Injury Update

[Dave]

But Reidy is still here though?

I'm sure he will get an extension.

[the scout]

Any word on Stuart McCloskey ? I was hoping he would be bench option in the 6N to see how he fared with a possibility of a RWC squad place.

[Snipe Watson]

Any word on Stuart McCloskey ? I was hoping he would be bench option in the 6N to see how he fared with a possibility of a RWC squad place.

He's not within a beagle's gowl of a RWC place.

[Wee Woman]

From an article in yesterday's Irish Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/j ... -1.2054404

Doak also stated that Jared Payne and Iain Henderson are unlikely to return ahead of the final European matches away to champions Toulon and home to Leicester, making both a doubt for the Six Nations.

Nick Williams, Chris Henry and Andrew Trimble are also some way off returning to action.

Based on that will be the Treviso game on Feb 13 at the earliest.

Yet just a few days later and Payne is named on the bench

No doubt Doak was 'mis-quoted' then??

[Russ]

From an article in yesterday's Irish Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/j ... -1.2054404

Doak also stated that Jared Payne and Iain Henderson are unlikely to return ahead of the final European matches away to champions Toulon and home to Leicester, making both a doubt for the Six Nations.

Nick Williams, Chris Henry and Andrew Trimble are also some way off returning to action.

Based on that will be the Treviso game on Feb 13 at the earliest.

Yet just a few days later and Payne is named on the bench

No doubt Doak was 'mis-quoted' then??

Doak hasn't a clue!

Payne plays when he wants against who he wants

Treviso as at Payne's level

[earl the beaver]

From an article in yesterday's Irish Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/j ... -1.2054404

Doak also stated that Jared Payne and Iain Henderson are unlikely to return ahead of the final European matches away to champions Toulon and home to Leicester, making both a doubt for the Six Nations.

Nick Williams, Chris Henry and Andrew Trimble are also some way off returning to action.

Based on that will be the Treviso game on Feb 13 at the earliest.

Yet just a few days later and Payne is named on the bench

No doubt Doak was 'mis-quoted' then??

There's no direct quote from Doak there, imo it's a reading between the lines by the journo leading to a balls up, Payne was targeting the Leinster game so saying he'd miss the final two European games sounded off.

[Cockatrice]

Afoa put in a decent shift for Glaws last night despite his supposedly bad back...

[scrum5]

Cockatrice I'm watching a bit of AP with Sorries v Glaws and now Quins v Tigers, Tigers have just brought on Seremaia Bai, when you look at the depth of squads that they have, it reminded me of that night when our glorious leader told us that Afoa was unlikely to play rugby again because of his chronic back condition, he also told us that Reidy was a better and faster version of Sean Doyle, but I digress back to the depth of squads in the AP, Fit also told us that our playing budget was the same, seems to be another fib either that or we are paying over the odds for average players

[ruckover]

Well it certainly helps when you have free reign on who you can sign. Using your example of Leicester, they have 11 capped foreign internationals on their books, we're only allowed 4 at the most, so there's an instant advantage. If we were able to bring in 7 more, even if they weren't good enough to get on our starting XV, they would certainly add a lot more depth to our squad.

Meanwhile, there isn't exactly a ginormous pool of players who can claim they have Irish grannies, and in the limited pool there is not all of them (more than likely none of them) are going to be world beaters. Yes we probably could have done better than sign Ross and Reidy, but I wouldn't say massively better.

[scrum5]

Thanks Ruck but it was done more to expose the spin....

[Ampersand]

Cit reminded me of that night when our glorious leader told us that Afoa was unlikely to play rugby again because of his chronic back condition, he also told us that Reidy was a better and faster version of Sean Doyle,

When was that scrum?

I heard him talking about Afoa and Doyle a number of times and he mentioned that Afoa's rugby would have to be controlled/limited or whatever but in none of the quotes I heard did he suggest that he was finished: Simply that he would require more recuperation time, give less game time and suggested that BBJ would give poor value for money.

Re Doyle, he stated that he was too slow getting around the pitch particularly on the heavy winter pitches but on no occasion when he said that did he comment on his potential replacement(s). The main reason for Doyle's departure though seemed to be that he was offered a contract back down under which he wanted to accept and being out of contract with Ulster, we couldn't have prevented him going had we wanted to. It's true to say that he gave the impression that there was no sense of loss with Doyle's departure.

[scrum5]

URSC night at the start of the season, he also said that we were lucky to get Dave Ryan as Munster were after him...I got the impression that Fit was full of bravado that night and was playing to the crowd, due to the fact that they had sacked the coach and Humphs had cleared off to Glaws.....

[Ampersand]

URSC night at the start of the season, he also said that we were lucky to get Dave Ryan as Munster were after him...I got the impression that Fit was full of bravado that night and was playing to the crowd, due to the fact that they had sacked the coach and Humphs had cleared off to Glaws.....

I was at that night, but you heard a different script to me.

No doubt if there were 200 people there, there could be 200 versions reported .......... none of which would exactly match the script (or prompt cards) SL was reading from. No doubt too there were others from this forum who were there too and will have their own impressions. Probably everyone could be accused of using their own "spin".

[scrum5]

No doubt, Fit has a rep for spoofing

[Ampersand]

No doubt, Fit has a rep for spoofing

Just had a quick re-read of the thread that appeared on this forum after Fit's briefing nights.

Someone called Baggytrousers - anyone remember him? - wrote a fairly comprehensive report of the first night which many agreed was pretty accurate. The consensus was that the URSC night (the next day) was pretty similar with respect to Fit's talk (questions from the floor were different) and that SL's script was just a repetition of the previous night.

According to old Baggy Troos, SL mentioned that Afoa had an ongoing back problem - but that was now David Humphreys' problem - no mention of his competitive career being finished.

Baggy also reported SL as saying that Reidy and Butterworth had been playing at a higher standard than Doyle HAD BEEN, PRIOR TO COMING TO ULSTER - not that they were better players. It would have seemed strange to say that in advace of their arrival as IIRC, they were initially coming here on trial.

I note too that you (scrum5) joined the debate but did not refute or correct any of what Baggy had written at the time (and which the majority had agreed was an accurate report). Maybe your memory has got a bit selective in the interim - I know mine has, because I don't recall him mentioning Reidy or Butterworth, but am happy to accept from BT's contemporaneous report that he did.