Ulster Bank League 2012-2013 talk/gossip/rumours

GerM

bamboozle wrote: »

Burke-Flynn, O'Flynn, Furlong, Reilly, O'Keefe, Crawford, Darcy, Garvey.
Barclay came on, Flanagan, Dundon, Coogan were unavailable

some of Furlong's tackles could be heard from the sideline, Reilly destroyed the Con lineout.

I see he was propping against J. Ryan. Assume that's John Ryan of Munster or is there another Ryan I'm unaware of?

roycon

1b is a lottery. college teams like ucd and trinity tend to struggle in the mucky winter months but excel at the start and end of the season with drier pitches. buccaneers team can depend on whos playing for connacht that weeknd and similar situation with the northern teams. there real money to be made betting on 1 b if you have the right information

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny

I thought Ciaran Ruddock was gone to Neath in wales??
Where was Dara Fitz for Tarf?

bamboozle

GerM wrote: »

I see he was propping against J. Ryan. Assume that's John Ryan of Munster or is there another Ryan I'm unaware of?

yeah it was munster ryan actually it was burke flynn propping against him with TF on the other side. Tarf scrum was utterly dominant.

Fitzpatrick came on with 15 to go, he was only back training last week. looked quality in the short time on the pitch.

always amazes me watching Gerry Hurley play, he's easily good enough for Munster squad.

GerM

bamboozle wrote: »

always amazes me watching Gerry Hurley play, he's easily good enough for Munster squad.

Heard before that he decided against pursuing a professional career. He's certainly a better player than Duncan Williams.

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny

bamboozle wrote: »

yeah it was munster ryan actually it was burke flynn propping against him with TF on the other side. Tarf scrum was utterly dominant.

Fitzpatrick came on with 15 to go, he was only back training last week. looked quality in the short time on the pitch.

always amazes me watching Gerry Hurley play, he's easily good enough for Munster squad.

Was wondering what the story was, checked the IRFU website and Matt D'Arcy was listed as replacement.

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny

1A Fixtures for this weekend:

Dolphin vs Belvo - Dolphin to win by a hair
Young Munster vs The Champs - Mary's to keep there winning streak against the Cookies going
Clontarf vs Garryowen - Tarf win well with a BP (think they'll be full strength, can't see leinster selecting Noel Reid, Collie O Shea)
Bohs vs Cork Con - Bohs to sneak a win in a thriller
Lansdowne vs Shannon - might as well wave goodbye to Shannon i feel, Lansdowne with a BP and plenty to spare

ormond lad

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny wrote: »

1A Fixtures for this weekend:

Dolphin vs Belvo - Dolphin to win by a hair
Young Munster vs The Champs - Mary's to keep there winning streak against the Cookies going
Clontarf vs Garryowen - Tarf win well with a BP (think they'll be full strength, can't see leinster selecting Noel Reid, Collie O Shea)
Bohs vs Cork Con - Bohs to sneak a win in a thriller
Lansdowne vs Shannon - might as well wave goodbye to Shannon i feel, Lansdowne with a BP and plenty to spare

Dolphin, Cookies, Clontarf, Bohs and Lansdowne to win

Irish rugbys website previews of 2A and 2B are below
Div 2A: http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/27320.php
Div 2B: http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/27318.php

Gracelessly Tom

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny wrote: »

1A Fixtures for this weekend:

Dolphin vs Belvo - Dolphin to win by a hair
Young Munster vs The Champs - Mary's to keep there winning streak against the Cookies going
Clontarf vs Garryowen - Tarf win well with a BP (think they'll be full strength, can't see leinster selecting Noel Reid, Collie O Shea)
Bohs vs Cork Con - Bohs to sneak a win in a thriller
Lansdowne vs Shannon - might as well wave goodbye to Shannon i feel, Lansdowne with a BP and plenty to spare

