2018/19 End of Season Review

Talk about the men in white, and everything Ulster!!

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therealspratt
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by therealspratt »

kingofthehill wrote:
Dave wrote:7s?
Yep,hopefully will turn out to be the next Rieko Ioane.


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Waste of bloody time.
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by BaggyTrousers »

OK, probably my last post ever.

The season was an absolute triumph. Yes, a triumph, only a bog-eyed loon could have expected that we would actually win anything.

Realists such as I spent last Friday without the remotest hint of a frisson of excitement, not a shred of false hope, with Weegies plastic pitch and home record, plus an incredibly weak refereeing team, a shock was never ever on the cards.

With all the cards in their hands, Weegies had the additional impetus of the final being in Taig Park, even if that D4 bigot Polar Bear, the ugliest man in Dublin, reckons they are all Huns at Weegies.

Outright sectarian bullshit which the FIRFUC’s should take him to task for, if he wasn’t a Warren Gatland…………..or more specifically if he was an Ulsterman. His contract should be torn up, a la Folau, sectarianism kills people you dumb Warren Gatland.

So with that out of the way and filed under no fu@king chance, let’s assess where we are at.

Starting with departing heroes, Rory Best and Darren Cave, two men who have contributed much more to Ulster Rugby than just their own performances. I wish both all the best in their retirement. Ulster to the core and leaders in their individual ways.

Now, coaching. There was some mockery hereabouts when Bryn said they had got their man and it turned out to be Dan McFarland. Now nobody likes to have their stupidity made public, so relax, I won’t name and shame you people. You should also offer up a silent apology all you many idiots who badmouthed Bryn the Ulsterman, I know who you are but again, my amnesty for fools applies.

Dan has exceeded expectations, realistically nobody expected anything but a chastening season and a continued decline before anything started to get better. From the off when Ulster won a few games that they really had no right to, it was clearly a different setup. Gone were the days when very few of the team bought into one unintelligible word that emanated from FOLK’s twitching coupon. Gone too, Clarke’s assertions that it doesn’t matter how you win possession as long as you win possession, gone too, the over and back attacking moves that resulted in damn all by the pack, replaced by technical nous that has resulted in more driven & mauled tries than in the previous 5 years to a decade.

If the forward coaching has generally improved, barring the lineout and in general the defensive coaching too, then the jury remained locked and undecided on the backs coaching, though in many games there were very encouraging signs. Injuries played a huge part in the backs this season rather than a decimated pack as has usually been the case, so Master Peel certainly gets another season from my viewpoint.

Dan & Peel have a major problem, 9 & 10 as others have alluded to. It is as simple as this, a good/great pack can give you the opportunity to win games and ultimately trophies, but it’s not going to happen with a dodgy or just about decent pair of halfbacks.

Imagine our improved pack this season with Nordi, Marcell & Marty making a vast difference, add to that Jack McGrath & the man who could save our lineout, Carter. Around that core there are guys who do well in a strong team, Tredders, EOS, Herring, Reidy, O’Connor, Timoney, hopefully some of our younger guys and even those who are still there and doing well when called on, Ross & Warwick, not world-beaters but doing a job and giving everything they’ve got.

So take that lot and imagine what could be with the enemies of the FIRFUC’s, what Pienaar & Jackson could do with those guys in front of them, not to mention Big Stu, NHL, Gilroy, Addison, Ludik, Faddes, Balocoune, Lyttle, Lowry and possibly the 2 young centres behind them.

Unfortunately, that will never come to pass. Ruan offered to return to play support to Cooney for effectively minimum wage, but that horrible Warren Gatland told him to pissaway off. So poor Ruan extended his contract where he is far from at home.

Paddy Jackson, the best Ulster 10 of the pro era? A chap about whom it is not hyperbole to suggest what has happened to the guy is a genuine tragedy, never mind his family. Gone, but not forgotten, NEVER MOVE ON.

It would be remiss of me not to once again mention the part of Kerry scumbag Donal Spring, who took huge delight in talking down to the two lads when sacking them. I hope he dies in utter agony, I’d love to be there to relish it and laugh at him. I hate Spring more than I hate Trump. Mind you I still find it hard to have anything but loathing for London Spide-rish, even if Squiffy’s ould mate Deccie is there, FOLK, a mumbo jumbo artist, left almost as bad a taste with me as Brian Smith the lowlife spide.

