Ulster v Edinburgh Positives and Negatives

[Nightsoil]

Positives (to pick a few no one else has mentioned)

That Darren Cave tackle
Adam Macklin's cameo. I'd say he graduated too, and hopefully he'll be trusted more off the bench now, although with Deccie Fitz back and firing getting there's gonna be a difficulty.
Not panicking and not letting them in during Terblanche's sin binning
Everything else
Afoa and Henry should be back

Negatives

I've lost my voice
The Ravens are going to take a fearful gubbing from a vengeful Munster team
Pedrie will shortly be gone... Brennan.

[colwynvet]

-ve. Kinda chilly in the top tier of the West Stand!

Other than that can't complain!

[Snipe Watson]

Has anyone ever seen a good semi-final? It is virtually impossible to play with freedom and that is why there was only 1 real try in the game.
Baggy is harsh in pointing the finger at PJ for playing it safe. The lad was starting his first HEC game in a semi-final. I still think he was the man to pick, but he was never going to push the envelope and he will have benefitted from it massively.
Uncharacteristic errors from leading players cost us a bigger scoring game. Darren threw a pass to Andy’s feet when he was in the corner nobody was on Pedrie’s shoulder when he had the ball under the posts and was driven back. For Edinburgh, I think it was Denton who cut back in when he had a 3 on 1 out wide.
The final will be an entirely different scenario and going for it will be the order of the day.

[Cockatrice]

Nobody should give a brad pitt about the performance its a semi-final and the most important thing is getting to the final and the same could be said of the final .... think 99 and how many people remember if we actually played well and/or deserved to win the fact is we did and whenever you look back you only look at the name on the trophy not the manner of the win.. maybe as a nuetral you can think different but not when its your team...

[chris d]

the back row weren't firing on all cylinders. if ferris & wannenberg were going into the game not 100% i think jackson may have got the nod because of his tackling. i thought he had a solid game without anything too flash. did paddy wallace have a sweet touch finder in the first half? i remember screaming paddy wallace at my unfortunate wife, and i think it was for a nice kick.

SUFTUM

[rakem]

Paddy Jackson played as if trying to ensure nobody could blame him for anything. A couple of pressure situations where iHumph would have tried something. As a result we created absolutely nothing.

don't think that's quite fair. we should have scored two tries in the second half from two different red zone opportunities but we managed to squander them both. neither of that was the fault of PJ. another 14 points would have put a different slant on things. ihumph would have tried something that had a 50% chance of working. so half chance he would have looked like a genius, half chance he would have looked inept. to see a 20 year old come in and look assured in a HEC semi final, shows me that he is going to turn into a decent player.

also, had ihumph been playing we would have been playing catch up cos denton would have been having a field day walking over the top of him! (cos lets face it willie wouldn't have been giving him much protection)

more generally, we were pretty average and will need to up things significantly. our level of performance was nowhere near thomond park. missed chris henry. the sky guys were saying that we missed chris and john badly in our defensive organisation. would certainly agree henry would have slowed down their ball at the breakdown.

[Dave]

Negative - Ruan limping off after the final whistle not able to take part in the lap of honour. Any news?

[Meg The Lab]

We won this game. Doesn't matter how or by how many. We are in the final, Edinburgh aren't.

Another positive was the half time entertainment beside me. Two drunken gougers beside me who did nothing but abuse people throughout the first half were taken from the stadium by the Garda. One of them had a busted nose and mouth as a result of a punch which put him on his back. Poetic justice.

[smac]

Ruan was summoned from pitch to do his post match MOTM interview. Agree on a bit of a limp tho. Hopefully nothing.

[Dave]

Ruan was summoned from pitch to do his post match MOTM interview. Agree on a bit of a limp tho. Hopefully nothing.

Sounds more better than rushing off for treatment.

[BuckRogers]

Freezing my balls off in upper west
Willie Faloon
Pedrie & Fez both limping badly, neither fit I suspect
Paddy Jackson played as if trying to ensure nobody could blame him for anything. A couple of pressure situations where iHumph would have tried something. As a result we created absolutely nothing.
We made Embra look a very good side.
People asking me all night why I wasn't happy.
A performance like that and we will be obliterated in the final.
Can't understand why I feel so deflated.

Really any need for the singling out of Jackson and Faloon after getting to the final? If you were deflated yesterday you clearly weren't enough!

[fuzzylogic]

Positives

In the final
Won the semi final
RPs kicking
Our ability to tackle.

Negatives
Everything else
West stand up top was freezing
My voice is gone
It took 5 hours to get home
Our woman bus driver wouldnt give us enough pish stops
The south african man sitting near me who just shouted "TACKLE!" every few mins regardless of what was happening on the pitch.

[Big-al]

Baggy had it in his head that this would be a walkover. It was never going to be the case.

Paddy done well, nice kicks, nice passes etc.

Willie was poor though, Ferris was very average by his standard as well, hopefully he'll be fit for the HEINKEN CUP FINAL.


P.S Cheer up Baggy.

[Ithryn]

+set piece excellent
+defence excellent
+playing a tight game and grinding it out in second half
+line speed in defence in second half

- we have quite alot of walking wounded, but they have 3 weeks to rest
- we let edinburgh play too much first half
- poor kick chase
- out excellent starting backrow all have leg injuries

[eoinsy96]

pros:
atmosphere
we're in the final!!
cave's tackle

cons:
getting hit in the back of the head with a burger
bandwagoners
paying 4 euro for a sausage roll
people unable to hold their drink and fighting
getting my foot stuck in my chair at the end
having my scarf nicked while i was at the bogs