TRANSFER RUMOURS!!

[Loki]

Good move for Whitten - I'm of the opinion that he should be moved on but I'll keep an eye on him and hope he does well.

Faloon also seems a good move. Get week in, week out games, he's only just good enough for a squad role with us I feel. If he's to be jettisoned to scrape pennies toward any of P3 / Bowe / Wilson's wages then that's alright with me. Better he goes to Connacht than wastes some of his better years with the Ravens, I think it's fair to say he's not made the case to be kept on.

[ColinM]

Faloon has stagnated and possibly gone backwards over the last 12-18 mths, there used to be suggestions of too many minutes and burnout now its too few minutes and rustiness.

Its come to the point that in watching Ballynahinch against Harlequins recently, I certainly wouldnt have been able to pick him out of the Hinch players as an Ulster squad player. Rewind 3 years to the Hinch all Ireland Cup team and Faloon stood out all over the park and looked every inch an Ulster 7 in the making.

Sad to see Willie fail to reach his potential, even more sadly its hard to see him breaking into the Connacht back row ahead of JOC if he is fit.

Incidentally in the same match referred to above Ian Whitten was playing on the left wing. Shame that he was being shunted about at club level as well as with Ulster, or maybe that was a UR dictat. Silly if so, the lad was never a utility back, he's an inside centre and a dependable (yet not flashy) one at that. Check back to the UR website a month or so ago for a feature on "Ian Whitten, the sort of player successful squads are built around" or something like that anyway.

[Snipe Watson]

Dizzy has never been quite good enough to make the 12 shirt his own.

[lovesthehardground]

Can't understand letting Whitten and Faloon go. Whitten is a good squad member who can cover several positions. Reliable and just who we should be holding on to if we are going to build a squad. Same for Faloon. If we were going to jettison a back row player then I would have rather seen McComish going. To get rid of our only natural No.7 is strange, especially with the signing of a new SH coach. I would have thought that Anscomb may have quite liked to work with a natural openside.

[Big-al]

Can understand letting Whitten go, it was only a matter of time before 1 of Marshall/Farrell took his spot and pot IMO are future stars for both Ulster and Ireland.

[Setanta]

Perhaps when Paddy goes in one year he'll be back an even better player.

[darkside lightside]

Dizzy has never been quite good enough to make the 12 shirt his own.

in fairness he's been competing with, IMO, the best 12 in Ireland over the last few years.

I must say I wouldn't rush to say he has been 'jettisoned' or anything - I can understand why a guy like that, coming into his mid-20s, wants to be getting a regular start, and with PW, Cave, Spence as well as a couple of well-thought-of young 'uns floating around (or Trimble, Bowe and Gilroy on the wings) I can understand why he might quite fancy another club for a bit - and into the bargain he can make more wedge while he does so! why not??

[darkside lightside]

Perhaps when Paddy goes in one year he'll be back an even better player.

Paddy??? what am I missing here..

[ColinM]

Can't understand letting Whitten and Faloon go. Whitten is a good squad member who can cover several positions. Reliable and just who we should be holding on to if we are going to build a squad. Same for Faloon. If we were going to jettison a back row player then I would have rather seen McComish going. To get rid of our only natural No.7 is strange, especially with the signing of a new SH coach. I would have thought that Anscomb may have quite liked to work with a natural openside.

I have posted above that I dont think Faloon has achieved his potential at Ulster, but I cant for the life of me see that we'd go into next season with Chris Henry as the only player proven as an openside at this level whether or not we have P3 and Wilson. Henry has been shoehorned in and shown reasonable promise there but if we dont make a signing then Birch must be very highly rated.

