Ulster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

bilston

awec wrote: »

#3 is going to be a concern.

Well THP is a position where I think we might be told that we can't sign a NIQ because we've had two in a row now in Botha and Afoa and we probably only got away with that because of the enforced retirement of Simon Best.

If Declan Fitzpatrick stays fit then he can be a very decent scrummaging THP but keeping him fit is the problem. If not we're looking at Macklin (who I'm not sure about), Lutton (who did well when called upon last season having been plucked out of the AIL), this new fella Bronson Ross who I know nothing about or perhaps McAlistair will switch sides and be a huge success (he's got the build for it). Other than that we may have to hope Chris Taylor comes through, he had a good JWC after a poor U20 6Ns so maybe there is hope with him, but he's a long way off playing for Ulster I'd have thought.

bilston

I am pie wrote: »

As much as we all love to see wee P adding some pace to a game as a sub, he is not consistent enough as a 9. We'll need to strengthen there too.

Yup scrum half and THP are the two positions to worry about, but the side in general would remain strong. I wonder how much we'll see of Heaney this season, they may be more hope for him to take over from Pienaar than Marshall?

awec

The Kukri store is pretty annoying to get in contact with. Emailed last week about jerseys - no response. Still showing as sold out on the website, trying to figure out if we are getting a new design or just a re-release of the current kit with a sponsor change.

Surely they will be releasing more jerseys for sale?!

bilston

awec wrote: »

Friday 6th September - 19:15 - Newport Gwent Dragons v Ulster – Rodney Parade


Specific dates confirmed.

One month today then!

Can't wait, it's been too long.

tac4271

awec wrote: »

The Kukri store is pretty annoying to get in contact with. Emailed last week about jerseys - no response. Still showing as sold out on the website, trying to figure out if we are getting a new design or just a re-release of the current kit with a sponsor change.

Surely they will be releasing more jerseys for sale?!

Style 'n' Sport have the 2013/14 Ulster range in, but "the design is the same as the 2012/13 season with the rear Sponsor being the only change to the jersey".

http://www.stylensport.co.uk/default.aspx?scid=6&wcid=9&wscid=19&p=0

awec

YES!!

RuPi

The warm up jersey is class

mogwai81

http://ulsterherald.com/2013/08/11/farrell-eager-to-impress-ulster-rugby-boss/

Great to see Chris Farrell back, a monster of a centre with no little skill. Any confirmation that Paddy McAllister has switched to Tight Head yet or what his physical condition is?

Utah_Saint

mogwai81 wrote: »

http://ulsterherald.com/2013/08/11/farrell-eager-to-impress-ulster-rugby-boss/

Great to see Chris Farrell back, a monster of a centre with no little skill. Any confirmation that Paddy McAllister has switched to Tight Head yet or what his physical condition is?

I think the PMAC to TH is just a rumour. Never seen anything offical regarding it. Although he's a big unit, good to have him back!

bilston

mogwai81 wrote: »

http://ulsterherald.com/2013/08/11/farrell-eager-to-impress-ulster-rugby-boss/

Great to see Chris Farrell back, a monster of a centre with no little skill. Any confirmation that Paddy McAllister has switched to Tight Head yet or what his physical condition is?

Farrell is the player I'm looking forward to seeing most this season for Ulster. I'm not sure how many games he will get but he may well start the season against the Dragons with Olding and Cave probably not available.

mogwai81

bilston wrote: »

Farrell is the player I'm looking forward to seeing most this season for Ulster. I'm not sure how many games he will get but he may well start the season against the Dragons with Olding and Cave probably not available.

I would love to see him get game time at 12 instead of 13. Of the three young centre's at Ulster would prefer to see
Olding tried at outside centre.

Utah_Saint

anyone going to the Glasgow game?

Is only half the East and West Terrace opened? Or has have those areas already sold out?

bilston

Thanks "Gatty" :mad:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/23693258

Bowe likely to be out for three months now.

.ak

Just saw that... Til November?! How did he manage to play through that?

andrewdcs

.ak wrote: »

Just saw that... Til November?! How did he manage to play through that?

Seems it was broken, but that the break damaged ligaments which must take longer to heal than bone.

Ouch.

Buer

That's him in serious doubt for the autumn series. Testicles.

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

ffs, so much for the Lions medical staff

RuPi

The Lions staff were always going to patch him up to get him through the tests, really isn't a shock that he needs this.

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

RuPi wrote: »

The Lions staff were always going to patch him up to get him through the tests, really isn't a shock that he needs this.

