Ulster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

bilston

Sinbad_NI wrote: »

SO again another great performance. Have to say I thought big RD at 6 did really well also.

I would call it decent rather than great Sinbad but we'll take it.

Hendo looked alright when he was taken off so time will tell but despite that I thought he was excellent tonight.

Agree Diack was good and Tuohy did well in the loose as well.

In the backs Gilroy had a good game and Nelson had a fine evening taking the right options and looking very comfortable.

As for Olding he just gets better and better. I'd go so far as to say he looks like he is the most exciting young back Ulster have produced in years. Also his try was very similar to BOD's championship record breaker against England a couple of years ago.

MolBee

bilston wrote: »

I would call it decent rather than great Sinbad but we'll take it.

SO = Stuart Olding, I think.

bilston

MolBee wrote: »

SO = Stuart Olding, I think.

Ha that makes sense! That's quite funny actually!

MolBee

bilston wrote: »

Ha that makes sense! That's quite funny actually!

Haha you would have to have wondered if he missed the game last weekend

mayolad93

Olding looked good, could be another option at 12 for Ireland in the future, a position which looked very bare this time last year. Now we've got three young lads who could potentially be our next no 12. Id like to see Olding bulk up a bit if hes planing on playing there permanently, looks a bit small, but he's young and has plenty of time.

Henderson looks quality to, very athletic and quick guy for his size.

Thought Paul Marshall was very good in attack to, bit wild with his passing but all in all a good night for him. Pienarr very good to, goal kicking was top quality tonight.

mfceiling

Really enjoyed watching that game last night.

Thought Diack had a very good game. One moment in particular was when he was being tackled and he brought his arms up over the tackler for the off-load. He seemed to be everywhere.

Olding really is a class act - serious competition between him a Luke Marshall (injury permitting) for 12 next year.

Thought Lutton had a good game as well - scrum was good all night - very few collapses make for better viewing.

All in all it should make for decent viewing coming into the final stretch.

Special thanks should go to the scarlets for kicking glasgow's arse last night.

Sinbad_NI

MolBee wrote: »

SO = Stuart Olding, I think.

Eh, yes... LOL.

phog

Great win for Ulster, the 5 pointer might be a huge result, especially as Glasgow lost and your southern cousins will be trying to do a number on Leinster. May the only time this season you have a reason to support Munster. I only saw a few minutes of the game but great to see Bowe back and Gilror stretching his legs for a nice break.

Hagz

Don't know if this has been put up anywhere but it's worth a second watch anyway if it has.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibS93sanGZc

awec

That Henderson run really was fantastic. The only way they got him stopped was one player got their hands down the back of his shorts to get a grip on him that way, the rest of them were being marched backward

opinionatedfan

Hagz wrote: »

Don't know if this has been put up anywhere but it's worth a second watch anyway if it has.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibS93sanGZc

what a beast. probably my favourite non leinster player.

its_phil

From a standing start as well. So impressive

Stanza2

Fantastic rugby player and only going to get better

ionadnapokot

Henderson RWC No 5?

4. PO'C 5. Henderson
6. Ferris. 7. SO'B
8. Heaslip

19. D. Ryan / & 1 of McCarthy/Dan Tuohy/Toner
20. PO'M & 1 of Henry/O'Donnell/McLoughlin/Dom Ryan/Ruddock

I would love to see an Irish pack as above. (but would also like to see how SOB or POM go at @8)
Either way i think Henderson could become a world class no.5 & maybe he should start more games at 5 for Ulster.

CIARAN_BOYLE

ionadnapokot wrote: »

Henderson RWC No 5?

4. PO'C 5. Henderson
6. Ferris. 7. SO'B
8. Heaslip

19. D. Ryan / & 1 of McCarthy/Dan Tuohy/Toner
20. PO'M & 1 of Henry/O'Donnell/McLoughlin/Dom Ryan/Ruddock

I would love to see an Irish pack as above. (but would also like to see how SOB or POM go at @8)
Either way i think Henderson could become a world class no.5 & maybe he should start more games at 5 for Ulster.

