Positives and negatives: Ulster V Castres

[Bart S]

TheLaw - I think you've misunderstood Snipe's comment. He's not disputing that Ruan is a much better 9 than 10 but rather saying that as a 10, he can be a much better 10 (if required) than he showed today.

[Snipe Watson]

TheLaw - I think you've misunderstood Snipe's comment. He's not disputing that Ruan is a much better 9 than 10 but rather saying that as a 10, he can be a much better 10 (if required) than he showed today.

Your analysis is correct Bart.............

[Snipe Watson]

TheLaw - I think you've misunderstood Snipe's comment. He's not disputing that Ruan is a much better 9 than 10 but rather saying that as a 10, he can be a much better 10 (if required) than he showed today.

Your analysis is correct Bart.............

Analysis..................
That’s what former terrorists supply these days.

Used to be explosives and false alibis............. How the mighty have fallen.

[Thelaw]

He may be a better 10 than he played today, and to be fair he is. We have all seen it. But he is not happy playing there, and NEVER has as good a game there as he does at 9. He says that himself. Why the hell trying and force it because RTE say so. Madness . We noticably went better when paddy came on. Sorry again not a personnal attack but he is a superb 9- why try and force it.

[Snipe Watson]

He may be a better 10 than he played today, and to be fair he is. We have all seen it. But he is not happy playing there, and NEVER has as good a game there as he does at 9. He says that himself. Why the hell trying and force it because RTE say so. Madness . We noticably went better when paddy came on. Sorry again not a personnal attack but he is a superb 9- why try and force it.

Nobody is disputing that.
Ruan is a world class 9 (and I don’t use that plaudit lightly). He is also a good 10 and 15.
He doesn’t like playing 15 at all and prefers 9 to 10

[Kofi Annan]

Positives - a win in france with a half strength team. Proof positive of the strength in depth. Our 'Enry (MOTM?!) cementing his place in the back row for a green jersey (outside chance of a red one?). Great scrum.

Negatives - Too many handling errors. [NB not all Rory's fault for the darts - the wind was a big factor as even 'NO' acknowledged]. Didn't capitatlise on the strong scrum. Too many naysayers - hey look where we are!!

Who cares who or where - accentuate the positive - on our day we can beat anyone - believe!!

What wind? Where you there, wind was not an issue . Darts were shoite

[BaggyTrousers]

As usual, I can see no wrong in St Ruan. He had a bad game and seemed out of sorts, but when he went to 9, everything clicked back into place.
I’ll not accept that he is a poor 10 based on a poor game at 10, because if he was playing there every week, he would be more natural in the role.

That may well have legs Snipe though I'd prefer it to be accompanied by the statement that 9 is unquestionably his best position AND that though not the twonk he once was p isn't within an asses roar of being fit to lace his boots.AND that RP/PJ is unquestionably the way to go.

Other than that, spot on.

[Joe Schmo]

This changing from a positives/negatives thread to a stating the bleeding obvious thread, either that or some of the more intelligent folks on this forum are taking the opportunity to educate the less well informed.
Pienaar at 10 has worked very well before, just didn't work out today.

[stickinout]

As usual, I can see no wrong in St Ruan. He had a bad game and seemed out of sorts, but when he went to 9, everything clicked back into place.
I’ll not accept that he is a poor 10 based on a poor game at 10, because if he was playing there every week, he would be more natural in the role.

A bit of reality at last! How can you judge how good a 10 he is on one performance? He'd need a run of at least 3 to 4 games to show you what he's got. I'm still in the PJ for 10 camp but let's have a bit of perspective on here.

thought Gilroy looked like a pro. I would play him there for the next rake of games, we need a decent back up 15 and he looks like he could do a job there and with his pace he could be very destructive in broken play . Maybe even more destructive than what he does from the wing? he'd have more space for starters.

[Rooster]

This changing from a positives/negatives thread to a stating the bleeding obvious thread, either that or some of the more intelligent folks on this forum are taking the opportunity to educate the less well informed.
Pienaar at 10 has worked very well before, just didn't work out today.