Dolphin v Belvo - Dolphin to win comfortably
YM v Marys - I'll go with my biased heart and say Marys to win a close one,
Tarf v Garryowen - Tarf with a BP
Bohs v Con - tight one, Bohs looked good last week in Templeville so Bohs to win by no more than 3 points
Lans v Shannon - can't see anything other than a home win, BP as well.

bamboozle

Gracelessly Tom wrote: »

Dolphin v Belvo - Dolphin to win comfortably
YM v Marys - I'll go with my biased heart and say Marys to win a close one,
Tarf v Garryowen - Tarf with a BP
Bohs v Con - tight one, Bohs looked good last week in Templeville so Bohs to win by no more than 3 points
Lans v Shannon - can't see anything other than a home win, BP as well.

Dolphin V Old Belvo - Dolphin at home with condon in their scrum will see them win.

YM v Marys - YM will be confident after their humiliation of Shannon, Marys hockeyed YM in Limerick last season and i reckon YM will up for revenge.

Bohs v Con - even after seeing Con last week i'm undecided, they'll have John Ryan & Scott Deasy available but clontarf destroyed their scrum (not that the ref gave much advantage!) and lineout, they've one of the best players in league in Hurley so i'm going to go with them.

Tarf v Garryowen - Barry O'Mahoney returning to castle avenue in a provincial back row with TJ Anderson & Declan 'yellow card' cusack, Corey Hircock at 13 is class at this level. Still expect to see Clontarf's pack dominate with Fitzpatrick to come on in 2nd half. Noel Reid not due to start, Collie O'Shea is.

Lansdowne v Shannon - games like this will suggest lansdowne have what it takes to win league, ie super talented squad playing at home against a poor & dis-spirited side (we all know when it comes to hard slog away from home in the rain Lansdowne crumble!!!) lansdowne to score 5 plus trys tomorrow.

I'm going to Skerries v Suttonians tonight in 2B - should be a cracker.

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny

bamboozle wrote: »

Dolphin V Old Belvo - Dolphin at home with condon in their scrum will see them win.

YM v Marys - YM will be confident after their humiliation of Shannon, Marys hockeyed YM in Limerick last season and i reckon YM will up for revenge.

Bohs v Con - even after seeing Con last week i'm undecided, they'll have John Ryan & Scott Deasy available but clontarf destroyed their scrum (not that the ref gave much advantage!) and lineout, they've one of the best players in league in Hurley so i'm going to go with them.

Tarf v Garryowen - Barry O'Mahoney returning to castle avenue in a provincial back row with TJ Anderson & Declan 'yellow card' cusack, Corey Hircock at 13 is class at this level. Still expect to see Clontarf's pack dominate with Fitzpatrick to come on in 2nd half. Noel Reid not due to start, Collie O'Shea is.

Lansdowne v Shannon - games like this will suggest lansdowne have what it takes to win league, ie super talented squad playing at home against a poor & dis-spirited side (we all know when it comes to hard slog away from home in the rain Lansdowne crumble!!!) lansdowne to score 5 plus trys tomorrow.

I'm going to Skerries v Suttonians tonight in 2B - should be a cracker.

Declan Cusack is off in Sunny pastures playing Rugby in Spain, James Loxton, TJ Anderson and Matt Jarvis could all feature for G'owen at the weekend. JP Cooney in the front row will be in for a sturn test.

Lansdowne will blow Shannon away, even without Cooney and Jordi Murphy...............as will every other team in the league. Shannon could struggle to get a win never mind pull off another great escape to avoid the relegation playoff again.

looking foward to seeing how Clontarf line out, Fitz at 10, Ryan 12, O shea 13, Mcgrath on a wing?? Serious Talent up there

Good to see Jack McGrath involved with Leinster, destroyed YM in Greenfields last yr! I beleive Richie Sweeney is also out so he's a huge loss, on hearing that i'm sway towards YM to squeeze through in a tight affair!

thomond2006

It's not great for the Connacht club game that so many Connacht Rugby contracted players are playing AIL outside of the province.

whysomoody

roycon wrote: »

