Ulster Team Talk Thread IV... Go On My Henderson...

Dylbag wrote: »

Next Season Depth Chart - assuming Jacob now a 15

1. Jack McGrath/ EOS/ Andy Warwick/ Kyle McCall / O'Hagan
2. Herring/ McBurney/ Andrews
3. Moore/ Kane/ TOT/ Mila
4. Hendy/ AOC/ Dave O'Connor
5. Carter/ Treadwell
6. Timoney/ Matty Rea/ Marcus Rea
7. Jordi/ Reidy
8. Marcel/ Greg Jones

9. Cooney/ Shanahan/ Stewart
10. Billy/ Lowry/ Bill?
11. Gilroy/ Lyttle/ Kernohan
12. McCloskey/ Luke/ Curtis
13. Addison/ Hume/ Hyde
14. Faddes/ Balacoune/ Sexton
15. Stockdale/ Ludik/ Nelson

Pretty decent options - maybe slightly light in back row depth and 9 depth quality.

Think that's massive assumption about Stockdale.

Balacoune out

Stockdale moves to the wing and Lowry goes to FB.

Kernohan goes onto the bench.

Is Rob Lyttle injured? There is no way Kernohan is ahead.of him

What channel(s) is tonights game on?

#SUFTUM

Bring it home lads. Deny the ****ers a home final.

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

So... The Glasgow game was brutal to watch... But overall I, for one, am very happy at the way the season has gone.

Season has gone better than anyone could imagine. Litterally a dream season for a few academy players. Couldnt be grudge anyone moving Province to be involved.

Really looking forward to see what other players can be brought through from the academy. Think thats what i'm moe excited for!

launish116 wrote: »

Really looking forward to see what other players can be brought through from the academy. Think thats what i'm moe excited for!

I'm hoping to see the likes of O'Toole, McBurney and Marcus Rea really kick on next season. Best needs replaced and McBurney might be the long term answer. Also as much as I like Timoney I think we could do with an upgrade at 6 alongside Murphy and Coetzee. Maybe, given time, Marcus Rea could be that guy

Who knows who will be the next cab off the academy rank but I'm looking forward to seeing Callum Reid, David McCann, Azur Allison and Stewart Moore playing for the U20s over the next few week's (if they make the final cut of course!)

Ulster is an utterly different beast to this time last year.

That '17-'18 season was a long, disheartening grind of constant upheaval. Jackson and Olding had gone, leaving a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth, and making Ulster Rugby the centre of a media storm that was very unpleasant to be a part of. Jared Payne had incurred a weird injury for the B&I Lions that mean he never featured again in an Ulster shirt. Coetzee managed a handful of games. Trimble and Bowe started to show their ages, and both retired, as did Paul Marshall and Ricky Lutton. Less talented players who were nevertheless stalwarts - like Callum Black and Robbie Diack - moved on. Charles Piutau went to earn serious moolah in Bristol.

In January, Les Kiss left by "mutual consent". I for one was perfectly happy to see him go - especially as that meant Jonno Gibbes would assume control. Our backs had long been the most talented half of the team - with Gibbes working some magic with the pack, I reasoned, we could turn things around. Nope. Then Gibbes announced he was going home to Waikato to coach, then actually went to coach La Rochelle. It was massively demoralising. And consistency? In the last ten years we'd had Matt Williams, Brian McLaughlin, Mark Anscombe, Les Kiss, Neil Doak, Les Kiss again, Jonno Gibbes as head coaches. That's seven stretches, amongst six coaches, in a decade. It felt, quite frankly, like we were uncoachable.

When we were told Dan McFarland was to be the new head coach, it seemed inevitable that there would be some kind of typically Ulster vibe to it - Scotland seemingly unwilling to release him until November, and actually unwilling to let him go until August, after the pre-season, ticked that box. Payne becoming official, full time defence coach was a concern, in that it was his first coaching job. But Johnny Petrie replacing Shane Logan was massive - an ex-player replacing a businessman. More grounded, more willing to communicate with fans, infinitely more knowledge about rugby. When racist taunts were thrown at Simon Zebo, the actions were swift, decisive and sent out an unambiguous message.

Make no mistake - we continued to shed players throughout the season. Deysel, Henry and Browne retired. Ah You and Herbst simply left to go to other teams. But this season gave a glimpse of a bright future. The lineout is still an issue - some days fine, but on other occasions woeful. But our restarts, mauling, maul defence and scrum have come on massively. Payne has transformed our defence (Glasgow game notwithstanding). Ten academy players - Lowry, Kernohan, Baloucoune, Hume, O'Sullivan, Houston, O''Hagan, Rea, Jones and Curtis have made senior debuts. Several of them have been bumped up onto senior contracts already. The end of last season saw debuts for Dalton, O'Toole and Hall. All we need is some of the young second rows to start to break through, and some talent at nine.

Next season should be even better. Carter, Johnson, Faddes and Milasinovich coming in, and Roddy Grant is coming as a specialist forwards coach. We'll miss Best and Cave, obviously, but still... It all looks pretty hopeful. Bryn said at the start of the season that it was imagined we'd be properly competitive in three to five yesrs. It feels like we're soundly ahead of schedule.

For me, Henderson and Coetzee were at the heart of this season. Hendo absolutely stood up in terms of fantastic performances, leadership and grabbing games by the scruff of the neck. Coetzee added - and inspired in other players - an amazing physicality. Treadwell really looked capable of a great deal more than last season. O'Sullivan looks to the manor born. Hume and Lowry look both comfortable and exciting. Baloucoune has come from nowhere and I'm not sure Gilroy automatically starts ahead of him when fit. Moore and Addison very influential, and Marshall has come back with a roar.

Bring it on.