At this point in time I'd prefer if we let P3 go and used his contract on a player with openside tendancies, and have Wilson take P3's place in the squad than start next season with a heap of 8's and 6's

[promsandwich]

Difficult to see how Ulster are going to challenge Munster and Leinster in the next couple of years if we continue to jettison good squad players. I can understand why Dizzy might want to move on, but leaving that aside, there is no quality replacement for him. People can talk all they want about Luke Marshall and Farrell being Ireland's future but such statements are pure speculation when neither player has demonstrated competence, let alone brilliance, at Rabo12 level. I hope both of them do, by all accounts they are very talented. But when we are playing a mid-table Rabo12 team during international week next year we won't be able to fall back on a quality replacement 12/13/even winger but will again have to turn to an unproven youngster which doesn't bode well for challenging the top sides.

Willie is also disappointing. He hasn't progressed in the way one might have hope since he burst onto the scene a few years ago. It is sad to see him go and we are looking very light at 7 next year unless there is a signing or significant replacement from within. I hope he goes to Connacht and demonstrates that we were wrong to let him go.

Maybe this is all part of some master plan for some of our non-first team starters to go elsewhere and gain some experience. I hope it works out for us and them.

[Cap'n Grumpy]

Difficult to see how Ulster are going to challenge Munster and Leinster in the next couple of years if we continue to jettison good squad players. I can understand why Dizzy might want to move on, but leaving that aside, there is no quality replacement for him.

Why assume that Ulster are "jettisoning" these players? They're out of contract, maybe UR offered a renewal, but the players (and let's not forget, these are players who are not nailed down starters), maybe decided to go elsewhere either for a better contract offer, or more likely more chance of regular rugby.

At the end of the day (or even at any time of the day), we cannot keep these players here against their wills.

[ruckover]

This would be our 'replacement' team by my reckoning:
1. PaddyMac
2. Kyri
3. Black
4. Stevenson
5. Barker
6. Diack
7. Faloon/Birch (unsure if Faloon is staying)
8. Wilson
9. P. Marshall
10. Jackson
11. Gilroy
12. L. Marshall
13. Spence
14. Cochrane
15. D'Arcy
I say that team could win against some teams (Aironi, Dragons, Embra, Connacht).

[Cornerfleg]

Difficult to see how Ulster are going to challenge Munster and Leinster in the next couple of years if we continue to jettison good squad players. I can understand why Dizzy might want to move on, but leaving that aside, there is no quality replacement for him.

Why assume that Ulster are "jettisoning" these players? They're out of contract, maybe UR offered a renewal, but the players (and let's not forget, these are players who are not nailed down starters), maybe decided to go elsewhere either for a better contract offer, or more likely more chance of regular rugby.

At the end of the day (or even at any time of the day), we cannot keep these players here against their wills.

Thank you captain - the over use of the word 'jettison' is starting to pi$h on my chips, it all started with some hack in the Telly and now we're all at it. We jettison dross, but until we hear that these guys were pleading to stay at Ulster and were escorted off the premises kicking and screaming could we please use appropriate wording?

[namron]

Bucked Out ?

[Ulster throw in]

Difficult to see how Ulster are going to challenge Munster and Leinster in the next couple of years if we continue to jettison good squad players. I can understand why Dizzy might want to move on, but leaving that aside, there is no quality replacement for him.

Why assume that Ulster are "jettisoning" these players? They're out of contract, maybe UR offered a renewal, but the players (and let's not forget, these are players who are not nailed down starters), maybe decided to go elsewhere either for a better contract offer, or more likely more chance of regular rugby.

At the end of the day (or even at any time of the day), we cannot keep these players here against their wills.

Thank you captain - the over use of the word 'jettison' is starting to pi$h on my chips, it all started with some hack in the Telly and now we're all at it. We jettison dross, but until we hear that these guys were pleading to stay at Ulster and were escorted off the premises kicking and screaming could we please use appropriate wording?

No no that won't do. Being told what is 'allowed' to describe things is to impinge on ones rights. Let it be known from this day forward that the word:

Jettison!

is passed as fit language for any board users of the UAFC.

Chairman
UAFC Appropriate Words Committee.