Ulster v Dragons match thread

mangobob

Ulster mixing the awful with the sublime.

Former Former

Ah here, what age were those lads drinking the pints??

mangobob

FFS Lowry gone

OldRio

Well you can't blame Best for that one.

mangobob

Im not sure I can remember a worse lineout than Ulsters. It truly is utterly abysmal.

Wikidy

set piece is very poor. not sure if it is a lack of talent or poor coaching

Addison couldn't hold him up there. Stick that in the memory bank for the provincial spats.

Squidgy Black

What the fúck was McCloskey thinking there.

Wikidy

Kick wasn't on, Scarlets had numbers out wide.

awec

Treadwell has been good tonight

Squidgy Black

Stewart was like an animal in defence there, two big tackles to slow things down

Locke_Lamora

I get so frustrated with Treadwell, turns out performances like this every now and again, but will disappear the following week. He's still really young for a lock - only turning 23 next month

stephen_n

Score?

Dog Botherer

stephen_n wrote: »

Score?

36-18 to Ulster, full time.

jacothelad

A half decent team would have stuffed Ulster tonight. Poor scrum and shocking line-out........ as it has been for years.

Lack of cool headed thinking under pressure.

White line fever.
Some excellent individual performances like Addison, Lowry, McPhillips, Stewart and Treadwell.

Individual efforts don't actually make a team.



It's early days in the rebuild I suppose but feck me that was the most disappointing bonus point win for a long time.



I suspect that Best really has to take stock of his l/outs. They once again looked like a big girl's blouse was throwing in. Any l/o can miss a few takes but when the throws are big, slow, loopy, off centre efforts that a one eyed scoliotic gibbon would be proud of then things need to change.



Ulster need a scrum refresher course with Greg Feek.

Clegg

Addison is a lovely runner but seems to have problems with his positioning when in defence. Outside centre is the toughest position to defend from and he has a lot of things to work on.

stephen_n

jacothelad wrote: »

A half decent team would have stuffed Ulster tonight. Poor scrum and shocking line-out........ as it has been for years.

Lack of cool headed thinking under pressure.

White line fever.
Some excellent individual performances like Addison, Lowry, McPhillips, Stewart and Treadwell.

Individual efforts don't actually make a team.



It's early days in the rebuild I suppose but feck me that was the most disappointing bonus point win for a long time.



I suspect that Best really has to take stock of his l/outs. They once again looked like a big girl's blouse was throwing in. Any l/o can miss a few takes but when the throws are big, slow, loopy, off centre efforts that a one eyed scoliotic gibbon would be proud of then things need to change.



Ulster need a scrum refresher course with Greg Feek.

So there’s room for improvement?

jacothelad

Clegg wrote: »

Addison is a lovely runner but seems to have problems with his positioning when in defence. Outside centre is the toughest position to defend though. Might be a better bet for full back.

I would give him a free pass a.t.m. as that back-line had never played together before. Shanahan, McPhillips, Speight, McCloskey, Addison, Balacoune and Lowry will probably never be on the field together again.
Defence structure is partly a collective organisation.

mfceiling

Jesus ulster would frustrate the hell out of you.
Any other team bar the dragons would have beaten them tonight.
The amount of missed tackles is beyond a joke...lads throwing out loose arms like they're trying to get their mates attention in the pub.

Positives.

Lowry...Jesus this cub is good.
Shanahan...starting to grow on me. Nippy little passer and actually gets stuck in to tackle.
Addison...lovely footballer.
McPhillips...picking up nicely from last year.


Negatives

We have no line out....zero.
Scrum is useless.
Fear of the try line...how many times did they cough up possession within metres of the try line.
Discipline.
Missed tackles...this is really going to cost us in the bigger games.

Burkie1203

mfceiling wrote: »

Negatives

We have no line out....zero.
Scrum is useless.
Fear of the try line...how many times did they cough up possession within metres of the try line.
Discipline.
Missed tackles...this is really going to cost us in the bigger games.

Lineout is fixable. I think Ulster need to just go safe for a bit

Scrum is down to largely poor props.

