Is it starting to hit home yet?

[Cockatrice]

Anybody think we’ll get a medical joker for Cooney?

We went to great lengths to sign an Irish International scrum half over the summer.. maybe we should kept it free for an injury joker.. where is he btw?

Richmond?

when did they ship him to Richmond?...

[BR]

Anybody think we’ll get a medical joker for Cooney?

We went to great lengths to sign an Irish International scrum half over the summer.. maybe we should kept it free for an injury joker.. where is he btw?

Richmond?

when did they ship him to Richmond?...

I thought that was where we shipped Irish international 9s too. Of course if this scrumhalf wasn't a 9, then that wouldn't make sense.

Still interested to see if we end up with a proper international 9 before Xmas.

[Cockatrice]

I remember many years ago bemoaning the second rate NIQ's that we seemed to be bringing in with some frequency particularly using Diack as a barometer. Soft hands and good at getting lifted in the line out was his fame yet in my opinion never the type of player that we needed yet we stuck with him extended his contract and in the end 200 plus caps which for me says it all...

I also recall being somewhat vocal back when we began taking in injury jokers that simply redefined the definition of a joker.. then again how far back can we go with that one as the more I think of one I get hit with another and I have long since lost count of the third rate signings we have attracted thru the years..it might surprise some what these jokers attracted in wages particularly now when we have to tighten the belt and plead poverty for what we spent in the past.

Don't forget not so long ago it was us that made Charles the highest paid player in the Pro 14 and at a time when some within the corridors of power questioned the cost of a player that wasn't actually what was required or indeed being sought.. we wanted the luxury and we paid thru the nose for him.

Don't forget we have specialised in releasing staff early from contracts for a variety of reasons but none have gone without sizeable pay offs..

Add to that the continual signing of players masquerading to be rugby players and seemingly able to sit on their backside and milk the gravy train whilst in one case running a farm. We sign shyte and we keep shyte that is the Ulster Way and Rodney/SVM/Diesel and Moore all appear to be current examples of money for nothing.

Strangely we have experts in position that spend years studying these players before bringing them in well in my opinion we get it wrong 10 times more than we get it right. I would never have spent the money on SVM and Diesel in the case of Rodney I would have given him the chance but now said goodbye and Moore I would have passed by for giving someone closer to home the chance to step up.

I further bemoan the fact that we seem to lack any business sense to put a meaningful clause into a contract allowing us to get rid of someone that is constantly injured and question the continued signing of those simply not up to the job.

[Cockatrice]

Anybody think we’ll get a medical joker for Cooney?

We went to great lengths to sign an Irish International scrum half over the summer.. maybe we should kept it free for an injury joker.. where is he btw?

Richmond?

when did they ship him to Richmond?...

I thought that was where we shipped Irish international 9s too. Of course if this scrumhalf wasn't a 9, then that wouldn't make sense.

Still interested to see if we end up with a proper international 9 before Xmas.

BR.. are we talking the same player? .. over the summer we announced the signing of an Irish International scrum half from Leinster and yet he never appears to have arrived.. I know someone in D4 that joked with me a while back we had two Irish number 9's where the feck is this one?

[boyg]

It's not about an Ulster born and bred 15. That is always going to be average at best. It's about 3-4 top Ulster players along with maybe 6-7 who are the next level down SUPPLEMENTED by 4 world class imports (not the dirt we've been accepting the last 4-5 years) and a good promising project player (again recently, pure muck). The 6-7 average players when playing with the class above them of local and foreign usually raise their game to get to the higher level. It worked before.

Absolutely right, Hammer. I don't think these days an Ulster born and bred XV is on the cards at all. I don't really even want one, I just wasn't sure if I could even name a locally B&B XV. But, if we don't grow our own, we're always going to be living off someone else's cast-offs and that's the road to no town. We'll never have the money or permission to buy in real quality players and I doubt that there are many top quality players around the world who are just longing to come to Belfast. It's the perennial problem of developing a 'conveyer belt' of talent through schools and clubs. For me it certainly is starting to hit home.

