The UAFC

He bulked up since last year it seems.

Anybody else think the yellow card was harsh?

Also concerned that a couple of MCB's choke tackles were too much choke, not enough tackle.

kingofthehill wrote:

Big-al wrote:I thought that winger Benade, looked very, very talented. Great break, fend, step and pass by him to set up the try. I think he still has another year left at schools rugby?

He does but can't play due to his birthday.

So he has to play senior rugby next season whilst studying at school? Given he was Ulster Schools 18's this year surely he is still Under 19 next year and is able to play schoolboy rugby?

RuPi wrote:

kingofthehill wrote:

Big-al wrote:I thought that winger Benade, looked very, very talented. Great break, fend, step and pass by him to set up the try. I think he still has another year left at schools rugby?

He does but can't play due to his birthday.

So he has to play senior rugby next season whilst studying at school?

No idea but he can't play 1st XV unless he goes to BRA .

They got away with playing an over age player the year they got to the final. Best of it was,the Ulster branch approved it. I still can't understand why!

Think Davy Wells knowing the BRA situation sent a letter to the Ulster branch asking if Benade could play on his Medallion team. The reply was not the same as the BRA player. Rules obviously aren't the same for every school.

I'm sure he'll join up with his dad at malone then?

BR wrote: Also concerned that a couple of MCB's choke tackles were too much choke, not enough tackle.

Noticed that. Couldn't understand why the ref didn't ping them.

Let me say that this years final was a much better game than 2012 , when neither team got beyond lift and run .On a dirty cold day both teams tried to play a passing game and players showed some awareness of their team mates and some vision in their approach.

Inst unfortunately in the second half had a couple of players who fell in love with the ball and lost the vision.

In the end Methody won because Methody had the bigger pack and an outhalf who had a dream game whereas Inst's out half had a game I'm sure he'd love everyone to forget and I'm sure that he is normally more in control of his game but yesterday it fell apart for him.

Only one team in it after about 25 minutes. Methody cleverly changed tactics when they took it through the pack as Inst had defended well when Methody sought to play with width. Considering Methody's second half domination I think the final score is a pretty fair reflection of the game.

Nobody likes yellow cards in schools games but RBAI can have no complaints. Methody deployed the choke tackle brilliantly and again there can be no complaints about its execution...this was a very accomplished performance from a very strong well drilled team. Long hours in all conditions with the added bonus of a very competitive 2nd XV putting in the hard yards making sure the starting XV never got it easy made this MCB side hard as nails. Next years squad looks good as well so it will be an interesting campaign with strong sides across the board with Sullivan looking to deliver on their potential and both RBAI and Campbell looking good.

BP. Have you read the previous posts? You can't possibly say there can be no complaints about the choke tackles. There obviously are!

In my opinion they were consistently on the edge of being high all day and they were lucky the ref agreed with their interpretation as another ref might have sent one or more of them to the bin.

Also, even my Methody supporting partner thought that the inst binning was harsh. Perhaps the ref could see something we couldn't.

Please don't misunderstand me. MCB were the better team on the day and their win was well deserved. But there could have been justified complaints.... .... Though I don't think the outcome would have been any different.

Well done MCB!

pwrmoore wrote:BP. Have you read the previous posts? You can't possibly say there can be no complaints about the choke tackles. There obviously are!

In my opinion they were consistently on the edge of being high all day and they were lucky the ref agreed with their interpretation as another ref might have sent one or more of them to the bin.

Also, even my Methody supporting partner thought that the inst binning was harsh. Perhaps the ref could see something we couldn't.

Please don't misunderstand me. MCB were the better team on the day and their win was well deserved. But there could have been justified complaints.... .... Though I don't think the outcome would have been any different.

Well done MCB!

I don't necessarily agree that the chokes (I'm going to avoid using the term tackle) were potential yellow cards, but certainly another ref may have considered them penalty offences. One would assume that a team as well drilled as MCB, once warned, would not stray into the trap of repeat offending.

Thoroughly enjoyed a very good game of Rugby in the conditions. For me Inst were very unlucky to lose their Captain and arguably best player. After that, it was all Methody.

The ref had no issues and he certainly had a long enough look at every turn over ball as a result of mCB players holding RBAI players up in the tackle. I cannot see what the issue is....I watched the game with an ex RBAI schools cup winner who was impressed with MCBs technical ability in using the so called choke tackle. This was a dominant performance from MCB thanks to the pack and but for some silly penaltes near the RBAI try line the score could have been a great deal more. The yellow card was coming due to persistent infringements at the breakdown by RBAI which was slowing ball down and RBAI had no complaint. Ref had an ok game and no set of supporters can complain about this decision or that decision changing the game.

Beattiespastie wrote:The ref had no issues and he certainly had a long enough look at every turn over ball as a result of mCB players holding RBAI players up in the tackle. I cannot see what the issue is....I watched the game with an ex RBAI schools cup winner who was impressed with MCBs technical ability in using the so called choke tackle. This was a dominant performance from MCB thanks to the pack and but for some silly penaltes near the RBAI try line the score could have been a great deal more. The yellow card was coming due to persistent infringements at the breakdown by RBAI which was slowing ball down and RBAI had no complaint. Ref had an ok game and no set of supporters can complain about this decision or that decision changing the game.

I don't think anyone has suggested that the ref had a problem with the chokes, just that another ref on another day may have done. I would suggest that in a number of them the player in possession was held a little too high. It's a grey area, but I've seen top level players penalized for it in the past.

The sin-bin may have been for repeated offending, but from what I (and others) saw on TV, there was no offence on that occassion.

Like England on Saturday, Inst were well beaten by the better side on Monday. Complaining about the referee is just embarrassing.