9/10 and World Dominance.

[Snipe Watson]

I’m very reluctant to accept any criticism of PJ. The only real weakness in his game is his decision making sometimes comes up short as a result of his lack of experience. In an ideal world PJ was too green to be our main starting 10 at the beginning of the season, but he has stepped up and made massive progress in a short time. Ruan and Paddy are shouldering some of the pressure and it is working. It may not be entirely conventional to have the game effectively run from 9, but why not? We have a very special player there.
PJ has been there at the business end of a HEC campaign and if we get there this season, he will be a wiser stronger man.
Needs to keep his head down when he kicks though.

[stickinout]

They were pretty scathing about the entire Munster team in fairness iirc.

The point was being made in the context of Ulster being the "real deal" and they were saying 10 is our only real weakness. In a way I can see what they are getting at. The Paul Marshall who was getting MOTM awards before RP came back AND RP at 10 should be a good combo. I just think RPs influence on the game at 9 is exceptional.

I didn't know that LK, just saw the match not the BS after it!

Pip's vid makes more sense now you've given the context. Totally agree with you on the RP at 9 argument, he is a rolls royce of a 9. I noticed last night the distance he gets on his pass when PJ takes it on the run, a thing of beauty it is.

[Lurgan Lad]

We are never going to win the HEC with Small P as our starting half back, when it comes to being a leader he has too many brain farts, RP and PJ I honestly think could win the HEC for us, but it would require a good bit of luck. It all reminds me of Alan Hansen saying you don't win things with kids, just because these guys are paid to be pundits doesn't necessarily mean they always know what they are talking about.
I also agree PJ's tackling is an absolutely huge asset that most teams with a decent out half don't have, on the downside as others have said in the big matches he hasn't performed to the level he is capable of. He is clearly a work in progress but having him as our first choice is without a doubt the best for both Ulster and his development.

[BaggyTrousers]

Knock yourself out Baggy.


http://morsecode.scphillips.com/jtranslator.html

Cheers mucker

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[BaggyTrousers]

They were pretty scathing about the entire Munster team in fairness iirc.

The point was being made in the context of Ulster being the "real deal" and they were saying 10 is our only real weakness. In a way I can see what they are getting at. The Paul Marshall who was getting MOTM awards before RP came back AND RP at 10 should be a good combo. I just think RPs influence on the game at 9 is exceptional.

It's simple really, not many could name better 9s in the world never mind within the Ulster squad. It wouldn't be hard to name a handful of better 10s than Ruan and even easier to name 20 better 9s than Small.

Its what my cousin from Utah would call, a feckin' crocoshite.

We would do well to realise that RTE have a programme to fill, they were generally extremely complimentary about Ulster and for something to say debated where we might improve.

Personally I'd have identified the breakdown as something we need to improve,even teh friggin' useless Scaalets pack trouble us for too long in that area. They chose to waffle about the 10 shirt.

Lets be fair, who are you going to listen to, Mannix & Shaggy who have a passing interest in Ulster or me who lives and breathes it?

Hint: All but the chronically stupid will have instantly opted for me as the unpaid voice of reason. Imagine themins getting a wedge of cash for that bullshit.

[BaggyTrousers]

I’m very reluctant to accept any criticism of PJ. The only real weakness in his game is his decision making sometimes comes up short as a result of his lack of experience. In an ideal world PJ was too green to be our main starting 10 at the beginning of the season, but he has stepped up and made massive progress in a short time. Ruan and Paddy are shouldering some of the pressure and it is working. It may not be entirely conventional to have the game effectively run from 9, but why not? We have a very special player there.
PJ has been there at the business end of a HEC campaign and if we get there this season, he will be a wiser stronger man.
Needs to keep his head down when he kicks though.

Top man Snipe, exactly right, something in 13 consecutive wins should indicate to any non-idiot that the boy has done fecking rightly & lets not forget Ruan was missing for a large chunk of those games.

Sometimes buddy I think there are far to many hereabouts with no real recall of what has happened this season and who the key players have been, on & off the pitch. Like so many goldfish they move from one match to the next make their judgements on the most recent match or two and can't contextualise the season without the help of some driven experts such as ourselves. Then they have the brass neck to witter on about "real fans" - boils my pish so it does.

