by
–
Ulster cruise to a comfortable win. If only we could play Connacht and Munster all the time! Thoughts on next season are now up, enjoy . . .
You will need to log in or register to read the rest of this article. If you have not already registered you can click here to register.
In 2022 we added 102,631 new images in 510 galleries with a gallery breakdown of 263 Rugby, 217 Hockey and 30 Athletics. Your registration and subscription will help us to continue.
Thanks.
As I was saying above Ulster seriously needs a No 10 who is A More physical and dependable than Ian Humphries ( good as he can be in flashes) and B More creative than Niall O’Connor. At No 9 Paul Marshall is far too small a featherweight for the modern game and Willis is clearly very average. So there is another problem position.
If Xavier Rush is actually transferring to Ulster then he is clearly good enough to be a first choice player rather than an ocassional stand in as has been suggested above. Many of his performances this year have been the equal of the great Ferris.
I also agree with the comments above relating to the lightweight and unintimidating nature of the front five -with the exception of Botha.
On the positive side The new full back Smith seems talented ; Trimble is back to top form and the likes of Whitten and Cave have it in them to improve. Nagusa was an excitingly mercurial impact player -but is now gone. Danielli is sound. Wallae has still much to offer -but seems very injury prone.
Ulster scored a high number of tries in the Magners; but alas they also leaked far too many daft penalties — and despite weekly assurances that this will improve, it does not.
Couldn’t agree more in respect of the ‘blond Greek Adonis’.
Underused since last December and massively under-rated by the club.
Here’s hoping he’s given the chance to realise his full potential next season.
I let you work it out its easy if you have eyes to see
And as I have said a defence coach would be a waste of money when the defence consists of 13 + + and one in the bin
OK
Serious assessment time for the ragin raven
The three strongest squads in the ML are Leinster Ospreys and Munster with Cardiff in that mix as well an unbiased assessment would be that a win against those sides either home or away cannot be guaranteed — four home wins your breaking even.
Glasgow while lacking the same quality of talent have the best outhalf capable of controlling a game and putting points on the board but his ability to open a game up and play attacking rugby is sadly lacking his forte is keeping the game in opposition half thus making Glasgow a very hard team to defeat. trys for 31, points for 390 ( the highest in the league) only leinster and Gonnaught scored fewer trys
Surprisingly Edinburgh scored the most trys (40) and Ulster were the second with 39
The moral of the tale is that a sound defence win matches not the best attack
Which brings me back to the point I made If Ulster continue to play with a side that is basically 13 + + man defence Ulster will continue to struggle and forfeit points if any Ulster player is carded
Don’t see anything to argue with as I have been calling for a defence coach all season. Out of interest who are the + + players. I assume one is Humphreys.
Ho Ho Raging, You must be on the cooking sherry early- Jake White is your credible alternative!!! I’d imagine his stock is still quite high since last world cup and thus very expensive. Could ulster afford it? doubt so.He may well be one of the ‘reported’ 20 applicants for worcester job but then cecil Whatshisface over there has deep pockets.
I totally agree that some of McL selection decisions have been appalling but unlike the typical Man City fan i’m pepared to give him some time, ie this time next year, If by then he hasn’t improved the team and learnt from this year’s errors then it’s time to go back to the chalkboard.
Dergman …………… at last I have coaxed you out of message board retirement. I knew if I threw out a big enough whopper you would bite.
FYI I was gutted when they sacked Sven and raging when they sacked Sparky who would have led us to glory this season. Retro Scarf Boy can head back to the land of the bottom stabbers anytime. 🙂
Wether McL improves the team next year will have no effect on his tenure. He will be heading back to school teacher land and UR will have wasted another two years. 🙁
“Land of the bottom stabbers”? Never realised Mancini was from Larne….
No ………….. Ballyclare!
Don’t believe the Rumour that Rush is staying, but on the slim chance that he does then use the money to get Jake White in, BMcL will be going next season anyway as he only got a two year sabbatical if memory serves me right, and as already has been mentioned the 2 goals that he set of getting out of the group stages of the HC and a top 4 play-off finish were sadly missed. If UR want to be taken seriously then a professional coach is a must not a school teacher……..
Ragin
Cardiff won more matches than Munster but miss out in the play offs
The point raven is that no team wins every game and with that in mind the losing bonus makes a serious difference in the league position
re Rush I would rather have someone who wants to play than someone who is made to play if the player wants to stay at the blues we are in diffs
Mote, you are quite right that is the exception that proves the rule , winning is better. 🙂
Re Rush If someone didn’t want to play I wouldn’t have him either. But I would be wary of believing what some Welsh Sheep shagger heard in a Chip Shop.
Raging
Hardly much more reliable but apparently on scrumV Johnathan Davies was quoted as saying ‘he isnt gone yet’.
…………….. neither has Gordon Brown or Peter Robinson! 🙂
Fingers crossed then ha!
rumours at the minute Ulster need the player and not the extra money….
wouldnt argue with that Jordy but with Diack in some form and Henry backing him up is 8 that position. To be honest i would rather have Rush as the odds of signing a top 10 this late and also this close to a RWC are slim. That said i dont think losing Rush would be the end of the world. Just a blow.
yip on the net
‘Rush and Cardiff Blues are in negotiation with Ulster to keep the player at the Blues next year. Rush recently changed his agent and in february this year struck a deal with Ulster. Rush at the time felt things at the Blues were not that good. Having seen a change in fortunes and results at the Blues, Rush who has been in outstanding form and won the Player of the Year last night, reckons his chances of staying are 60/40 in favour of the Blues. He wants to stay.’
