Mexico vs the Chosen Province. 12 Professional Guinness Live

[Snipe Watson]

Reidy is not an 8

He's not if you restrict yourself to the bish, bash, bosh definition of a number 8. However, if you want to play a faster tempo continuity game, he has a lot of the tools if not the experience. He needs time to grow into the role.

[thecrouch]

Rubbish, rubbish and thrice rubbish.

[Spiffsson]

I like what Reidy's brought to the party, but he's still a relative novice, and he'll never be able to do some of the things we relied on Williams doing.

I'd give an awful lot for Herbst to be the player he was at the end of his first season and be fit all of next.

Reidy has given it a good thrash and you can't fault his comittment, but in reality, he is just not big enough for a top class 8. I do get the feeling that Henderson would be a standout 8, but he's a standout 6 or lock already. Agree with many others that we do need a lot more grunt/bulk throughout the whole pack. Soft scrum penalties in your own 22 are an easy source of points for opponents. Very unfortunate about Coetzee's injury. He's a world class backrower. Terribly frustrating to waste the talents of a very good back division for lack of good ball.

[againstthehead]

I agree with Rum'n's context... but FNW is not just the answer. Sure he's a big loss, but Reidy is quality. He needs to grow into his role. I believe it was mindset. They had it in spades, and we didn't. And that goes for the others. Cave should have been on earlier, for example...

Simply, Ladyboys were up for the big game. We have lost that mental attitude where we dominate the scrum, possession and breakdown. It's not all our fault. They were brilliant tonight, ruthless, cheatin' whoors, but we need that. Think of the Munster teams of old. That's rugby!

We have a soft belly and have had a soft belly for a long time. We need a bit of menace up front. You can have all the backs in the world but if you are on the back foot in modern rugby with rush defenses you are truly fekked. Charlie will do nothing for us next year. Afoa was never replaced with anything like that calibre. The loss of Ferris, Williams and an aging Wilson means we're desperately short in the backrow too.

We did well to get back in the game by half-time and then had a little spell of pressure at the start of the second-half but we were clueless. That was the turning point for me. We just didn't have the brawn to win the collisions and get over the gainline in order to pressurize Leinster. We finally lost possession and it was one-way traffic from then on in. Perhaps we burst ourselves to get back in the game.

It's frustrating as we're not too far away. Our backs are awesome with front-foot ball and the depth is there but up-front, we're probably 4 or 5 players short.

[Snipe Watson]

I like what Reidy's brought to the party, but he's still a relative novice, and he'll never be able to do some of the things we relied on Williams doing.

I'd give an awful lot for Herbst to be the player he was at the end of his first season and be fit all of next.

Reidy has given it a good thrash and you can't fault his comittment, but in reality, he is just not big enough for a top class 8. I do get the feeling that Henderson would be a standout 8, but he's a standout 6 or lock already. Agree with many others that we do need a lot more grunt/bulk throughout the whole pack. Soft scrum penalties in your own 22 are an easy source of points for opponents. Very unfortunate about Coetzee's injury. He's a world class backrower. Terribly frustrating to waste the talents of a very good back division for lack of good ball.

Coetzee isn't a big backrower, he's got a massive workrate and big lads like Nick cannot match that in terms of speed or stamina. It seems to me that Kiss wants to build a mobile side all our signings are high tempo players. Ah You excepted at the moment anyway. We do need to shore up our front row, but a big part of our problem is mental. We choke in big games 100% of the time and have done since 2012. That is harder to fix as it is now a major habit.

[ruckover]

I would take Browne out of the substandard category today. No he wasn't brilliant, but he wasn't poor either. He carried well on most occasions alongside Hendy. I wouldn't disagree with the rest of the list though.

We knew our props weren't good enough before this game and I think today just confirmed it - Black and Lutton are not of the standard we need them to be. Why McCall was taken out of the starting line-up earlier this season I don't know, his scrummaging has taken a hit because of it.

Time to look forward to next season. We have a young squad that is gaining two world class players - here's hoping their arrival can spark something. I eagerly await the growth of the likes of Dow and McPhillips, two players we could do with establishing themselves as strong squad players.

[Deraless]

Not long in. Same brad pitt different day. Can't say I'm surprised. drunk off would be closer to the mark.

I assume we had been made ready for the opening onslaught and just couldn't cope rather than ambling out expecting to win. Neither makes me feel any better though. After 15 mins we were 13 points down and lost by 12. Leinster played with more intensity and won.

