Where do we go from here?

[jean valjean]

It seems the brill boys have moved on, possibly to the giants. I'm sure it's been a savage read for them on here in the last few days. We will all come back together again next season with renewed hopelessness. At least we can cancel the viaplay sub a bit earlier. I've no decks who wins it.

Anyone got a second hand armchair I can lend for the summer?

Had a peak on FB there, UR marketing team have already started pumping out ST renewal requests

You'd think they'd leave it a week or 2 so that last Friday would be out of everyone's mind.

For every 4 people commenting about how shiite the team were last week, there is 1 Ulster Are Brill comment. Not sure if that is progress?

It was all planned well in advance of the QF. The PR team was expecting to be riding the high of a home SF to help boost ticket sales. Can't help but feel the entire organisation took their eye off the immediate danger in front of them.

[promenader 2]

I was in the memorial stand and the level of knowledge was poor in a significant minority. Booing Brace was poor especially as he was mostly correct. But wasn't aware of any trouble in or around the ground. Many were angry with team, not Connacht or Ref apart from the ignorant. Not sure if it was significantly different than usual. I stand to be corrected. Not watching the game is my bugbear tbh.

I can only go by my son's report, he has been going on and off for years, but this time he said he wasn't keen to go back as he hasn't been enjoying it... something I went through a few years back. Im more interested in watching rugby than a match day experience, maybe hes just growing up and coming to the same conclusion.

Might also be that your son is looking around him and realising that most of the people in the ground are his dad's age. That would be enough to make most teenagers feel uncomfortable

[nonplussed]

you may have a point there

[Bobbievee]

Unfortunately true

[thecrouch]

We need a new flyhalf and attack coach.

The Ulster attack was significantly more dangerous when Peel was coaching them. Not one back (perhaps Stockdale, but you could argue that is due to Irish camp) has improved this season.

Forget about out halves lads, you'r worrying about the wrong thing.

We need a stinking, dirty, hairy-arsed absolute bar steward of a forward. The sort of man that only a mother could like. A completely hateful character. Like a lesser Bakkies Botha, someone who may not be the most talented player in the game but who you know will hit every ruck like a rocket and who will make every tackle feel like you've tried to hug a moving train.

We're just soft.

We haven't had someone like this in about a decade. Burns is a very limited player but he's not our weak link.

[Dave]

We need a new flyhalf and attack coach.

The Ulster attack was significantly more dangerous when Peel was coaching them. Not one back (perhaps Stockdale, but you could argue that is due to Irish camp) has improved this season.

Forget about out halves lads, you'r worrying about the wrong thing.

We need a stinking, dirty, hairy-arsed absolute bar steward of a forward. The sort of man that only a mother could like. A completely hateful character. Like a lesser Bakkies Botha, someone who may not be the most talented player in the game but who you know will hit every ruck like a rocket and who will make every tackle feel like you've tried to hug a moving train.

We're just soft.

We haven't had someone like this in about a decade. Burns is a very limited player but he's not our weak link.

He is one of many weak links. Sad but true.

[Dharper]

The return of meritocracy in the league next season for champs cup qualification would give an additional buffer to play younger players if the appetite was there….which to be fair I’m not sure it has.
Whatever UR decide in an end of season review, will need to be done relatively quickly, for plans being in place start of pre season.

1) I’d personally like to see a real focus on that backline attack.
2) A commitment to play develop Stewart Sheridan Rea and iron out Izzy….whatever the issue is, he definitely has the athleticism to boost that pack especially down the artificial pitch route.
3) stop feck around with Doak at 10. We’ve signed Flannery, play him, burns cannot be our only 10.
4) a real focus on our next group of 18/20 yr old forwards.

[rumncoke]

Doak at 10 was better than Burns to some extent ---he has a better pass .

Now a long pass is Very high risk when playing a flat back line --- it invites the intercept and an easy 7 points.

And there are those who dislike a deep back line because it frequently fails to breach the gain line when faced with a drift defence especially if the out half starts running across the pitch ( a-la -Burns ) the wing gets the ball (?) facing two defenders and lacking support and gets penalised for non release -- ( the softest penalty in the book and the simplest for a referee to get right -- they love it )

Last season the breakdown in attack occurred not at wing but out side centre ( there about ) -- with the same consequences -- two on one - non release penalty or at best a very slow recycle to a disorganised pod --frequently behind the gain line

[big mervyn]

Is it down to the lake I fear?

+1
LOVE it Merv

Ay ay ay ay ah

[BaggyTrousers]

Where we go from here, unfortunately is almost 6 months with no proper rugby.

Unless one is a FIRFUCs lacky , or like me, a fan of Saffer rugby and hoping to see them retaining the RWC, the next 6 months is of very little interest.

Some interesting thoughts from allcomers on this thread, however none of them are anywhere close to a solution never mind a complete solution.
The complete solution of course is to duplicate/replicate the Mexican system in its entirety, though in practical terms that is all but impossible, for very obvious reasons.

One of the less obvious is that whilst UR bugga’d about Mexico employed Dawson as CEO from , I think, 2003 and had a proper CEO, working diligently to better the organisation rather than having a clown like SLogan who wanted to be the story rather than to facilitate the story, his ludicrous crap about WD the most obvious nonsense but far from isolated. Not for him remaining behind the scenes improving the organisation.
I see his bullshite mirrored these days in the crapology of the extreme right in the USA, the notion that all you have to do to be the supreme being is to indoctrinate at every opportunity.

