Toulouse v Ulster Heineken QF

[jean valjean]

Its been a tough restart and Dan will have his work cut out to ensure there is no hangover to the next season. It has looked like we were playing catch up from day 1 and were never really to the pitch of any game. Time for a reset and back to work. No fans at ravenhill will mean the team will need to find that extra level themselves.

[Setanta]

What happened to TO`T ?

[Setanta]

What happened to TO`T ?

[solidarity]

Pretty grim all round. 1F is right, the Pro14 is looking very thin indeed. The English and the French are way ahead. Only Leinster could have given Toulouse a game today.

As for Ulster, too many mistakes, too many missed tackles and Stockdale... s somebody above says, from Lions starter to Ulster bench at best. I hope he'll be back.

[Gary]

Lowry got little or no support when he made a break. Seems the rest of the team were not used to their 10 running at the opposition. Stockdale has lost his way but surely just needs to get back to basics and start again. And will Addison ever be fit again?

[solidarity]

Maybe Rory can do something at Winged Foot to make things look a bit brighter.

[damianmcr]

What happened to TO`T ?

Calf strain I think. He didn't travel.

[justinr73]

Its been a tough restart and Dan will have his work cut out to ensure there is no hangover to the next season. It has looked like we were playing catch up from day 1 and were never really to the pitch of any game. Time for a reset and back to work. No fans at ravenhill will mean the team will need to find that extra level themselves.

He will, especially if the likes of Marcel and Stu are missing.

[Alister Scott]

Was there a late hit on Lowry?

Yep ...


... so late it's just arrived now.


Barnesie still missed it.

But if any Ulster player had as good a game as Barnesie, we might have run them a lot closer.

[lovesthehardground]

Said all I had to say last week. Today was more of the same - our basics are gash. We can't pass, catch or tackle. Our two NIQs today are not worth the money and are barely pro14 level and that's such a poor league. Again we didn't take 3pts when on offer, went to the corner and blew the chance. May not have made mush of a difference but would have brought us to within 9 points (I think) and may have applied a bit of scoreboard pressure.

[bangorboy]

Said all I had to say last week. Today was more of the same - our basics are gash. We can't pass, catch or tackle. Our two NIQs today are not worth the money and are barely pro14 level and that's such a poor league. Again we didn't take 3pts when on offer, went to the corner and blew the chance. May not have made mush of a difference but would have brought us to within 9 points (I think) and may have applied a bit of scoreboard pressure.

Wasn’t Soper meant to be the super duper skills coach when he was announced?

[TopPoster]

If Ulster are to be up there as serious contenders then they need to be ruthless. If Faddes and Carter don’t cut it the season ahead then cancel contracts and use the 2 NIQ spots to get a proper Lock and hard Cnut Blindside - a Muller and a P3 type of pair - and stick with Saffas as they like it in Belfast, buy into the life and then to want to stay.

No need to waste NIQ in the backs, the schools and academy seem to produce enough flash muckers but they can do feck all with a pack going backwards and losing the breakdown constantly.

Forwards win games, backs decide by how much. Not much simpler than that. We need a consistent game winning pack and the young pups in the backs will do alright.

[richardt84]

Said all I had to say last week. Today was more of the same - our basics are gash. We can't pass, catch or tackle. Our two NIQs today are not worth the money and are barely pro14 level and that's such a poor league. Again we didn't take 3pts when on offer, went to the corner and blew the chance. May not have made mush of a difference but would have brought us to within 9 points (I think) and may have applied a bit of scoreboard pressure.

No better example of the above in terms of basics being gash, and how costly it is, than the period of play towards the end of the first half where we had a good break and numbers out towards left. Murphy throws a forward pass when a well executed pass would likely have resulted in a try in the corner. From the resulting scrum Toulouse kicked with Stockdale knocking the ball on under no pressure. I think the next time we got the ball after that was after Kolbe scored just before half time. While there were elements of good play from Toulouse between Murphy’s poor pass and Kolbe scoring any sort of competent pass and it’s a fair chance that Ulster are going in at half time up with a score of at least 8-8.

EDIT - the general point on poor play stands but as per Murray Kinsella this happened much earlier in the game than I thought it did. https://twitter.com/murray_kinsella/sta ... 02593?s=21

[Lurgan Lad]

I don't think we will be able to afford better NIQs by the sound of it.

Yeah Murphy's skills let him down, also thought Rea's passing let him down on a couple of noticeable occasions , once when we made a break and he didn't have a look to see who he could pass to another, time when he offloaded to them, so plenty of work required on our basic skills.

[rumncoke]

lowry at 10 is a miniature Carberry -- makes a break gets isolated and gets penalised for holding on .Alternatively his size invites the semi- late tackle and injury .

As a stand in with limited experience I won't come down on him but he is not the future.

Stockdale I feel sorry for ,caught twice, facing a wing at pace and getting taken on the inside , wrong footed and left flapping the arm weakly--- been there done that. Watching it looks an easy tackle, but the player running at pace at a player waiting to make a tackle will wrong foot you 9 times out of 10 because the tackler is normally in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

With the players available that match was never winnable.

No Balacoune , No Marshall , No Addison, No Marcel --Burns half fit, and the bench on a 6/2 split . Hume gets an injury in the first minute.

Barnes i have never liked as a referee -- an ego with a whistle -- with law changes which provide him with the opportunity to display his mastery of the instantaneous mistake .

Toulouse -- basically a big physical pack who hope their bulk will wear down the opposition .Their backline is also physical with pace relying on shoulder charges at would be tacklers to break the tackle I don't think they have heard of a hand off. Run at the tackler and drop the shoulder a mirror image of their forwards only faster .