Positives and negatives: The Heinekin Cup Final

[againstthehead]

just back from twickenham, via an overnight bus to preston, a taxi to the lake district, drive to scotland and a ferry home..... flip me... don't ask....

Anyway,
Positives:
- we made the final. What an occasion, 80k odd fans, decent weather, full strength sides, superb. I've been waiting a long time for Ulster to play in such a game and to walk into a packed Twickenham to such a noise and sight was amazing.
- the craic. I know baggypants had some issues with the mexicans but I had just the best day ever. Talking utter nonsense to as many people as possible - brilliant.
- I'm putting the leinster performance down as a positive. They were superb. What a side. I love rugby - and I love sides that play hard, fast free-flowing rugby, such as the all blacks. That was champagne rugby of the highest order. Brutal at the breakdown and cracking lines being run with generally good hands. Rugby doesn't get much better.
- as for Ulster:
- defensively, I thought we were pretty decent apart from the last 15 mins. tackled wave after wave but it just wasn't enough...
- lineout functioned well
- thought PW and Cave started the game really well with some neat half-breaks. Could we have had better support lines?
- Ruan's monster penalty - wow!!
- Some decent ball carriers turned up: Touhy, Court and Afoa all carried well at times.
- best was heroic.

Negatives
- young Jacko had a tough time at 10. Not his fault - how he can be thrown in as our 1st choice 10 a couple of matches before the HC semi-final was always questionable. Fair play to the Glock for bringing Humph on relatively early but by that stage a few wayward kicks had put us under pressure. Just to emphasize, PJ was by no means the reason we lost - plenty of other players made key mistakes as well, but I just thought we lacked some confidence at 10. There were times we we going backwards and we just needed someone to poke one into the corner. PJ seemed very reluctant to kick the ball IMHO and Wallace outside wasn't exactly putting his hand up either in terms of kicking.
- kicking game in general was poor. Ruan's boxes were a little off with no chasers attacking the ball. We kicked out on the full, at least twice which is unacceptable at this level.
- scrum: I was hoping we'd have the edge but Leinster murdered us prior to their 2nd try.
- breakdown. Leinster seemed to hardly ever commit to the breakdown but when they did, they came up with turnovers. We didn't get the balance right between competing and defending the line and our backrow just didn't win that battle.
- unlike the QF and SF, we didn't come away with points when in their half. We actually had a lot of possession and territory but could NOT turn it into points. Perhaps, if we'd sneaked an early try then it could have been a slightly different game.

Overall, I thought we played well enough the 1st half and indeed up to about 50 mins. Each mistake we made, Leinster made the most of it and were incredibly clinical. On the other hand, when Leinster knocked on and gave us possession we just couldn't find gaps in their defensive wall.

A thoroughly enjoyable day, slightly tainted by a very poor and desperate last 10 minutes. 30-14 or so would have been a fairer reflection.

SUFTUM

[bangorboy]

The masochist in me usually enjoys reading + and - threads after a match however on the occasion I am content to let sleeping dogs lie and take a rest from rugby ( until the Baa Baas, NZ Tour, next S5 etc etc ).

The end to Ulsters season was at Twickenham in the FINAL of the Heineken Cup and that for me is the one lasting and abiding memory of the 2011/12 season. The win at TP or the loss at home to Treviso aside - our boys have supped from the top table and I think that they will be thirsty for more - just reward for all their efforts.

Next season we welcome home two former players and a new coach and I for one can't wait!

[breakdown]

Not fussed regarding the +/- thread, it was a HEC FINAL and despite us losing its a fantastic learning curve

[Snipe Watson]

+ being there along for the ride. Limerick - Dublin - London

- result
- I have being at the end, ye can see nowt
- the state of my bank account

[ruckover]

NEGATIVE
- The clampit that started this thread can't even spell Heineken right just kidding, ATH

Big positive is that we made it obviously. This should be a huge learning curve and a big motivator for the guys to try and get back there next year. Bring it on!!!

[fuzzylogic]

Positives

All Ireland final in the home of English rugby in the European Cup.
We all had one hell of a time, from Limerick to Dublin to London
Cave proved again he is the best young centre in Irish rugby
Afoa was a beast


Negatives
We went into the game with only 1 fit back rower
Our 1 fit back rower ended his Ulster career on a bit of a whimper
Mr Cool at full back cant handle the big games. Poor yesterday before being binned, and binned in the semi . . . sad ending
WE LOST!

[OneMore]

Pretty roundly agree with the opening post.

For all our talk of out of our back row being better than theirs, on the day it simply wasn't.