I reckon we will see Henderson move to the second row for Ulster when Muller leaves or when Ferris gets fit. One of those two would have to happen for it to be in Ulster's interest for Henderson to move to the second row.

ionadnapokot

yea. Ferris going at the end of the season. So Henderson will prob stay at 6. muller possibly going at the end of the 2014 season, would mean he will only get a full season under his belt in the 2nd row.
IRFU/New Irish manager might put the squeeze on Ulster to play him more in 2nd row.

ionadnapokot

Diack is doing a good enough job at 6 anyway!
Mrs Doyle should head up the IRFU player mgmt programme. go on, go on. you will. you will. Ah go on....

bilston

ionadnapokot wrote: »

Diack is doing a good enough job at 6 anyway!
Mrs Doyle should head up the IRFU player mgmt programme. go on, go on. you will. you will. Ah go on....

Diack is playing well. I wouldn't surprised if he was at least in contention for the North America tour. Probably depends on whether O'Mahony, Heaslip and O'Brien make the Lions though.

CIARAN_BOYLE

ionadnapokot wrote: »

Diack is doing a good enough job at 6 anyway!
Mrs Doyle should head up the IRFU player mgmt programme. go on, go on. you will. you will. Ah go on....

Diack is playing decently. Stevenson Tuohy and Muller have been doing better than that in the second row. I wouldn't drop one of the three of them to shove Henderson in at the moment if I was the Ulster coach.

IRFU player management won't push the issue either.

MolBee

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Diack is playing decently. Stevenson Tuohy and Muller have been doing better than that in the second row. I wouldn't drop one of the three of them to shove Henderson in at the moment if I was the Ulster coach.

IRFU player management won't push the issue either.

I don't know if it's shoving him in, he's performed well in the second row and he'll only get better. If last week is evidence then Henderson is now above Stevenson in the coaches pecking order anyway.

opinionatedfan

Henderson has the potential to be a 75+ cap Ireland player*

*knock on wood

opinionatedfan

opinionatedfan wrote: »

Henderson has the potential to be a 75+ cap Ireland player*

*knock on wood

so did Ferris

Glass Prison 1214

Deleted User wrote: »

so did Ferris

If he can get over his injury issues the same way Johnny Wilkinson did then he still could reach 75 caps imo.

Glass Prison 1214

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

If he can get over his injury issues the same way Johnny Wilkinson did then he still could reach 75 caps imo.

I think Jaco's working on some artificial cartlidge for his left knee.

I hope so anyway!

opinionatedfan

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

If he can get over his injury issues the same way Johnny Wilkinson did then he still could reach 75 caps imo.

I'd be more hopeful he could get healthy for the next WC, if he can make 50 caps we will be doing well anything more will be a bonus.

For the sake of the man I hope he gets his big payday, gets healthy and gets back in the Ulster jersey.

ssaye

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/11381.php

awec

Great news!

bilston

ssaye wrote: »

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/11381.php

Good stuff.

No Gilroy though, I assume he is getting a week off.

ssaye

bilston wrote: »

Good stuff.

No Gilroy though, I assume he is getting a week off.

Have Trimble though, who is absolutely beasting him stats wise this season.

bilston

ssaye wrote: »

Have Trimble though, who is absolutely beasting him stats wise this season.

Trimble has been superb and would be first on my choice of wingers every week for Ulster but that said Gilroy has been in electric form recently. We can rest one of our wingers each week and not weaken the team in the slightest. It's a good...nay a great...trio to have.

awec

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/11384.php

Ulster Rugby has today nominated the RDS in Dublin as its 'home' venue for a potential RaboDirect PRO12 Final on Saturday, 25 May.

