justinr73 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 10:29 pm
I mean it can only be Ulster fans that can be drunk off about signing a dual WC winner in their prime right?
If it leads to having to dump players all over the place as a result then yeah! If there had have been any medium term financial planning we would never have signed him.
I’m all for dumping bang average players and hasbeens.
The starting point on the financial side is making something like a 5 year budget, make reasonably assumptions as to how often you will make the knockout stages of the different competitions, ideally building in a contingency for one off shocks to produce the player budget.
The starting point on the player side is then how many players at what salary level do we want in our squad, then matching that against what players we have, who is coming through, giving us what is left for recruiting players outside the province. There should be little movement in the number of full time players we have year to year.
I get the impression that neither of these basic steps has been followed to any degree of competence, or else the IRFU has pulled the rug out from us financially to lead to so many players getting the boot. I suspect both of these has happened.
If we are dumping bang average players and hasbeens, is the size of our full time squad going to be much smaller ongoing, or where are all these players being replaced from? To dump so many players the year after signing a world cup winner to a massive contract does not suggest any level of competence in UR.
Yes, squads will be smaller and we’ll have to fill in with kids. We play fewer games now anyway.
The IRFU clearly want to move more players around but the Dubs don’t fancy it.
Seven internationals left last season, including our big name NIQ and we brought one international, approved by the IRFU, in.
No, Billy is still shyte. I'm delighted he's leaving. Flannery needs time FFS. He can learn from that disastrous performance against the hairsprays. The quality of Billy's pass one of the worst I've seen in a 10. He's been hampering the backline for years. He can't play a flat pass for a back to run into. Doak did it a few times in a cameo here or there. It's missing from our attack. It makes us slow and predictable if every ball has to be popped back into the bread basket. The occasional game were he kick passes to perfection is not enough. Dreadful defender also.
Yes, it’s a whole different debate I guess but JF has only stated 19 games, including 8 at FB.
Giving him a three year deal last summer suggests that the decision not to recontract Billy was effectively made then.
He seems decent off the tee and kicks to touch better than Billy.
Hopefully his passing improves as last week it was either forward (especially the little pops from close range), behind the player or straight to the oppo.
He should probably get a free pass, pardon the pun, for Ospreys though as the squad seem to have decided it was time for Dan to go over those last three ‘performances’.
TheBoat wrote:We'll win nothing with Burns. He is a symptom of our mediocrity. Turnips are welcome to him.
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The turnips aren't intending to win with him either. He's there as back up meanwhile we are hoping burn's back up will come good for us. Shows the difference in where the teams ambitions are.