Thats interesting about Rush. Nothing would surprise me.
The only other matter that concerns me about Fridays match against Connacht was BJ Botha’s reaction to the crowd when he was replaced near the end. It was more emotional than usual and more like that of a player who had played their last game at Ravenhill.
I hope it was the beer goggles and I am wrong.
i hope so too he is awesome and vital for the ulster scrum next season…..
So you are going to listen to some eejit in a chip shop in Cardiff that thinks Rush is staying, I heard Elvis visits the same chip shop on a regular basis and Lord Lucan actually peels the spuds.
or maybe ‘mote’ it is because Munster don’t get any Scottish ref’s (easy to blame the ref all the time), i think personally the lack of bonus points is down to Ulsters lack of discipline this season they score as many tries as the top teams but they gave away far too many penalties straight in front of the sticks.
and ED was never offered a contract and Cadly was so your theory is all wrong.
Some rumours (hardly substantiated ones though) that Rush may be looking to stay at Cardiff with Andy Powell going to league. Whilst this would be a slap in the face for Ulster with Diacks form (what number 8 in the Magners has better hands?) and Henry backing up would it be wise to go for a new 10 and trusting the current backrow? We have been a tad unfortunate with injuries this season and Faloon will be more used with ML rugby next season.
Ulster’s place in the league is down to a serious lack of “losing bonus points” Munster have only two wins more than Ulster and are in the play offs but they have 6 losing bonus points to Ulster’s 2
A bigger pack may provide fewer opportunities to the opposition to put points on the board
But my main concern is that two of our best attacking players constitute our defensive Achilles Heel and playing both leaves Ulster with what at times is a 13 + man defence which is totally exploitable if an Ulster player is carded
And is possibly the major reason for Ulsters lack of LB points
Whilst I see your point mote , Ulster’s place in the league is down to a serious lack of winning matches , 7 wins out of 18 is pathetic. Only the Scarlets and Connacht won less and guess what , they finished below us in the league. A win is worth 4 or 5 points whilst a losing bonus is worth 1. Do the maths. 🙂
A bit of a simplification blaming all our woes on back foot ball. I agree with SRG we need an international class number 10. My own view is that our front 5 are too nice , the two who are most aggressive are Best and Botha who coincidently are our two smallest. I would have preferred the signing of another second row , someone like Ben Kay , who Leicester have let go, who would add both grunt and experience. Tuohy seams a nice enough lad and gets about the park well but lacks physical presence as does Caldwell who like Peter Pan never grew up and with Henry and Diack in the back row, two of the prettiest boys in the Magners League we are not going to strike fear in the opposition. I can’t remember when I last saw a good punch at Ravenhill, maybe thats a good thing , but we must starting bullying teams more and it starts up front. For David Humpherys sake I hope the signing of Muller works out as I believe he has had two broken arms in the past two seasons and the last thing we need is another sick note player.
And that brings me on to the coaches .. I do not rate McLaughlin ,a fact that is well known, and it was put to me after the thrashing of bottom of the table Connacht on Friday night that I shouldn’t criticize him unless I could come up with a better coach. Sadly he has failed in every objective still 8 out of 10 in League and failed to get out of Heineken Cup group. His inability to change the team against a 14 man Bath team by not bringing on Ian Humpherys spoke volumes about his ability and be under no illusions if N O’C had not got injured in Edinburgh two weeks ago and McLaughlin was forced to bring on Humphreys that game would have been lost. If I knew how much was available for a new coach I could come up with a better one. There are plenty out there , Worcester have reportedly 20 applications already for a team heading for the English Championship , one of whom is Jake White the South African World Cup winner, so there Dergman is your answer , things weren’t so bad the last time we had a South African in charge.
It is also obvious that we need a defence coach but not obvious we need a director of rugby. What have we got a coach and a CEO for? Are Ulster Rugby saying we could not attract the right sort of player without David Humphreys? Lets face it an ageing back row and an injury prone lock are hardly a marketing mans dream. I’ll not even bother to go into the Boss and O’D contract debacle. For Humpherys sake I hope he has an international scrum half up his sleeve and all will be forgiven. I am sure he has learned much this year and will be better for it , I wish I could say the same for McLaughlin.
Did I renew my season ticket ? Too right I did! World domination starts next season, the rollercoaster ride has begun. 🙂
I agree with most of the above. However, I think it is an over-simplification to explain away Ulster’s serious underperformance in 2010 in terms of the news of Boss’s transfer.
I also think the positional “elephant in the room” has been ignored ie the problem at No 10. I had hopes that Ian Humphries would develop into a better all-round player. But this does not seem to have happened and whilst Niall O’Connor is an honest journeyman, he is not good enough if Ulster are to be serios contenders for Magner’s playoffs and Heineken knockout stages. If finances allow, then a decent
Welcome aboard SRG. now you’ve signed in your comments will go up immediately if you use the same email and user name.
I don’t think that I’m ignoring the elephant in the room, I just don’t think it’s there. None of our half backs have been given enough good ball on a consistent basis for the last two seasons for them to be discounted. It’s hard to control a game if defenders are constantly in your face due to slow ball or if you’re going backwards.
Give them a season with a bit of control up front and then we can see if the elephant is hanging around or not.
Download the UK Concussion Guidelines for Grassroots Sport Here
Corrections, comments or questions?