Starting OH for Hairsprays

[rich123]

A quick poll ( not a non national sprinter ). Who do the fans want at OH next wk?

Il go NOC from pre season form. Thought he played best game for us last night, and dare i say it, thought he was nearly positive ie a lot flatter

A lot of pressure i know, but has Darcy ever played ten???

On a different topic where did the band go from the bath game thought they were great.

[notj]

Niall O'Connor clearly deserves it on current form, he is bringing the ball to the gain line now and playing flatter- his passing is improved, and he generally looks a much more confident individual. A good performance from him last night I'm pleased to say!

Having viewed Porter and NOC as the distinctly second string halfback partnership a few weeks ago, would now be quite happy to see them given the nod.

[rich123]

Agree. will pienaar be here for 2nd game??

[Rooster]

Agree. will pienaar be here for 2nd game??

Pienaar should be here next week but when will he play is another matter.

[rich123]

Think he was out for 6 wks,so 2 weeks to go.

Dont know how re hab going.

[cables]

Starting OH for Hairsprays?

I would have thought Biggar or Hook if available, with Flanaghan and/or Jarvis as possibilities if they are not.

[promsandwich]

I hope Charlotte Church starts for them. Maybe iHumph would be willing to tackle her?

[King Ding]

Il go NOC from pre season form. Thought he played best game for us last night, and dare i say it, thought he was nearly positive ie a lot flatter

dont agree, yes he brought the ball to the gain line, but he ran at an agle an just took precious space away from our outside backs, humphs has his flaws but he should still start imo

[UlsterJock]

Il go NOC from pre season form. Thought he played best game for us last night, and dare i say it, thought he was nearly positive ie a lot flatter

dont agree, yes he brought the ball to the gain line, but he ran at an agle an just took precious space away from our outside backs, humphs has his flaws but he should still start imo

would agree with you KD

If forced to pick one of them (and unfortunately at present it will be have to be one of them, RP is coming as 9 (listening to BML thats very clear) & Paddy is a 12, no point in going back to the 10 experiment) for me it would have to be - IH and stick with him. NOC for me is too "rugby by numbers", IH has more flair, ability to read the space and create the plays (admitedly his tackling is of concern).

Perhaps most frustrating at present (since Jan 10) is the seeming resistance to selecting a 10 and sticking with it, so neither choice gets a chance to gain confidence and understanding of each other. Just when you think the 9, 10, 12 are settling in, the other is handed the shirt.

As far as place kicking is concerned, give it to someone else - RP or the new Darcy, its obviously something that neither can truly master (i.e. we need 80% accuracy and higher not 60's and neither shows that they are likey to hit this - disappointing that even after the break the pair of them come back and place kick like they havent seen a ball all summer! surely they should have been practising!? and if they have - god help us ).

[Big-al]

NOC to start this week, iHumph to start the following week with the plan being to gently recover his confidence and form

[cables]

confidence and form

Confidence. Leaving aside place kicking, for which neither he or NOC seem to have much confidence, I do not get the impression that he is lacking in confidence in his own ability.

Is it confidence in his own ability or does it relate to being confident that he understands the role the management team wish him to deliver?

The reason I ask is that when he came on on Thursday evening he headed towards the FB position. It may however have been that he was moving towards Doak who was under the 'Village' posts. Was this to receive instruction?

I suppose we will become known as the 'Village People' when the competitive games start.

[Fly Half]

iHumph should start as he is the closest player Ulster have to a fly half. He will be inconsistent and at times very poor, but at least there are times when he's very good. He is more likely to get up for the really big games so he needs to be well settled as first choice 10 before the HEC.

NOC probably had his best ever game in an Ulster shirt and yet was still mediocre. He could be used from the bench to see if he can sustain these new found "heights" before starting a game that matters.

[Setanta]

Ian Humphreys.

[Rooster]

Best chance of beating them is if ihumps starts and we do a quick number on them same as last year, then bring NOC on to settle the thing down and just let 1F and 3N's knock the crap out of them for the rest of the match.

[Yoda]

Ian Humphreys.

Agreed. NOC had good game on Thursday but I don't believe he has ever shown the ability to spot gaps and accelerate the play in a way that IHump can and has (remember Stade game last year?)

Also agree that the person should be given a run - not knowing who is playing from week to week will not help anyone - similar to England's goalkeeper issues in the WC

On the tackling issue, while neither is great, I did think IHump showed a bit of improvement against Bath - fairly certain I saw him put in at least one, if not two big hits during that game.

Having said all that, I think we should lay off the OHs for a while and see how the first few games go - don't think we should judge until we see the difference playing with Piennar inside and Wallace outside