1b is a lottery. college teams like ucd and trinity tend to struggle in the mucky winter months but excel at the start and end of the season with drier pitches. buccaneers team can depend on whos playing for connacht that weeknd and similar situation with the northern teams. there real money to be made betting on 1 b if you have the right information

I think form experience this has more to do with the pressures of Christmas exams around the winter months than the pitches.

bamboozle

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny wrote: »

Declan Cusack is off in Sunny pastures playing Rugby in Spain, James Loxton, TJ Anderson and Matt Jarvis could all feature for G'owen at the weekend. JP Cooney in the front row will be in for a sturn test.

Lansdowne will blow Shannon away, even without Cooney and Jordi Murphy...............as will every other team in the league. Shannon could struggle to get a win never mind pull off another great escape to avoid the relegation playoff again.

looking foward to seeing how Clontarf line out, Fitz at 10, Ryan 12, O shea 13, Mcgrath on a wing?? Serious Talent up there

Good to see Jack McGrath involved with Leinster, destroyed YM in Greenfields last yr! I beleive Richie Sweeney is also out so he's a huge loss, on hearing that i'm sway towards YM to squeeze through in a tight affair!

will Garryowen not be struggling to field their 3 connacht lads at the same time if they're fully contracted?
Fitzpatrick will be coming off the bench i'd imagine, he probabaly needs a few weeks to get up to speed...although he looked excellent in the 10-15 mins he played last weekend.

will be interesting to see Burke-flynn & Furlong scrummage again, they made the Con front row including John Ryan (after boosting his rep at London Irish) look very ordinary.

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny

bamboozle wrote: »

will Garryowen not be struggling to field their 3 connacht lads at the same time if they're fully contracted?
Fitzpatrick will be coming off the bench i'd imagine, he probabaly needs a few weeks to get up to speed...although he looked excellent in the 10-15 mins he played last weekend.

will be interesting to see Burke-flynn & Furlong scrummage again, they made the Con front row including John Ryan (after boosting his rep at London Irish) look very ordinary.

Cooney is Development and i think Loxton maybe as well. Unsure, Also saw Matt Jarvis wasn't considered this weekend through injury so he probably won't be playing.

Is a great clash of Backlines, if G'owen only had a 10 they'd be going places with Doyle, Hircock, younger O Mahoney and Bourke.

CIARAN_BOYLE

thomond2006 wrote: »

It's not great for the Connacht club game that so many Connacht Rugby contracted players are playing AIL outside of the province.

true but with only one Connacht team in division one there are only so many Connacht players that can get gametime.

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny

Garryowen with an almighty win against Clontarf........didn't see that coming!! 23-13

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny

YM beat Marys 16-14

6 yellows (3each)

bamboozle

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny wrote: »

Garryowen with an almighty win against Clontarf........didn't see that coming!! 23-13

Tarf were poor, rudderless and devoid of much invention. Garryowen were very good, scored one lucky try with a lucky bounce from a kick but well deserved the win, Tarf were camped on the garryowen line several times with no reward, quick tap penalty in front of garryowen posts after halftime resulted in a knock on...summed up clontarf on the day.

YM Marys match sounds like a good one to have been at, no one taking a backwards step.

ormond lad

All todays results
http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/27337.php

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny

bamboozle wrote: »

Tarf were poor, rudderless and devoid of much invention. Garryowen were very good, scored one lucky try with a lucky bounce from a kick but well deserved the win, Tarf were camped on the garryowen line several times with no reward, quick tap penalty in front of garryowen posts after halftime resulted in a knock on...summed up clontarf on the day.

YM Marys match sounds like a good one to have been at, no one taking a backwards step.

Mary;s were poor, looked to be very disorganised, scrum on the back foot, lost a lot of lineouts and took Connor Hogan to produce any sort of threat. Have regressed a lot from last season, YM were good, could've scored more and really made a marker

roycon

whysomoody wrote: »

I think form experience this has more to do with the pressures of Christmas exams around the winter months than the pitches.

trinity dont have christmas exams and ucd have them at summer as well

whysomoody

roycon wrote: »

trinity don't have Christmas exams and UCD have them at summer as well

Trinity do have Christmas exams, they are just held in January.