There appears to be a serious problem in bringing through talent from the schools. Certainly the schools with DORs seemed to be breaking the kids because we do not see them progressing players into the Academy. We saw a couple from Inst on Saturday who are the first for a few years. Methody have produced few since Paddy and Gilroy. It appears to be the smaller schools who are producing the majority of the local talent. Ballymena Academy had 4 players in the senior squad on Saturday and another 4 in the A team. No other school comes close to level yet when did they last win a Schools Cup. Wallace are producing the odd diamonds but Belfast schools with significant superior numbers to pick from are failing miserably.

The lack of Div 1A rugby at club level is another significant problem. If our younger players are not getting top level club experience week in week out they are handicapped going into inter-provincials and B & I games. The gap between the Pro14 and the All Ireland leagues is wide enough without dropping down a league.

[TopPoster]

What is needed:

1) A new no-nonsense CEO. Doesn't do BS. Will stand up to that shower in D4.
2) Four grade A and bulletproof NIQs: Prop second row, backrow and a back (centre/wing) or project 9. If Bryn can't deliver on this he can FO.
3) Bring our boys home.
4) The band removed permanently.

Nail, head, hit!

[BR]

[
BR.. are we talking the same player? .. over the summer we announced the signing of an Irish International scrum half from Leinster and yet he never appears to have arrived..

Or did he arrive and then go again?

[rocky]

Agree with this, Kofi. It won't be easy, either for fans or players, but we have to keep the faith.

[Cormac]

BR.. are we talking the same player? .. over the summer we announced the signing of an Irish International scrum half from Leinster and yet he never appears to have arrived.. I know someone in D4 that joked with me a while back we had two Irish number 9's where the feck is this one?

U-20 international? Because I'm pretty sure that Cooney and Luke McGrath are the only Leinster-born players to play at scrum-half for Ireland this century.

[Dave]

BR.. are we talking the same player? .. over the summer we announced the signing of an Irish International scrum half from Leinster and yet he never appears to have arrived.. I know someone in D4 that joked with me a while back we had two Irish number 9's where the feck is this one?

U-20 international? Because I'm pretty sure that Cooney and Luke McGrath are the only Leinster-born players to play at scrum-half for Ireland this century.

I think the player question was a sevens international.

[222toHounslow]

Sevens scrum half, FFS you might as well sign a woman

[Dave]

Sevens scrum half, FFS you might as well sign a woman

Man or woman, said individual came and went already.

[Cockatrice]

yes ... but doesn't it sum up our eye for spotting talent?

At a time when we knew we needed a back up with Cooney heading off for a summer tour and the likelihood going forward he might at least get called up to hold tackle bags in the Autumn Internationals we sign a scrum half who doesn't see out the summer training and disappears in a puff of smoke in weeks.

The comments of my friend in D4 where somewhat tongue in cheek but nonetheless systematic of what others in those same corridors say about us in private. Whinging Nordies they have two international nines... like when they capped Reidy and overnight provided us instant SID in the back-row with another Irish International on our rota or when they can say that with Rodney and Moore in place we have an all Ireland front row to complement Best.

[rumncoke]

It hit home when Marshall and Ludic got injured just after Paddy and Stu got their nuts kicked and Trimble and Bowe retired Charlie went to England and beagle realised he had greater needs elsewhere .

That’s a backline gone West leaving us with a line breaker and an ageing and fading star of the green in the centre .

Little cover at half back and a load of inexperience should injury hit .

Burns is at best an average out half but no substitute for an International coming to his peak in awareness ,fitness and experience .





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[BR]

yes ... but doesn't it sum up our eye for spotting talent?

At a time when we knew we needed a back up with Cooney heading off for a summer tour and the likelihood going forward he might at least get called up to hold tackle bags in the Autumn Internationals we sign a scrum half who doesn't see out the summer training and disappears in a puff of smoke in weeks.

The comments of my friend in D4 where somewhat tongue in cheek but nonetheless systematic of what others in those same corridors say about us in private. Whinging Nordies they have two international nines... like when they capped Reidy and overnight provided us instant SID in the back-row with another Irish International on our rota or when they can say that with Rodney and Moore in place we have an all Ireland front row to complement Best.

Did Ulster spot him or was he foisted upon them?

Surely it was better to send him packing rather than persevere with more dead weight, as they may have done in the past?