The UAFC

It’s in two days... thought it deserved a thread!

My favourite French team - with some ridiculously good players. How are we going to do?

7:45pm KO, on BT Sport 2. Plenty of tickets still available it seems.

Bookies have Clermont as favourites, I'm not so sure.
Played each other four times, all four wins going with the home team.

Any Ulster team with Henderson and Coetzee starting have a better than even chance at home in my opinion.

Looking forward to it.

If the set piece goes as well as it did at Bath then we'll be alright.

UlsterNo9 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:47 pm Bookies have Clermont as favourites, I'm not so sure.
Played each other four times, all four wins going with the home team.

Any Ulster team with Henderson and Coetzee starting have a better than even chance at home in my opinion.

Ulster have won 10 of their last 12 home games against French opposition, and one of the defeats was against the mighty Toulon team.

big mervyn wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 3:21 pm

UlsterNo9 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:47 pm Bookies have Clermont as favourites, I'm not so sure.
Played each other four times, all four wins going with the home team.

Any Ulster team with Henderson and Coetzee starting have a better than even chance at home in my opinion.

Ulster have won 10 of their last 12 home games against French opposition, and one of the defeats was against the mighty Toulon team.

Indeed, the only other defeat in that sequence was the dead rubber in 16/17 v Bordeaux.

big mervyn wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 3:21 pm

UlsterNo9 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:47 pm Bookies have Clermont as favourites, I'm not so sure.
Played each other four times, all four wins going with the home team.

Any Ulster team with Henderson and Coetzee starting have a better than even chance at home in my opinion.

Ulster have won 10 of their last 12 home games against French opposition, and one of the defeats was against the mighty Toulon team.

That Toulon team was probably the best side I've ever watched live - awesome..

And one of the best matches I've ever watched live was the last time we played Clermont - smashing performance by a great young Irish out-half, Paddy something or other, wonder what happened him..

Clermont looked amazing against Quins, and there's no doubt with their tails up they have the weapons to run you ragged, but they actually have been a bit of a mixed bag this year, lost 4 times including a big humping (at home!!) by Pau and a loss at Brive (both times with decent teams out). So they're definitely not unbeatable. Just watched the highlights of the Quins game, some comically awful defence - I'd be horrified if we are anything like as loose as that against them. Lopez likes a cross kick to the wing, so Stockdale / Ludik will need to be on alert. I'm a little surprised to see them as favourites, I fancy us to get the job done..

J P Doyle in the middle on Friday evening.

N Abendanon; P Betham, I Toeava, G Moala, A Raka; J McIntyre, G Laidlaw; E Falgoux, J Ulugia, R Slimani; P Jedrasiak, S Timani; P Yato, A Iturria, F Lee (c).

M Tadjer, L Uhila, D Zirakashvili, T Lanen, L Dessaigne, M Parra, C Lopez, A Naqalevu.

https://twitter.com/admckendry/status/1 ... 64064?s=20

Ulster team to play ASM Clermont Auvergne, Heineken Champions Cup Round 2, Friday 22 November at Kingspan Stadium (7.45pm, live on BT Sport & BeIN Sports):

(15-9) Will Addison, Louis Ludik, Luke Marshall, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale, Billy Burns, John Cooney.

(1-8) Eric O’Sullivan, Rob Herring, Marty Moore, Alan O’Connor, Iain Henderson (Capt.), Sean Reidy, Jordi Murphy, Marcell Coetzee.

Replacements: Adam McBurney, Kyle McCall, Tom O’Toole, Kieran Treadwell, Nick Timoney, David Shanahan, Bill Johnston, Craig Gilroy.

Lest We Forget, it will be DAY 4689

Hi Ulstermen,

Given our injury list, it's gonna be hard for us.

Vahaamahina is suspended, Merrick, Van Tonder, Lapandry, C. Lanen, Fischer, Cancoriet, Fofana, Nanai-Williams, Grosso, Penaud are all out of business.

The team is not bad on the paper but some of the players have played almost all the 11 games of the season so far (Jedrasiak, Lee, Timani, Toeava, Abendanon, Betham) or not enough to be fully fit (Iturria is clearly coming back too soon given the recent injuries of 4 back rowers in the last 2 weeks). First ever professional game for the youngster Dessaigne who has captained all our academy and national sides (U15, U16, U17, U19 & U20 - on which he earns the surname of "captain").

I bet a victory for you and hope for a LBP for us.

Hope you're right Remy.

Lost our loose-head, lock and wing through injury from last week.

The rest of the team has been fairly well rotated but we've not played with any fluency yet this season.

Bonne chance.

Rémy63 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 2:36 pm Hi Ulstermen,

Given our injury list, it's gonna be hard for us.

Vahaamahina is suspended, Merrick, Van Tonder, Lapandry, C. Lanen, Fischer, Cancoriet, Fofana, Nanai-Williams, Grosso, Penaud are all out of business.

The team is not bad on the paper but some of the players have played almost all the 11 games of the season so far (Jedrasiak, Lee, Timani, Toeava, Abendanon, Betham) or not enough to be fully fit (Iturria is clearly coming back too soon given the recent injuries of 4 back rowers in the last 2 weeks). First ever professional game for the youngster Dessaigne who has captained all our academy and national sides (U15, U16, U17, U19 & U20 - on which he earns the surname of "captain").

I bet a victory for you and hope for a LBP for us.

Thank you. That is a really interesting insight.
What is McIntyre like and what do you think of him starting ahead of Lopez?

LegsLikeSausages wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 5:28 pm
Thank you. That is a really interesting insight.
What is McIntyre like and what do you think of him starting ahead of Lopez?

Well, before Quins' game, most of us would have prefered to see him start ahead of Lopez as he has a great record this season so far.

Lopez did really well against Quins though and we finally have 2 decent fly-half with different style. I personnally prefer McIntyre who is putting more speed in our game and is playing with more depth as a lot of us think that Lopez plays to close to the line (which cause both knock-on and injuries).

We have a wonderful backline (even without Fofana and Penaud) but we are playing too much on our power. Moala, Raka and Betham can bring so much speed... Abendanon had his greatest game in 2 years against Quins so we hope to finally see him back at his real level.

Same for Laidlaw who is far ahead of Parra who is struggling to get back to his best after his big injury in Challenge Cup final.

So I think this is our best side (given the injuries) but we have had the same season as Ulster as we are struggling to find any constancy. So I've no idea which Clermont's team it will be tomorrow... Too much injuries, 12 players involved in RWC. Hard to predict.