Time to look ahead

Talk about the men in white, and everything Ulster!!

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BaggyTrousers
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Time to look ahead

Post by BaggyTrousers »

OK somebody had to do it so, with the Pro12 now tighter than a newt's chuff time to see what the next 7 games have in store for the 5 teams looking for 4 places and especially the top 2.

The top of the table now stands:

Glasgow 52 Points 12 wins 123 Pts Diff
Ulster 48 Points 10 wins 131 Pts Diff
Munster 48 Points 10 wins 129 Pts Diff
Leinster 47 Points 9 wins 114 Pts Diff
Ospreys 45 Points 10 wins 100 Pts Diff

Games to go:

Weegies:

Munster a
Zebre h
Leinster a
Cardiff h
Connacht a
Ospreys a
Ulster h

Ulster :

Scarlets h
Dragons a
Cardiff h
Connacht a
Leinster h
Munster h
Glasgow a

Munster :

Glasgow h
Ospreys a
Connacht h
Edinburgh a
Treviso h
Ulster a
Dragons h

Leinster :

Ospreys a
Scarlets a
Glasgow h
Dragons a
Ulster a
Treviso h
Edinburgh a

Ospreys :

Leinster h
Munster h
Zebre h
Treviso a
Cardiff a
Glasgow h
Connacht a


Weegies 3 home 4 away (all challenging) their number of wins, 2 more than anyone else and 4 point lead stands to them.
Ulster 4 home 3 away some tough matches, best pts diff but much the same as Munster
Munster 4 Home 3 away next 2 games tricky, then to come to Ulster - well placed
Leinster 2 home 5 away fewest wins of the 5 contenders & poor pts diff. You never count them out but a hard away road
Ospreys 4 home 3 away 3 of the top 4 to play at home, will have to hit top form.
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by MCBwinwinwin »

Ulster have the easiest run in. Fingers crossed Glasgow help Ulster by beating the other 3.


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Snipe Watson
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by Snipe Watson »

I think it all will boil down to the game between us and Leinster for the second home semifinal.
Weegies:  win 6 lose 1 78 points
Leinster : win 6 lose 1 73 points
Ulster: win 5 lose 2 72 points
Ospreys : win 6 lose 1 70 points
Munster win 4 lose 3 69 points
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by big mervyn »

I can't see Ospreys or Weegies winning 6.

Maybe not Leinster either with the Sooper Dooper.
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Setanta
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by Setanta »

Scarlets like Edinburgh play a rush defence with two openside wing forwards. It is to be hoped a repeat of the one-eyed refereeing is unlikely but on past experience not impossible! Have we learnt anything? McCloskey?
From the rolling glens of Antrim through the hills of Donegal we will stand and shout for Ulster as we win both scrum and maul from the lovely lakes of Fermanagh tae the shores of ould Lough Gall we will scream and shout for Ulster as we beat them one and all!
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by againstthehead »

On paper, it looks like we have a decent chance. Could do with a couple back from injury but we've done well to be in this decent position.
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by breakdown »

I think we could win at lewst 5 of those games. Connacht have fallen away slightly and Munster are nothing to be feared. Leinster will be a different team with SOB and Healy back, and Glasgow away will always be difficult
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by ruckover »

Ulster 74
Glasgow 73
Munster 72
Ospreys 71
Leinster 67

Maybe a little Ulster biased, but I think our run in favours us immensely. If we can get 2 wins from our last 3 games I think we'll get top spot.
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Setanta
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by Setanta »

Think Scarlets is a banana skin so not looking further ahead.
From the rolling glens of Antrim through the hills of Donegal we will stand and shout for Ulster as we win both scrum and maul from the lovely lakes of Fermanagh tae the shores of ould Lough Gall we will scream and shout for Ulster as we beat them one and all!
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by breakdown »

Setanta wrote:Think Scarlets is a banana skin so not looking further ahead.
Scarlets havent won away all season. Lost them all bar one draw
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by bazzaj »

As I see it there are the usual top 5 teams and the rest of the pro 12 is the dross that they should expect to beat home or away.
Then the 5 top teams play each other in effective 8 pointers so I think home advantage will be a deciding factor.

I initially thought we had a tough run in but only the Ospreys is easier on that basis.
Glasgows is the hardest but they are top so that could make things extremely tight and points difference could well come into it.

How the f we are in this position at all demonstrates that the others aren't all that either so its anyones for the taking if they find some type of form.
Best guess now is Glasgow Leinster Ospreys then us with Munster dipping out.
I can't help thinking therefore that our home game against Munster will go a long way to deciding who does.
Must win that.
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by Big-al »

breakdown wrote:I think we could win at lewst 5 of those games. Connacht have fallen away slightly and Munster are nothing to be feared. Leinster will be a different team with SOB and Healy back, and Glasgow away will always be difficult

Meh, we'll have Henderson and Tuohy back as well, and hopefully Jackson/Olding.
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by rocky »

Big-al wrote:
breakdown wrote:I think we could win at lewst 5 of those games. Connacht have fallen away slightly and Munster are nothing to be feared. Leinster will be a different team with SOB and Healy back, and Glasgow away will always be difficult

Meh, we'll have Henderson and Tuohy back as well, and hopefully Jackson/Olding.
Don't bank on that Al. Both were pretty severe injuries and Jackson's especially so. I think he may well miss the rest of the season.
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by Snipe Watson »

Setanta wrote:Scarlets like Edinburgh play a rush defence with two openside wing forwards. It is to be hoped a repeat of the one-eyed refereeing is unlikely but on past experience not impossible! Have we learnt anything? McCloskey?
Two big differences this week compared to Edinburgh are home advantage and Scarlets tight five are not as good as Edinburgh's. We really could do with O'Connor and or Diack back this week.
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Re: Time to look ahead

Post by BaggyTrousers »

Ok I wonder how many of those predictions take into account that only the next two rounds are played during the 6Ns?

I suspect Ospreys will do more damage than many others. Yesterday without their most influential half backs Weegies scraped past them. Ospreys had to play Ryan Bevington for 75 on his return from a long injury layoff as they lost a prop after 5 minutes.

When Biggar, the best kicker in the league and Webb the top try scorer, return I believe visitors to the Liberty will catch a cold.

Leinster in my opinion are in trouble, the differentiator for teams on level points is the number of wins so they start the run in worst placed and have as tough a run as any, furthermore they are in the SDC, a distraction unique to them and they are certain to prioritise it. They come to Spanners the week after the SDC semi and week before the final, I wish them every success in the SDC.

Munster also have some very tough games three of which are extremely testing. Weegies have three monster away games.

Ulster are despite everything incredibly well placed. What intrigues me is when we may see the return of Tuohy and O'Connor to help Franco out. What a rock Franco has been, week in week out barring one game he has carried the burden and nobody ever votes him MOTM but with the possible exceptions of Roger, Ruan and Darren, nobody has done more for this Ulster season, with honourable mentions for our entire front row options barring Fat Declan who has damaged it.

I suspect that McCloskey will get a few weeks, mainly for stupidity for there was no damage done to the player.

If we can get a team out over the final 3 or 4 games and with the final at Spanners, this team will never have a better chance. Then again we've got iHumph.
NEVER MOVE ON. Years on, I cannot ever watch Ireland with anything but indifference, I continue to wish for the imminent death of Donal Spring, the FIRFUC's executioner of Wee Paddy & Wee Stu, and I hate the FIRFUCs with undiminished passion.
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