BaggyTrousers wrote:I attended games there since the late fifties, early 60s and whilst there may have been a worse team as opposition, I honestly can't remember who it would have been.
Borders?
Bordering on the ridiculous.
Portugal weren't great a few years ago (and I don't think the Ulster team that bate them were either).
Volunteer at an animal sanctuary; it will fill you with joy , despair, but most of all love, unconditional love of the animals.
Big Neville Southall
BaggyTrousers wrote:I attended games there since the late fifties, early 60s and whilst there may have been a worse team as opposition, I honestly can't remember who it would have been.
Borders?
Not sure they were worse than tonight's lot. Possibly Ebbw Vale in the early Celtic League years.
I think you are right on the ref too, I thought he was a straight shooter until about 50 minutes then did appear to hit "protective mode".
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.
Bart S wrote:Nelson had a good game at 10, but noticeabke that from the outset we were trying to run things from our own 22 which would have been high risk against a better team and also went for the corner early rather than taking points on offer and trying to build up a lead. Now that sense of adventure may be comendable and even sensible to some extent against a poor team like this, but nwe would not get away with that against better sides and it would even be risky away to teams like the Dragons or certainly Edinburgh or Cardiff. I wonder how much of it was down to a lack of trust in Nelson's kicking game?
Whilst the game was relatively easy when he came on, I actually thought Heron did reasonably well and showed some decent game management with his choices. I thought both of our 9's were inconsistent and got away with it because of the opposition.
Bart Bart Bart...................... Barty Bart Bart, FFFS against a better team we'd have had a goalkicker starting. This was never going to be more than one way traffic and in reality par of the course as my old friend Peter Aliss always said, 72 is a good score, level 4s. Dragons Light were worth putting 72 points on, so poor were they. We fell 20 points short of that and the second half performance was pisspoor, FFFS we even conceded a 100 metre try and a thing of beauty it was if you are a Dragons fan.
Kicking for the corner when you haven't a reliable kicker against 15 dustbins is the right option, no question.
That was what you expect from two weak selections, crap from our comedy first try to our dismal second-half performance. In terms of the coaches they'd probably have been satisfied if not pleased with the first half, if Jono was shaking his head at the end after that 2nd half I'm not surprised, it was woeful, a second joke try of the season from Stockcube then nearly a third, a lovely try from Timoney and wee Shanners doing a p was all we mustered.
Still, no "I'll tell me Ma", Mexico got busted and I met 5 old friends plus a good few current ones, sure where would you get it?
baggy... the shake of Gibbo's head was in my opinion very telling although I am sure other experts will disagree... at the end of the game FOLK was clearly seen shaking Malone's hand as they shared a smile at the fantastic win... he made no effort to engage Gibbes who just shook his heard in disgust and may even have rolled his eyes... I sense Gibbes like us seen too many points scored against us by a shyte side with an average age of what looked 16.
Tougher tasks lie ahead but we must be favourites to take this pi$h poor group..
Bart S wrote:I am also hearing enough about how hard the players worked during pre-season and how different and better the coaching is to believe this is not just soundbites to the media. Of course that doesn't mean we are now brill, won't lose to a crap team or will actually win anything this season but things do seem to have changed for the better.
Still not convinced our pack without Marcel and a couple of others can be consistently competitive against the good teams and in some cases we remain one injury or absence away from Season Over syndrome, but.......things are getting better. Winning helps of course.
Agreed. Same old tom kite every season about going players pushing for places and internationals will be struggling to break into the sides. Pmsl.
If we can turnover the likes of Glasgow or Munster away then I will start to see some optimism. That said you can only beat what's in front of you so the boys have done okay so far.
Climb up onto the top of your house and start screaming: 'stand up for the Ulstermen, stand.......'
I agree with defence issues and leaking points but both last night and in previous weeks opposition ran through or away from Shanahan who dropped off or missed tackles completely. I would put him down for 2 tries last night. His is unfortunately despite some positive attributes just to small.
I can't say I saw the ball actually hit Tommy's hand but the ball did change direction as it passed it - I'm guessing the right angle slowed down would have shown contact. I'd have been pretty miffed if it had been given as a Dragons supporter. Although I'd be pretty miffed about everything if I was one of them.
Jonno's shake of the head could have been due to some poor execution generally by ulster in the 2nd half (lineouts, drives, handling), Shanners' tackling, RAY giving away the most idiotic yellow or a few other things. As always people will read different things into this.
In a close game any of the abive could have been vital so plenty to work on. Having said that, a 30 point win with the selection we put out, no discernable inuries, valuable gametime for players like Rea, Timoney and Lyttle does allow some psoitives to be taken out of it.
damianmcr wrote:How did people rate Timoney? I was impressed but I know feck all so would like someone else's view.
Did quite well. showed a bit of aggression. carried well enough. scored two tries and got MotM.
I've seen worse performances.
He did this thing which was interesting - he ran before he received the ball. I would imagine ref's will become wise to it and stop him, but in the meantime it'll really seems to work.
I just hope someone mentioned to him that it won't be that easy every week.
big mervyn wrote:My impression too Grumps. He let Dragons away with an absolutely blatant crooked line out throw when they were trying for a TBP at the end there.
I remember referees used to try and even the playing field by refereeing 2 sides differently
I have no issue with the ref being harsher on us than them in a game so one sided
skiboo wrote:I agree with defence issues and leaking points but both last night and in previous weeks opposition ran through or away from Shanahan who dropped off or missed tackles completely. I would put him down for 2 tries last night. His is unfortunately despite some positive attributes just to small.
Agreed. What has happened to Cairns? He had one promising outing at 9 in a friendly and disappeared. He certainly looked a lot more robust than wee dave (no relation)
Watching that TMO replay from home, I coy clearly see Bowes knock-on from the first replay.
That being said, the TMO (and Gusher - not that that counts for much) both missed it completely and presumed the ref was checking the grounding. It was only the ref himself who made the TMO throw the replay up again (after TMO said try) and spotted the knock on himself. which was completely correct.
Has anyone received the usual thanks from Ulster for their support? The one that thanks the number of people who attended.
I can find no mention of crowd numbers anywhere yet. I think my early prediction of 11,108 may be not far from the truth. It looked bloody sparse but given a band-free night the atmosphere was not entirely dead.
If anyone has seen the crowd size please post, Ulster are being unusually coy.
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.
Isn't it nice to be wrong occasionally? Enjoyed that but Cockatrice, I think, had the most telling post pointing out that playing five of your seven subs out of position does not improve one's defence!
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!
big mervyn wrote:My impression too Grumps. He let Dragons away with an absolutely blatant crooked line out throw when they were trying for a TBP at the end there.
I remember referees used to try and even the playing field by refereeing 2 sides differently
I have no issue with the ref being harsher on us than them in a game so one sided
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Not good in a professional league though. A TBP could be important at the business end. Unlikely, in Dragons' case, but still.
Volunteer at an animal sanctuary; it will fill you with joy , despair, but most of all love, unconditional love of the animals.
Big Neville Southall
