Positives & Negatives: Ulster V The Ladyboys

[againstthehead]

Positives
- absolutely massive 1st half performance against almost a gale at times. defence was outstanding, tactics spot on and took the 3 points when on offer - outstanding.
- kept decent control of the game in the 2nd 40. kept the scoreboard ticking and played mostly in the right areas of the park. think we could have used the boot a little more effectively in the second half - missed PW's boot at 12 i reckon.
- lineout was very good in attrocious conditions
- defence excellent throughout
- pack put in the hard yards very well overall with henry and court leading the way - with a little help from nagusa from time to time!!
Individual performances:
- Tom court: 1st time i've really seen him taking the ball on with aggression and breaking the gain line: nice
- Horua: he was a pain in the Brennan to leinster with a couple of timely turnovers - decent outing.
- Boss: great pace for the try
- Whitten & Cave - the new Darcy and BOD? lol
- Tuohy: mobile and put in some decent hits
- Brady: has really come on this season: excellent darts and works relentlessly at the breakdown
- Mini Humph, the pressure was on the 2nd 40 - especially that last penalty! Superb place-kicking performance.

Negatives
- As I mentioned above, Ideally we could have played the percentages a little better in the 2nd 40 mins. However, the wind was sooooo strong it made kicking quite difficuly - for fear of the ball going dead.
- Scrum time: once BJ goes off, the scrum deteriorates completely. Frightening really. That needs sorted ASAP.
- The new roof on the terrace. Just not the same having all these home comforts. Remember those heiny cup games soaked to skin V Llanelli and Harlequins? When you could identify with the players soaked to the skin and freezing cold... those were the days...

Overall, an excellent performance. A month ago we would have lost that game. But we are learning what it takes to win these tight games. Pressure is off a little now. No-one expects us to do anything down in thomand park. Let's go down there and give them hell!!!!

Well done lads!

[scrum5]

Positives
We didn't miss Ferris and Wallace
Chris Henry was outstanding apart for his quick tap which he knocked on, he should have been MOTM
Our centres aged both aged 22 and 4 caps between them didn't give BOD and Darcy much change
The pack really fronted up making plenty of hard yards in atrocious conditions and caused Leinster to spill ball
Plenty of aggression at the breakdown not letting Leinster play
Boss's try , great break down the short side and plenty of pace to outrun the cover defence
Trimble and Nagusa coming in of the wings and carrying the ball up, giving the forwards a break
iHumps kicking was the difference, he kicked his, Leinster didn't, the one in his own half was inches short
The whole performance, BMcL said that they would be ready for this one and they were, hats of to the coaches
Leinster fans vocal as usual, applauded Ulster at the end when they came back out and said that the better team won


Negatives
Penalty count was still to high, i think Berne missed 4 in the first half
Caldwell had a slap at Hines in front of the touch judge,who waved it away another one mighten have
Leinster securing a losing bonus point but if you had have given me that at the start i would have taken it
The weather ......again

Anyway great result, we're sitting at the top having beaten the European champions with the current ML champions up next, can't wait another win at Thomond will definitely show that we're back.......

[FRB]

Positives:

Henry - fanstastic played well & led well
Lineout - credit to Brady and whoever made the calls - sensible and basic ones to suit the conditions
Game management - the phases - over a couple of minutes to get the 1st half penalty was top class rugby. Brilliant.
Defence - hats off all round.
Commitment, attitude & togetherness - in spades. I love all that stuff! Almost brings a lump to the throat.
Willie Falloon - is quickly becoming as vital to the team as an in form Humph. His work rate is fantastic and other teams are starting to notice him now.

Negatives:

Discipline - again!
Stopped playing for 10 - 15 minutes in the second half and let Leinster come to them and
2 tries only because of their timing. Must maintain the intensity and concentration for the whole match. It would have been great to deny them a BP.

However, a great result. I am a very proud and hoarse Ulsterman !

[brianc]

+ves

We beat the feckin ladyboys

-ves

Can't be bothered, see +ves above!!

[mikerob]

-ve: giving Leinster the losing BP at the end... however I would have taken the final score if you had given it to me at the start of the game.

+ve: first half possession and committment against the wind. Unlucky to have gone into half behind.

[Rooster]

+ves

We beat the feckin ladyboys

-ves

Can't be bothered, see +ves above!!

as above now time for a

[brianc]

Think I have probably had quite enough , but off for another anyway

[darkside lightside]

-ve, i think we should have won that by 10, not by 2... we gave away 2 soft tries, particularly the first, where the hell was our backs alignment?

that said, leinster put out a good side, lead by the best player of his generation (who played damn well..) and we beat them.

+ve strong performances by the starting 8, particularly henry and court, and our half-backs did well also. some great play as well - the passage of play up until our penalty into the wind in the the first is as good as i have seen by any side this season... superb phase play, with yards won each time.. we won the breakdown, and frankly we would have won it more convincingly had the ref not been whistle-happy in the first - i struggled to see half of the pens against us in the first half..

that was a good side put out by leinster... good victory..

[for dog and ulcer]

-ve, i think we should have won that by 10, not by 2... we gave away 2 soft tries, particularly the first, where the hell was our backs alignment?

that said, leinster put out a good side, lead by the best player of his generation (who played damn well..) and we beat them.

