Injury Update

[Jackie Brown]

If Payne only comes back to play 13 I hope he fecking stays injured.

[Snipe Watson]

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.

I was at the second night and Logan did say that Afoa had a serious back problem and that his ability to play may be affected. He did not say that he wouldn't play again. There really are some ham-fisted attempts to spin what Logan says on this board. I'm quite happy to accept that Logan does on occasion attempt to polish the odd turd and serve it up to us, but I think we should still report what he said accurately as no doubt Baggy did for the first night. Logan also spoke about Butterworth and Reidy as reported by Baggy (was Ross not on the scene then?) he also said both were faster than Doyle who was just too slow.

[Snipe Watson]

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

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.

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

What spin exactly?

We are giving Butterworth, Ross and Reidy a try out nothing more. We already have one NIQ back rower so we will not get another. When we signed those three guys we didn't know that we would lose Chad and Hendo for most of the season.

[Cockatrice]

According to BT.......

Interestingly he (CEO) said Afoa has serious ongoing injury issues then said, "oh well that's not our problem any more, that's David Humphreys problem".

I took that to mean that Afoa had serious ongoing injury issues. He seemed to put in a decent shift for Glaws the other evening but then again having made him the highest paid player in the Premiership and seemingly in the top three in Europe they would need to get some value and must have took a massive risk in signing a player with such serious ongoing injury issues.

[Snipe Watson]

According to BT.......

Interestingly he (CEO) said Afoa has serious ongoing injury issues then said, "oh well that's not our problem any more, that's David Humphreys problem".

I took that to mean that Afoa had serious ongoing injury issues. He seemed to put in a decent shift for Glaws the other evening but then again having made him the highest paid player in the Premiership and seemingly in the top three in Europe they would need to get some value and must have took a massive risk in signing a player with such serious ongoing injury issues.

That's more or less what he said on the second night too. Maybe Glaws have a great chiropractor who fixed Afoa's back I have no idea. Would you want him back here? I wouldn't.
Where's Kofi, this is his kind of discussion.

[Ampersand]

According to BT.......

Interestingly he (CEO) said Afoa has serious ongoing injury issues then said, "oh well that's not our problem any more, that's David Humphreys problem".

I took that to mean that Afoa had serious ongoing injury issues. He seemed to put in a decent shift for Glaws the other evening but then again having made him the highest paid player in the Premiership and seemingly in the top three in Europe they would need to get some value and must have took a massive risk in signing a player with such serious ongoing injury issues.

and your point is?

Afoa had injury albeit apparently a serious one when he left Ulster last season. Seven or eight months later he plays well in a match for his new club who pay him very well. Is there a story here? Is that story about SL or John Afoa.

If the former, please explain what it has to do with injury updates, If the latter, who cares? This thread may be about injured players, but do we need to know about Gloucester players, injured or otherwise?

Strangely enough another thing I read about when reviewing the old thread about the information evenings was that someone was being accused of "spinning" what was said at those, and it wasn't the CEO!

Where's Snipe and CT now we're going over old ground AGAIN?

[Russ]

Maybe Afoa is a Warren Gatland

[Cockatrice]

According to BT.......

Interestingly he (CEO) said Afoa has serious ongoing injury issues then said, "oh well that's not our problem any more, that's David Humphreys problem".

I took that to mean that Afoa had serious ongoing injury issues. He seemed to put in a decent shift for Glaws the other evening but then again having made him the highest paid player in the Premiership and seemingly in the top three in Europe they would need to get some value and must have took a massive risk in signing a player with such serious ongoing injury issues.

That's more or less what he said on the second night too. Maybe Glaws have a great chiropractor who fixed Afoa's back I have no idea. Would you want him back here? I wouldn't.
Where's Kofi, this is his kind of discussion.

Snipe... Indeed maybe they have a miracle medical worker which you have to admit would come in pretty useful at the moment to us... Would I want him back nope he took the pi$h and had been for a while.

[Snipe Watson]

According to BT.......

Interestingly he (CEO) said Afoa has serious ongoing injury issues then said, "oh well that's not our problem any more, that's David Humphreys problem".

I took that to mean that Afoa had serious ongoing injury issues. He seemed to put in a decent shift for Glaws the other evening but then again having made him the highest paid player in the Premiership and seemingly in the top three in Europe they would need to get some value and must have took a massive risk in signing a player with such serious ongoing injury issues.

and your point is?

Afoa had injury albeit apparently a serious one when he left Ulster last season. Seven or eight months later he plays well in a match for his new club who pay him very well. Is there a story here? Is that story about SL or John Afoa.

