Well Done Sarries

[Bart S]

If Donal thinks that was a lack of desire then he obviously didn't see our game at Parc y Scarlets earlier in the season...

Anyway i don't think desire was the problem on Friday night.

[BaggyTrousers]

If Donal thinks that was a lack of desire then he obviously didn't see our game at Parc y Scarlets earlier in the season...

Anyway i don't think desire was the problem on Friday night.

Really Bart? You don't think the team lacked desire when Poite yellow carded Rory & the Ulster pack almost stood aside to allow the TBP. I suppose you could call it something else ............cowardice? resignation? abrogation of duty? lack of moral fibre?

It was not simply lack of "desire" but the other words maybe make less palatable reading.

Mannix is right, but it was far from the only problem............as I'm quite sure he pointed out.

When I am stuck for words as I am about an Ulster performance I often turn to Billie Jo Armstrong, punk legend, for inspiration.

He could almost have been writing directly about Ulster's current mess:

Calling all demons, this is the season
Next stop is therapy
We're the retarded and the brokenhearted
The season of misery

[Spiffsson]

If Donal thinks that was a lack of desire then he obviously didn't see our game at Parc y Scarlets earlier in the season...

Anyway i don't think desire was the problem on Friday night.

Really Bart? You don't think the team lacked desire when Poite yellow carded Rory & the Ulster pack almost stood aside to allow the TBP. I suppose you could call it something else ............cowardice? resignation? abrogation of duty? lack of moral fibre?

It was not simply lack of "desire" but the other words maybe make less palatable reading.

Mannix is right, but it was far from the only problem............as I'm quite sure he pointed out.

When I am stuck for words as I am about an Ulster performance I often turn to Billie Jo Armstrong, punk legend, for inspiration.

He could almost have been writing directly about Ulster's current mess:

Calling all demons, this is the season
Next stop is therapy
We're the retarded and the brokenhearted
The season of misery

Half thon team wud be better aff gettin their inspiration from Billy Joe McAllister, and takin a lepp aff the Queen's Bridge.

[Cockatrice]

Schooled by a team who have been together for ages, with a management who know what to do ... Sarries play very very simple rugby - shove it up the midfield until you get holes outside ... then work like demons at fitness to do 80 minutes of blitz defence.

We hadn't a clue, were bullied, not one braincell was used to try and work out how to unlock a Blitz defence.

Sarries rejoiced in their simple, well executed game plan ... the NH is a sucker for this tom kite, and it is effective especially against teams who play in a dump league.

However after watching the Pumas and a mish mas world 15 play actual rugby at the weekend - while it hurts to see Ulster relegated to third division standard at best - it pleases me to see that the Sarries game would get completely humped alive by a team of skilful quick and intelligent players.

Long live the SH and their ability to play the game of Rugby Football.

It is this clueless inability to think for ourselves that pisses me off… maybe however we are coached to go out and deliver a game plan and not think on our feet. It is always the refs fault when we get penalised and we just keep doing it until we see yellow then feel hard done by. To quote our lord and master we win fair that is the Ulster Way, except in the professional game that is rugby you need one or two hard nosed bar steward that can push the refs interpretation but also who can adjust accordingly.

I enjoy SH for what it is I find it harder with each game to enjoy an Ulster game.. not so much the losing more the attitude or lack of passion or just common sense in how to win a close game… Munster have had if for years and still show it on occasions but it seems more and more outside our ability.

We may well end up doing OK in the PRO-12 but we have already been sold the 'let Kiss settle in period' which came after the 'we are waiting for Kiss period' which came after the 'Hump had left us period' followed quickly by the "Anscombe has gone period' which for me means writing off 2 seasons before we can move forward… World Domination seems a long away off and certainly not in the time frame first envisaged by the CEO.

[Cap'n Grumpy]

A begrudging well done to Sarries. The begrudgery is not to do with poor sportsmanship on my behalf though I did beat a hasty retreat to the car after the game. That was perhaps the most insipid and spineless European performance I have ever witnessed from both team and crowd.

I thought Toulon last season was our worst ever European 'roll over' where a team of decent if not spectacular individuals simply had not fight, desire or cunning to defeat a good side there for the taking. But no the night of the 20th will now go down as that.

