Wouldn’t be surprised to see McFarland linked to Leicester job.Columbo wrote:I'm finding it hard to gather my thoughts - perhaps due to the strong Belgian beer I was quaffing to take the pain away during the match - but nonetheless here's my best attempt at saying what my (muddled) thoughts are:
1) Dan McFarland is pretty much a hero to me. Since day 1 he has been a cut above every other Ulster coach in my living memory (and I am ancient, at 44!!) In so many aspects of the game - lineout, maul, defence, breakdown - under him Ulster have never been better. I do believe that at some stage, every side benefits from fresh leadership, but I can't say that I think that we are anywhere near that point with Dan & Ulster
However
2) the 160 mins of game time between the 22-3 lead in Dublin, and the 0-29 HT deficit today were just shocking. Genuinely shocking. In a way that can't be shrugged off. Completely inept attack, shambolic defence, misfiring set piece, absence of leadership. If this was just 'one of those things', that every good side - Leinster, Saracens, Toulouse etc - went through every so often then fine, but it isn't. I have never seen anything comparable from any good side. I watched Munster last week against Toulouse - top of the top 14, 9 points ahead of La Rochelle - and far from being hammered from the off, they took the lead, and ran them close all the way to the end. And Munster are a poor team at the minute. But the sad fact is that they have more fight and bottle in them than we do, and I can't conceive in a month of Sundays of them taking the beatings we have taken in the last 3 games
3) reversion to the long-time Irish rugby default position of lauding 'heroic losses' is not acceptable. Already I'm seeing this all across Irish rugby twitter 'oh what an awesome result for Ulster after that first half', sorry no, I don't buy it. For one thing, La Rochelle are ludicrously over-rated in Ireland, because they've beaten Leinster twice (and the second time was a dire loss by Leinster IMO), for another you can't simply memory-hole a 29 point HT deficit because of a bit of a fightback in the second half. Watch Danty grinning and shrugging as he's yellow-carded - the game was in the bag, and ROG / La Rochelle couldn't give a f**k if Ulster get a bonus point or two, we were never winning that game.
4) another game where we concede over 35 points. That's now 5 out of 10 this season. Appalling. Unacceptable.
So where the hell does that leave us? I've no doubt that Dan et al will want to go balls out now against Connacht and try to win the next 3 games, and paper over the cracks. OK fine, I want that to happen too (and I believe it can) - but until we have a proper reckoning with what has caused us to absolutely implode in the last few weeks, then we are absolutely no closer to winning clutch matches against good sides, and therefore no chance of getting any silverware once again.
What does a proper reckoning look like? I really don't know. Do the current attack & defence coaches need to up their game (yes)? Or be replaced? Does selection have to change? (I will say that Stewart and McCann both suggested this afternoon that they should have seen more game time up until now...)
Any team that’s conceding 35 points a game (1/2 the games this season) should be looking at one area and one area only in my opinion. For Ulster to be 4th in the URC (with a game in hand) having conceded as many points as they have is beyond impressive.
Dinger should never of been appointed based on his defensive record in previous positions. If Ulster had a Shawn Edwards/Kevin Seinfeld leading defence then you would notice a huge difference.
Did we have the ball to attack against Sale? We are soo passive in defence.
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