Team to play Zebre.

[Bart S]

Kiss should have seen last year that Trimble was not captaincy material.

[againstthehead]

Kiss should have seen last year that Trimble was not captaincy material.

Wingers can't be captains. Need someone in the thick of it.

[BaggyTrousers]

I am very very drunk and am unable to espresso just how bad that was. I have nothing to say. That sucked shyte through a tramps filthy sock. FOLK
OUT OUT OUT

[jean valjean]

We just don't have the leaders in the pack to win away from home consistently. Without Rory, Chad or marcell we have no-one with a clear head to pull guys in and say this is what we need to do in this situation. I can't remember a recent away game in Italy where we didn't look panicked and clueless yet these are the games we seem to think are easy 5 pointers.

[SparkyClarky]

Why not a few chips over the top to fix the rush defence, not rocket science.
The Glu other than being on Charles shoulder had a howler again. Really worried for him.

As regards rotation, McLaughs went the other way and the same 20 odd players got us to Twickenham. They knew exactly what their roles were. We had a dose of stranger danger today.

God awful day and the next two games will tell us exactly we're we really are. Until then I'll pretend it was a bad dream.

[Tender]

On performance this season, I'm not convinced GLU is worthy of a place on the bench, let alone being handed the Captain's armband. Kiss's decision
Kiss sits on high and watches the same game us we mortals, but he fails to see, from his lofty perch, how opposing teams are stopping us playing and beating us up, yet we all see what's wrong. Whenever things aren't going our way, he has NEVER been able to change our shape, or tactics to counter the opposition's game. HE IS SHYTE.
He must give a splendid halftime team talk...
We watched some good Ulster players yesterday, looking totally lost, confused and beaten. That leads to stupid mistakes and halfassed play.
Kiss & Co haven't recognised the three leaders in our squad and the necessity to have one of them on the pitch. That's inexcusable . FOLK NOW

[bazzaj]

All of the above.
We could discuss tactics, leadership etc all day long where we got it wrong but essentially I think this came down to mindset and approach.

Zebre played to win a rugby match whilst we were chasing bonus points.
Very disrespectful away from home, win the game first then chase bonus points.

Didn't learn that from Treviso where we nearly came unstuck.
Caught a huge overdue cold there.

[BaggyTrousers]

Eh............ nah , still nathin'.

[rugoval]

I woke up this morning with one of those 'was it a bad dream' moments. Then reality quickly kicked in. One of those things we can't change with no matter how many 'if onlys'

[CIMANFOREVER]

Why is anyone really surprised? Same MO since Cowboy was given the bullet.
It'll take Gibbes et al,if he's allowed, a couple of seasons to get rid of the dross we've let stay on.

That includes FOLK.
To summarise;
Zebre played well and looked like a team who knew we are flakey and the parts better than the sum. They played with aggression and confidence. We were complacent, fragmented and poorly coached or prepared. Good players were made to look poor, great players average. That takes some doing.
We knew the fall off between first choice 23 and the rest was big, now we know the reality is a chasm

Their young players look bigger, stronger and better coached than ours.
We have few real leaders.
The second choice front row options Andrew aside, are shockingly poor. Zebres FR subs and depth is greater fs. Black and Ray merely make up numbers on a team sheet.

Unless LK reinvents GLU as a centre, AAT is on a rapid downward spiral. Brutal form and never a leader for all of his Ulster to the core breeding.
Zebre will take down others in Parma, just not the other "top 6".
Their off loading game we could only dream about- embarrassing.
Treadwell and a few other young forwards need to beef up, including the aggression and front up.

Pete Browne is a trier but made of paper. AW is AIL level living the dream. LM has a shocking skill set for an international centre.
The 10 internationals bit is a joke. How many did Zebre have. Its the quality if the international fs...
Even DC couldnt organise that defence.
Passive, slow out of the gate, dog legged, disjointed with no plan on how to play Zebre.
Zebres forwards pods of 3-4 forwards peeling in support of the off load showed up the paucity of current thinking from our lot.
Some players are phoning it in.

Cooney sub lunacy on a par with Cowboys in the semi a few years back.
Deysel is a paper tiger without big boys around him.
MC is Fez 2 and will be gone by Xmas.
There is a rottenness at the core of UR that some don't want to confront. Lk is the outworking of it. We now have a coach as good as any in the world with a proven track record yet everything still stinks. Why? ( You know why...)
Only positive is its one game closer to LK fing off...
Fair summary of what we're all thinking?. I'm sure I've missed some stuff from the posts but I have a life.

[Hamsterdam]

No doubting we have been fortunate with the fixtures to date - Easily beat a half-baked Cheetahs team (they'd be a different prospect now), squeezed past Treviso (just read the match thread again ), inspired Home performance against a good Scarlets side and a comfortable win against a B&I level weakend Dragons side (still shipped > 20 points). Now this.

Response over next few months will be very interesting looking at the fixture list.

I honestly believe we have a squad that can compete and am grateful to see some emerging local players get a chance but once again this season there appears to be something stopping us from kicking on to the next level .....

[againstthehead]

No doubting we have been fortunate with the fixtures to date - Easily beat a half-baked Cheetahs team (they'd be a different prospect now), squeezed past Treviso (just read the match thread again ), inspired Home performance against a good Scarlets side and a comfortable win against a B&I level weakend Dragons side (still shipped > 20 points). Now this.

Response over next few months will be very interesting looking at the fixture list.

I honestly believe we have a squad that can compete and am grateful to see some emerging local players get a chance but once again this season there appears to be something stopping us from kicking on to the next level .....

Can't agree. Our squad is crap. We were crap last year and are now without the likes of Ruan, Jackson and Olding. Our pack is pish unless Best, Henderson and Coetzee are all playing.

[Dave]

All of the above.
We could discuss tactics, leadership etc all day long where we got it wrong but essentially I think this came down to mindset and approach.

Zebre played to win a rugby match whilst we were chasing bonus points.
Very disrespectful away from home, win the game first then chase bonus points.

Didn't learn that from Treviso where we nearly came unstuck.
Caught a huge overdue cold there.

That's it Baz exactly there was no learning from the Treviso game. We didn't even travel with McCloskey/Stockdale our two best line breakers and Henry, who has been captain for most of the games thus far. FOLK

[Dave]

The Tamil Thalaivas are showing more intensity on the kabaddi on sky sports right now.

[Dave]

Rodney was our best ball carrier in the pack. Rodney.