Stu Olding, our next best option, also gone, I hope he’s loving Brive, a nice town in a good area.

So we are left with Cooney who for my money was well short of his first season’s form sadly shipping multiple bangs to the cranium and Shanners, the new p but without so many brainfarts but also less talent, barring being a demon for running support lines. Yes he’s improved, no he is not good enough long term, just as 200+ cap p wasn’t ever. What you couldn’t fault either for is heart. Cooney is a smart player, I hope he gets back to his best form for Ulster and doesn’t waste his season with a pointless trip to the RWC.

Outside that, unlike some I warmed more to King Billy as the season wore on, but again, I’m far from convinced. I’d have liked to see more of Lowry at 10, but the arrival of Bill Johnston may make that an even more remote possibility. Johnston certainly is a talent, hopefully he will put huge pressure on BB/KB

So, in the words of the deluded FOLK, we appear “well stocked” with wingers/full backs, where Faddes will not be out of place if not at 13 or15, to supplement, Stockdale, Balacoune, Lyttle, Gilroy, Kernohan maybe, Ludik too. In the centre it will be a combo of Big Stu, NHL, Addison, Faddes, the two young lads and Louis if needed and the talented Lowry to fit in somewhere too, be that 10 or 15.

So it appears that we have the coaching more or less sorted with the new addition of Roddy Grant who you would assume is Dan’s pick, the squad is filling out with a lot of good young players and a solid core of really talented internationals, Carter excites me as the big hope to stabilise a dodgy lineout.

The bugbear very clearly half back. Much as all are committed and not without talent, trophy winning teams are always stocked with reliably class performers in the 9 & 10 jumpers.

I see further improvement coming next year, some of the nippers making further strides, hopefully Rea Bros, and the young props who can only get better with Marty & Jack around, but I see no sign of a trophy just yet, 9 & 10, you can’t get past that, decent doesn’t cut it, it needs class there to lift trophies.

So now, the end is near and so I face the final curtain, regrets I’ve had a few, but not calling a Warren Gatland. For what is man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has nought, to say the things he truly feels ………. well, that’s about it really.

Er…………..goodbye. That’s all folks.
NEVER MOVE ON. Years on, I cannot ever watch Ireland with anything but indifference, I continue to wish for the imminent death of Donal Spring, the FIRFUC's executioner of Wee Paddy & Wee Stu, and I hate the FIRFUCs with undiminished passion.
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2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by rumncoke »

Never a man of few words nearly at his loquacious best.

Should have been a judge -- really love long winded Judgements

Me - I like the story of A jazz trumpeter Ken Colyer an alleged drinker and semi social recluse who when is wife saw him squatting in a corner, on the floor ,on his own, bottle in hand at a party ,complained"You've hardly said two word all night " replied " You want a couple words ?'' -- -- " F --K OFF "

This is not meant personally but to show the effectiveness of a concise statement .
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by Setanta »

At least his language and grammar are nearly always correct and his arguments logical and clear. I do hope you find this statement concise.
From the rolling glens of Antrim through the hills of Donegal we will stand and shout for Ulster as we win both scrum and maul from the lovely lakes of Fermanagh tae the shores of ould Lough Gall we will scream and shout for Ulster as we beat them one and all!
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by Dublin4 »

Fact: Leo Cullen's mother is an Ulster Presbyterian who happened to marry a Wicklow farmer. I really doubt if Leo is the sectarian bigot that it suits some here to paint him as being.
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by big mervyn »

Dublin4 wrote:Fact: Leo Cullen's mother is an Ulster Presbyterian who happened to marry a Wicklow farmer. I really doubt if Leo is the sectarian bigot that it suits some here to paint him as being.
That's not necessarily a defence.
Some of the biggest sectarian ballixes in the North have come from mixed marriages, in fact it seens to give some of them an extra edge to their b!gotry.
Last edited by big mervyn on Wed May 22, 2019 3:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by rumncoke »

The Lord Mayor claims to be the product of mixed persuasions


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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by big mervyn »

kingofthehill wrote:
Dave wrote:7s?
Yep,hopefully will turn out to be the next Rieko Ioane.


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I see the Aussies have a 22 year old in their 7s squad who has clocked 10.1 for 100m
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by jackthelad »

big mervyn wrote:
kingofthehill wrote:
Dave wrote:7s?
Yep,hopefully will turn out to be the next Rieko Ioane.