At least those defeats were by decent opposition (you know what I mean) .... does no one remember the slaughter at home by Scarlets in the Heiny in the driving rain - the one where they evacuated the temporary seating at the memorial end because it was at risk of blowing over, even with all the people in it?

Last Friday was embarrassing on so many levels, but the Scarlets defeat was humiliation of the highest order.

[Hans Indaruck]

.... does no one remember the slaughter at home by Scarlets in the Heiny in the driving rain - the one where they evacuated the temporary seating at the memorial end because it was at risk of blowing over, even with all the people in it?

Skipper,
Was that not the 'Quins match - which if I recall we won? Its the only match I have even seen a Referee tell a kicker to 'hurry up' - it was seriously cold and wet. There was also controversy over the 'Quins replacement 10 (Chris Malone?)being told to come on despite the incumbent Evans being about to take a penalty? 2009?

[big mervyn]

- the one where they evacuated the temporary seating at the memorial end because it was at risk of blowing over, even with all the people in it?

I remember that happening in the home win against Harlequins c. 2009 (a rare highlight in an otherwise lacklustre campaign) or have I misremembered?

I see Hans is of the same opinion.

[ruckover]

Yep, that was Quins.

The Scarlets match was also played in horrendous weather and we were hammered, but the Yellow Tom Stand being evacuated was Quins which we won 21-10.

[BuckRogers]

The Scarlets match in near horizontal driving rain/sleet was indeed a humiliation. I had countenanced that game tbh but decided that in the balance of the respective teams that took to the field Sarries was a more meek surrender than even that god awful day against Scarlets.

[CIMANFOREVER]

.... does no one remember the slaughter at home by Scarlets in the Heiny in the driving rain - the one where they evacuated the temporary seating at the memorial end because it was at risk of blowing over, even with all the people in it?

Skipper,
Was that not the 'Quins match - which if I recall we won? Its the only match I have even seen a Referee tell a kicker to 'hurry up' - it was seriously cold and wet. There was also controversy over the 'Quins replacement 10 (Chris Malone?)being told to come on despite the incumbent Evans being about to take a penalty? 2009?

It was Quins, and Caveman had the blonde barnet and scored a cracking try after 5 mins? 8-6 or summit?

[scrum5]

Ferris getting into Nick Easter at the prom side and Rory's hack through, ah the good aul days

[BaggyTrousers]

The Scarlets match in near horizontal driving rain/sleet was indeed a humiliation. I had countenanced that game tbh but decided that in the balance of the respective teams that took to the field Sarries was a more meek surrender than even that god awful day against Scarlets.

I think only twice in my long history of watching have people tried to persuade me to leave a game before the final whistle. The first was that Scarlets match, the 2nd the Heiny final against Mexico.

The Scaaaaaaaaaaaaalets game was horrendous. My memory is that Ulster had a small half-time lead and then all hell broke lose with the wind starting to howl & the rain coming in over the pigeon lofts and we were almost literally swept away into an absolute gale. I remember standing in the tent after the game, water running out of every inch.

The Hairyquins game was nothing by comparison.

[BuckRogers]

Ferris getting into Nick Easter at the prom side and Rory's hack through, ah the good aul days

Not one player in that pack built of the same stuff as Fez. Henderson, great athlete and all that he is, just doesn't have Ferris' desire to 'hurt' people in every collision and contact. There was something visceral in Ferris you just can't bottle unfortunately.

[Aird]

Was on the Terrace for the Scarlets game, the highlights of the weather was the Camera Man on the Simon Escape Ladder behind the pigeon Lofts being brought down followed by theTemporary stand at the Memorial End being evacuated on Safety grounds.
Very cold and wet that afternoon but the worst soaking ever was the night we played Gloucester and I was soaked right literally to the skin through numerous layers of clothing. Straight home and in to a hot shower to defrost.

But even with the occasional soaking on the old Terrace when we entered from the bottom they were great nights.
They may have had there reserved seats in the grandstand but on those days the terrace dwellers all had there regular spots and resented the influx of the part time supporters for ERC matches.

[Deraless]

I got a serious bollocking from the missus for not leaving that Scarlets match early. The hailstones were bloomin painful but not as painful as GBH of the ear hole.