If the former, please explain what it has to do with injury updates, If the latter, who cares? This thread may be about injured players, but do we need to know about Gloucester players, injured or otherwise?

Strangely enough another thing I read about when reviewing the old thread about the information evenings was that someone was being accused of "spinning" what was said at those, and it wasn't the CEO!

Where's Snipe and CT now we're going over old ground AGAIN?

I'm here, but where's Kofi? I'm starting to worry.......

[Ampersand]

Strangely enough another thing I read about when reviewing the old thread about the information evenings was that someone was being accused of "spinning" what was said at those, and it wasn't the CEO!

Where's Snipe and CT now we're going over old ground AGAIN?

I'm here, .......

And guess what? So is CT (or he was). I get the impression you still think he's trying to spin. It's a wonder he don't get dizzy.

However, if you throw enough .........

[TheSnapper]

Talking of spin

Ulster’s Director of Rugby, David Humphreys, added: ”Ruaidhri is a highly talented young Irish prop whose experience of Super Rugby will bring an extra dimension to our front row next season.

still waiting for the extra dimension, why is he in Oz getting treatment ?

scrum5 wrote:
URSC night at the start of the season, he (SL) also said that we were lucky to get Dave Ryan as Munster were after him

maybe he meant Young Munster

[scrum5]

I know on my part the huge frustration that I am feeling about Ulster Rugby is certainly got to do with what has been said and what is happening both on and off the pitch, on Afoa we were told that he had a chronic back problem, did I take that as he may never play again, without any minutes taken over the 2 nights it appears I have, but is still doesn't sit right as Afoa's chronic back issue seems to have made a miraculous recovery with him turning out for Glaws 16 times already this season, Reidy was buit up as playing at a higher standard than Doyle and also as being faster than Doyle, therefore inferring that he was a better player than Doyle, unfortunately for whatever reason we have seen so little of Reidy that we don't as yet know if he's Sean Doyle MKII. The signings this year apart from Herbst and Franco have been somewhat disappointing, Ruaidhrí Murphy reassembled a camel in the scrum and hasn't been seen since, Dave Ryan who we were lucky to get hasn't been seen at all unless it's his half time photo shoots with the kids, Ross, Reidy and Butterworth aren't much if any improvement on McComish and Doyle, butterworth has been the biggest disappointment, he is an out and out 7, was one of the stand out players in 1A and put in a good performace against the Barbarians and yet he is nowhere. As for Louis Ludik he is a good signing but I still maintain we didn't need him if Payne or the IRFU would only realise that Payne is a better 15 than 13. Personally I think this might be coming to an end as I can't see anyone else other than Henshaw playing 13 for Ireland. Other problems have been the so called world wide searches for coaches, DOR, team managers etc also names who had supposedly contacted UR about said vacancies only to appoint what we have now. Anyway if I read too much into Fits words I apologise but he did leave his comments to be interpreted so as evident by other posters conclussions. Someone asked would we take Afoa back, the answer to that is no, he was a brilliant signing when he first came here but an unsettled wife and several deaths to close friends and family made the latter part of his stay somewhat less than stellar. He will still go down in my book as a quality player who I had the privilege to watch in the white of Ulster. Spoke to John after a win in Treviso a couple of seasons ago, he was embarrassed to say the least about the result and apologised for the poor performance, that spoke volumes to me. Any way I'm off to watch the game and again Ulster's discipline letting us down.

[Ampersand]

Fair comment scrum5, I can live with that.

Frustration I can understand and I know all of us can have selective memories and interpret comments in ways they were never intended I have already conceded that I have forgotten some of the comments made by SL, but accept they were as reported by BT at the time. I still don't recall the alleged comment on Dave Ryan being wanted by Munster, and apart from yourself, don't know anyone else who apparently heard that. That said, he (DR) has been a massive disappointment - my disagreement is not on that, it is whether he was ever built up to be the bees-knees you allege. My memory is simply different from yours, but I accept it could be wrong.

What does pi$$ me off is where some posters very obviously twist (or spin) SL's words to use against him when it was obvious to the world and his wife that he never said the words, or didn't intend the reported meaning. I do not include you in that, I hasten to add. SL clearly has a number of faults, as have we all, but maybe we can analyse him on those without the need to manufacture others.

Anyway, maybe we can take this topic back to injury updates instead of turning ALL threads into a sideswipe at the CEO?

Now I'm back to watching the rugby to see if we can maintain our discipline in the second half.

[scrum5]

Herbst off with hamstring injury.... as for the Dave Ryan comment he definitely said it

[Jackie Brown]

So Bronson Ross or Teapot v Toulon?