The UAFC

Given how poor the Dragons have been since their inception, it just goes to show how poor our away form has been that we nearly always end up losing at Rodney Parade. In fact, not just losing but actually spending the last 20 mins of every game looking completely clueless - not even able to form a b...

I said the same thing on the INternational thread. Very impressive what he's done with this basic scratch team. Certainly the biggest test the Lions have had yet. Imagine a coaching set up of, Solomans and Kempson, with Sexton in charge of the academy, Carlsberg don't do Ulster coaches but if they ...

Solomons was always my first preference, but McLaughlin will do. He may well strike up a good balance with Davidson and will know the expectations of the Ulster rugby public and understand that he will have 1 year to get settled before he will need to start producing serious results. MW always promi...

SDK wrote:According to Mulligan in the Newsletter today, Eddie O'Sullivan has emerged as one of the front runners for the Ulster job.

Whether people liked Solly or not, he was a coach who got the players fired up, got the pack moving and made Ravenhill a fortress. All achieved with - IMO - far more limited resources than presently available to any potential incoming coach. I've always been a fan of his abilities, you only need to ...

Parks still hasn't signed that contract with Glasgow yet. France would be the most likely option but then he wouldn't qualify for his UK passport.

Parks may not be a bad call. Played under Williams before and they seemed to get on well. He is the sort of out-half who could excel at Ravers, especially if the crowd get behind him. He is very much a confidence player who thrives when the crowd are with him and goes to pieces when he senses they a...

Alas i suspect you're probably right Rooster, given that Solly, Sexton and Kempson raised their profiles last season at the time the job was up for grabs and yet to my knowledge barely got a look in. The question therefore is why - why is the prospect of these 3, or even 1 or 2 of them, taking charg...

Realistically, it will be a couple of years before I would hope to be at the level where we could hope to beat the likes of a full strength Ospreys.

True. But i expected us to be more competitive against an under-strength Ospreys.

If this is true, and whilst i've never been a fan of MW, i hope it's not - 1) when did Ulster Rugby find out that MW's family would not be moving to Ulster? - if it was before the official signing of the contract, was this taken into account and what moves were made to seek reassurance that this wou...

As someone who went to watch Wllliams' Scotland quite regularly at Murrayfield i did have my doubts right from the start. As soon as Williams was officially in post i've tried to remain supportive of him and will continue to do so for a good couple of weeks yet, but what worried me most about last n...

Agree with NeilF, Steiner was the one bright spot. A few good runs and the usual try-saving tackles. The other players could learn a lot from him - not just skillwise but his all-round approach to the game. He gives everything he's got. Even at 43-0 down and having been given a bit of a run around f...

Muscles We need someone from somewhere to rescue us by putting loads and loads of money into Ulster Rugby. You will have no control, of course, as Ulster Rugby is controlled by IRFU. Does that need to be the case? Could the IRFU not adopt an increasingly detached role, like the WRU? It could be argu...

I think we've got a good draw there. Plenty of home games early on when we will need to build our confidence and get the new players bedded in, with the away games toward the end of the season by which stage the players will be confident and on form and we will hopefully be in contention at the top ...

Not for the first time Neil F has hit the nail on the head there. Given his poor form at Scrum Half i think Boss could really have benefited from having a few games in the back three. He excelled on the right wing for Ireland in the second half against the Pacific Islands in the Autumn tests. Yes, t...