could be Payne - same languid style of running and has an eye for a soft shoulder and gap.

Bowe is getting back - he's not there yet but he's not a million miles away. Trimble seems to be getting better - ridiculous work rate and is scoring for fun.
Gilroy still thereabouts as well.


It was a good game to watch but sterner tasks lie ahead. Looking on the plus side we have Henderson, Tuohy, Pienaar on the way back which will bolster the squad.

Onwards and upwards!!

Buer

I was very impressed with Alan O'Connor. For a guy who has just turned 22 he looked like an old hand out there.

He took multiple line outs comfortably and called restarts on himself, taking them flawlessly. He was also everywhere in defence and mobile.

If last night is anything to go on, I think he'll be seeing another ten starts this season.

Somewhat frustrating that the locks Leinster gambled on have wound up injured more often than not while the two lads who turned down a year in the sub academy have turned into serious contenders to be provincial starters.

mfceiling

Buer wrote: »

I was very impressed with Alan O'Connor. For a guy who has just turned 22 he looked like an old hand out there.

He took multiple line outs comfortably and called restarts on himself, taking them flawlessly. He was also everywhere in defence and mobile.

If last night is anything to go on, I think he'll be seeing another ten starts this season.

Somewhat frustrating that the locks Leinster gambled on have wound up injured more often than not while the two lads who turned down a year in the sub academy have turned into serious contenders to be provincial starters.

Forgot about O'Connor - he had a great game. Fairly abrasive big lad and looked like someone who had 3 or 4 seasons at this level already.

Utah_Saint

I was at the game. It took a while to get going as the ref seemed to be taking his time with the scrums....

MCcloskey is a serious unit. He lined up beside Henry and made Henry look average height and build..!

Loving our options at centre. Just hope Payne moves back to 15.

mfceiling

Actually thought the ref had a good game. Allowed the game to flow and wasn't whistle happy. Contrast to last week and "we'll just check that upstairs"

shuffol

Buer wrote: »

I was very impressed with Alan O'Connor. For a guy who has just turned 22 he looked like an old hand out there.

He took multiple line outs comfortably and called restarts on himself, taking them flawlessly. He was also everywhere in defence and mobile.

If last night is anything to go on, I think he'll be seeing another ten starts this season.

Somewhat frustrating that the locks Leinster gambled on have wound up injured more often than not while the two lads who turned down a year in the sub academy have turned into serious contenders to be provincial starters.

16 tackles and none missed according to ESPN. 6 more than anybody else in the pack.

Sinbad_NI

mfceiling wrote: »

Actually thought the ref had a good game. Allowed the game to flow and wasn't whistle happy. Contrast to last week and "we'll just check that upstairs"

Yeah ref was good. Took control, no major incidents where he seemed to get it wrong, didn't have the TMO doing his job. Almost vanished which is a good sign.