Some craic if we have to play Leinster in the final.

molloyjh

awec wrote: »

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/11384.php

Ulster Rugby has today nominated the RDS in Dublin as its 'home' venue for a potential RaboDirect PRO12 Final on Saturday, 25 May.

Some craic if we have to play Leinster in the final.

Sure you're practically a Leinster man now anyway awec. You'd love it.

bilston

awec wrote: »

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/11384.php

Ulster Rugby has today nominated the RDS in Dublin as its 'home' venue for a potential RaboDirect PRO12 Final on Saturday, 25 May.

Some craic if we have to play Leinster in the final.

So that will be weird if play Leinster at the RDS in front of 12,000 Ulster fans and 6,000 Leinster fans.

Edit - seemingly the "home" side gets 50% of the tickets for the final so it could 9,000 each.

Anyway there is a bit to go yet before we get to the stage of predicting the final but this is pretty disappointing news.

molloyjh

bilston wrote: »

So that will be weird if play Leinster at the RDS in front of 12,000 Ulster fans and 6,000 Leinster fans.

The final is a 50/50 split I'm afraid.

awec

molloyjh wrote: »

Sure you're practically a Leinster man now anyway awec. You'd love it.

There'd be no conflict of interest in an Ulster v Leinster final I can assure you. :P

bilston

molloyjh wrote: »

The final is a 50/50 split I'm afraid.

Well is it not 50% to the home team and a percentage to the away team and then the rest of general sale. It would probably end up 50/50 that way anyway.

Might as well just let you finish 1st in that case. What a feckin' joke. What's wrong with the Aviva. An Ulster v Leinster final would sell that out easily. There might even end up being more Leinster fans there but at least it wouldn't be a ground you play at every other week.

Podge_irl

bilston wrote: »

Well is it not 50% to the home team and a percentage to the away team and then the rest of general sale. It would probably end up 50/50 that way anyway.

No, but away teams regularly don't take their full allocation if they don't expect that many fans to travel. That won't happen here obviously.

bilston

Podge_irl wrote: »

No, but away teams regularly don't take their full allocation if they don't expect that many fans to travel. That won't happen here obviously.

It would be amusing if Leinster nominated the Aviva as their choice of venue for any final.

Actually Leinster probably could nominate the Aviva. I'm assuming Ulster didn't because they can't risk the chance of playing someone other than Leinster and then only selling 25,000 tickets, where as Leinster would probably sell it out for anyone in a league final or at least be very close to selling it out given it's in their home city.

Podge_irl

I think we'd sell it out (or close) against Ulster, but not so sure if it was against Glasgow or Scarlets. I think they'd be more inclined to keep it at the RDS to be honest.

molloyjh

bilston wrote: »

It would be amusing if Leinster nominated the Aviva as their choice of venue for any final.

Actually Leinster probably could nominate the Aviva. I'm assuming Ulster didn't because they can't risk the chance of playing someone other than Leinster and then only selling 25,000 tickets, where as Leinster would probably sell it out for anyone in a league final or at least be very close to selling it out given it's in their home city.

That might make sense, and wouldn't leave people stuck for tickets.

MolBee

bilston wrote: »

It would be amusing if Leinster nominated the Aviva as their choice of venue for any final.

Actually Leinster probably could nominate the Aviva. I'm assuming Ulster didn't because they can't risk the chance of playing someone other than Leinster and then only selling 25,000 tickets, where as Leinster would probably sell it out for anyone in a league final or at least be very close to selling it out given it's in their home city.

Then I think I would be in a very confused state of sort of hoping Leinster finish first for the playoffs?? Haha. Odd situation anyway. I understand the issue about only partially filling out the Aviva but sure Edinburgh do it all the time with Murrayfield.... you would be compromising slightly on atmosphere but I would rather that than the possibility of gifting real home advantage to our opposition...

