Munster v Ulster Sat 5:15pm

[LegsLikeSausages]

with BJ only getting 1min on Saturday, I think that they don't rate him. Surprised that Curtis started, more surprised that he played 79 mins

Were they not just giving Curtis minutes in case Burns isn’t fit? If Burns doesn’t make it, that only leaves Johnston and Curtis for the match day 23, so they both needed to have a decent run out in advance

[rocky]

If Burns is fit, he'll start with BJ on the bench. If he's nor fit, BJ will start. That's why he was held in check on Saturday, I think.

[LegsLikeSausages]

If Burns is fit, he'll start with BJ on the bench. If he's nor fit, BJ will start. That's why he was held in check on Saturday, I think.

But presumably also to ensure that if Burns isn’t fit, the out half on the bench has actually had some game time.
Which was my point.

[justinr73]

I'd think it was more a case of not wanting BJ to get injured, on the balance of probabilities.

To be fair, the boy didn't disgrace himself by any means and I don't think we can say with any confidence that playing BJ would have made any difference.

Burns, on the other hand, may just have had the kicking game to get it over, or around, Munster's hulking brutes.

[Columbo]

I thought it was a reasonably encouraging performance - definitely glass half-full IMO. And in fairness I haven't watched it back, I couldn't do that to myself, so these were my 'live' impressions.

To start with the bad - handling errors killed us, and our lineout misfired a few times, and in general we didn't pose too many attacking questions (largely due to the first point - we kept dropping the ball and turning possession over!) Mitigants - greasy ball, McCloskey looking rusty (physically impressive but needs to get his hands warmed up again), and we were after all playing with a complete rookie out-half (who nevertheless played pretty well I thought). I agree with others that Faddes had a pretty forgettable game - almost as bad as Haley (how did that guy get into an Ireland team??) In all honesty, and no harm to the guy, but I can only think of 1 decent thing he has done his whole time here (half-break and offload - either in a pre-season game or Ospreys) - in the home game against Glasgow he started at 13 and it was a fiasco, we didn't get on top until Marshall came on at HT..

On the other side of the ledger, I thought we were physically dominant overall, they got very little change out of us and on many occasions in phase play went backwards - and this without Hendy and Marcell. And the scrum went really well, Moore makes a massive difference, and McGrath had a good match. Also liked seeing him getting het up. I thought Carter had a good game too.

KOTH's team looks about right, I would also have Rob Lyttle on the wing ahead of either Stockdale or Gilroy atm. Good to hear Addison's ok, and Burns seemingly! Question for me is does Faddes even make the bench? I personally would have Lyttle, Stockdale, Gilroy, Addison & Ludik some distance ahead of him, and Bobby B as well, if he wasn't just back to fitness..

I'm hoping we just had a bad run of handling errors, rather than it being a real weakness - and our scrum will need to be on point this weekend, apparently Bath's scrum has been strong this year

[Dan Dare]

Stockdale is a rolls Royce, pure class. He definitely has enough credit in the bank. I would not consider dropping him for an instant. He might be suffering from RWC fatigue and the end of the Schmidt era of coaching, but the man is pure class. I was surprised that he actually played v Munster and fair play, he needs games. He needs support.

[Jackie Brown]

He's been a shadow of himself since his kock up v Leinster in Lansdowne Road