Who will tame the Dragons?

There was a strange sense of déjà vu in the air on Friday. Ulster lost another game, the basic skills of the team were another massive let down and more than one opportunity to kick the team to victory went begging. You’d have to look a little further back to find the déjà vu that sits at the forefront of my mind as I write this, however – the last time Ulster lost an away game but held on for the losing bonus point came against Cardiff, at the Arms Park, all the way back in April 2007.

So, I hear you ask? What is the importance of this little statistic? The sad truth is that it suggests that Ulster may only now be returning to the form they showed at the end of the 2006/2007 season. At the time, it seemed like Ulster’s form had totally collapsed but in this period, Ulster won four of nine games – when you consider that Ulster won only six times last season, a return to Ulster playing on that level would be marked, if unspectacular development and would remain entirely consistent with a 36 month improvement plan.

Not that the thought of impalpable progress at some future date is sweet enough to cover the bitter taste that Friday’s result left. The fact is that this is a game that Ulster could, and should, have won. Ulster have started this season, again, with a placekicking record of less than 50% and it is all too painfully obvious that the eight points missed from the boot on Friday night cost Ulster the game. It will be easy to point to Niall O’Connor’s missed penalties and a few may even by cynical enough to note Clinton Schifcofske’s missed conversion but they weren’t the only reason why Ulster didn’t win.

O’Connor, specifically, does not deserve any kind of vilification. He probably started the game as a third choice kicker, behind both Schifcofske and Paddy Wallace. Only in the freak circumstances that led to both Schifcofske and Wallace limping off early in the first half led to O’Connor taking the placekicks. Despite this disappointment, O’Connor dictated other aspects of the game well, most notably for kicking Cardiff into the depths of their own 22 on a few occasions.

The trouble is that Ulster got the better of the set piece exchanges but still lost the game. They totally dominated the scrum, which is particularly noticeable as Tom Court started the game at loosehead. The lineout, too, functioned better than it has in recent times, with Ulster not only maintaining clean ball from their own throw but seriously disrupting on Cardiff’s put in. For a team that got the better of the set piece exchanges, the result was particularly disappointing.

The trouble was that Ulster seemed content to play without the ball for long periods. The defence was strong and vicious but Ulster were still too easily turned over at times and, all too often, failed to build any kind of continuity with ball in hand. Rob Dewey’s contribution, especially, is memorable for his complete failure to hold onto the ball in contact. This was not Dewey’s only problem on an evening that saw him choose to take the ball up the middle when a move out wide was certainly on. More than once, poor hands and poor decision making combined to embarrass a player that is clearly better than this. On that kind of form, it’s difficult to justify his selection for the 22, let alone the starting XV.

The wider trouble is that Dewey’s performance acts as the perfect metaphor for an Ulster team that, again, seemed content to attack with no real imagination. Botha’s try came directly from a well executed lineout move and while Boss scored from a period of impressive and sustained pressure, the position really only came off the back of an earlier scrum. For too long, Ulster were content to keep it tight but not really go anywhere. As a result, Jim Nagusa was left frozen out of the game in attack and has now left some questions hanging over his own head.

He spent most of the evening looking like a rabbit in headlights under the highball and did most of his best stepping in an attempt to avoid any kind of contact with opposition players. Were Ulster not so criminally short of wingers, it may be easy to justify dropping Nagusa completely from the 22 until he’s more acclimatised to Northern Hemisphere rugby but his pace could be a deciding factor against a Dragons side that look horribly weak out wide and is enough to merit a place on the bench.

The pressure is now on Ulster and unless they can undo a Dragons side that Munster hit for a half-century on Sunday afternoon, the season could begin to take on a very familiar and rather grey tinge. While Ulster’s defence has remained solid, and the pack looked strong attack remains a worry and with the potential loss of both Wallace and Schifcofske for the game next week, this could grow considerably worse in coming weeks.

The Archipelago’s Pick*:

15. B. Cunningham
14. A. Trimble
13. D. Cave
12. P. Wallace
11. C. Schifcofske
10. N. O’Connor
9. I. Boss

1. T. Court
2. R. Best
3. B.J. Botha
4. E. O’Donoghue
5. R. Caldwell
6. S. Ferris
7. D. Pollock
8. R. Diack

16. N. Brady
17. B. Young
18. M. McCullough
19. K. Dawson
20. P. Marshall
21. I. Humphreys
22. T. Nagusa

* Subject to fitness and availability

The Archipelago