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Ulster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumour Thread II

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Comments

  • #2
    bilston
    Registered Users Posts: 17,742 ✭✭✭✭bilston


    We've come of age. We have a second thread!

    New day and all that...


  • #3
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,335 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    bilston wrote: »
    We've come of age. We have a second thread!

    New day and all that...

    It's part of my attempt to move on from last night. Still not over it.


  • #4
    bilston
    Registered Users Posts: 17,742 ✭✭✭✭bilston


    World Cup 23 for next season then.

    15 Ludik
    14 Trimble/Gilroy
    13 Cave/McCloskey
    12 McCloskey/Marshall
    11 Gilroy/Scholes
    10 Humphreys
    9 Marshall
    1 Black
    2 Herring???
    3 Herbst
    4 Van Der Merwe
    5 Tuohy/Stevenson
    6 Diack
    7 Faloon
    8 Wilson

    16 Andrew
    17 Warwick
    18 Lutton
    19 Stevenson/O'Connor
    20 Williams
    21 Rowley
    22 Windsor
    23 Marshall/Scholes/Arnold

    That's based on current info on next season's squad. Guys like Trimble, Cave and Tuohy are borderline WC squad members. I think Best, Henderson, Henry, Jackson, Payne and Bowe are nailed on though.

    I'd worry about that team against the likes of Leinster, Munster, Glasgow and Ospreys, although they will all be weakened too. Crucial we hit the ground running next season.


  • #5
    CIARAN_BOYLE
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 14,599 Mod ✭✭✭✭CIARAN_BOYLE


    Olding injury to last through the start of next season? Also what is windsor like at 10?


  • #6
    bilston
    Registered Users Posts: 17,742 ✭✭✭✭bilston


    CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »
    Olding injury to last through the start of next season? Also what is windsor like at 10?

    Olding is out until 2016.

    I have no idea about Windsor except that I think he has been injured for a lot of this season.

    Peter Browne could be an interesting signing.


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  • #7
    Zzippy
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 14,166 Mod ✭✭✭✭Zzippy


    awec wrote: »
    It's part of my attempt to move on from last night. Still not over it.

    Group hug? ;)


  • #8
    Scythica
    Registered Users Posts: 961 ✭✭✭Scythica


    Zzippy wrote: »
    Group hug? ;)

    If the FB group is anything to go by I think a group making Voodoo Doll session of Mata would be more appropriate. It's embarrassingly cringy there.


  • #9
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,335 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    Scythica wrote: »
    If the FB group is anything to go by I think a group making Voodoo Doll session of Mata would be more appropriate. It's embarrassingly cringy there.

    The supporters club facebook is always cringeworthy.


  • #10
    ulster_Beef
    Registered Users Posts: 337 ✭✭ulster_Beef


    awec wrote: »
    The supporters club facebook is always cringeworthy.

    Is the game on tv? What channel... Sky. Sky? Since when have sky started showing Ulster games? That's so unfair.

    2 minutes later... Is the game on tv?


    Don't get me started about that page haha


  • #11
    mogwai81
    Registered Users Posts: 527 ✭✭✭mogwai81


    With Paddy Jackson likely to be included in the World Cup squad i was wondering if anyone heard a more to the rumours of
    Sean O'Hagan returning to England.


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  • #12
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,335 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    Ulster are looking at Andrew Beerwinkel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Beerwinkel

    Fantastic name to be fair.


  • #13
    CatFromHue
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,134 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    Charles Piutau has certainly made things interesting for Kirwan in NZ today!


  • #14
    irishbucsfan
    Registered Users Posts: 37,978 ✭✭✭✭irishbucsfan


    CatFromHue wrote: »
    Charles Piutau has certainly made things interesting for Kirwan in NZ today!

    Ooh, that's absolutely brutal...


  • #15
    CatFromHue
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,134 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    The silence was deafening!


  • #16
    blackdog1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,130 ✭✭✭blackdog1


    awec wrote: »
    Ulster are looking at Andrew Beerwinkel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Beerwinkel

    Fantastic name to be fair.

    I'd be worried when it says he can play loosehead and Tighthead. ... so can Micheal bent and Dave Ryan. .


  • #17
    emmet02
    Registered Users Posts: 24,815 ✭✭✭✭emmet02


    blackdog1 wrote: »
    I'd be worried when it says he can play loosehead and Tighthead. ... so can Micheal bent and Dave Ryan. .

    23 appearances this season on both sides of the scrum, including 4 starts in Europe.

    He's one of the most useful players Leinster have ever signed!


  • #18
    Buer
    Registered Users Posts: 24,174 ✭✭✭✭Buer


    blackdog1 wrote: »
    I'd be worried when it says he can play loosehead and Tighthead. ... so can Micheal bent and Dave Ryan. .

    Except that Michael Bent can. He started 4 games in the ECC this season, 2 at each position. There were no real scrum problems at all in the Leinster scrum aside from the two games that Bent didn't start against Quins.

    Players that can play both sides are getting rarer but still exist. I'd be dubious about someone being able to do it that's so inexperienced, though. Memories of Jack McGrath being able to pack down on either side and getting completely pretzeled against the Ospreys.


