Ulster v La Rochelle - Saturday (Sunday?) Ravenhill (RDS?)

[horslips]

From BelTel:

"Ulster are in danger of a misconduct charge from EPCR following the fiasco that caused yesterday’s second round Heineken Champions Cup tie with La Rochelle to be played behind closed doors at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin.

If they are found to be at fault, Ulster, who lost 36-29 to the European champions, would likely be fined having already missed out on an estimated £700k in match-day revenue had the game gone ahead at home."

Looks like attack is the best form of defence for EPCR

That official delegation excuse is BS. A load of fans turned up and SR kicked up on their behalf. Why did Ulster not have an official delegation?

Can you add more background - the article is behind the Belly laugh paywall. Did it say what the mis-conduct was?

[justinr73]

Think it’s due to the fact that our nominated reserve ground of the RDS turned out to be unavailable, which seems to have been down to stewarding issues.

[BR]

All sounds a bit wishy washy… No mention that the referee was there for the subsequent morning inspection my question would be why as it was his call.

Presumably given that ECPR had already called it a non starter the evening before and after the refs inspection the ref had effectively stood down and no amount of so called experts would make any difference the following day as they outsiders and nothing to do with the process..

I seemed to recall a tweet from JP stating that they weren’t contacted and learnt through media as to the cancellation yet from above seems it was in direct conversation with the powers to be..

Can't think why the ref would inspect ravenhill on Sat morning. More likely to be on his way to do Lansdowne.

It does say there was discussion with EPCR, I suppose the final decision may have been made subsequent to the discussion and conveyed to UR. I didn't see a tweet from JP about him learning it from media; only read it here.

[justinr73]

Pro rata refund being arranged for ST holders.

[Bobbievee]

Pity there wasn’t a fan forum meeting this week!
A contingency ground that wasn’t available?!
Is this a Two Ronnies’ sketch

[Cockatrice]

I presume most pitches in east and south belfast without the luxury of a professional set up also suffered so football and rugby matches cancelled on large scale except the Irish League managed games ..

I see BT selling Casement PArk as the ideal back up to Kingspan maybe a bit of political sway to ensure we have our back up stadium in place there. Another reason to build the white elephant that it will be… as long as they put underground heating in or is west warmer than east.

I understand matches were played in Cherryvale which is how many miles away..

There is no chance a referee inspection was going to take place the next day once ECPR cancelled the match some 4 hrs after he inspected it first time then it wasn’t playable.

Turning up with independent experts the next day is totally futile once the call had been made.. I’d like to see what exactly the ref recommended apart from some is and some isn’t playable and it appears to be that he was willing to return the following g morning and was hopeful.

That of course could have back fired had it to be cancelled..

Does turning the floodlights on the pitch constitute extensive work to keep the pitch from freezing…

[flatpass]

A post from Babbling Brook. Is Jackman winding up or is there something in this?

‘Pretty direct words from both ROC & Jackman on separate podcasts today and not complimentary of Ulster.

Seemingly they messed up and didn't get the covers down until very late last week so pitch was 60% unplayable on Fri evening with little chance of it all thawing by Sat without heating help.

We brought in lights from the Aviva and I saw Saints had a dome type of pitch cover with hot air, why didn't Ulster pre-empt this earlier and have something prepared?’

[richardt84]

A post from Babbling Brook. Is Jackman winding up or is there something in this?

‘Pretty direct words from both ROC & Jackman on separate podcasts today and not complimentary of Ulster.

Seemingly they messed up and didn't get the covers down until very late last week so pitch was 60% unplayable on Fri evening with little chance of it all thawing by Sat without heating help.

We brought in lights from the Aviva and I saw Saints had a dome type of pitch cover with hot air, why didn't Ulster pre-empt this earlier and have something prepared?’

I was just typing a post out questioning similar without the knowledge of what Jackman and ROC have said. Any monitoring of the weather forecast, with Met Office 7 day forecasts readily available on their website, would have flagged serious concerns from Friday of the Sale game as to the potential of freezing conditions for pretty much a week solid.

My worry all along has been that Ulster reacted to the pitch being frozen rather than stopping it happening in the first place and there needs to be accountability if that is the case. The statement from Ulster referred to covers ‘this week’ (I.e. some time last week) when any proactive approach would surely have had them in place over the weekend of the Sale game, or at the very least overnight for each day that weekend.

A number of tweets have questioned about the lights used by Leinster and such lights were available from Windsor. Petrie has stated that such lights are not for thawing the ground but to help with grass growing and therefore we’re not appropriate. Maybe Leinster were in a position to use them because they stopped the pitch from freezing in the first place by actually monitoring the weather forecast and reacting accordingly?

[Dave]

Heard similar regarding the covers going down late. In comparison Leinster were unsurprisingly leaving nothing to chance. Petrie claims no dome/heater set up available in the UK. This reeks of Loganeering.

[big mervyn]

I presume most pitches in east and south belfast without the luxury of a professional set up also suffered so football and rugby matches cancelled on large scale except the Irish League managed games ..

I see BT selling Casement PArk as the ideal back up to Kingspan maybe a bit of political sway to ensure we have our back up stadium in place there. Another reason to build the white elephant that it will be… as long as they put underground heating in or is west warmer than east.

I understand matches were played in Cherryvale which is how many miles away..

There is no chance a referee inspection was going to take place the next day once ECPR cancelled the match some 4 hrs after he inspected it first time then it wasn’t playable.

Turning up with independent experts the next day is totally futile once the call had been made.. I’d like to see what exactly the ref recommended apart from some is and some isn’t playable and it appears to be that he was willing to return the following g morning and was hopeful.

That of course could have back fired had it to be cancelled..

Does turning the floodlights on the pitch constitute extensive work to keep the pitch from freezing…

Pitch to pitch - about 150m I reckon

[Cockatrice]

It appeared from images posted that black liners where laid across the pitch from what I gather days before the KO despite this others on FB claim UR worked extensively for longer…

It is a fact that UR turned the floodlights on Thursday evening presumably as the only means of getting heat into the ground in an attempt to defrost what was by then already frozen …

Stranger still that matches took place across Belfast including some closer to Kingspan that some might imagine

[twiglet]

All a bit of a fiasco.

The problem initially lies with Ulster for not having the pitch protected from the freezing temperature - just covering it wasn't appropriate. It probably needed the hot air 'tunnels'

This is just another example of Ulster rugby not being able to organise themselves.

Where was Bryn with his leaf blowers - does anyone remember when Ulster rugby stated 'we did everything we could to ensure the pitch was playable'

It's a big joke.

[Jackie Brown]

I blame the stands. Casting their shadows, acting all big and standy.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[BR]

I blame the stands. Casting their shadows, acting all big and standy.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Exactly! The stands at Cherryvale are much better at keeping the pitches in good order.

A well thought of gentleman from this forum, who knows a thing or two about growing grass, has also suggested that the lights used at the RDS will not have had any impact against the cold.

[Big-al]

It appeared from images posted that black liners where laid across the pitch from what I gather days before the KO despite this others on FB claim UR worked extensively for longer…

It is a fact that UR turned the floodlights on Thursday evening presumably as the only means of getting heat into the ground in an attempt to defrost what was by then already frozen …

Stranger still that matches took place across Belfast including some closer to Kingspan that some might imagine

Floodlights?