+ve strong performances by the starting 8, particularly henry and court, and our half-backs did well also. some great play as well - the passage of play up until our penalty into the wind in the the first is as good as i have seen by any side this season... superb phase play, with yards won each time.. we won the breakdown, and frankly we would have won it more convincingly had the ref not been whistle-happy in the first - i struggled to see half of the pens against us in the first half..

that was a good side put out by leinster... good victory..

Trimble was way out of position for their first try- one of 3 players on BOD. Ciaran Fitz on Setanta was as mystified as you by the decisions against Ulster in the first half. Similarly, to be fair, just this once, I couldn't really see a reason for Jackman's dismissal- maybe I missed something? There were plenty of other more serious offences which went unpunished - a late shoulder charge on iHumph for example.

[Off the Top]

Trimble was way out of position for their first try- one of 3 players on BOD. Ciaran Fitz on Setanta was as mystified as you by the decisions against Ulster in the first half. Similarly, to be fair, just this once, I couldn't really see a reason for Jackman's dismissal- maybe I missed something? There were plenty of other more serious offences which went unpunished - a late shoulder charge on iHumph for example.

It seems you agree with Neil Francis on Trimble's positioning. I would agree more with Toland's assessment that Trimble was the inside defender of three, it was the one of the two outside defenders that should have drifted out wider to defend the touch line.

I thought I could see Jackman's hand trying to flip back the ball while he was at the bottom of the ruck. I'll check on the replay, but I'm almost sure that's what happened. The ref blew that one very quickly, so he was sure something had happened. However did you see Humphrey's reaction? He thought he had found open space down the terrace side - unfortunately the camera angle didn't show what the Leinster defence was like.

[darkside lightside]

Trimble was way out of position for their first try- one of 3 players on BOD. Ciaran Fitz on Setanta was as mystified as you by the decisions against Ulster in the first half. Similarly, to be fair, just this once, I couldn't really see a reason for Jackman's dismissal- maybe I missed something? There were plenty of other more serious offences which went unpunished - a late shoulder charge on iHumph for example.

i agree it looked like trimble was out of position, but in fairness he had obviously been dragged inside to cover other people, it just seemed that everyone went awol...

i don't like taking pops at refs, but seriously... in the first half the pen count was probably somewhere around 10-1 in Leinster's favour, and usually when a pen is awarded at the breakdown, even if you don't see exactly what is happening live, you have a good idea if someone is slowing it down, coming in from the side, going off feet etc - a good 4-5 pens against ulster i was completely scratching my head, even the slo-mo didn't show anything!! he did seem to even things up a bit in the second. on the jackman yellow, i must say i didn't see much there, but the guys i was watching with said he slapped the ball with his hand..

[Ithryn]

However did you see Humphrey's reaction? He thought he had found open space down the terrace side - unfortunately the camera angle didn't show what the Leinster defence was like.

There was no defence there and he had trimble outside him, open try line.

The penalty count against us in the first half was mental. The ref missed alot of things, there was a shoulder charge into the ruck that the ref saw and only had words about. There was some vicious unneeded stamping that the touchjudge saw and did nothing. Also at least 2 cases of leinster players punching that was ignored by the touchjudge, Bod was one of the offenders. Both times our guys didnt retaliate which is good.

[WhiteKnightoftheWeld]

+ves
bottle of buckfast btw playing this afternoon and making it to ravenhill
horua - had a great blindside's game for the conditions - carried strongly, good at the breakdown (as did every member of the pack - touhy had a great game also)
top of the league (yer avin a larf!)
big culchie clebbered in %hite in his rancher hat and wax coat was quieter this week
superb game mgt in first half - ground out those 1st 40 mins and put ourselves into a strong position to do something with the wind at our backs 2nd half
humphreys actually defending at pillar on several occasions!
leinster (bar cian healy who wouldnt have made much difference, sexton who may well have made a difference, and fitz) were full strength. we didnt beat the euro champs and league leaders because they weren't full strength, we beat them because we fronted up better than they did
humphreys mastering the ravenhill wind when ball's at his feet - remind u of anyone!!???

[ArticDonkey]

+
Winning
Performance at the breakdown was immense, good few turnovers and great play by Falloon to win pen that Humphs missed by inches from inside own half.
Humphs goal kicking - the conversion was fantastic, we really needed those 2 points in the end.
Jim seemed really up for it tonight and wasn't put off by weather conditions he's probably never played in before. He was in their faces all night, dumped Toner at one point and in the closing minutes was standing off the ruck shouting gimme the ball.
Shutting up the Leinster fan beside us who wouldn't shut up. Said things like 'Girvan Dempsey is a great attacking fullback, he just chooses not to.'

-
Scrum falling apart after BJ went off
Not being able to put BOD on his Brennan. I know he's mercurial at times but players seem to back off and give him space probably because they know hes going to step.
Isaac Boss getting MOTM, he did great for his try but some of his passing was dodgy, one in particular went straight into chris henry's face. Should have gone to a forward.
Giving away soft try at the end to give them a bp.

[UlsterJock]

+ves
The pack especially first half - at one point 12/13 phases of play - awesome effort in that weather!
IH kicking
Jim and his willingness these days to be involved and take the ball forward.
The Crowd and the ROARRRRRR!!!
TOP OF THE TABLE

-ves
letting them in for a score at the end
Horua - silly getting sent off, just seemed out of sorts on his return in second half (hence his replacement no doubt)
The WIND & RAIN!! (we should have a smilie for this!)