[BaggyTrousers]

We are never going to win the HEC with Small P as our starting half back, when it comes to being a leader he has too many brain farts, RP and PJ I honestly think could win the HEC for us, but it would require a good bit of luck. It all reminds me of Alan Hansen saying you don't win things with kids, just because these guys are paid to be pundits doesn't necessarily mean they always know what they are talking about.
I also agree PJ's tackling is an absolutely huge asset that most teams with a decent out half don't have, on the downside as others have said in the big matches he hasn't performed to the level he is capable of. He is clearly a work in progress but having him as our first choice is without a doubt the best for both Ulster and his development.

Good shout LL, it all makes sense but even had you left it after that first bit, you would have said all that needed to be said about this nonsense from 2 ould RTE hacks.

[Big-al]

The way Pienaar controls the play and dictates the match from 9 for us far exceeds having a half decent 9 and a controlling 10. You could have NOC outside Pienaar and we'd still win the majority of games in my opinion. In big games we'd struggle though.

[shamalicious]

I’m very reluctant to accept any criticism of PJ. The only real weakness in his game is his decision making sometimes comes up short as a result of his lack of experience. In an ideal world PJ was too green to be our main starting 10 at the beginning of the season, but he has stepped up and made massive progress in a short time. Ruan and Paddy are shouldering some of the pressure and it is working. It may not be entirely conventional to have the game effectively run from 9, but why not? We have a very special player there.
PJ has been there at the business end of a HEC campaign and if we get there this season, he will be a wiser stronger man.
Needs to keep his head down when he kicks though.

Top man Snipe, exactly right, something in 13 consecutive wins should indicate to any non-idiot that the boy has done fecking rightly & lets not forget Ruan was missing for a large chunk of those games.

Sometimes buddy I think there are far to many hereabouts with no real recall of what has happened this season and who the key players have been, on & off the pitch. Like so many goldfish they move from one match to the next make their judgements on the most recent match or two and can't contextualise the season without the help of some driven experts such as ourselves. Then they have the brass neck to witter on about "real fans" - boils my pish so it does.

Spot on Baggy. Some are very quick to forget on these wee boards. Paddy has come on leaps and bounds since the HEC final.

[BR]

deleted

[Russ]

I used to like Donal - 2001 Lions Tour DVD he seems like a nice guy

Yes Ruan > PJ

Yes Ruan > p

PJ @10 > p @9

Ruan is our 9 to win the cup this year, PJ is our 10 to win the cup this year.

Hope PJ watched that, then got Gilroy to make a video of him singing feck You by that guy Frankie and his woman feck him right back!

[bigchiefally]

For my money RP is a very very very good SH, comparable with anyone globally, but only a decent 10.

The problem I think is Jackson. I think if he were a 32 year old New Zealander playing exactly as Jackson has people here would have a very different opinion of him.

Ulster fans cut him a lot of slack because he is local and young.

Objectively I can think of one game this year where I thought he was really good, a fair few where he was decent but a similar number where he was poor.

Maybe Jackson is going to be a very good 10, I certainly hope so and all this game time will certainly help in that aspect, but for a team that wants to win right now, not tomorrow, I dont think he is good enough. 10 is as important as any position on the pitch and far important than most. Hope I am wrong on that as I dont know if we have an easy fix.

I dont know if moving RP to 10 and starting PM is the solution. As I said earlier I dont think RP is a top top class 10, better than Jackson, but not the stellar player he is at 9, so whilst we would gain a bit with him at 10, we would lose a lot at 9. PM has his moments, and frankly I think he is a better 9 than Jackson is a 10, but I RP is such a good 9 that a RP9, Jackson10 combo is probably still better than a Marshall9, Rp10 one.

If largely injury free I think we could win the lot with a slightly above average 10, such are our strenghts elsewhere, I do hope Jackson can be that player.

[ruckover]

Of course we should give Jackson some slack cos he's young Ally - he's still learning and improving. Nobody's expecting him to be the finished article at the age of 20/21. In fact, it's testament to how well he's done that we've only lost 2 of our 17 games with him at the helm. I think we can afford to give him the benefit of the doubt.

In five years if he hasn't improved from here then we can ship him off to Galway

[bigchiefally]

Of course we should give Jackson some slack cos he's young Ally - he's still learning and improving.

That all depends, are we primariy here to develop a future 10, or are we here to win right now?

[big mervyn]

Of course we should give Jackson some slack cos he's young Ally - he's still learning and improving.

That all depends, are we primariy here to develop a future 10, or are we here to win right now?

Good teams usually try to do both.