The UAFC

Positive: Went to Castres

Negative: Best needs to sort the darts out

Positives

- We won and have given ourselves a chance of a home QF.
- Win in France (although tbh this was the best chance we've had in absolutely donkeys to achieve this). Maybe against Bourgoin a few years ago but we weren't much kop then.
- Scrum (and all 3 front rowers in the loose as well).
- Backrow. Henry was excellent. Thought Robbie (for a guy whom most people wanted rid off last season) put in a lot of work today. He's become Mr adaptable in our pack. Hendy had a good impact off the bench. Mush more effective in the backrow than at lock.
- Gilroy did very well at 15 a la Zebo for Ireland in that position. If Jared wasn't fit and Darcy was, I'd still go for him there, as it's a highly specialised position and difficult to consistently adapt to if not playing there week in week out.
- Decent impact PJ

Negatives

- first half in particular
- line outs. We made this game way to difficult for ourselves on the back of a lack of composure in this area. Appreciate wew had some mitigating circumstances (Muller and Tuohy injured) but this simply wasn't anywhere near good enough. I think Rory's fallibility under pressure will cost him a Lions place unless there's some serious improvement in this area.
- I feel we really lack an on field leader without Muller in the team. Not entirely convinced that either Henry or Best are that effective in the role.

Positive: the result

Negative: the overall performance



Montpellier did us a favour by not scoring 4 tries

only Toulouse and Saffacens can overtake us into 4th spot. Nail-biting sunday in prospect!

Positives - a win in france with a half strength team. Proof positive of the strength in depth. Our 'Enry (MOTM?!) cementing his place in the back row for a green jersey (outside chance of a red one?). Great scrum.

Negatives - Too many handling errors. [NB not all Rory's fault for the darts - the wind was a big factor as even 'NO' acknowledged]. Didn't capitatlise on the strong scrum. Too many naysayers - hey look where we are!!

Who cares who or where - accentuate the positive - on our day we can beat anyone - believe!!

There is no remaining doubt where Ruan should play. 10? Nein mein hairy.

3 away wins in HC group another first and why if we get our lads back by Easter it doesn't matter if we are away!

Apart from that Gilroy did well at 15 & Chad was superb as were the front row

Positives

- A victory in France (our first competitive one).
- C Henry was awesome and is fast becoming one of the best 7's in the NH.
- Delighted to see PJ come on and prove a few doubters that he is our real no. 10.
- Scrum was awesome Court and Afoa take a bow!

Negatives

- Other than above we were pretty gash.
- We really lack leadership without Muller. We need to extend his contract pronto as we are a shadow of ourselves without him, categorically our most important player.
- We are shipping so many injuries and looks like Rog is out now too. We need to give some players a break but don't have a lot of opportunities to do so with the 6N coming up.
- Whilst not ultimately changing the overall result on the game I thought that Owens was shoite. I think he bottled a few calls around scrum time. Whilst we may have got a few handy decisions in the last period of the game the lack of of a yellow card for their loosie and the failure to play advantage at a crucial time could have cost us a couple of trys. As I said we weren't going to get 4 trys.

Hans Indaruck wrote:Positives - a win in france with a half strength team. Proof positive of the strength in depth. Our 'Enry (MOTM?!) cementing his place in the back row for a green jersey (outside chance of a red one?). Great scrum.

Negatives - Too many handling errors. [NB not all Rory's fault for the darts - the wind was a big factor as even 'NO' acknowledged]. Didn't capitatlise on the strong scrum. Too many naysayers - hey look where we are!!

Who cares who or where - accentuate the positive - on our day we can beat anyone - believe!!

He was never going to get MOM in france, but glad pedrie got it. However Chad needs to be given a chance for ireland- just hope he takes it. Problem is kidders has a history of playing ulster boys then blaming them if the match goes wrong. Andy T springs to mind as being the scapegoat. On the othe hand after the kidders treatmenr both he and top cat have had great seasons.mmmmm

John_e_boy wrote:
Montpellier did us a favour by not scoring 4 tries

!

it wouldn't matter if they got 10 tries 2 teams from the same group can't get home games so Ulster would still be in the same 4th place tonight

I think the weather will be the deciding factor tomorrow if snow and rain I think embra could do the job for us and keep the saracens out and the tigers will win easy tomorrow.

Negative
Losing Wilson, looked like the hammy that kept him off the pitch for 6 months last year. Hope not related.

Hans Indaruck wrote: [NB not all Rory's fault for the darts - the wind was a big factor as even 'NO' acknowledged].

The wind didn't affect Castres. They won 100% of their line outs.

mikerob wrote:

Hans Indaruck wrote: [NB not all Rory's fault for the darts - the wind was a big factor as even 'NO' acknowledged].

The wind didn't affect Castres. They won 100% of their line outs.

Granted - but they had a lot less line outs! Anyway - the scrum percentage figure is the one to relish!!

As usual, I can see no wrong in St Ruan. He had a bad game and seemed out of sorts, but when he went to 9, everything clicked back into place.
I’ll not accept that he is a poor 10 based on a poor game at 10, because if he was playing there every week, he would be more natural in the role.

Snipe Watson wrote:As usual, I can see no wrong in St Ruan. He had a bad game and seemed out of sorts, but when he went to 9, everything clicked back into place.
I’ll not accept that he is a poor 10 based on a poor game at 10, because if he was playing there every week, he would be more natural in the role.

Agree entirely snipe.....Poor 10's don't get Springbok caps!

Snipe Watson wrote:As usual, I can see no wrong in St Ruan. He had a bad game and seemed out of sorts, but when he went to 9, everything clicked back into place.
I’ll not accept that he is a poor 10 based on a poor game at 10, because if he was playing there every week, he would be more natural in the role.

I'd completely agree with that statement.

On a related note, I still think if PJ is injured the beagle/Ruan combination at half back is our best available. Guess the other options would be RP/PW with Luke Marshall at 12 (a possibility) or RP/NOC with PW/Luke at 12.

Will be interesting to see over the coming weeks if PW gets a bit of gametime at 10 when Luke Marshall is back.

Snipe Watson wrote:As usual, I can see no wrong in St Ruan. He had a bad game and seemed out of sorts, but when he went to 9, everything clicked back into place.
I’ll not accept that he is a poor 10 based on a poor game at 10, because if he was playing there every week, he would be more natural in the role.

Grrrrr we have world class 9 so we insist on trying to make him a so so 10. Feck sake we got this far by playing the ruan paddy situation with beagle coming on to cause choas. Why should we change!!! He is 9 ffs