Team for Dragoons

[MightyRearranger]

Missed the game, worth watching it on catch up?
Anyone stand out?
Are we brill again?

Conceding a TBP against the worst team to visit Ravenhill in a good while wasn't great

First sane response on this thread. Dragons, god love them, were awful. Instonians would have comfortably beat them jesus christ they were bad. Yet still they score 4 tries v ulster. Nothing about this is a good news story.

Instonians probably have a bigger wage budget than Dragons in fairness

[CIMANFOREVER]

Did what was realistically expected, nothing more.
Ref defence, agree we are porous. Real marker will be SA especially Stormers. Their game versus Bulls was a cracker even though they lost. Both ars mile's ahead in terms of forward power and attacking ability.
Murphy has serious work to do.
Given the number of teams in the 33/34 point band games against them are "10 pointers" and yesterday we would've expected same result even under DF.
Bell still has to go.

[Bart S]

It was home to the Dragons. Even this season that is a guaranteed 5 pointer .

There are enough big games coming up but this was an opportunity to actually start looking towards the future and display some of the forward thinking sadly lacking at ulster.

[Silverstu]

Did what was realistically expected, nothing more.
Ref defence, agree we are porous. Real marker will be SA especially Stormers. Their game versus Bulls was a cracker even though they lost. Both ars mile's ahead in terms of forward power and attacking ability.
Murphy has serious work to do.
Given the number of teams in the 33/34 point band games against them are "10 pointers" and yesterday we would've expected same result even under DF.
Bell still has to go.

Hopefully he'll bring Faloon into the senior coaching side with him from U20s.
I think the main positive was the players looked to be enjoying themselves again and looked a lot freer. Which is not bad considering Mcfarland only left last week. Hopefully a few more weeks under Soper and then Murphy coming in will get them cohesive again. We've a good squad its just about getting the best out of them.

[Gerald the Mole]

“ We have a good squad “ have we fûck , we have an average squad that won’t be able to consistently contest in Europe , they will get resounding wins at home ( sometimes) but more from the opposition being pants than Ulster being good.

Problem started whenDan started to believe that youngsters in the academy structure were good enough to play week in week out as 1xv players with no development, Balacome,Sexton prime example of players going backwards as no time really spent , big issue with Academy.

Under Petrie , are we any better across the Pro game and club game , simple No is the answer

Academy is failing , numbers are falling , but JP is happy fighting on Twitter , so all good then.

Bring back Logan

[justinr73]

JP hasn’t been on Twitter since last May.

Do keep up, dear boy.

[rumncoke]

Now I'm not quite as pessimistic as some here .

In my opinion Ulster may note may have the beginnings of a decent back row in one -two years There is also a possible second row again in one to two years and the backline is still young .

The problem with the second row may be that it may be light weight so some serious weight training and bulking is necessary.

What Ulster lacks currently and has done for several years is an out half .Billy Burns was a sticky plaster applied to a major wound.

Personally I think Doak could be a reasonable out half despite that the fact he may lack the vision and flair of Jackson but could be an out half similar to St. Jonny Sexton, perform the basics consistently and competently and execute a game plan.

Billy's problem was a lack of consistency and the game plan was too identifiable to be successful

[jean valjean]

Until ulster have an outhalf who can kick long as well as throw a fast skip pass to 13 we will struggle. Doak had the potential but he is 6-7 years behind his peers in terms of experience at 10. Not ideal.

[ljsulster]

Until ulster have an outhalf who can kick long as well as throw a fast skip pass to 13 we will struggle. Doak had the potential but he is 6-7 years behind his peers in terms of experience at 10. Not ideal.

Doak can throw the skip pass you’re looking for.
Doak has played 10 all through school and for Ireland u20s as well as Ulster senior team. He has nowhere near the lack of experience as a 10 that everyone makes out. He will be better than burns and Flannery and has every chance of playing for Ireland as a 10

[Big-al]

Didn’t Doak only move to scrum half when he entered the Ulster schools side? Even then, he regularly played 10. (2nd half Vs Australia u19)

I think he’s our long term 10, but for that to happen Ulster need a calm, but quick passing scrum half

[allezlesverres]

Are yous all related to doak? I can't for the life of me understand why yous are suggesting he is the great hope at 10. He has (kicking aside) been bang average at 9 (ie no better than beagle) and anytime he has played 10 he has been average to poor. I hope that's a coaching issue but I have my doubts. If we are pinning our hopes for the future on him at 10 that's so depressing.

[Big-al]

He brings the ball flatter to the line than Burns, can throw longer and more accurate passes and has a longer kicking game.

I think you’re drastically overrating Burns positive impact on then Ulster game.

[Dave]

Give him a chance, FFS.

[BaggyTrousers]

I thought I'd take a quick look to see what the great unwashed thought of that nonsense last night.

Anyone seeing that as positive needs to shed the blinkers, The greatest stat of the night is that Ulster allowed a team of dustbins who had scored 17 tries in 10 league matches to score a TBP away from home. SHAMEFUL. Defence was less than hopeless, it wasn't even embarrassing if was fecking humiliating.

Wouldn't matter a damn if we'd scored 100, allowing that team a TBP on our pitch was disgraceful.

Only Zebre, Scaaaaaaaaalets and those Denizens of Dave Parade have conceded more tries than Ulster. Bottom club Sharks have conceded less, think on that. We need a defence. We have conceded as many tries as we have scored, that is a team going nowhere very fast.

As for Doak at 10, FFFS don't get me started or there will be a shop full of clownshoes handed out free, gratis and for SFA.

Goodbye.

[BaggyTrousers]

He brings the ball flatter to the line than Burns, can throw longer and more accurate passes and has a longer kicking game.

I think you’re drastically overrating Burns positive impact on then Ulster game.

FFFS