Discipline is something that comes with getting defence right. Once they get used to the defence system it should improve that side of things.

Squidgy Black

I've said it a couple times but Best's lineout throwing is really concerning. He's just completely out of whack since he came back, and some of his throws look like he's doing it with one arm tied behind his back and the other missing 3 fingers.

Whoever Ulster's set piece coach is should be shot anyways, I know they haven't a lot to work with in terms of front row, but still.

Digifriendly

Problem with box kicking from both at SH last night - too far and gives opposition time to counter. Cooney is ahead of the game here and we need him for the crucial matches. Having said that in other areas both Shanahan and Stewart played well.

bilston

Finally on the website so my opportunity to comment on Friday's game.

The 5 points was a must, it was more important than the performance on Friday, and I won't say that very often this season.

Shanahan is playing out of his skin, he has his limitations, but he is making the most of what he has.

McPhillips had a good game, does Burns over more? In a way it's academic as neither of them will be at 10 before long.

Addison is a dream going forward, but got caught out defensively once or twice.

Lowry is a class act.

Balacoune looks to me to have some real potential there, but he looked very raw. He is almost the opposite of Lowry. Lowry looked at home from the get go, Balacoune looks like he will take a bit of time, but he definitely appears to be someone to persevere with.

Henderson had a strong game, despite the lineout, his offload to O'Sullivan with one boot on was class.

Treadwell had his second strong appearance in a row. Sacking the Dragons first receiver was a particular highlight.

On the downside, the set piece was dreadful. Are we approaching the point where we are going to have to talk about Rory? Let's see how he does in a better pack in November first, but it's a concern.

The missed tackles is a problem, was there a bit of complacency? Ferris mentioned Coetzee's missed tackles stat on Friday, it's something like 20%. He makes up for it with his turnovers and his carrying and offloading, but that is a poor stat.

I don't know what we do about the scrum, but if we had a stronger set piece we'd be close to being a pretty decent team as our attacking game without a set piece to speak is pretty good.

Burkie1203

bilston wrote: »

Finally on the website so my opportunity to comment on Friday's game.

The 5 points was a must, it was more important than the performance on Friday, and I won't say that very often this season.

Shanahan is playing out of his skin, he has his limitations, but he is making the most of what he has.

McPhillips had a good game, does Burns over more? In a way it's academic as neither of them will be at 10 before long.

Addison is a dream going forward, but got caught out defensively once or twice.

Lowry is a class act.

Balacoune looks to me to have some real potential there, but he looked very raw. He is almost the opposite of Lowry. Lowry looked at home from the get go, Balacoune looks like he will take a bit of time, but he definitely appears to be someone to persevere with.

Henderson had a strong game, despite the lineout, his offload to O'Sullivan with one boot on was class.

Treadwell had his second strong appearance in a row. Sacking the Dragons first receiver was a particular highlight.

On the downside, the set piece was dreadful. Are we approaching the point where we are going to have to talk about Rory? Let's see how he does in a better pack in November first, but it's a concern.

The missed tackles is a problem, was there a bit of complacency? Ferris mentioned Coetzee's missed tackles stat on Friday, it's something like 20%. He makes up for it with his turnovers and his carrying and offloading, but that is a poor stat.

I don't know what we do about the scrum, but if we had a stronger set piece we'd be close to being a pretty decent team as our attacking game without a set piece to speak is pretty good.

Addison has played twice at 13 in a new team. It's a pivotal defensive position so it's only natural he will make a few errors. He also had Balacoune outside him on debut so could just be a lack of familiarity. Time will tell.

McFarland is making all the right noises anyway. It's not this season or even next season where Ulster will benefit. It's going to be 2 or 3 years from now. Biggest problem position is front row. Apart from that there is a lot of potential there especially as Ludik and Marshall due to come back early 2019

It wasn't just when Rory was on that the lineout struggled.

The Coetzee thing was interesting. Ferris mentioned it previously too. He seems to do his own thing at times instead of sticking to the system around him which puts Ulster on back foot.