+ Jackson will be excellent this time next year at the Aviva, and no-one will be talking about this game any more as we regain the European Cup.

- We got battered at the breakdown. For all our edging it in the scrum, the game was lost with too many errors at ruck time. Which is particularly disappointing given our specialist breakdown coach.

Onwards and upwards.

[Loki]

I'm in general agreement with everything in here. Thought Cave's performance was especially praiseworthy, and the big negatives our breakdown and kicking from hand.

all that said for 55mins or so I thought we were excellent and it's testament to Leinster's experience and quality. no beef about being beaten by the best team in Europe and they really do deserve all this success. Hopefully our time will come in similar fashion.

[Nightsoil]

Funny how opinions go - I was disappointed with out scrum, I expected a solid edge, was hoping for a battering and instead got a critical scrum or two lost... breakdown wasn't fantastic but not bad either, tbh I've thought we've had a problem protecting our own ball for a long time now.

[mikkii6]

I agree- the scrum was lacking, the FH channel generally weak, and our back row didn't dominate the loose. RP also wasn't at the top of his game (he had a fairly good game by his standards but didn't sizzle). I kinda knew that we'd be discussing the positives of having made it to the final rather than revelling in the afterglow of a shock victory.

Sooo the main positive is that we didn't win the cup before we were ready for it and then crumble afterwards with the over confidence that would have ensued. It'd be great if we could at least make the semis in both competitions next year. This would confirm that we hadn't fluked the run this year (let's be honest we always have a chance against Munster even away and Edinburgh was the easier draw- particularly in Dublin after all) and actually are a team to be reckoned with.

I don't think we play well enough as a unit IMHO. It'd be good to be at the stage where we are reading each other's game more and playing instinctively as a cohesive whole.

[petey11]

It was just fantastic that we were in the final, unbelievable and unreal. That in itself is an immense positive that overshadows everything else in my opinion.

The critisisms of PJ are fair enough and if he's man enough to play in the final then he's man enough to absorb the media backlash. The backlash will be written by the usual 'expert' journalists so can be swept under the rug anyway.
Personally I had always thought it ridiculous that an untested young player was thrown into the semi-final and final. iHump for all his failings was a cog in the machine that got us to that stage, the replacement cog just did not work and the gamble failed. We have to get behind our wee Paddy now and hope that this time next year he's got the experience that will allow him to utilise the abilities he has at his disposal. I remain unconvinced but will pray he proves me wrong.

I, as did everyone, expected our pack to at the very least achieve parity. In fact I really believed they would dominate the Leinster eight. It didn't happen and that ruled out any chance of us having a fighting chance.

However, once again we made it to the final of the HC and we came second best to the very best side in europe by some way.

SUFTU!!!!!!!

[bigchiefally]

+ves
- we got to the final
- played some nice rugby
- scored a good try
- Centres were good
- Lineout was good

-ves
- Jackson was rubbish
- Terrblanche was rubbish
- Didnt batter them in the scrums, indeed they won a couple of critical ones
- Breakdown - For me this was the biggest problem of all. They were so much better at the breakdown, we had to work really hard to win our own ball back, they seemed to be able to recycle at will and at speed. Very hard to win against that.
- I lost a bet on the game. At 33/10 though it is a bet I would make again.

[ColinM]

Positive
The scrum in the first half

Negative
The scrum in the second half.

I wonder what Greg Feek said to Healy at half time as he got under Afoa and Drove him up twice, one of which resulted in their try from a scrum against the head. Defining moment in the match for me.

[darkside lightside]

+ I thought Tuohy carried superbly, one of the most memorable moments of the match from an Ulster perspective was when he ran into SOB and put him back on his ar$e - not sure I've ever seen that done before! He made ground every time. Afoa was superb as well.

- Terblanche - played poorly, and 2 yellow cards in consecutive cup games, you have to question his temperament, after all.

I don't like the scoreline, and feel a little depressed every time I see it - but on reflection I'm not as downbeat as I might have been. I think the match basically served as the perfect illustration of what we should be aspiring to - I believe that we have the players to play a game similar to Leinster's, if they were to be correctly coached. Their skills and techniques, at the breakdown, handling and in support play were a cut above ours' - but all these things are coachable. We now know very clearly the levels we need to hit, it's over to Humphreys/Anscombe and the players to take it on next season..

[ruckover]

Another glaring negative was that we were completely overwhelmed by the day. Thought the likes of Pienaar, Muller, Afoa etc. would be trying to instill some calmness but in the end we always looked second best and by 70mins everybody looked like they couldn't care less and we shipped 15pts in that time.