Dragons v Ulster live commentary

[Beattiespastie]

Next week is a frightening prospect to be honest.....bigger and better teams than the Dragons await us in the coming weeks and months.....will this shocking display galvanise the players after some serious introspection next week??they certainly cannot play any worse than they did today as that would be impossible.

[scrum5]

It's been a couple of hours since one of the worst displays that I have witnessed by an Ulster side, the only positives that I could see was Chris Henry, Willie Faloon, Ed O'Donoghue, Declan Fitzpatrick and Paddy Wallace who ended up playing 10,and only in the sense that they were the best of a shocking bunch. All the early optimism of pre season as faded away into oblivion and with the Ospreys on Saturday, McLaughlin, Buzz and Neil Doak have their work cut out.....Now the negatives, on that display how did B J Botha manage to get 25 odd Springbok caps and a WC winners medal, his scrummaging was poor, his play in the loose was non existent and his hospital pass to iHumph was an absolute shocker, as one of the senior members of the squad he should be a leader in the team but unfortunately looks like a player who came half way around the world to experience a new culture and too collect a big pay packet. Was said last year and it is still true, Ulster lack leadership on and off the pitch, the senior players on the pitch today need to take a long hard look at themselves it's all well and good playing young talented players but they need leadership and guidance and they are not getting it, the 9 through too 13 today was not good with too many missed tackles and not enough ideas about going forward resulting in the ball not getting out to the wingers , though in saying that Jim just does not look to have the skills for this level. Ulster had 62% possession and 62% territory and did nothing with it . It's only the start of the season and the team and when I say team I mean those that are new into the set up eg Whitten, Faloon, Tuohy, and Fitzy and management need to be given time but senior players like Boss, Botha, Young, Trimble and Danielli need to start delivering the goods and soon.......

[TheElephantMan]

Like we know our new coach is a schools rugby coach,says it all really....................was he chosen because he was CHEAP?I dont know much about the ulster coach but why was he picked to lead ULSTER forward?

[Shem]

Aggghhh, Here we go again talking about replacing Humph The bottom line is he is our best option at 10. End Off! Give him time, he didn't have a bad game, we need to get out of the habit of blaming the Fly Half when we lose. We lost the game round the fringes and going into contact, our physicality was laughable. No penatration from the centre, no quick ball from the breakdown, infact we looked totally lost out there tonight!

Yes, questions will be asked of BmcL, but lets be honest, they should be! Thats a bad performace not helped by the fact that he left of EOD, Cillian Willis, Shifty, PW and Darren Cave, arguably 3 of our best players from last year!
I made my feelings known when BmcL was appointed and I'm on record as saying the guy is a gent but lacked the experience to walk into the Ulster job! Its too early to make a judgement call now but I'm thinking if Dragons put 23 on us, what will the O's do to our already shattered confidence? Bottom line, tonight was a must win to get the confidence up..instead we walked off with our heads lower than ever.

Time for BmcL to get real with team selections, stop trying to make statements or stamp his authority and choose the best players for the games! Cave, Wallace, EOD, Humph, Willis, Court, Shifty are there or thereabouts in my opinion! Keeping it local will cost us HEC rugby next year! Wise Up!

[notj]

The worst part of the display was the tactics- that's what is worrying me the most. Last year, poor execution cost us. Today, it was a case of poor execution and a poor gameplan- it was obvious that it wasn't working within 5 minutes, but no plan B.

[Surrey Red Hand]

Aggghhh, Here we go again talking about replacing Humph The bottom line is he is our best option at 10. End Off! Give him time, he didn't have a bad game, we need to get out of the habit of blaming the Fly Half when we lose. We lost the game round the fringes and going into contact, our physicality was laughable. No penatration from the centre, no quick ball from the breakdown, infact we looked totally lost out there tonight!

Yes, questions will be asked of BmcL, but lets be honest, they should be! Thats a bad performace not helped by the fact that he left of EOD, Cillian Willis, Shifty, PW and Darren Cave, arguably 3 of our best players from last year!
I made my feelings known when BmcL was appointed and I'm on record as saying the guy is a gent but lacked the experience to walk into the Ulster job! Its too early to make a judgement call now but I'm thinking if Dragons put 23 on us, what will the O's do to our already shattered confidence? Bottom line, tonight was a must win to get the confidence up..instead we walked off with our heads lower than ever.

Time for BmcL to get real with team selections, stop trying to make statements or stamp his authority and choose the best players for the games! Cave, Wallace, EOD, Humph, Willis, Court, Shifty are there or thereabouts in my opinion! Keeping it local will cost us HEC rugby next year! Wise Up!

Just back from Newport I will try and bite my tongue BUT are you 'avin a laugh Shem IH was woeful, those kicks he missed were some of the easiset he is ever likely to get !!!!

Hats off to the 20 or so fans that made the trip - they deserved better than that, very few positives to take from that display - I fear another hiding at the Liberty next week, am considering cancelling my hotel next week

[Shem]

Ok SRH, I'm not saying he had a cracker, he missed a couple of kickable points and from memory he missed 1 tackle but what I mean is that he wasn't the worst AND he certainly is not the main factor for our loss. Some posters can't seem to look past the 10 jersey! Take my advice, give next week a wide berth!