The other reason you have is that college teams tend to field a large amount of players who don't come from the area they study, so students go home for Christmas etc and so they don't train over that period.

The summer exams are normally a month after the season ends, unless you get to the Frazer McMullen Cup final which is mid-April.

On this topic, I went to see UCD v Bruff yesterday in Belifield and have to say it was one of the most enjoyable matches I have watched in quite a while. UCD play a very expansive style of rugby which is a breath of fresh air from the kick-oriented professional game like the Uls-Conn game the night before. They put Jordan Coughlan on at 12 for the second half, I know he is supposed to be a 6 but it was almost unfair at times the destruction he caused running through the middle.

Well worth a watch this year

CIARAN_BOYLE

Heard somewhere that Luke McGrath is playing on the wing in the UBL. Is this true?

If so is it because there is a very good SH ahead of him at club level or is he looking at a positional switch?

roycon

trinity dont have exams after christmas but DIT and DCU both do. no luke mcgrath is only playing scrum half. jordan coughlan came on at 1st centre though

CIARAN_BOYLE

roycon wrote: »

trinity dont have exams after christmas but DIT and DCU both do. no luke mcgrath is only playing scrum half. jordan coughlan came on at 1st centre though

Trinity do have exams after Christmas, they modularised so its only really CA (10-20% per module) but they do happen.

phog

Saw this being asked on twitter yesterday. Does anyone know of an android app for the league?

whysomoody

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Heard somewhere that Luke McGrath is playing on the wing in the UBL. Is this true?

If so is it because there is a very good SH ahead of him at club level or is he looking at a positional switch?

No he played 70 mins at scrum-half, played pretty well.

ormond lad

Good idea by Dolphin rfc in Cork that should really be looked at by all clubs.
theyve partnered 4 of their senior squad with each one of their underage squads to help out with coaching, try get kids attend AIL games,encourage players to get into coaching
http://dolphinrfc.com/rugby/senior-panel-to-team-up-with-youthminis-sides/

Gargled

phog wrote: »

Saw this being asked on twitter yesterday. Does anyone know of an android app for the league?

I'm actually working on one!

phog

Gargled wrote: »

I'm actually working on one!

That's great, you might also look at one for the Rabo and H/cup or are these available already?

bamboozle

Clontarf finally got their season up and running on saturday with a BP win at home to UL Bohs. Once again the tarf scrum and lineout were well on top and the backs finally showed some cutting edge. Still missing 3-4 key players and travelling down to Young Munster next weekend.

Shannon have lost 3 now and have scored 23 points in those 3 games. Lansdowne & Garryowen unbeaten but am not sure if either will be in top two by end of season as Garryowen's squad is too small & Lansdowne are a bunch of D4 sissys!

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny

Dara Fitz hasn't been in a squad report for arf yet, is he actually playing up there?

Big games this weekend with Lansdowne hosting Cons and Munsters hosting tarf. Dare i say it this early that these could be season defining for 3 of the 4 clubs that have tasted defeat?

Bohs hosting Garryowen in TP friday is another crunch clash thats impossible to call due to the nature of Limerick derbys!

madds

Best of luck to Barnhall's Jim Nolan, 41 y/o prop from Kerry and past captain of the club, who broke the fibia and tibia in his left leg last Sat in a 2B match against Newtonards. This was to be Jim's final season as a player - tough way to go if it turns out this was his last game.

Stainalert

Anyone checked out www.wordinsport.com giving the ail a lot of coverage , worth a look

bamboozle

Darragh Fitzpatrick and Paul O'Donoghue on bench for Clontarf for tomorrow's trip to YM.....tough game in store

ormond lad

Weekend previews
div1A http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/27606.php
div 1B http://www.irishrugby.ie/ulsterbankleague/27605.php
div 2A http://www.irishrugby.ie/ulsterbankleague/27596.php
div 2B http://www.irishrugby.ie/ulsterbankleague/27601.php

thomond2006

Do you write these yourself ormond?

ormond lad

thomond2006 wrote: »

Do you write these yourself ormond?