Edit: I just realised that their fans may outnumber us in that case, so maybe the RDS is preferable, although I see that as their 'spirtual' home that would give them a big mental boost. Ah well, we haven't been doing too badly "away" from home this season so if it's to be it's to be!

totallegend

Ulster XV and replacements to face Connacht, RaboDirect PRO12, The Sportsground, Friday 19th April 2013 (kick off 19.45);

(15-9): J Payne, A Trimble, D Cave, S Olding, T Bowe, P Jackson, R Pienaar; (1-8): T Court, R Best (c), R Lutton, L Stevenson, D Tuohy, R Diack, C Henry, N Williams;
Replacements (16-23): R Herring, C Black, J Afoa, J Muller, I Henderson, P Marshall, M Allen, P Nelson.

Strong team.

Is Fitzpatrick injured again or is Lutton now ahead of him?

CIARAN_BOYLE

totallegend wrote: »

Ulster XV and replacements to face Connacht, RaboDirect PRO12, The Sportsground, Friday 19th April 2013 (kick off 19.45);

(15-9): J Payne, A Trimble, D Cave, S Olding, T Bowe, P Jackson, R Pienaar; (1-8): T Court, R Best (c), R Lutton, L Stevenson, D Tuohy, R Diack, C Henry, N Williams;
Replacements (16-23): R Herring, C Black, J Afoa, J Muller, I Henderson, P Marshall, M Allen, P Nelson.

Strong team.

Is Fitzpatrick injured again or is Lutton now ahead of him?

I think Lutton may be ahead of Fitz. Perhaps the Ulster management think Lutton would be a good backup going forward while they can't trust Fitzpatrick so they are giving Lutton as much gametime as is available.

Very strong team for Ulster. Bowe lining at 11 for the first time in a lot time is very interesting. Nice to see Muller back even if only on the bench.

rchendz92

Reckon it will be a comfortable victory, hoping for another bonus point and all but we'll see how much Connacht want it.

thomond2006

Lutton (born Feb 1986) is three years younger than Fitzpatrick (July 1983), plus Fitzpatrick keeps getting injured.

Hype710

Lutton has come from nowhere really. Was a loosehead until this year AFAIK. Could well get capped in the summer.

Sinbad_NI

Strong team and bench.
Lets hope for a performance to go with it.

bilston

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

I think Lutton may be ahead of Fitz. Perhaps the Ulster management think Lutton would be a good backup going forward while they can't trust Fitzpatrick so they are giving Lutton as much gametime as is available.

Very strong team for Ulster. Bowe lining at 11 for the first time in a lot time is very interesting. Nice to see Muller back even if only on the bench.

Evidence, if it were needed, as to who is regarded as the top winger is in Ulster.

It will be interesting to see Tommy on the left, I remember when he played there at the start of his career for Ireland he was fairly ineffective. We keep talking about lucky we are to have three great wingers at Ulster, yet they're all really 14s.

CIARAN_BOYLE

bilston wrote: »

Evidence, if it were needed, as to who is regarded as the top winger is in Ulster.

It will be interesting to see Tommy on the left, I remember when he played there at the start of his career for Ireland he was fairly ineffective. We keep talking about lucky we are to have three great wingers at Ulster, yet they're all really 14s.

On the other hand it would boost Bowe's Lions chances if he was seen as competent in positions other than 14. Maybe Mark is doing Bowe a favour.

Maybe not mind you but you can't read anything into selection in a Rabo league match.

bilston

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

On the other hand it would boost Bowe's Lions chances if he was seen as competent in positions other than 14. Maybe Mark is doing Bowe a favour.

Maybe not mind you but you can't read anything into selection in a Rabo league match.

Maybe, although i'd be surprised if MA was picking his team with that in mind. Maybe he's doing Trimble a favour! Who knows.

Despite what I said above about Bowe not being as effective on the left in his younger days I don't think it will make much difference to him now as he is a real rover of a winger and pops anywhere and everywhere.