So that put us the greater part of a decade behind our closest rivals and nemesis.

Briefly, back with SLogan, I see the downturn in crowds and craic at Ravenhill as inextricably linked to SLogan’s 7 commandments of “How we behave”, a pile of nonsense that in my considered opinion turned off many decent raucous Ulster fans, who had no need of re-education, with the Sunday school teacher approach, an attempt to dictate through utter drivel.

For anyone with a shred of common sense, you must recognise that the gap to Mexico is unbridgeable, not simply for Ulster but for any Irish team, most certainly for the financially challenged Welsh Scots and Italians, thought thje depth in talent will likely mean SA can challenge on a regular basis.

The Mexicans have every single advantage, population, their schools system, the financial bonus of so many players in the Irish squad, great access to large sponsors, a vast pool of well-heeled potential benefactors and not least their “preferred” status with FIRFUCs.
Of course, in any given season it’s not impossible for someone to catch them on a bad day. Bulls did it in Dublin last year, Connacht in 2015 but in general terms, it will always be the exception rather than an expectation. They are literally in a different league to the rest of the URC teams.
Can things be better at Ulster? Of course, they can, however, it needs to be understood that what we are capable of will always only be small incremental steps.

People need to understand that, no Mark McCall will never be back, same as dozens of players that have moved on, most never to be heard of again, can anyone tell me how Sugar’s rugby career is going? Some like Dizzy go on to a good career but are few and far between, most potter about a wee while and then get a proper job.

And so, to YOUR future as an Ulster supporter. I have learned, admittedly late in life, that simply wishing for something does not make it so.
You can go one of two ways, you can decide on the “slings & arrows” approach, and decide to greet the twin imposters with as close to equanimity as your small particle of brain allows. To enjoy the good days, let go of the bad ones as quickly as possible, refrain from all delusions of grandeur that something is possible to match and overtake Mexico.

Or you can struggle against the wind that is hurling more than just water at you, you can strive for solutions where none exist. In reality, you will get just as much return from prayer, though I do understand those who claim the great benefit of inner peace via that route.

The die is cast people of Ulster, whatever Ulster do, Mexico will do more and better, without some enormous influx of semolians and a change in the FIRFUC structure of financing the provinces we haven’t a pot to pish in, no real way to challenge, never mind change our fate.

ACCEPTANCE of reality is a wonderful thing, feck false hope, feck people peddling unreasonable expectations, the fact is that everyone hereabouts would have settled for 2nd behind Mexico in the table and would have seen it as progress. Make that same off in mid-January and your hand would have been bitten off.

The chappie in the woodpile? The devastation everyone from Al O’Connor to me felt in that woeful first hour against Connacht. That knocks the notion of improvement squarely in the ballbeg.

My forecast for next season: More of the same with a high risk of rain.

[Bart S]

I'd love to see Ulster win another trophy but given the freakish strength of Leinster right now (unlike ireland so far, they would probably be good enough to make at least the rwc semi finals) I am realistic enough to know that's unlikely to happen anytime soon. However Ulster should be very much in the chasing pack and with home advantage against a team which at best is probably towards the back of that chasing pack, being completely outplayed was very deflating. After a defeat you sometimes think "8 or 9 times out of 10 we would have won that game", which usually means there was a red card, some bad luck or whatever, but in this case Ulster was outplayed by what looked a much better team.

Of all Ulster's knockout defeats, this was by far the most disappointing . Others have been gutting a la Toulouse last year, but this was simply disappointing.

[So It Is]

Toulouse last year involved a massive performance away from home, when we really cut loose and stuck it up to them.

When can you say we have done the same since? Maybe 1st half away to Leinster C's in November, before we sh!t the bed.

At least if we had some gutsy performances to cheer, that'd be a start.

[BaggyTrousers]

Toulouse last year involved a massive performance away from home, when we really cut loose and stuck it up to them.

When can you say we have done the same since? Maybe 1st half away to Leinster C's in November, before we sh!t the bed.

At least if we had some gutsy performances to cheer, that'd be a start.

Let's not forget that Toulouse away was reffed by a proper ref, Barnes, a former match wrecker turned good. In the crushingly disappointing match against Connacht we had Neck, a man with previous where Ulster are concerned.

Neck didn't lose us the match, we managed that with a pisspoor performance, Neck simply ensured there would be no get-out-of-jail-free card and we weren't good enough.

The penalty just before HT was pure vindictive revenge for McCloskey challenging him when elbowed in the head near the halfway line two minutes previously.

I consider Neck to be a bad person.

[jean valjean]

The final penalty was an example of only looking at one side for an offence. There was a blatant in from the side clear out which prevented Murphy securing the ball. We'd have still messed up somehow but another reason to feel down.

[solidarity]

I'm going for Baggy's first option, that is recognising that all we can do is be the best of the rest. We can enjoy winning and be sad when we lose, just like everyone else. Most teams in most leagues in most sports don't win trophies - simple as that. We go to watch sport and enjoy the thrill of the game. We'll get to watch some of the biggest clubs in Europe in Belfast and enjoy a few away trips. If we get a trophy once a decade or two, after a freak result or two, that's as much as we can hope for. Maybe things will change in the longer term, maybe not.