No he is not as good a 10 as he is a 9 but when he has played for 60 at 9 he seems to adapt to moving to 10 while p starts his mad 20 minutes of mayhem, p starting does not have the same effect as he has run out of crazy ideas after 20 mins.
Can't think when it has worked with Pienaar starting at 10 and p at 9, can't even remember it happening to be honest

[Joe Schmo]

This changing from a positives/negatives thread to a stating the bleeding obvious thread, either that or some of the more intelligent folks on this forum are taking the opportunity to educate the less well informed.
Pienaar at 10 has worked very well before, just didn't work out today.

No he is not as good a 10 as he is a 9 but when he has played for 60 at 9 he seems to adapt to moving to 10 while p starts his mad 20 minutes of mayhem, p starting does not have the same effect as he has run out of crazy ideas after 20 mins.
Can't think when it has worked with Pienaar starting at 10 and p at 9, can't even remember it happening to be honest

Did he not play at 10 against the Dragons away earlier this season? Not saying one good game justifies it, I totally agree with you and Snipe. I just mean one poor half doesn't mean never do it again.

[Rooster]

This changing from a positives/negatives thread to a stating the bleeding obvious thread, either that or some of the more intelligent folks on this forum are taking the opportunity to educate the less well informed.
Pienaar at 10 has worked very well before, just didn't work out today.

No he is not as good a 10 as he is a 9 but when he has played for 60 at 9 he seems to adapt to moving to 10 while p starts his mad 20 minutes of mayhem, p starting does not have the same effect as he has run out of crazy ideas after 20 mins.
Can't think when it has worked with Pienaar starting at 10 and p at 9, can't even remember it happening to be honest

Did he not play at 10 against the Dragons away earlier this season? Not saying one good game justifies it, I totally agree with you and Snipe. I just mean one poor half doesn't mean never do it again.

Doubt it will happen again unless injury problems, if PJ is away with Ireland squad I reckon we might see Olding in action over the next few matches or is he on some of the iIreland squads ?

[ruckover]

POSITIVES
+ First win in France, yadda yadda yadda heard it all before...
+ Scrum was absolutely phenomenal
+ Henry is by far the best back row we have. He must start for Ireland in the 6N, he is superb.
+ Diack put in another good showing with a few turnovers
+ Back three looked good - Trimble a potent threat, Allen slotted in nicely and Gilroy was fine at 15.
+ We won that game with 14 injuries to contend with. Impressive squad depth.

NEGATIVES
- Sloppy match
- Yet another slow start which allowed them into it
- Far too many basic errors
- Best's darts were terrible. Not sure what was going on.
- Defence was too ragged. Let them over the gain line far too much.
- Pienaar is a 9

[Snipe Watson]

As usual, I can see no wrong in St Ruan. He had a bad game and seemed out of sorts, but when he went to 9, everything clicked back into place.
I’ll not accept that he is a poor 10 based on a poor game at 10, because if he was playing there every week, he would be more natural in the role.

That may well have legs Snipe though I'd prefer it to be accompanied by the statement that 9 is unquestionably his best position AND that though not the twonk he once was p isn't within an asses roar of being fit to lace his boots.AND that RP/PJ is unquestionably the way to go.

Other than that, spot on.

That goes without saying.

[Nightsoil]

Doubt it will happen again unless injury problems, if PJ is away with Ireland squad I reckon we might see Olding in action over the next few matches or is he on some of the iIreland squads ?

Olding is still U20 eligible and if he isn't with the squad I'll consume the contents of a whole milinery, never mind my own hat! We could ask for him to be released though, its happened before - I wouldn't want to do it unless he was starting though.

I'm personally fine with Small P and Ruan as a back up option, it beats the spots off of back-up options in a lot of other places, but for me one of the big positives was how Jackson came on and showed exactly why he's our starting 10 and should remain so. Incredibly slick passing, attacks the line at real pace and his appetite for physicality is huge. To think he's only going to get better...