No but am looking to do some writing on club/underage rugby to start after xmas

P_1

Just seen that aertv.ie are streaming some of the Ulster League matches live this season.

They're showing Old Belvadere v Shannon tomorrow.

ormond lad

Tonights results
Div 1A
UL Bohs 16 Garryowen 12
http://www.irishrugby.ie/rugby/27619.php
Div 2A
Seapoint 15 Terenure 13
Div 2B
Naas 27 Navan 12

JustinDee

thomond2006 wrote: »

Do you write these yourself ormond?

They're written in-house by staff.

bamboozle

ormond lad wrote: »

Tonights results
Div 1A
UL Bohs 16 Garryowen 12
http://www.irishrugby.ie/rugby/27619.php
Div 2A
Seapoint 15 Terenure 13
Div 2B
Naas 27 Navan 12

UL Bohs defeating Garryowen has opened up the 1A hopefully Clontarf can scrape a win at YM today..i'd nearly settle for a LBP..hitting the road now great game in store.

ormond lad

bamboozle wrote: »

UL Bohs defeating Garryowen has opened up the 1A hopefully Clontarf can scrape a win at YM today..i'd nearly settle for a LBP..hitting the road now great game in store.

Good win for 'tarf bamboozle.
Nenagh won 18-5 against sligo but will be disapointted not to get the 4 try bonus.
All other results are below
http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/27620.php

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny

Great win for Tarf!! But the result of the weekend has to be Cons turn around against Lansdowne! There the games that can win you titles!!

bamboozle

still dont know what to make of Clontarf's win at YM, as with last week early on our outhalf was committing hari kari by throwing a ridiculous skip pass in the first few minutes playing into the wind and rain which was gobbled up by the YM winger for a 5 points. YM tacked on 2 more penalties to be 11 nil up after ten minutes with a strong wind and rain behind them. Thereafter the Clontarf pack took over and completely dominated a (dare i say it) disinterested YM 8, i actually dont remember a YM linebreak in the game, they were just passing the ball over and back and making no ground.

Tarf's lineout and scrum were excellent as always and unlike previous weeks the sloppy errors were not on show.
Paul O'Donoghue and Darragh Fitzpatrick came on with 30 left, Fitzpatrick showed how good a 10 he is, constantly drilling the ball behind the YM back 3 in true RoG style. POD hadnt played in months and it showed.

with garryowen and lansdowne losing the league has opened up, although Shannon's miserable run has continued.

Clontarf have Lansdowne under lights this friday night coming....rumours due to lack of upcoming Leinster games a certain european player of the year will be making his comeback for Clontarf...

Not Playing Tiddlywinks Vinny

Lansdowne were very good against Cons for period but Cons strength prevailed, my concern was Lansdownes failure to close out with a big lead. If rumours are true and SOB returns to Tarf for that fixture friday night, than Lansdowne better get practicing there tackle technique............and quickly!!

thomond2006

http://www.irishrugby.ie/ulsterbankleague/27620.php

Foster Horan pictured here playing for Lansdowne, I thought he was over at London Irish?

GerM

thomond2006 wrote: »

http://www.irishrugby.ie/ulsterbankleague/27620.php

Foster Horan pictured here playing for Lansdowne, I thought he was over at London Irish?

He was only there on trial. Seems he was released early though.

good_afternoon

any thoughts on the link between referee and linesmen?? the first tarf try came from a tarf player pulling the YM 9s hand, the linesmen both saw it but ref would not listen. lots of other little things happened where the linesmen needed to have an input. Apparently they were told by ref A.R. to show him where the ball goes out and nothing else. Bit of a joke if you ask me.