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

Ulster is an utterly different beast to this time last year.

That '17-'18 season was a long, disheartening grind of constant upheaval. Jackson and Olding had gone, leaving a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth, and making Ulster Rugby the centre of a media storm that was very unpleasant to be a part of. Jared Payne had incurred a weird injury for the B&I Lions that mean he never featured again in an Ulster shirt. Coetzee managed a handful of games. Trimble and Bowe started to show their ages, and both retired, as did Paul Marshall and Ricky Lutton. Less talented players who were nevertheless stalwarts - like Callum Black and Robbie Diack - moved on. Charles Piutau went to earn serious moolah in Bristol.

In January, Les Kiss left by "mutual consent". I for one was perfectly happy to see him go - especially as that meant Jonno Gibbes would assume control. Our backs had long been the most talented half of the team - with Gibbes working some magic with the pack, I reasoned, we could turn things around. Nope. Then Gibbes announced he was going home to Waikato to coach, then actually went to coach La Rochelle. It was massively demoralising. And consistency? In the last ten years we'd had Matt Williams, Brian McLaughlin, Mark Anscombe, Les Kiss, Neil Doak, Les Kiss again, Jonno Gibbes as head coaches. That's seven stretches, amongst six coaches, in a decade. It felt, quite frankly, like we were uncoachable.

When we were told Dan McFarland was to be the new head coach, it seemed inevitable that there would be some kind of typically Ulster vibe to it - Scotland seemingly unwilling to release him until November, and actually unwilling to let him go until August, after the pre-season, ticked that box. Payne becoming official, full time defence coach was a concern, in that it was his first coaching job. But Johnny Petrie replacing Shane Logan was massive - an ex-player replacing a businessman. More grounded, more willing to communicate with fans, infinitely more knowledge about rugby. When racist taunts were thrown at Simon Zebo, the actions were swift, decisive and sent out an unambiguous message.

Make no mistake - we continued to shed players throughout the season. Deysel, Henry and Browne retired. Ah You and Herbst simply left to go to other teams. But this season gave a glimpse of a bright future. The lineout is still an issue - some days fine, but on other occasions woeful. But our restarts, mauling, maul defence and scrum have come on massively. Payne has transformed our defence (Glasgow game notwithstanding). Ten academy players - Lowry, Kernohan, Baloucoune, Hume, O'Sullivan, Houston, O''Hagan, Rea, Jones and Curtis have made senior debuts. Several of them have been bumped up onto senior contracts already. The end of last season saw debuts for Dalton, O'Toole and Hall. All we need is some of the young second rows to start to break through, and some talent at nine.

Next season should be even better. Carter, Johnson, Faddes and Milasinovich coming in, and Roddy Grant is coming as a specialist forwards coach. We'll miss Best and Cave, obviously, but still... It all looks pretty hopeful. Bryn said at the start of the season that it was imagined we'd be properly competitive in three to five yesrs. It feels like we're soundly ahead of schedule.

For me, Henderson and Coetzee were at the heart of this season. Hendo absolutely stood up in terms of fantastic performances, leadership and grabbing games by the scruff of the neck. Coetzee added - and inspired in other players - an amazing physicality. Treadwell really looked capable of a great deal more than last season. O'Sullivan looks to the manor born. Hume and Lowry look both comfortable and exciting. Baloucoune has come from nowhere and I'm not sure Gilroy automatically starts ahead of him when fit. Moore and Addison very influential, and Marshall has come back with a roar.

Bring it on.

The big thing for me during the season just gone is that it seemed increasingly evident that Hendy had overtaken Rory as our talisman. When Hendy played our levels went up significantly. That's not to diminish Rory at all, as he was still our fearless leader, but Henderson was and still is our most important player.

Dubinusa wrote: »

The young lads will make or break Ulster. I feel they will be great.

Ulster finally have a high level back row. Coetzee is incredible and Jordi is great too. Reidy is very capable as is Timoney. I think Timoney will get better. Rea's both look good.

E.O.S is fantastic. A huge improvement on the other lads. Jack McGrath will add a lot next year. Marty Moore was great. He will work his way back into the national set up.

I thought they would sign Nagle. He did very well for them. Treadwell had a great second half to the season and A.O.C was good also.
Ulster will contend next season.

Young lads will indeed, we have a crazily young squad now. I still think it will be 2 more seasons before we truly lock down the potential of our young lads. The likes of EOS, Baloucoune, Lyttle are way a head of schedule and will only improve more in the incoming season.

We do have a very good first string backrow, but any long term injury to Coetzee and that dynamic drastically changes. Blindside is still open and opportunities awaits. Rea Snr needs a decent injury free run and needs to lock down Blindside. Very much looking forward to seeing the likes of Rea Jnr, Allison, Dunleavy, Agnew after a full pre-season. Any academy player capable of ball carrying, fast track!

Front row next season is going to be very interesting. Bar tighthead and hooker there will be real competition between EOS & Mcgrath and bench spots.

Secondrow also an area of improvement, Carter to arrive with Treadwell now showing what he's capable off. I too would have been happy to sign Nagle. I didn't think he had the chance to show how good he could have been. Not to forget Dan also sees potential in Dalton.

All in all I'm very excited to see how pre-season goes, with our new arrivals and integration of more academy player.

Confirmed Bill Johnson is joining

A good signing as it stands and potentially a very good one. Gutted to see Johnston leave Munster but it's in his best interests.

I think Jones is a good back up to Coetzee. He can also fit in as a blindside. Timoney is a similar type to Deegan imo. He can be very dynamic in space and can move like a gazelle.
I really hope Rea comes good. All in all, the back row looks good. Jones can step in when Coetzee is being rested. Timoney can also play at 8.