Agree with NOTJ...gameplan was definately up the left!

[Surrey Red Hand]

Not totally blaming IH there were many poor displays (Timmy being one as per usual IMO) and the heads went down very quickly when we went behind

IH could and SHOULD have kept us in touch certainly in the first half though!

Will probably make the pilgrimage to Ospreys but fear the worst (will have to get more sozzled than usual) to try and anaethitise the pain

[Snipe Watson]

Some posters can't seem to look past the 10 jersey!

Correct, we cannot look past the 10 jersey as it is our massive problem area and possibly the most crucial position in the team. I am an unapologetic critic of iHumph and have been since he arrived and before. On this occasion he was no worse than many of the others.

[Yoda]

Agree with those who are saying its harsh to blame the 10 - the backs got virtually no quick quality ball to do anything with it. Our game plan very quickly became very predictable and by the time we did get any ball out their defences had had the necessary time to ensure defenders were in all the right places. We can't afford to take so long to distribute the ball while we wait for the perfect positioning of all forwards around the base of a ruck - get it out! IH is currently our best option at 10 and he needs to be given time to settle in the roll and build confidence - constantly swapping between him and NOC will do nobody any good. Did anyone else think IH was tackled in the air (the pass was so poor he had to be airborne to attempt to catch it!) in the build up to their last score? (not that it would have changed the outcome)

[Jackie Brown]

That was one of the hardest ULster games I have ever had to watch. A far cry from our Magners League triumph 3 seasons ago. The team back then knew what to do, had the balls and determination to pull it off. Out there this afternoon we were laughable. No ideas, no belief, no grunt, no execution. I will go as far as to say every player 1-22 had a shocker. It's not often that happens. The Dragons destroyed us at every breakdown and hit us hard when we had the ball. Boss was his usual frustrating self, where is Willis??? IHumph was bad, but NOC is worse. Wallace isn't a fullback and I have enough painful memories of that experiment from a few seasons back. Trimble just doesn't back himself anymore! Whitten seemed overawed. Nagusa and Danelli didn't get any ball worth talking about. Our front row as a whole were poor and our backrow was none existant., completely outplayed by their opposite numbers.

Changes for next week? I would start Willis, Boss on the bench as scrumhalf and fullback cover. iHumph, Wallace and Cave as the centre axis and keep the wingers as they were. Trimble drop to the bench. Shifty into full back as it looks like Bryn may be missing for a few weeks. Forwards?? McCullough has to come in somewhere as does Pollock and Ed has to start. I would also have a front row of Young, Fitzy (jnr) and Brady.

It's gonna take me until about Friday to get over what i witnessed today and I just hope we can avoid a complete hiding next week. at least one Ulsterman will be on a winning team i suppose.

[Snipe Watson]

With 1F out of action, we also lack a big hooligan of a ball carrier.

[Big Dog]

Was at the game today. It was horrendous!

I thought Marshall (chip into the 22 aside) sped the ball up considerably.

iHumph did not do well, bad from hand, inconsistent to goal and I thought he was hesitant with ball in hand.

Back row was out muscled, line-out was shaky, backs devoid of creativity and 2 of the Dragon's tries came from breaks straight through the middle...ugh it was hard to watch.

[Big-al]

That was one of the hardest ULster games I have ever had to watch. A far cry from our Magners League triumph 3 seasons ago. The team back then knew what to do, had the balls and determination to pull it off. Out there this afternoon we were laughable. No ideas, no belief, no grunt, no execution. I will go as far as to say every player 1-22 had a shocker. It's not often that happens. The Dragons destroyed us at every breakdown and hit us hard when we had the ball. Boss was his usual frustrating self, where is Willis??? IHumph was bad, but NOC is worse. Wallace isn't a fullback and I have enough painful memories of that experiment from a few seasons back. Trimble just doesn't back himself anymore! Whitten seemed overawed. Nagusa and Danelli didn't get any ball worth talking about. Our front row as a whole were poor and our backrow was none existant., completely outplayed by their opposite numbers.

Changes for next week? I would start Willis, Boss on the bench as scrumhalf and fullback cover. iHumph, Wallace and Cave as the centre axis and keep the wingers as they were. Trimble drop to the bench. Shifty into full back as it looks like Bryn may be missing for a few weeks. Forwards?? McCullough has to come in somewhere as does Pollock and Ed has to start. I would also have a front row of Young, Fitzy (jnr) and Brady.

It's gonna take me until about Friday to get over what i witnessed today and I just hope we can avoid a complete hiding next week. at least one Ulsterman will be on a winning team i suppose.

Exactly how I feel

Although I wouldn't agree with some of those changes in the pack. The likes of Brady, Ed and Fitzepatrick didn't impress me either.

[ColinM]

As far as that ONE performance goes....Cave, Falloon, Henry, Diack & Ed have the potential to play decent rugby at this level, provided they are surrounded by seasoned pros.

Unfortunately they are in this Ulster team the only players playing the right standard.

Long season ahead i reckon....