The other game this weekend - Does anyone even care Ulster v Connacht Build Up thre

Paul Smeenus

thomond2006 wrote: »

He does what he wants.

Now that he plays for us, I love it.

Zzippy

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

About time. Cheating buggers.

mfceiling

Christ Jonny Murphy should be given every card that is available and a boot up the hole for that hairstyle.

stephen_n

Murphy unlucky that was Dillanes tip.

Akrasia

I only have 2 questions, who is Johnny Murphy's barber, and how can I get myself a haircut like that???

sydthebeat

Powerful

Digifriendly

Akrasia wrote: »

I only have 2 questions, who is Johnny Murphy's barber, and how can I get myself a haircut like that???

You mean Jacob Stockdale's barber? It's even better.

mfceiling

Akrasia wrote: »

I only have 2 questions, who is Johnny Murphy's barber, and how can I get myself a haircut like that???

It's like a charlois bull's arse.

Zzippy

mfceiling wrote: »

It's like a charlois bull's arse.

Brilliant!

stephen_n

I would imagine Jared Payne will have less hair than Stockdale after watching Ulster defend today.

Paul Smeenus

Really delighted about how our second choice front row is dealing with Connacht in the scrum.

yerrahbah

Lot of tired bodies out there

AbusesToilets

Marmion having a great game so far

thomond2006

Great win for Connacht. Some fantastic rugby from them. Next week against Munster should be fun.

Paul Smeenus

Work to be done, but well done Connacht.

Bazzo

Very pleased with that. Penalty count the biggest issue and that's fixable.

ClanofLams

Picked John Porch to stick a fiver on man of the match. Didn’t make bookies. He was 66-1. Sickener

MayoForSam

Excellent performance from Connacht, all the new lads went very well

Diabhal Beag

The back 3 were excellent.

Special shoutout to connachta's success with bulking up Murray in the downtime.

Zzippy

Bazzo wrote: »

Very pleased with that. Penalty count the biggest issue and that's fixable.

Possession stats were awful for a good part of the game. A less wasteful team would have used that possession better and punished us.

Akrasia

Zzippy wrote: »

Possession stats were awful for a good part of the game. A less wasteful team would have used that possession better and punished us.

You can't really criticise the team for leaving a few chances behind them given the circumstances

Ulster's handling and disfunctional lineout really cost them the game, but again, hopefully they will improve on this with match fitness

mfceiling

Shíte line-out.
Shíte defending.
Shíte handling.
Shíte decision making.

Ulster are back alright.

thomond2006

mfceiling wrote: »

Shíte line-out.
Shíte defending.
Shíte decision making.

Ulster are back alright.

You have Alby though. Ulster are the real winners.

Zzippy

Akrasia wrote: »

You can't really criticise the team for leaving a few chances behind them given the circumstances

Ulster's handling and disfunctional lineout really cost them the game, but again, hopefully they will improve on this with match fitness

No I'm not, Ulster will def improve. Point I was making was our possession was poor, and teams will punish us if that happens again. Got lucky Ulster were so rusty today. Today was a rarity, no matter how good rugby you play you will rarely win with so little possession.

StevenToast

Eir sport pundits all went for Ulster...

I knew then Connacht would win comfortably...

D'arcy is a dreadful pundit

Clegg

Ulster really missed Luke Marshall. Hume defended poorly and never got going in an attacking sense. Same with McCloskey. Throwing speculative offloads to nobody.

FACECUTTR

Back 3 were great today, lots of competition there and 1 more to arrive. Butler and Boyle were excellent and carried really well. I really thought Marmion was motm. His defence was unreal today. 2 new props did well but didn't get much time.
Delighted rugby is back.

stephen_n

Zzippy wrote: »

Possession stats were awful for a good part of the game. A less wasteful team would have used that possession better and punished us.

This is the reality of the game. Connacht really took their opportunities well but if Ulster hadn’t been so poor both in attack and defense, with a totally dysfunctional lineout. Then Connacht would have been chasing the scoreboard all day. A lot of positives for Connacht but the win was possibly more about Ulsters failings. You can’t expect every team to be that poor at turning possession and territory into points.

Bazzo

Zzippy wrote: »

Possession stats were awful for a good part of the game. A less wasteful team would have used that possession better and punished us.

True to a point, but fixing the dumb penalties swings the cheaply turned over possession and territory significantly. The defence were also dogged inside the 22 and winning the contact much more than we've seen previously which is encouraging.

Former Former

Ouch.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RuaidhriOC/status/1297590549046874114

Former Former

Former Former wrote: »

Ouch.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RuaidhriOC/status/1297590549046874114

Yeah, Ulster were a bit half-hearted at times. Couple of players showed up, but there was a malaise there, maybe those substitutions at half time weren't tactical..

I thought Ulster were poor, this is pretty scathing though.

Buer

Enjoyable affair. Just watched it on delay. Connacht came to play. Could have suffered a lot more under another referee for how they went about their attacking rucks but they looked very energetic and slick in the first half.

