Connacht v Ulster Sat Oct 23rd 5:15pm KO

[Bart S]

Dan says the players were gutted which I don’t dispute for a moment and that his regret is that there isn’t a game next weekend to try to put things right. Personally I hope that the longer break allows time for reflection and a rethink on his part around tactics and selections, although I am not hopeful on this right now given his response.

Wonder if the Belfast Tele and BBC guys will try to brush it off as a bad day at the office

[Hans Indaruck]

AOC gives his all and the Ulster squad does need players like him right now. However having him as 1st choice or very close to 1st choice lock says a lot about ulster’s lack of strength in that area. I don’t think he would make a 1st choice match day 23 at any of the other provinces.

As Snipe says he is a grafter and will do a job for sure against some of the URC sides. My issues is more a reflection of the quality of ulster’s Locks.

If the rest of the team (bar one or two e.g. Timoney) had shown the passion of the Dublin Strangler we might not have been the wrong end of the result! He is guilty of Red Mist Syndrome but never guilty of a lack of effort or passion! Treadwell is decent enough and Kearney looks a grafter - I don’t think 2nd row is our biggest problem - attitude, concentration and attention to detail (I.e. basics) are more concerning!

[Soda]

2nd row also not our biggest problem because we have bigger problems at fly half, tight head and blindside flanker

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[germcevoy]

Dan doesn’t strike me as the type of leader who could deliver a dressing room bollocking. That might not be his style but a performance like yesterday’s feels like it should have ramifications which extend beyond the usual taking learnings and moving forward tom kite you hear spouted.

[Snipe Watson]

10 is a problem I think we should persevere with Lowry. He is going to get things wrong and may need to unlearn some habits he picked up at 15, but he's got a great set of skills and is well integrated into the squad.
Back row, as currently lining out, is the other worry. It's just not balanced. Matty just doesn't seem to have what it takes when things get intense, he's not able to impose himself and be a dominant player. McCann has potential to be great, but he's young enough and it's unfair to expect him to do the heavy lifting. This is where I hope Vermeulen will mentor David and turn him into a bit of a mongrel. Timoney is fine and Reidy will soak-tackle all day which is great as long as you have balance in the back row with others to make the dominant momentum shifting collisions.

[Cap'n Grumpy]

its not that Brace was blatantly pro Connaught -- i think their approach to the game : _- in defence-- of" to hell with the ball hit the man with or without the ball' and if he doesn't like it and reacts -- everybody get stuck in and distract the ref --: that approach was something he ( Brace )didn't know how to handle ---as I say their group aggressiveness was a pre-planned game plan to unsettle both Ulster and the referee -- to the extent that ulster stopped trying and the referee became Connaught foul blind.

the second half of course with the Connaught kick off -- one side because Ulster were Kicking out of their 22 and giving possession to Connaught in the Ulster half and the Ulster backs were brain-rting in attack and defence. Blind passes and narrow defence

Lightbulb moment!!!

Dan has been on the Rumncoke.

That explains why the Ulster players don't understand the game plan.

[rumncoke]

They understand the Gameplan --understanding is not the problem -- as many a General has said once the action starts the plans go west

[firebell53]

I was one of the many Ulster supporters at the Aviva on Saturday and am still in shock at the poor performance by our beloved Ulster team. I am not one for complaining and running down the team and coaching staff but I must say I fear for the rest of the season. Look at the next 10 fixtures starting with an away trip to Leinster, if saturdays terrible performance is anything to go by we will be fortunate to win just one of these matches. Is this a defining moment in our season? Could our season be over before Christmas? I love my province and will always support them and stand up for them. It will take some time to get over Saturdays performance and I believe we will, so here’s hoping that the next 4weeks will be a time of reflection and soul searching by every body concerned and we can come back strong starting with our match against Leinster. SUFTUM.

[justinr73]

It was a hard watch.

Being deprived of for the last half an hour was a clear case of cruel and unusual punishment.

Or was that actually having to drink the stuff in the first place?

A bit too sweet and choclatey for my palate.

[jean valjean]

I would love to see our turnover stats by player. It seems every team we come up against has breakdown threats all over the park but for us unless Hendo, big Stu or herring gets over the ball we have zero impact at creating turnovers. We haven't had a proper jackaling player since when... Chris Henry? And he wasn't even an out and out jackal. Duane will be a short term fix but we can't get away without posing a bigger threat in this area. Our ruck defence needs improved also especially in the wide channels. We can't expect lowry to be securing rucks out wide which happens more when he plays 15. Give him a run at 10 which should result in others doing this. We have improved immensely in the maul, but grant needs to start earning his corn around the breakdown where we have stagnanted for years.

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[Cap'n Grumpy]

They understand the Gameplan --understanding is not the problem -- as many a General has said once the action starts the plans go west

That should be to our advantage as it's our theme tune.

