The UAFC

Big question

If Burns is not fit do you start Lowry?
My own thoughts are yes, but only if Cooney has recovered in order start to carry out the kicking from hand duties. I'm not sure how confident I would feel with Shanners and Lowry as a half back combination from the get go. I've nothing against Shanners but some of his box kicking on Saturday was poor and only brought pressure onto us rather than relieve it.
The other option is to bring in McPhillips but for me he plays too deep.

Smaller Big Question

Should the game plan be to just go out and play for four tries and to hell with the result? One point should be enough to gain us a quarter final slot. It will be a trip to Leinster, Racing 92 or Saracens therefore on reflection I'm not really bothered what runners up seeding we get, I'll just be happy we got there and enjoy the day IF it comes. The Edinburgh Vs Montpellier game on Friday night will make that decision for us I guess.

UlsterNo9 wrote:Big question

If Burns is not fit do you start Lowry?
My own thoughts are yes, but only if Cooney has recovered in order start to carry out the kicking from hand duties. I'm not sure how confident I would feel with Shanners and Lowry as a half back combination from the get go. I've nothing against Shanners but some of his box kicking on Saturday was poor and only brought pressure onto us rather than relieve it.
The other option is to bring in McPhillips but for me he plays too deep.

Smaller Big Question

Should the game plan be to just go out and play for four tries and to hell with the result? One point should be enough to gain us a quarter final slot. It will be a trip to Leinster, Racing 92 or Saracens therefore on reflection I'm not really bothered what runners up seeding we get, I'll just be happy we got there and enjoy the day IF it comes. The Edinburgh Vs Montpellier game on Friday night will make that decision for us I guess.

Yes you play Lowry. Although as you say, you might worry about having two wee fellas on the pitch. However, starting McPhillips does not help the defence. The fact that Lowry hasn't started at 10 is not a reason not to play him. A straight choice between Lowry and McPhillips would be, Lowry all day long. I think Dan knows this hence why Lowry was on the bench and not McPhillips.

Yep, start Lowry, if you don't trust Lowry to kick (and to be fair to him he's improved that part of his game) then have Addison kick.

McPhillips isn't great, especially outside Shanahan.

turko wrote:We are in the Holland And Barret stand. Hope a few more ulstermen in there too. Surely it can’t be as bad as Wasps last year

... that's what I keep saying to myself... it can't be as bad as Wasps...

It was fecking freezing at Wasps and the temperature for this weekend in Leicester is... -1.

Quins, Wasps and Twickenham were all rather on the chilly side last season - it's been positively balmy this year...!

therealspratt wrote:Yep, start Lowry, if you don't trust Lowry to kick (and to be fair to him he's improved that part of his game) then have Addison kick.

McPhillips isn't great, especially outside Shanahan.

My only concern with that was although Addisons kicking at goal was fine his kicking from hand wasn't. He had a couple of horrible clearance kicks and missed at least one penalty to touch (think it was two) in the second half. Appreciate he was filling in and a needs must scenario had arisen but I wouldn't be content with Addison being our plan A. Having said that he strikes me as the kind of guy who will have realized he wasn't good enough in the touch kicking department on Saturday and will go about addressing this should he be called upon again.

Addison, Burns, Murphy and Moore really were great business during the summer, if we could repeat anything like that kind of business again this summer I'll have a buzz on weeks before the season kicks off.

Going all out for 4 trys is madness. It's a very tight wee ground. Trying to win the game and keeping it tight is more likely to yield at least 1 pt imo.

To be fair to Addison, he was kicking into a stiff breeze in the second half. It was cutting the bake aff us in the Mem Stand. He was still better than Finnrot.
I don’t like the idea of Lowry and weeD. Leicester aren’t a small side and we’ll need to match them physically.
Yes I’ve seen Lowry smack Nakkerwaheh and weeD diving around like a spaniel chasing a superball, but sooner, rather than later some monster is gonna land on them and they’ll get broken.

If people are worried about Lowry's size, then we might as well release him because he ain't gonna get any bigger. Anyway, any big ugly forward would flatten McPhillips and Burns too - a few inches and pounds won't make any difference. In fact, Lowry, at fly-half, should welcome big, lumbering giants trying to demolish him - he has the skills to leave them chasing shadows.

On the same wavelength as No.9 I was surprised wnen Addison took over the kicking duties and also relieved.
I thought that Comiskey in the Irish Times was way out of line in his criticism of Addison, who is porbably fourth or fifth choice goal kicker in the squad and was very obviously A break glass choice. The guy was faced with “ a no Pressure kick “in the last minute of the game and he stepped up kicked through the sticks. So perhaps he could have taken a bit longer but with the pressure he had enough to cope with.
Really impresssed like No.9 by the performance of the signings but also by their committment, you could see the agony on both Rory Best and Billy Burns faces on the bench in the final minutes. I also liked the way that Jordi Murphy quietly slapped down any suggestion of pity from the Southern Mediaon his move north.
I don’t think we have any players left after the latest series of clear outs who are just there for the salary cheque . I wondered at one point about Shanahan but this season he has been a revelation and I think Saturday was his best performance for Ulster.
A quarter final spot would the Icing on the cake after that it is a lottery who knows what could happen.

I'd let Lowry kick from hand, he's at least got that down pretty well at this point.

I think John Cooney would be the first to admit that Wee D's quality of pass on Saturday was better than we've seen from Cooney recently - do we think he's been playing with a creaking back for a while?

Tender wrote:To be fair to Addison, he was kicking into a stiff breeze in the second half. It was cutting the bake aff us in the Mem Stand. He was still better than Finnrot.
I don’t like the idea of Lowry and weeD. Leicester aren’t a small side and we’ll need to match them physically.
Yes I’ve seen Lowry smack Nakkerwaheh and weeD diving around like a spaniel chasing a superball, but sooner, rather than later some monster is gonna land on them and they’ll get broken.

I take your point tender and I raise you this

https://twitter.com/UlsterRugby/status/ ... 4412961794

Someone had to stop him eventually!

ulsterman7 wrote:Apologies if there is already a thread for this but I was wondering if there are many taking the trip across to Welford Road on Saturday? If so, what section would there be most Ulster fans?

I got my tickets direct from the lionels and the Doris on the ticket line said a lot of UR are being allocated Holland & Barrett stand section CU. She was probably winding me up though and me and my boy will be fecking surrounded.