  • #19
    CIARAN_BOYLE
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 14,599 Mod ✭✭✭✭CIARAN_BOYLE


    Buer wrote: »
    Players that can play both sides are getting rarer but still exist. I'd be dubious about someone being able to do it that's so inexperienced, though. Memories of Jack McGrath being able to pack down on either side and getting completely pretzeled against the Ospreys.

    No one really considered Jack McGrath a TH (except for a couple of idiots in the media). Leinster had two injuries at TH and would have had to play a man short and go to uncontested if Jack didn't try. Depending on how the injuries healed they could have had to play a man short the following weak if McGrath wasn't deemed to have senior experience at TH to be able to go onto the bench. It was a young player being thrown in out of position in an emergency. Not someone able to play both sides.


  • #20
    total former
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,784 ✭✭✭total former


    CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »
    No one really considered Jack McGrath a TH (except for a couple of idiots in the media). Leinster had two injuries at TH and would have had to play a man short and go to uncontested if Jack didn't try. Depending on how the injuries healed they could have had to play a man short the following weak if McGrath wasn't deemed to have senior experience at TH to be able to go onto the bench. It was a young player being thrown in out of position in an emergency. Not someone able to play both sides.

    Joe Schmidt played him at TH for ten minutes in Argentina, rather than risk Rodney Ah You disgracing himself again...


  • #21
    blackdog1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,130 ✭✭✭blackdog1


    emmet02 wrote: »
    23 appearances this season on both sides of the scrum, including 4 starts in Europe.

    He's one of the most useful players Leinster have ever signed!

    Bent is a very decent loosehead now and it took him a few seasons to get there. TH he's only average. He binds on the arm a lot to survive. People forget how bad bent was when he came here. Feek turned him into a decent prop but not a th. Ulster are looking for a Heineken cup standard prop like Herbst. No real international prop plays both sides for a reason.


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  • #22
    emmet02
    Registered Users Posts: 24,815 ✭✭✭✭emmet02


    Average TH props are worth having in reserve! Bent is a good LH and more than a passable TH. That's an incredibly useful squad player to have.

    If Beerwinkel is similar, that's a very very good signing for Ulster!

    I don't think you'll be able to sign another TH like Herbst. I doubt it's even in consideration tbh!


  • #23
    total former
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,784 ✭✭✭total former


    Also; surely Ulster's quota of foreigners is full at this stage??

    Herbst
    van der Merwe
    Williams
    Pienaar
    Ludik

    There isn't room for him.


  • #24
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,335 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    total former wrote: »
    Also; surely Ulster's quota of foreigners is full at this stage??

    We'll need to sign someone because of the premature retirement of Deccie Fitz.


  • #25
    emmet02
    Registered Users Posts: 24,815 ✭✭✭✭emmet02


    awec wrote: »
    We'll need to sign someone because of the premature retirement of Deccie Fitz.

    It'll need to be an IQ player though, zero chance you get special dispensation for 2 NIQs above the limit!

    Jamie Hagan?


  • #26
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,335 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    emmet02 wrote: »
    It'll need to be an IQ player though, zero chance you get special dispensation for 2 NIQs above the limit!

    Jamie Hagan?

    Think it'll depend on who we can get more than anything. We need decent rather than squad filler, we already have enough useless props.


  • #27
    total former
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,784 ✭✭✭total former


    Yeah, if the story about the reduced NIQ quota is to be believed and if Ulster have been given a dispensation to exceed it, then they definitely won't be allowed sign yet another one.

    Jamie Hagan is useless, he's not remotely an option.


  • #28
    Utah_Saint
    Registered Users Posts: 1,775 ✭✭✭Utah_Saint


    we need backrows also....!

    without new players there, next season will be a repeat of this year.


  • #29
    Buer
    Registered Users Posts: 24,174 ✭✭✭✭Buer


    Utah_Saint wrote: »
    we need backrows also....!

    without new players there, next season will be a repeat of this year.

    Ulster always need back rows.

    It's a bit of a baffling one, to be honest. The one area of the team where they've been screaming out for a top class signing for years and have never made one. They've signed front rows, second rows, scrum halves, all sorts of backs but Nick Williams is the only significant back row signing I can recall in recent years and, lets be honest, he's pretty low profile relative to the others.

    One big mean back row player and it would be a massive boost to them. Josh Strauss would be Irish qualified now if Ulster had convinced him to join the Belfast Boks.


  • #30
    total former
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,784 ✭✭✭total former


    There was Pedrie Wannenburg but he decided not to stick it out. Nick Williams looked like a man reborn when he arrived but wasn't able to sustain it. They would have hoped Wilson would have more of an impact too.


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  • #31
    Buer
    Registered Users Posts: 24,174 ✭✭✭✭Buer


    Forgot about PW who, in fairness, was pretty high profile if a bit of a rogue.

    Roger Wilson was never much more than an adequate team player, to my mind, but never someone that was going to particularly improve the side. He's the sort of player they've been bringing in when they need someone much better who could sit alongside the likes of Henry and Ferris.


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