Hurt a little bit to see Aungier get the last try. I believed he was an international in the making.

connemara man

Buer wrote: »

Enjoyable affair. Just watched it on delay. Connacht came to play. Could have suffered a lot more under another referee for how they went about their attacking rucks but they looked very energetic and slick in the first half.

Hurt a little bit to see Aungier get the last try. I believed he was an international in the making.

Still is

Buer

connemara man wrote: »

Still is

I knew I'd get one of ya to bite!

Zzippy

Buer wrote: »

I knew I'd get one of ya to bite!

Is that an admission of trolling? :P

Zzippy

Any thoughts on a team of the weekend from the two games? Think Connacht would have a good few in it - Heff, Dillane, Butler, Marmion, Aki and Porch anyway.

Buer

Zzippy wrote: »

Is that an admission of trolling? :P

I'll say what I suspect John Muldoon said more than once....

Give me the card and be done with it!

Zzippy

Buer wrote: »

I'll say what I suspect John Muldoon said more than once....

Give me the card and be done with it!

He didn't always deserve it though!

Zzippy

Zzippy wrote: »

Any thoughts on a team of the weekend from the two games? Think Connacht would have a good few in it - Heff, Dillane, Butler, Marmion, Aki and Porch anyway.

Healy
Heffernan
Porter
Baird / Dillane
Treadwell
Doris / Timony
Butler / VDF
Stander
Marmion
Sexton
Earls
Aki
Ringrose
Conway
Porch

Where I struggled between players I put both with preference first.

Burkie1203

Zzippy wrote: »

Any thoughts on a team of the weekend from the two games? Think Connacht would have a good few in it - Heff, Dillane, Butler, Marmion, Aki and Porch anyway.

Healy Heffernan Porter Dillane Baird Butler Stander Boyle
Marmion Carty Earls Aki Ringrose porch daly

Zzippy

Bazzo wrote: »

True to a point, but fixing the dumb penalties swings the cheaply turned over possession and territory significantly. The defence were also dogged inside the 22 and winning the contact much more than we've seen previously which is encouraging.

I was very impressed with the defence especially today. Consistently brought pressure, met Ulster on the gainline and made a lot of dominant tackles. Organisation and communication was very good.

Dave_The_Sheep

Zzippy wrote: »

I was very impressed with the defence especially today. Consistently brought pressure, met Ulster on the gainline and made a lot of dominant tackles. Organisation and communication was very good.

Didn't get to watch it earlier so re-watching the game after downloading it. Can't agree more, Ulster had a lot of time in the redzone, but were held out in plenty of scoring situations.

After just getting to the Aki score, the same cannot be said for Ulster. Three men and not a single one went low.

ionadnapokot

Deleted User wrote: »

Healy
Heffernan
Porter
Baird / Dillane
Treadwell
Doris / Timony
Butler / VDF
Stander
Marmion
Sexton
Earls
Aki
Ringrose
Conway
Porch

Where I struggled between players I put both with preference first.

Hard to pick anyone else there.
I loved seeing Henshaw's little kick through for the try.
Bundi just bigger than Madigan for his try.
Same for Earls. Dont think we've ever said that!

Those are the type of kicks Ireland are crying out for.

Try of the weekend - Marmion

ionadnapokot

Didnt twig that Marmion played the full 80.
Impressive fitness.

connachta

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

The back 3 were excellent.

Special shoutout to connachta's success with bulking up Murray in the downtime.

Great to have an extra solution there, he was very good

connachta

Bazzo wrote: »

True to a point, but fixing the dumb penalties swings the cheaply turned over possession and territory significantly. The defence were also dogged inside the 22 and winning the contact much more than we've seen previously which is encouraging.

Yeah it's been a long time I've seen Connacht missing so few tacles
Stats confirmed it, 93% success rate.
Ulster were ill at ease also because our defense was great (thought we don't trust the wingers for one-to-one, it's obvious our line roll back a lot to protect them out wide)
The forwards put so many dominant tackles, being 45 kg lighter is yet to be noticed in the packs confrontation.
Dillane and Boyle may be "surprise picks" for Andy with Ireland
Butler faces too much competition for 7 but deserves praises of course

connachta

I'm really surprised how good we were.
Gosh Sullivan, Aungier, Duggan never played pro and didn't look out of place at all!
Porsh unexpectedly lined up as FB went incredibly well!

What a pleasant game, was worth a 5-month wait
Only regret is missing Papali'i vs. Coetzee contact. Without crowd, we would have heard the choc in Connacht and in Ulster
Could happen next vs. CJ !

Squidgy Black

connachta wrote: »

I'm really surprised how good we were.
Gosh Sullivan, Aungier, Duggan never played pro and didn't look out of place at all!
Porsh unexpectedly lined up as FB went incredibly well!

What a pleasant game, was worth a 5-month wait
Only regret is missing Papali'i vs. Coetzee contact. Without crowd, we would have heard the choc in Connacht and in Ulster
Could happen next vs. CJ !

Aungier had 5 appearances for Leinster, wasn't his first time playing pro. Just FYI.

connachta

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Aungier had 5 appearances for Leinster, wasn't his first time playing pro. Just FYI.

Yeah I knew.
My bad
Still a very good appearence, scrum held, 1 try