Connacht vs Ulster Sportsground 27/12/2020 Eir Sport 1

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Penned in our 22 for 30mins after they had 20% possession in the first half.. depressing.

Being against a wind that was stronger in the second half hasn’t helped there along with stupid errors

Ulster have done well to take the advantages they've been given tonight and turn it into a win

sydthebeat wrote: »

Well, for one instance... After the Murphy try on a turn over, blade tried to give a one handed off load out of a tackle behind his back on the ulster 22..... And knocked it forward.....

And on 80% possession in the first half against a team that didn't even have one attack... To go in only 5 points up was criminal.... Mainly down to stupid discipline.

They may be pretty, but they're pretty dumb too

You'll need more than one example for that unbelievably harsh judgement.

I presume the Garda will be outside the sports ground now because Ulster absolutely robbed that.
Connacht really made poor work not to win that.
Ulster played smart with the wind but that was a poor game of rugby by both teams.
Stewart Moore was very bad tonight and didn't think Hume did a lot well either.

sydthebeat wrote: »

Well, for one instance... After the Murphy try on a turn over, blade tried to give a one handed off load out of a tackle behind his back on the ulster 22..... And knocked it forward.....

And on 80% possession in the first half against a team that didn't even have one attack... To go in only 5 points up was criminal.... Mainly down to stupid discipline.

They may be pretty, but they're pretty dumb too

Don't really agree with this. Their discipline really wasn't so bad in the first half. One of those penalties was extremely harsh/incorrect, and if you take that away two kickable penalties in 40 minutes is not a bad return.

The other example is Blade, who was probably the best player on the pitch for my money. I thought it was a silly offload but I'm wasn't sure he didn't try to keep it in hand just to have it slip out as he got hit. One handling error from the only half back on the pitch who looked like creating anything in open play, in opposition territory, is completely fine by me.


Connacht had no kicking game in the second half. Ulster completely dominated them because of that. There's almost no way out of that unless your opponent lets you out. You're going to be constantly outnumbered if your opponents can just keep 2 of their back 3 in the defensive line, unless your continuity is world class. And, in my experience at least, when the wind is so bad that you can't even attempt a low kicking game, then it's also usually going to have a pretty significant effect on passing/handling when playing into it, which takes away creative exits out wide and makes defensive rucks even easier again. The only blunder Ulster really made in the territory game was when Moore(?) kicked it dead.

It was a game of two completely different halves and it suited Ulster perfectly the way it ended up. Connacht still managed to play the best rugby in both halves, which is a positive for them.

sydthebeat wrote: »

Well, for one instance... After the Murphy try on a turn over, blade tried to give a one handed off load out of a tackle behind his back on the ulster 22..... And knocked it forward.....

And on 80% possession in the first half against a team that didn't even have one attack... To go in only 5 points up was criminal.... Mainly down to stupid discipline.

They may be pretty, but they're pretty dumb too

Blade caught the ball after it deflected from a blockdown and didn't have proper control of the ball.

Sorry but have you ever seen a game in the Sportsground? If you are able to kick penalities from 40m out in one half and then the other side can't get the ball further than 10m with their kicks to gain any sort of territory. The other side isn't going to

Two tries from four/five entries into the Ulster 22 is not a bad return and about 6 minutes of that possession was on reset scrums. It's criminal to only go five points up if Connacht had that same 9 point breeze. When the cards fall the way they did for Connacht tonight, you're not winning the game.

That was a tough watch this evening. Thought both sides were poor but think Ulster will be happy to win ugly like that. The conditions must have been something else in the second half and I'd like to give Connacht the benefit of the doubt that this wasn't an accurate sign of where they are at but they really do contrive to shoot themselves in the foot.

“Connacht still managed to play the best rugby in both halves, which is a positive for them.”

Buccs I’m not having a go at you personally but I hear this a lot lately.

Fine we play pretty Rugby but that’s f all good to us when it’s points we need on the board.

If you swap Munster 2nd team with Connacht tonight they win that game every time. They’re cuter and play smarter rugby, they slow the ball down and don’t give away pens and if they do they’re not kick able!

Simple fact of the matter is that they lost that in the first half, 80% possession, totally dominant scrum, wind at our backs and we go in only 5 points ahead and had a man advantage for 10mins.

Good teams in this situation put their opponents to the sword ! We don’t seem to have this ruthless side to our game and it’s sadly lacking.

Too many lineouts lost, too many turnovers , too many pens given away.

That wasn’t a strong Ulster team by any measure and they turned us over easily.

We’re not in a good place at the moment !

sydthebeat wrote: »

That connacht were incredibly dumb tonight??

Jeez, I assume you've just watched the same game.

How many turnovers did connacht give away out wide in those conditions???

9 turnovers to 4 in ulster's favour show just how easily connacht played into ulster's hands.

Incredibly dumb, and I've no problem at all sticking to that

Ah, ok, nice one. So not really any more examples then. The stupidest thing Connacht did was either lose the coin toss or make the wrong decision after winning it.

What's all this stuff about pretty patterns and going wide in the second half?

Absolutely did not happen in Connacht's own half anyway. Absolutely not why they were getting turned over.

They got turned over because its absolutely simple to create a defensive overlap when you don't need to keep your back 3 in the backfield.

One example from the second half, they managed to get the ball from their 22 to their 10 meter line after 4/5 phases. None of that was "pretty patterns" Which is a great return. Then there was a choke tackle and Cooney very clearly illegally held the tackled player on the ground which won a penalty for Ulster (on the ARs side who declined to get involved I guess) which Madigan converted from miles out. That's a huge moment in the game because good play from Connacht ends up in 3 points for Ulster and its impossible for your heads not to drop after something like that.

I'd love to know what the strategic masterminds here suggest Connacht should have done differently in the second half in those conditions.

The most expansive play from Connacht I can remember was in the build up to their try, which was in Ulster's half?

Former Former Former wrote: »

In fairness though, it's Connacht home ground, they should be well used to playing in the wind and rain because it tends to happen a lot in Galway.

If they can't eke out a stalemate in those conditions then they're doing something wrong.

If Connacht hadn't taken advantage of the same conditions, that would be fair enough

There was no dog in that team last night. Very passive and looked rudderless at times. We needed Aki for that. Ruck protection was non existent.
I know the conditions changed but it's our home ground and it's not the first time it happened. If the wind is that strong go to the front no exception. That back row does not balance well either. Not enough go forward.
I was going to say it was just a bad day at the office but I remember saying that a few weeks back too. I know it's a weird season but there is something not right somewhere. There is no consistency week to week.
Blade and Daly are quality and worked so hard last night. TOH looked like his old self again until going off.