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

I think it's anyone's game. There's no issue with Ulster if Leinster win. Their weakened line up still contains about a dozen internationals. They could well grind out a win based on defence and territory. I'd make Ulster marginal favourites as they've more game breakers in Lowry, Cooney, Stockdale, Timoney and Coetzee.

I haven't really followed the media in the build up (the lack of basic knowledge at this point is appalling) but the only guy I did hear making the claim about Ulster having to win this given the line ups was Tommy Bowe, last night on Eir.

If Ulster can’t back themselves and beat this Leinster, when will they ever! They have the motivation and least disruption.

launish116 wrote: »

If Ulster can’t back themselves and beat this Leinster, when will they ever! They have the motivation and least disruption.

Some things you just can't legislate for

The forward pack just isn't really good enough, with the season on the line they got taken apart tonight by a team missing Cian Healy, Tadgh Furlong, Andrew Porter, James Ryan, Ronan Kelleher, Will Connors, Caelan Doris, Max Deegan and probably someone else. The scrum was minced and Leinster were confident defending their own line while we were only ever three phases from conceding. As good as some of our outside backs are, we won't improve as a team until the pack is upgraded or at the very least our scrum isn't a net negative. I'll list some positives as well, but are pack is a serious problem right now if we want to properly compete. No easy fix for it.

Hard to look for positives but I'll try my best. The backs looked dangerous, although Leinster were obviously missing a host of players there too. Moore ran good lines when he came on, he'll push Hume next year I reckon, both need to tidy up their defence though. Izzy looked serviceable at this level. We hadn't really got a proper look at him in his previous cameos but he played well. Looks a little nervous defeding around the fringe of the ruck but I like the potential there. Treadwell was athletic but raw when he arrived as well.

Baloucoune should play for Ireland soon - he's not great in the air but neither is Stockdale, Larmour or Lowe, his touchline defence is excellent and his confidence in attack is growing and growing. Great to see him come back and still have that acceleration, it can't be understated how difficult that can be after a bad hamstring injury, takes a lot of dedication and patience. I think the Ireland 14 jersey is up for grabs, Earls is slowing down and Larmour, while obviously a good player, hasn't impressed all that much at the next level and Baloucoune brings different qualities.

If you mean when Warwick was given a red, it was 12-17 to Leinster.

If you mean when JOB was given the yellow, by the time he was back on, the score had gone from 12-3 to 12-10.

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

If you mean when Warwick was given a red, it was 12-17 to Leinster.

If you mean when JOB was given the yellow, by the time he was back on, the score had gone from 12-3 to 12-10.

I thought toner should have been a red card,

awec wrote: »

It's not going to change.

So long as our owners have 1 decent team they won't give a flying fcuk how well we do.

Definitely a case of 1 step forward 2 steps back!

I said this last season as well, forget the silverware get the squad right and it will come!

Locke_Lamora wrote: »

I like the signing on a one-year deal. He has an incentive to up his game, and it gives us time to source a replacement. Mind you we knew Coetzee was probably leaving for ages so we had the time to nail down a long-term replacement, so I'm guessing the 'new' no.8 will be McCann lol.

I thought it was a two year deal. It's worth a punt for a season and if he doesn't work out it's not a huge problem.

You could do a lot worse than getting Jack Conan up to Belfast. He's second choice number 8 now that Doris is in situ. But I think he's pretty happy at Leinster.

Clegg wrote: »

I thought it was a two year deal. It's worth a punt for a season and if he doesn't work out it's not a huge problem.

You could do a lot worse than getting Jack Conan up to Belfast. He's second choice number 8 now that Doris is in situ. But I think he's pretty happy at Leinster.

As much as I am glad for the Leinster lads we have...I really don't want any more moving up. It give us no incentive to develop our own talent. And if we can't develop our own talent, we might as well pack it in...

Clegg wrote: »

I thought it was a two year deal. It's worth a punt for a season and if he doesn't work out it's not a huge problem.

You could do a lot worse than getting Jack Conan up to Belfast. He's second choice number 8 now that Doris is in situ. But I think he's pretty happy at Leinster.

Conan is going nowhere.

Right I've moaned enough on the match thread about refereeing decisions.

There are two dangers here...

Firstly Ulster get carried away thinking we only lost because of the officiating. We lost because we weren't as good as Leinster. And that was a Leinster team missing a lot of players. It's not like Leinster had 15 players on the pitch the whole time either.

Secondly because of crapness of everyone else bar Leinster and Munster in the league, we think we are better than we are.

Our pack isn't good enough when it comes to competing with Leinster and Munster as well actually. I'll keep saying it, we can't beat Leinster if our pack has 3 or 4 guys who had to leave Leinster because they weren't able to get into their team.

We have to produce our own and make one or two clever overseas signings.

Get McCann and Reid into the side as soon as possible. We can rightfully moan about a lack of consistency last night from the officials, but Warwick let the team down, he isnalright in the scrum, but whatbdoes he offer that Reid doesn't at this stage? Get Reid into the team for the last two dead rubbers. Also we've all seen McCann play, he's a class act, get him in now. The next two matches are irrelevant, hold Coetzee back for the Challenge Cup and Rainbow Cup and also give his injury time to heal.

Also is it time we started looking at the south Sea islands and trying to bring in a couple of young talented Fijian, Tongan or Samoan huge ball carrying second rows/back rows? They'll be relatively cheap compared to a Kiwi or Saffer and they will play like their lives depend on it. The French clubs do this all the time and it really works for them. I know we have just signed Nakarawa, maybe we can use him as a way of getting into the market. It seems an area we never look to for potential signings. Timoci Nagusa and the prop right from the start of the noughties, who may or may not have been older than we thought when we signed him(!), being the exceptions.

awec wrote: »

For me, it doesn't matter if they're from Dublin or Durban, they're players we are bringing in. We shouldn't put any premium on Irish players, just sign the best players we can afford.

If we end up with a team with 4 or 5 islanders in it, who cares? It's no different to the current situation where we've a team with numerous Leinster rejects in it.

We are never going to be able to produce an entirely home grown team, we're always going to have to sign numerous players.

At least with the Islanders and Saffers there is a chance they will be able to compete with Leinster.

With the guys who left Leinster because of lack of game time its going to be impossible. Sure take a couple, but if half your pack is made up of those guys then you just won't beat Leinster. We've tried four times since September and have lost every single time, and none of the matches have been close.

Locke_Lamora wrote: »

I like the signing on a one-year deal. He has an incentive to up his game, and it gives us time to source a replacement. Mind you we knew Coetzee was probably leaving for ages so we had the time to nail down a long-term replacement, so I'm guessing the 'new' no.8 will be McCann lol.

Glasgow fans on their own forum were slaughtering Nakarawa for a recent performance against his future employers. Overweight, disinterested, sad to see. Those kind of remarks.

awec wrote: »

For me, it doesn't matter if they're from Dublin or Durban, they're players we are bringing in. We shouldn't put any premium on Irish players, just sign the best players we can afford.

If we end up with a team with 4 or 5 islanders in it, who cares? It's no different to the current situation where we've a team with numerous Leinster rejects in it.

We are never going to be able to produce an entirely home grown team, we're always going to have to sign numerous players.

Unless the Islanders have Irish grannies they can't all play.