Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
Good post Marco.
88 pros out of contract end of season. There will be financial cuts, maybe squad numbers trimmed etc. Dans decision last right was absolutely correct, that doesn’t mean it’s pleasant. That said on the plus side Warwick has saved his own bacon as squad back up.
88 pros out of contract end of season. There will be financial cuts, maybe squad numbers trimmed etc. Dans decision last right was absolutely correct, that doesn’t mean it’s pleasant. That said on the plus side Warwick has saved his own bacon as squad back up.
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
McCall looked the bee's knees when he first appeared on the scene. He's been seriously hampered by injuries.
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
When McCall lost a fair bit of timber he consequently lost his ballast for scrummaging. A seriously skillfull individual but unfortunately too small to prop at this level.
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
We tend to think of professional sportsmen as stars and forget that there are many many playing for a living in the same way that most of us go about our daily job. A bit sad not to make the top flight, sure, but most of us settle for being in the middle somewhere. If I'd been offered a pro sports contract at 18 ( ) and told I'd have ten years with a few bursts in the top flight, I'd have bitten your arm of for it. I assume that every pro gets good advice on how to prepare for the inevitable retirement or the tragic career ending injury so, while I'm truly sad for Kyle on the injury front, I guess it's still been a better decade for him than most people's twenties.Marco wrote: ↑Mon Dec 28, 2020 10:39 am A word about Kyle McCall and others in his position, harsh words are spoken by many but imagine how he must have felt walking to the sideline and then when told he wasn’t coming back on, after 20 minutes on the pitch. First saw him playing 18 years ago on the same school side as my lad, my boy tall and skinny, at 11yrs old, Kyle the opposite, no surprise he gravitated to prop and progressed through the ranks. I know they say you’ll never better professional sport, but can we be so sure when, at 29, you’re staring at a situation where his contemporaries have 12 years on you in terms of life learning and work? To me players like Kyle were probably unlikely to ever make it to starting XV standard in a professional league, so were the managers and coaches of a different view, and if not, were they honest with him? I hope he, and again anyone like him, gets what he wants, and if that means sticking with rugby, fairplay and good luck. He looks like a real squadman and serious good craic, also important and hopefully doors open up wherever he goes.
Great performance yesterday, congrats to players and coaches alike.
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
Fixed.
There will always be players that one wonders how they managed to make a living as professional sportsmen and women. I think we do Kylie a disservice if we include him in that. He showed serious talent when he first came on the scene. That he hasn't reached the heights we had hoped for doesn't mean he can't be or isn't a good squad player - like Warwick.
Most players can produce a good performance from time to time - given enough opportunities. They can also have a howler. The fact they get enough opportunities shows they still contribute because of the unavailability of others. For example, Wee Dave comes to mind -people used to be incredulous about beagle, who if you cut him in half had Ulster stamped through his trunk, but shirley Wee D is a shadow of beagle, yet he has how many Ulster appearances? 50? mostly from the bench? And yet he still contributes to the sum of all things Ulster,
We shouldn't expect every 9 to be as good as Ruan, Neither should we expect every 1 to be a world class loosie.
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
Fair point Cap’n. I definitely think with Kyle that the injuries have played a significant part in why he didn’t fulfil his potential. He was consistently decent before he got injured and then never really had a long injury free run. As a prop it probably doesn’t take much to change before you go from being decent to a lower level, particularly as a scrummager.
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
Lets not forget diddies seems to have lost some ballast of a few years ago and was against a good tighthead with a renowned scrummaging lock behind him. Propping is the one position where u can get easily exposed if u come up against the wrong opponent, be it in height or technique. He gets a pass on this occasion and can still offer something to ulster going forward if he gets an injury free run.
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
Playing with a ref who knows little of the illegalities of the front row a stronger man will pop you every time .
Only two things can stop it the ref or a fist in the modern game the latter is not an option.
Only two things can stop it the ref or a fist in the modern game the latter is not an option.
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
So, only one thing can stop it then?
If the referee's one of those that knows little of the illegalities of the front row, what about some illegalities of our own to stop it? "Not the Ulster way", I hear you say.
On the other hand, even with a ref who knows all about the illegalities of the front row, might the stronger man pop the weaker one every time legally? Well, maybe not every time, but often enough.
I don't consider myself an expert on the front row, but there were a few times in the Connacht match that one or other side was doing something illegal in my view, and on all bar one occasion, the referee called them the same as I did. That applied to both teams. I'm inclined to think that the times he called something I didn't see, he was more likely to be right from his close vantage point that I was from my different one on screen.
I was concerned for our scrummaging from when the teams were named. It wasn't just the front rows that worried me, but the relative strengths and weakness of the second rows. Connacht had a couple of guys who know what it takes in the row, and when they were fresh and strong, they used that. As the game went on, their influence waned with their resilience. Might it simply have been a case that we were (mostly) out-scrummaged in the early parts of the game?
I repeat I'm not an expert on front row play and the dark arts sometimes employed, but there are some on here that always seem to think if our scrum comes off second best that it must be down to illegality, not simply that the opposition scrum is sometimes better, and/or stronger, and/or work together better as a unit.
Conversely, if our scrum is on top, there are those who think it is simply because we have the better scrum, not that we could possibly be scrummaging illegally, because we are Ulster and we always play fairly or are too naive to employ the dark arts.
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I'm just explaining why I'm right
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
Well said Grumps. How the feck would you become an International referee without knowing what to look out for come scrum time. In my youth I was part of a squad of forwards that took part in an educational exercise run by Sid Millar. You guessed it. It was about referees learning what to look out for in the scrum. Having played against Sid I can assure you that there is a man who knows every trick in the book.
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
In a wider context, Ulster currently have the best overall scrum stats in the Pro12 - 96% of scrums won.
We also top the lineout stats - 91% success.
We also top the lineout stats - 91% success.
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Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
Some great work has been done on the lineout.
If John Andrew isn’t the player of the season so far, then he’s certainly the most improved one.
If John Andrew isn’t the player of the season so far, then he’s certainly the most improved one.
Re: Connacht v Ulster Sun Dec 27th KO 7:35pm
He should also get an award for having great hair.justinr73 wrote:Some great work has been done on the lineout.
If John Andrew isn’t the player of the season so far, then he’s certainly the most improved one.
I have my own tv channel, what have you got?