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

Paul Smeenus

Forward a mile, surely?

launish116

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

Need to settle

Thought Roberts pass was forwards there slightly

Paul Smeenus

launish116 wrote: »

Thought Roberts pass was forwards there slightly

Ha ha see above.

Still, Shanahan, Kane, McCall, Johnston, Treadwell, McBurney, Timoney all getting half an hour.

launish116

Stewart Moore considering he has a handful of caps really is doing well!

Paul Smeenus

launish116 wrote: »

Stewart Moore considering he has a handful of caps really is doing well!

He's massively talented. Our third choice front row going well. In fact, Kane must be fourth choice TH.

Paul Smeenus

Ffs

launish116

Few opportunities left out there.

5 points at the end of the day and some game time.

Paul Smeenus

Why are they playing music over Reidy's MOTM interview when there's no crowd?

Paul Smeenus

Ollie Griffiths was excellent today. Really good.

Locke_Lamora

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

Ollie Griffiths was excellent today. Really good.

His career didn't take off the way people expected but he's been a good player for a long time already. Think the Dragons have another good young 7 - taine basham. Wales are never short of good opensides for some reason.

Bazzo

Locke_Lamora wrote: »

His career didn't take off the way people expected but he's been a good player for a long time already. Think the Dragons have another good young 7 - taine basham. Wales are never short of good opensides for some reason.

Think Basham prefers 8 but can play across the back row, looks like an unreal prospect.

Locke_Lamora

Bazzo wrote: »

Think Basham prefers 8 but can play across the back row, looks like an unreal prospect.

Really? Seems a little small for 8 but he is incredibly powerful for his size. Excellent prospect anyways, as you said.

ElisaAtWar

I have no idea how the Ulster vs Dragons game finished. I watched it for 30 minutes and it just made me cringe. Hibbett is just an example of a losing culture. He just turns up every week to eke a paycheck and lose. It's just not in any way entertaining, it's just a bunch of folks who have nothing to play for other than a paycheck

bilston

Decent days work.

I don't think we learnt a lot to be honest. The back row wete good. It was nice to see Ludik grab a couple of tries and I thought John Andrew was really good. But as we said before the game we might have got more from that if some of the younger lads were playing.

Robbie Lyttle at 15 was probably the most interesting part of the day for me. As always he was a handful in attack...hes a strong wee ballix! I would be happy to see him there again, but he wasn't really tested at all.


Still...mustn't grumble...14 points from 3 games and on we go.

launish116

bilston wrote: »

Decent days work.

I don't think we learnt a lot to be honest.

Still...mustn't grumble...14 points from 3 games and on we go.

Good result! shame it does feel like an opportunity missed!

Will have to keep an eye on Munster V Cardiff tomorrow. Munster have a lot of youth on show!

Could potentially have Burns & Marshall for next week also.

bilston

Interesting stat on the TV before todays game.

Ulster have the fewest international call ups of ANY SIDE in the league.

It's probably slightly misleading in that at least two injured players in Will Addison and Tom O'Toole would probably have been called up, and Robert Balacoune would have been very close as well. But it's interesting how close some of these calls must be. Ulster reach the Pro 14 final, and along with Leinster are one of only two Pro 14 sides to reach the knockout stages of the Champions Cup. So based on both domestic competitions Ulster proved themselves to be the No.2 side in the league.

I'm not saying Ulster players have been wrongly overlooked, but numerically its mad how it has worked out

bilston

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

Might be confirmation bias, but Carter ha been the weakest Ulster player on the pitch.

Yeah, although the lineout went well so he has to take some credit for that, and we are developing a good driving maul...much better when Hendy is there though. But yeah he was alright today...but overseas players need to be better than alright.

bilston

launish116 wrote: »

Sadly agree, really want him to come good! But just looks like he’s running through a training drill! In his line out work hasn’t been to bad!

Faddes hasn’t been going to bad!

Faddes was fairly mixed. He started well, was a little unlucky with the YC, but he made a few errors towards the end. Again, like Carter, he needs to be better than OK.

bilston

launish116 wrote: »

Stewart Moore considering he has a handful of caps really is doing well!

Yeah, he's going well, I'd be interested to see him in a bit more space. He reminds me a bit of Stuart Olding.

One down side is that he has a habit of missing the odd tackle first up tackle...not unusual for a 21 year old centre.

Also, we finally saw James Hune kick the ball today, it wasn't particularly pretty!

So they are going great guns, no doubt, but they can get better...and thats a positive not a negative!

launish116

bilston wrote: »

Interesting stat on the TV before todays game.

Ulster have the fewest international call ups of ANY SIDE in the league.

It's probably slightly misleading in that at least two injured players in Will Addison and Tom O'Toole would probably have been called up, and Robert Balacoune would have been very close as well. But it's interesting how close some of these calls must be. Ulster reach the Pro 14 final, and along with Leinster are one of only two Pro 14 sides to reach the knockout stages of the Champions Cup. So based on both domestic competitions Ulster proved themselves to be the No.2 side in the league.

I'm not saying Ulster players have been wrongly overlooked, but numerically its mad how it has worked out

Think the overlooking has definitely worked in our favour a lot in the past! We do tend to be at an advantage during the international window! Which is great for us but ****e for the players! Definitely a few there should be getting capped!

That’s not even considering how different Ulster would be if Coetzee was away for weeks at a time.

Maybe something Ulster need to start factoring in for the future. More players will start getting called up, leaving gaps in our squad strength in depth.

launish116

Cooney has been recalled to the Ireland Squad!

Gibson-Park has a tight hamstring

Paul Smeenus

launish116 wrote: »

Cooney has been recalled to the Ireland Squad!

Gibson-Park has a tight hamstring

Well now, well now, well now. Aren't we glad Dave Shanahan has a bit of rugby under his belt.

Paul Smeenus

And in a more serious vein, congrats to Cooney. A couple of wayward box kicks aside, thought he was brilliant last night.

launish116

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

Well now, well now, well now. Aren't we glad Dave Shanahan has a bit of rugby under his belt.

Indeed, Mathewson injured apparently also, Finlay was warming up with Ulster squad yesterday!

Paul Smeenus

launish116 wrote: »

Indeed, Mathewson injured apparently also, Finlay was warming up with Ulster squad yesterday!

Ruh-roh.

bilston

Cooney deserves it, I didn't realise Matthewson was injured. This means Lewis Finlay should make the 23 next week unless Alby returns. Although this is exactly the scenario why we signed Matthewson!

launish116

bilston wrote: »

Cooney deserves it, I didn't realise Matthewson was injured. This means Lewis Finlay should make the 23 next week unless Alby returns. Although this is exactly the scenario why we signed Matthewson!

Maybe jumped the gun on there injury front, hasn’t been confirmed. Johnathan Bradley on Twitter stating he was described as “unavailable” yesterday. Last game of the bench against Benetton.

Paul Smeenus

If he's available, I wouldn't be adverse to putting Finlay on the bench instead of Shanahan. If the game's in the balance, you're not going to bring on Shanahan anyway.

launish116

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

If he's available, I wouldn't be adverse to putting Finlay on the bench instead of Shanahan. If the game's in the balance, you're not going to bring on Shanahan anyway.

Agreed, Finlay looked very very good in that U20 game against England! (Highly recommend watching if you have the time).

bayern

launish116 wrote: »

Agreed, Finlay looked very very good in that U20 game against England! (Highly recommend watching if you have the time).

nowhere to watch it though.