Benetton Treviso v Ulster Sun 2pm UK Time BBCNI

[Snipe Watson]

Best has NEVER been captain material. I was worried when the decision was made. I remember thinking, "have we not tried this unsuccessfully before??"

We did only last time there was a very obvious alternative in Johann which allowed Rory to save face. It's not a criticism of Rory, he's a quietly spoken hard as nails grafter who gives 100% every single time and leads by example, but that makes him a great senior player, but not a captain.

[Snipe Watson]

Herring was stripped and ready to come on for a while.......

I could see that Rory was losing the plot from our house. How could Doak not see it from there in the stadium? He should have been on.

I reckon Herring could be a better flanker than either Ross or Reidy...

I wouldn't think he is quick enough to play 7, but he'd give it a heck of a go.

[Dave]

Doak didn't have the balls to sub off Best at that time.....

[Alister Scott]

Herbst went off injured after a couple of minutes of the second half so Bross had to come on. The scrum held up fine on the LH side so debatable about Warwick when Ulster needed all the experience they could get on the pitch.
There was a shot of Cave bent over (maybe throwing up) and blowing hard - maybe he was done in? Payne back after months off was never going to be any great shakes.
Stevenson for O'Connor was a poor substitution, especially as his first touch gave away a penalty, and O'Connor looked fairly fresh.
Ross may not have been great, but Reidy wasn't any improvement so the sub for the last quarter was timed OK.

With Ulster panicking, bringing on the rookie Nelson could have just made things worse.

Herring should have come on for Best - definite mistake by Doak


The real problem with the bench is that it's not Toulon's.

Stevenson should not have been penalised, treviso dropped their own player Louis put his hands on him as he fell, but there was no offence that I could see.

Agreed. His own lifters dropped him. He wasn't pulled down.

Poor decision by the ref.

[Russ]

Herbst went off injured after a couple of minutes of the second half so Bross had to come on. The scrum held up fine on the LH side so debatable about Warwick when Ulster needed all the experience they could get on the pitch.
There was a shot of Cave bent over (maybe throwing up) and blowing hard - maybe he was done in? Payne back after months off was never going to be any great shakes.
Stevenson for O'Connor was a poor substitution, especially as his first touch gave away a penalty, and O'Connor looked fairly fresh.
Ross may not have been great, but Reidy wasn't any improvement so the sub for the last quarter was timed OK.

With Ulster panicking, bringing on the rookie Nelson could have just made things worse.

Herring should have come on for Best - definite mistake by Doak


The real problem with the bench is that it's not Toulon's.

Stevenson should not have been penalised, treviso dropped their own player Louis put his hands on him as he fell, but there was no offence that I could see.

Agreed. His own lifters dropped him. He wasn't pulled down.

Poor decision by the ref.

Stevenson and Black were putting a lot of pressure on them then

Man in the air, leave well alone

We will soon see yellow and red cards for those kind of lineout offences

[mid ulster maestro]

Jebus Shan. I nearly choked on me corn flakes reading your last post. Then I read the last sentence. All is well with the world. Apart from the downward spiral we are currently being subjected to.

[theundercoverspark]

Unless you are totally undercover we will see you there!

I should be easy to spot, I will the one wearing the Ulster Jersey, carrying a fleg and my pockets full of screwdrivers.

Hope to meet you at some point over the weekend especially if you are buyig vin rouge

Sounds like we're more likely to meet you if we're buying fadka n orinj

As long as the orinj is fresh and not that bottled cr@p. But I must warn you any more that 6 or 7 and Junior gets boisterous.

[Bangors]

Think its time to look south of the border down Mexico way
Swap our 'coaches' favourite 13 for any one of their back row options
Bound to improve both teams

[Rooster]

Unless you are totally undercover we will see you there!

I should be easy to spot, I will the one wearing the Ulster Jersey, carrying a fleg and my pockets full of screwdrivers.

Hope to meet you at some point over the weekend especially if you are buyig vin rouge

Sounds like we're more likely to meet you if we're buying fadka n orinj

As long as the orinj is fresh and not that bottled cr@p. But I must warn you any more that 6 or 7 and Junior gets boisterous.

More than 6 or 7 fresh orinj and it won't just be junior that gets boisterous, think of the toliets, we don't want another Brennans bogs incident

[Wee Woman]

Anscombe is not missed and will not be missed.

I miss the brand of rugby we played in his time here - I'm sure I'm not the only one...

[Cornerfleg]

Anscombe didn't really have a brand of rugby or a great game plan, or a style, or much of exit strategy or many plays off set piece or phase play ...

But when compared to the headless clueless tripe that we're now offering up - he was a veritable genius.

[MARB]

At the same time though, for all his failings the Cowboy did achieve: 1st place in the league, a Rabo final, qualifying as the top team in Europe from the HEC group stages last year, a home Q/F, away wins in France, a win at Welford Road, a win at the RDS against a Schmidt Leinster. Now, not for a second am I saying I wish he was back, obviously his failings are very well documented and a lot could be put down to the presence of a true leader in Johann, but lord above what I would do for some of those results and performances that I've mentioned. Not this directionless brad Pitt we're having to put up with this year.

[thecrouch]

What fecks me off the most is the fact that we came out in the second half and started that senseless booting away of the ball that has plagued us all season.

[Cornerfleg]

Ahhh yes the old we need 1 try for a BP win ... lets hoof and not chase ... that works ... give it to them and see what they've got ...


We were one dropped interception away from total manshaming embarrassment.

[Dave]

We had some stinking results and performances under Anscombe too. He did at least have a backrow. He was an average coach. Doak is a novice head coach and out of his depth so far.