Difficult viewing tonight. Fair to play to anyone who made it out. Could hear plenty of singing at 0-20 down.
The scrum is a total liability as it was against Ospreys. Even at CL level you cannot win games with a scrum that bad. I admit I am not overly certain of the finer points of scrummaging yet if a team get pushed back so far as we did, the ref is always going to punish you. The decision to bring on Brady was baffling. Macklin must have about 3 stone on him, and did pretty well when he did come on. I still can't fathom the rationale for this decision.
Of course there were many other issues at fault with the dismal performance. Credit to Treviso they played to their strengths. Solid set piece and great tactical kicking. Reminisent of Irish rugby.
As poor a performance as i can remember...we look like a gather up side.
Three straight wins followed by three straight defeats and with two games left before the Clermont game it's not very promising.
Might sound old school but i felt we needed to punch a few people to get us going.
browner wrote:As poor a performance as i can remember...we look like a gather up side.
Three straight wins followed by three straight defeats and with two games left before the Clermont game it's not very promising. Might sound old school but i felt we needed to punch a few people to get us going.
Officials included?
I came for my woman, he came with a razor blade,
Bound like us all for the ocean
Not a great display. Scrum again not good but in mitigation we have only three Tight Heads fit enough to play and, for tonight, a ref with very little clue of what was going on in the front row. Chris Henry needs to be more direct with the ref to get his front row’s opinions of what is happening across.
If we know our props are playing out of their normal comfort zone then let’s help them out by not giving opportunities for scrums i.e. learn to pass correctly, give a sympathetic pass and for the receiver to give the passer a target to hit. We have players of talent but the basic ball skills are at times woeful.
We seem lazy on the pitch we are not working hard enough off the ball. In attack we are not working to get on the shoulder of the ball carrier or from set piece running lines off the play maker to give options as either a strike option or as a dummy runner to hold the opposition defence. We seem happy to pass down the line and hope someone has a piece of personal brilliance to open a gap. In defence our line speed is pedestrian, also we go forward as a line and then stop to form a static defence. We need to pressure the opposition and force them into an error. Also, on up and unders we are not challenging the opposition with enough numbers, we should have someone challenging for the ball in the air with support looking for the knockback (from either side). In tonight’s match how often did we have Spence challenge and tap ball back but had no one to claim that lose ball.
Can understand not bring on McCall or Macklin at Loose Head, they would have been destroyed, McCall little experience at senior level and Macklin no experience at LH and also inexperienced at this level. Fair play to Brady in stepping up and taking it on the chin.
Paul Marshall needs to spend the next three weeks either passing balls into hoop targets or learning to box kick down tramlines, or both of these skills. His core scrum half skill are wanting at this level. This ends up putting more pressure on the backs and stops our flow in the high tempo game Ulster try to play. If there is an alternative he should be dropped but without seeing what happens in training is Porter that alternative? Porter has a better pass but not sure what Marshall does in training that outshines Porter. I’m praying for an Aussie victory on Sunday. This would also help our pack, lack of forward or scrum coach is now hurting us.
disastrous stuff, the worst Ulster performance I've seen for several years.
we really were shocking. The front five were rubbish and didn't impose themselves at all. I don't know if the back row's being switched too much or simply isn't compatible but they played like strangers. the passing and handling was non existent, and a bugbear from last season is that if the game isn't going to plan we don't seem to know how to change it to our advantage. It seems like over the last 3 games too many of our partnerships didn't work and as such the team don't function.
box kicking..what's the point if there's no support / challenge? Sometimes think Small Paul tries what he's seen other players do without thought as to what's actually happening in the game or with his team maters.
the ref was a messer and the touch judge was too. dire news for Payne, it seemed like an innocuous challenge at the time. Haven't seen it back yet but it's horrible for him.
lastly; I don't know if others there will share my opinion but the atmosphere on the promenade was rank. Yes at 20-0 down there was great singing but that was down to a few rabble-rousing decisions and frustration at how poor we were. throughout the first half the feeling seemed to be "it's only 3 nil" and "we just have to turn up to beat them." if the teams giving you nothing to shout about then give them the encouragement needed surely? with cheering / chanting conspicuous by its absence i heard standard Norn Iron "witty" banter, filthy abuse in front of children from a group of students and a continuing discussion on Diack's merits as a male model. One lad in front of me spent 20 minutes checking out Ulster rugby on facebook...christ in the blue night. there's a match on lads.
our tries were great but just made it all the more frustrating as, although they did well, Treviso really aren't a good team. Ah well..regroup and rebuild!