The quote has been attributed to many people, but it is what is tagged along with that, that is important.
No plan survives first contact with the enemy. What matters is how quickly the leader is able to adapt.

Or as Dwight D Eisenhower once said, "In preparing for battle, plans are useless, but planning is indispensable".

Tis all a matter of leadership, and too often ours goes AWOL.

[Cap'n Grumpy]

Dan says the players were gutted which I don’t dispute for a moment and that his regret is that there isn’t a game next weekend to try to put things right. Personally I hope that the longer break allows time for reflection and a rethink on his part around tactics and selections, although I am not hopeful on this right now given his response.

Wonder if the Belfast Tele and BBC guys will try to brush it off as a bad day at the office

They'll more likely blame it on PJ and Stu.

[justinr73]

I would love to see our turnover stats by player. It seems every team we come up against has breakdown threats all over the park but for us unless Hendo, big Stu or herring gets over the ball we have zero impact at creating turnovers. We haven't had a proper jackaling player since when... Chris Henry? And he wasn't even an out and out jackal. Duane will be a short term fix but we can't get away without posing a bigger threat in this area. Our ruck defence needs improved also especially in the wide channels. We can't expect lowry to be securing rucks out wide which happens more when he plays 15. Give him a run at 10 which should result in others doing this. We have improved immensely in the maul, but grant needs to start earning his corn around the breakdown where we have stagnanted for years.

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We got 11 from 7 players and they got 10 from 8 (if the stats on the official site can be believed).

[WestDr]

Pleased to see that the tenor of the conversation has moved on from "they're all crap, sack the coach" to why were we so poor ? It was possibly the most disappointing Ulster match I've watched in 10+ years - in a way a lot worse than losing to Connacht at Ravenhill a couple of years back. Then you could see what was going wrong and how it was trying to be fixed. Saturday's match just seemed to fall into the category of 'madness is trying the same thing again and expecting a different result' (cf Billy's intercepted passes). As others have noted, both an (apparent) lack of a Plan B and, if there was, the lack of a leader and team to implement that Plan B. In a way, we were out-classed.

One point about Andrew Brace (the second-worst ref after Frank Murphy), and also how he works with his TMO. Brace does have a pattern of only dealing with the last offence he saw/recognised. So where there are two or three together (e.g. the lifting of Henderson and the AOC elbow in the back), then he'll only deal with the last one. Now a good TMO (and both Nigel and Wayne Barnes) will deal with the AOC incident (which fully deserved the yellow it got) and then go back and deal with the other (lifting/not putting down) offence - which Brace recognised at the time and was about to give at least a penalty for. But Brace can only process one thing at once.... and his TMO here didn't help him at all to remember the rest. It did occur to Brace a little bit later that he should have done something more. Which IMHO was a contributory factor as to why Ultan Dillane got his yellow.

Where I do think World Rugby/URC need to sort things out is the actual role of the TMO. Is it the Fourth Referee or is it someone to assist the ref ? At some points (e.g in looking for foul play) the TMO seems to run the game (e.g. Ian Davies, Joy Neville) and that only an experienced ref (e.g. JP Doyle, Matthew Carley, Wayne Barnes etc) will either ignore, tell them to shut up or ask specfic and limited questions of. Others appear to have so little confidence in their own run-of-the-mill decisions and to be constantly seeking approval - e.g. "tell me what you saw there"....

And as for some of the 'round the neck tackle' penalties (2 at least in the second half) that Brace did give, why did neither Brace nor the TMO want to look at those again ? Is there now some edict involving the same outcome that there are 'rugby incidents' and there is 'foul play' (e.g.Nadolo's arm on Cooney vs Andy Warwick) ? One final point on Mike Adamson's performance in the Ulster v Lions match - he was helped immensely by neither set of players constantly on at him to give things. The Saffer teams will learn ASAP that it is effective (cf J Sexton etc). Nathan Doak will learn v quickly that he's not the player Ruan Pienaar was/is or John Cooney is and that you most often see both of them moving the ball out of the ruck ASAP rather than either standing there with his arms wide attempting to tell the ref what decision he/she should be making (grrr....) or thinking that the opposition will let Nathan Doak dictate the pace of the game. Andy Friend and Kieran Marmion had his number all right and Brace told him to shut it at least once on Saturday night.

Whew, rant over !

[justinr73]

It’s also worth noting that Addison was a big miss.

We seemed to lack invention and ideas (amongst other things) and that absence of a second playmaker (no doubt someone will ask if I mean a first playmaker) was an issue that we need to get over.

Not sure what’s up with Mads but we could well see him and Cooney back for our next trip to Dublin.

Season ticket holders can get tickets today - don’t all rush at once!