3 months and ligament damage?! I would have thought the players welfare would have come first

Huge loss for Ireland if he misses the AI's. And after that scourge of a Lions tests

bilston

12 weeks takes us to the Samoa match so you'd think at best he could be available for New Zealand if he manages to get an Ulster game under his belt during the AIs. However 12 weeks is a long time out, in fact it's longer than that given he won't have played since the beginning of July so if it is 12 weeks I'd say there is very little chance of him taking any part in the November series.

He should be back for the Treviso double header in Europe though and from an Ulster point of view he'd have missed September through recovery from the Lions and November due to Ireland duties anyway so it's October were Ulster miss out, albeit we have two huge games against Leicester and Montpellier then.

irishbucsfan

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience wrote: »

3 months and ligament damage?! I would have thought the players welfare would have come first

Huge loss for Ireland if he misses the AI's. And after that scourge of a Lions tests

I think Tommy might have been pretty happy to risk three months out to play the tests.

It's a risk for any player coming back from injury, especially when they're pushing so hard to get back for something so important.

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

irishbucsfan wrote: »

I think Tommy might have been pretty happy to risk three months out to play the tests.

It's a risk for any player coming back from injury, especially when they're pushing so hard to get back for something so important.

No doubt, I'm sure he would have risked a lot to play in that test! Just seems (and I'm not a doctor so it's fairly speculative) that Bowe was rushed back by a coaching team who didn't have to worry about his well being three months down the line

awec

Fcuk.

Podge_irl

Ulster can handle this kind of loss better than most with a back 3 of Gilroy, Trimble and Payne. Still a loss obviously.

awec

Things are conspiring against us.

I presume we'll be starting the season without Pienaar too?

Larbre34

Bowe and Ferris should start a 'Men's Shed' for the consolation of the permanently injured

Very frustrating all round.

bilston

awec wrote: »

Things are conspiring against us.

I presume we'll be starting the season without Pienaar too?

I would think/guess the following

Pienaar - back in October, away again in November, back in December
Ferris - Hopefully back in December/January
Afoa - Not sure but can't see him being here at the start of the season, think he tweeted the other day he was just returning to NI.
Bowe - November
Best - October, although to be fair Leinster and Munster will be missing plenty of players until October as well.
Wilson - ???
Wallace - Last time I looked at UAFC they were saying he is still recovering.

Still plenty of injuries unfortunately.

awec

We'll do well to be near the top of the table come November / December.

RuPi

awec wrote: »

We'll do well to be near the top of the table come November / December.

We will be fine, the majority of those players had a limited number of appearances during the same time last year and we did very well, Olding and Marshall are probably a step up on Wallace, obviously Afoa is a loss but it gives Lutton a real chance to kick on after a good end to last year.

Buer

Afoa is back in Belfast. The season doesn't start until September 6th. I'd be surprised if he wasn't involved by the second or, at the latest, the third game.

Utah_Saint

anyone hazard a guess of our starting team for glasgow?

bilston

Utah_Saint wrote: »

anyone hazard a guess of our starting team for glasgow?

Dragons first up I think but I was thinking about this the other day, working on the assumption that the North American tourists and Lions are unavailable with the Emerging Ireland boys ready to go I would say something like this...

Payne, Gilroy, Farrell, Marshall, Allen, McKinney, Heaney
McAlistair, Herring, Lutton, Muller, Stevenson, Diack, Doyle, Williams

That's assuming they are all available, not sure whether McAlistair will start though as he hasn't played in a long time so maybe Callum Black will get the nod with Paddy Mac being eased in from the bench. Anyway it's a rough guess there are two pre-season friendlies and three weeks to go until the season gets underway.

Decent enough side there that may be good enough to win at Rodney Parade, questions over the half backs though which would be a worry.

Hagz

I'd love to see a back-line of

9. Paul Marshall
10. Stuart Olding
11. Craig Gilroy
12. Chris Farrell
13. Jared Payne
14. Andrew Trimble
15. David McIlwaine

Utah_Saint

I was kinda hoping the North American tour guys would've been back for the glasgow game. Its tough enough against them with a full strength team...!

bilston

Utah_Saint wrote: »

I was kinda hoping the North American tour guys would've been back for the glasgow game. Its tough enough against them with a full strength team...!

They might be back for Glasgow but they started pre-season two weeks after everyone so on that basis they shouldn't really be due back until Rd 3 and the Connacht match but maybe it won't work like that.

awec

I have to say Kukri absolutely fry my head. A few weeks until the season starts and everything still out of stock on the ulsterrugby.com shop. What a waste of potential sales.