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I see the Aussies have a 22 year old in their 7s squad who has clocked 10.1 for 100m
I didn't think greyhounds lived that long..... :D

Actually if he is that quick he should be in the Olympic squad for oz athletics.
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by Lurgan Lad »

big mervyn wrote:
Dublin4 wrote:Fact: Leo Cullen's mother is an Ulster Presbyterian who happened to marry a Wicklow farmer. I really doubt if Leo is the sectarian bigot that it suits some here to paint him as being.
That's not necessarily a defence.
Some of the biggest sectarian ballixes in the North have come from mixed marriages, in fact it seens to give some of them an extra edge to their b!gotry.
Agreed, from what I read a very small part of what lead Lenny Murphy to do what he did was having such an Irish surname, and so having to prove he was ultra loyalist.
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by Lurgan Lad »

kingofthehill wrote:
Dave wrote:7s?
Yep,hopefully will turn out to be the next Rieko Ioane.


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How far would he be away from Pro 14 standard? he does have a great physique already and you wonder why a French or English club doesn't offer him bigger money than what he could be getting in Ireland?
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by big mervyn »

Lurgan Lad wrote:
big mervyn wrote:
Dublin4 wrote:Fact: Leo Cullen's mother is an Ulster Presbyterian who happened to marry a Wicklow farmer. I really doubt if Leo is the sectarian bigot that it suits some here to paint him as being.
That's not necessarily a defence.
Some of the biggest sectarian ballixes in the North have come from mixed marriages, in fact it seens to give some of them an extra edge to their b!gotry.
Agreed, from what I read a very small part of what lead Lenny Murphy to do what he did was having such an Irish surname, and so having to prove he was ultra loyalist.
Similar with Michael Stone. His birth mother was called Mary Bridget O'Sullivan.
Martina Anderson's da was a Prod.
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by Cap'n Grumpy »

rumncoke wrote:The Lord Mayor claims to be the product of mixed persuasions
Male and female :shock:
big mervyn wrote:Martina Anderson's da was a Prod.
A Cattle Prod.
BaggyTrousers wrote:OK, probably my last post ever.

......

......

Er…………..goodbye. That’s all folks.
Ya sure? :lol:

Good old Baggie - never uses a big word when a singularly unloquacious and diminutive linguistic expression will satisfactorily accomplish the contemporary necessity. :thumleft:
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by rumncoke »

Baggy in his review, as have others touched upon the prospects for next year, looking at the changes to the squad , but Ulster's prospects don't just rely on the changes to the Ulster squad but the changes which happen within other squads.And wether they are in decline or improving .

Within Irish rugby I consider Connaught to be a province with an improving squad .

leinster have had the benefit of playing a mix, experience and inexperience, which has achieved results but several key players like Sexton ,Toner SoB ( who is Leaving ) Kearney , and lesser lights such as McFadden and Kearney Jr are also close to the P45 with possibly their best days behind them. During the World Cup the bulk of the pack will be in Japan and the ability to achieve the mix of experience and inexperience in the pack may not exist. Thus Leinster may struggle during the World Cup but those games may be a pointer as to how the province may play when the those Key players retire.

Munster are in, or, look to be in the place where Ulster was last year -- a coaching team in disarray , a non existent effective attacking backline ,and squad morale asunder . But within the squad they have some Munster men --who are MUNSTER men and with a sound front row and back row in the pack, but like Leinster the pack is maturing and some players may be less effective than in previous years.

The Welsh will always have one effective team and a type of rugby which makes them dangerous opponents -- consistency of performance is usually their problem.

Both Glasgow and Edinburgh are improving with Hastings being in my view the find of this season an out half willing to involve and absorbing the opposing back row without trying to evade them ,frequently, still a few raw edges to his game and thus mistake prone but not disastrously .

The Italians are also improving and like the Welsh the their major failing is consistency of performance.

The South Africans have still to get their act together,if they do they could disrupt the status quo. ( being Glasgow leinster and Irish dominance )

So where does that leave Ulster -- until a reliable 10 is found---- marking time I am afraid. BB cannot take on a back row and Lowry definitely won't absorb a back row , attempt to evade them yes, but only when a back row has been distracted and absorbed is possible get the ball beyond the cover defence. ( see Hastings above )
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Re: 2018/19 End of Season Review

Post by 222toHounslow »

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