Ruan's kicking was gash tonight. Several times he dropped them right into midfield gifting Leinster great position. And they won all the 50-50s, even the ones involving Trimbo.

Well second best in set piece. Even a number of the line outs we won were disrupted. And a scrum against the head.

Gillroy finished 2 tries well but beyond that our back 3 were kept quiet.

Hendy is a beast.

If I never see Lutton again it'll be too soon.

[BaggyTrousers]

Just home, so sad, few to no complaints, we weren't good enough, again. Better team on the day won.

Fitzwank had an early influence & Ringpiece did well.

I see the Guinness Pro12 site saying "T'eo's sumptuous pass to Heaslip" ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, do they mean the forward pass when his melt was knocked in. Rory did a Biggar.

I'm not fond of Mexicans & I bloody hate the RDS.

Good night.

[rumncoke]

While I have made the point about the set piece the other point I made before the game was I expected Sexton to put penalties into the corner and the Leinster line out and maul to take over .

Last night Sexton kicked Leinster into the final by putting the forwards into the corners where they won their set piece and once in the 22 the forwards exploited the position.

Ulster failed to win their set piece inside the 22 too often and Gilroys second try showed that the backs did have the ability to score had possession been won



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[Big-al]

Numbers 1, 3, 4 & 5 clearly below the standard required at this level.

Bring back Paddy McAllister pronto!!!

[big mervyn]

If we're the "Chosen Province" we need to trawl Finaghy and beyond for a new deity

[Dublin4]

Ulster contributed hugely to a fantastic game of rugby. It was high standard quality stuff from beginning to end. The two sets of fans created a fabulous atmosphere.

Leinster played to a level we have not since the Schmidt days in the first fifteen minutes. Sexton was very good in that period as was the much maligned Fitzgerald. What can I say about Nacewa? A guy who gave up playing for two seasons and comes back in that shape and attitude?

But you came back at us and played some super rugby to pull up with us by half time. I agree you are missing something in the forwards but you are not far off. Jamie was sensational for us in the second half but again credit to Ulster that you gave it all in the last ten minutes and nobody left. Ben Teo will be a massive loss for us. I wouldn't say Ringrose came of age but he's developing nicely and the contest with your guys in midfield was really sharp.

You have much to look forward to next season with a proper pre season with Kiss to start it off.

[Jackie Brown]

Is the RDS the worst ground in the Pro12? I'm struggling to think of a more dilapidated, exposed, unfriendly place.

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[bazzaj]

Can't help but think about Barts post about Paul OConnell talking about emotional investment in matches.
He said that it was only possible to go all out a few occasions in the season and that was one of those occasions for Leinster last night.
Don't think there is many sides that would have lived with them and I don't think we can have many complaints.

Therefore I think the thing we have to learn is that we have to get top two in the league as the best way of avoiding these scenarios first and foremost.

On another point I noted that Leinster were committing 1 to the breakdown to our 4 which is why we had no space out wide.
We also could have at times given one more pass as Leinster were flying up in pairs and smashing our first receiver.

The 1st try in the second half was the momentum killer for us.
The loss of defensive shape exposed by the Ospreys raised its head again as people corner flagged instead of keeping shape and filling channels.

All this is realitively nit picking really as Leinster were relentless.
However it does jar that they saved that performance for us as I don't believe they will match that again as they haven't done all season.
I just want to mention Jordi Murphys performance as he was terrific.
He ruined us.

I hope for next season Herbst can get back to fulfilling his early promise as that will be more significant than any other factor.
We all know where we need improving as our obvious achilles comes to the fore when it matters most..

[Article]

Choosen province me a£rse ...to fail again perhaps ...had my son at the game, great atmosphere I don't know what people are complaining about RDS except to look for excuses as to why we LET Leinster totally dominate us up front..sat in grandstand very well supported other Ulster fans mixing well with Leinster folk,,,all good fun....A high tempo game but we made way too many handling errors...Leinster were very good and if they can reproduce that from in Edinburgh it will be hard for whomever meets them...from the get go I just knew they were looking for revenge for the tonking we gave them a few weeks back.
Henderson was immense, Gilroy was tremendous also...but we had a few players either under par not allowed to play including sadly trimble, marshall, reidy.... I was very impressed how we kept going despite the gap at the scoreline they Leinster fans were twitching a little when Gilroy got his second...but alas that didn't last long enough.