Amateurish.

.ak

awec wrote: »

I have to say Kukri absolutely fry my head. A few weeks until the season starts and everything still out of stock on the ulsterrugby.com shop. What a waste of potential sales.

Amateurish.

Try here

awec

.ak wrote: »

Try here

In all seriousness, look at the difference. Replica stuff all in stock.

Our stuff is on some third party site, but the site says the supporters jersey is usually a big fit and people may need to go down a size. I wear a size XS, can't go down any further than that, so was going to buy the test jersey.

And of course, the test jersey comes in M, L, XL only on that site.

Utah_Saint

hurry up new season....:(

.ak

Looking forward to the game on Friday now. Anyone reckon they could hazard a guess at what sort of team Ulster will put out?

Utah_Saint

The Lions and US tour players will be out.

but you will see guys like

Herring
Annett / Lutton
Black
Diack
Stevenson?
Doyle
Blane McilRoy
McComish
Farrell
Payne???

its acutually difficult to think of a full team?!

.ak

Yeah lot of them were over for the USA tour I suppose.

Hype710

Interesting to see if the Paddy Mac rumours about moving to tighthead amount to anything. From an Ireland point of view it would be great, but from Ulster's perspective, after Afoa they still have Lutton, Fitzpatrick, Ross, Macklin and Taylor. In any case, he looks absolutely gigantic these days.

RuPi

Utah_Saint wrote: »

The Lions and US tour players will be out.

but you will see guys like

Herring
Annett / Lutton
Black
Diack
Stevenson?
Doyle
Blane McilRoy
McComish
Farrell
Payne???

its acutually difficult to think of a full team?!

Mcilroy isn't with the squad anymore. Possible team of

Black
Herring
Lutton
Stevenson
Muller
Diack
Doyle
Williams
Heaney
McKinney
Cochrane
Marshall
Farrell
Allen
Payne

Paul Smeenus

Utah_Saint wrote: »

The Lions and US tour players will be out.

but you will see guys like

Herring
Annett / Lutton
Black
Diack
Stevenson?
Doyle
Blane McilRoy
McComish
Farrell
Payne???

its acutually difficult to think of a full team?!

I thought Henderson, Cave and Olding are out - they are specfically mentioned by Anscombe as unavailable until Glasgow at home. That would iimply Jackson, Fitzpatrick, Tuohy, Marshall, Trimble will all be selectable.

bilston

.ak wrote: »

Looking forward to the game on Friday now. Anyone reckon they could hazard a guess at what sort of team Ulster will put out?

What about Leinster? Any news on the team? I'm sure I could find it on the Leinster thread!

bilston

RuPi wrote: »

Mcilroy isn't with the squad anymore. Possible team of

Black
Herring
Lutton
Stevenson
Muller
Diack
Doyle
Williams
Heaney
McKinney
Cochrane
Marshall
Farrell
Allen
Payne

I'd say Gilroy should be involved as he didn't tour in the summer.

Thinking back to last season's friendlies can anyone remember whether the likes of Trimble and Henry played? For some reason I think they did? Maybe it was the year before.

The Leinster game is probably the best opportunity to give guys who went to North America a run out as Leinster will be at the same stage of pre season as ourselves, particularly the Ireland players who started back two weeks later than the rest of the squad. That doesn't mean they will be ready for the Dragons game but at the same time they probably need a bit of gametime under their belt even if they are a couple of weeks behind in pre season.

.ak

bilston wrote: »

What about Leinster? Any news on the team? I'm sure I could find it on the Leinster thread!

Nothing really, as you said we're in the same boat as you guys - USA players and Lions won't be playing, although some reckon Madigan will feature somehow.

We'll have some key players returning from injury who didn't tour, the likes of Fitzgerald, D'arcy and Reddan, so mix them up with some academy and new senior faces like Hudson, Macken, Byrne, SCM and Boyle and you'll get an idea of what our backline will look like.

irishbucsfan

RuPi wrote: »

Mcilroy isn't with the squad anymore. Possible team of

Black
Herring
Lutton
Stevenson
Muller
Diack
Doyle
Williams
Heaney
McKinney
Cochrane
Marshall
Farrell
Allen
Payne

That's a great team, all things considered.

Kayless

.ak wrote: »

Looking forward to the game on Friday now. Anyone reckon they could hazard a guess at what sort of team Ulster will put out?

is RTE showing the game?