Team against Dragons

[rumncoke]

Firstly

The laws of the game are such that unless a team in possession make a mistake, knock on or the player in possession gets isolated it, it is extremely hard to win possession , if the team in possession don't kick it away, turnovers in any game are few and far between ; especially away from home with a refs beady eye focused on the away team.

Secondly

Defence is the easiest aspect of a game to organise provided the recycle of the ball can be delayed and mismatches are avoided ( mismatch being a centre marked by a front row forward ). This makes territorial progress hard to achieve on each and every recycle . Progress down the pitch frequently being 15 yards forward and 10 yards back then 5 yards back. Thus possession in your own half seldom leads to a scoring opportunity and in order to play the game in the opposition half the ball is kicked down field .

Weak teams ( teams with limited attacking potential in the backs ) frequently opt for a possession game plan where territory advantage is less important than possession and the frustration of the opposition -- who require possession and territorial advantage to win.

When such teams ( the weak ) play at home they are less likely to be penalised for holding the ball and delaying recycle and visiting teams being frustrated are more likely to infringe and be penalised .

Last night was a perfect example of such a game Ulster struggled to obtain possession and seldom had territorial advantage to attack ball in hand, and when they had both were frustrated by a slow recycle and running at an organised defence.

The mistake that most who comment on this board make is they expect something different -- big mistake.

It makes for games where the result is unpredictable and frequently unexpected and thus in some respects the mode of refereeing serves a purpose. While Ulster supporters would all consider the game a dire affair I'm sure many Dragon fans enjoyed the game if not the result because their team was making the game a contest and not a resounding defeat which on paper given the Ulster backline was possible.

Personally I think RA Y got caught by a dummy stop realised the guy was running in him braced himself, dumb , his mistake was buying the dummy . the second is that like many forwards he seldom tackles round the thighs but goes for full body contact hence the up right position at the point of contact.

A typical Front row forward caught with his brains in his belly.

[BaggyTrousers]

Firstly, I thought Rodney was playing well. He scrummaged well, he had a few decent carries and was even clearing out rucks. The red card was not exactly malicious.

You'll never get them to buy into that Dave, they have all bought into Maurice Field's assessment, which you and I know completely disregarded that absolute fact that last night was by a distance Rodney's best contribution of the season, he was indeed more than OK in the scrum, a few shows in the loose and yes he was not ruck-inspecting. He did play well.

On the card, I'm just not sure if it was dumb, incompetent or deliberate, but I wouldn't be surprised if no further action was taken. Fortunately, it didn't matter if it was yellow or red.

However, over the season I do agree with Field, he seems content to be getting a wage, 3 square meals and some burger snacks in between times. He would help himself by getting fit but seems to be thwarting any attempt by the organisation to encourage that. It is a shame for I don't think Rory is that bad a judge of ability.

[222toHounslow]

Does anybody believe beagle won't be at Ulster next season?

[Loki]

I haven't seen any highlights nor read any reports, so what follows is a fairly unreconstructed sense of the game last night.

first things first, I'm not having much of a defence of Rodney Ah You, and I'll even leave the red card out of it. Whoever thinks that's an acceptable performance by an internationally capped prop for the 4th best team in the league is drunk on our mediocrity. In the recent past we've had players like Afoa, Tom Court, BJ Botha, any number of others who'd put this man to shame. He very much did ruck inspect. He continually stood offside and enjoyed quite a few lie downs after minimal involvement. When he chose to participate in the game he did relatively well - but that would constitute about <5 minutes of his evening.

I'll grant he held up the scrum but I'll tell you this lads, I was sat beside two good old Dragons boys and when he came on they thought he was a monster. Before the red, they were laughing at him. From what I have seen of him this season, his approach to his profession is an embarrassing one. Rarely do I feel the need to call for a player to be drummed out but I see no value in keeping him here. Every single time I see him, I think - 'here's someone who should be busting a gut to secure his starting place: it's waiting for him'. Competition in our pack is not strong. Every time, we get a variation on the same, lackadaisical performance, occasionally with added head melts a la Clermont and last night. He needs a serious bit of guidance.

Aside from that, Treadwell is the main positive to take from last night - genuine desire to get involved and affect the game. Henry is starting to look in difficulty and Henderson too easy to target when the opposition knows he's the main driver in the pack. Our front row offers next to nothing in the loose and I lost count of how many times we were easily beaten back. I've sympathy for the backs and would absolutely have taken 27-17 before kick-off, no question. As with the Zebre game a few weeks back, we didn't fashion the conditions for a BP win.

I enjoyed the contest, and a previous poster has it spot on - NGD saw us as a team they could get at and refused to lie down. their approach was spot on, and without the dogs to interrupt their play / contest breakdowns / be nasty b@stards we couldn't stay on the front foot. We rarely land a glove in anger and injecting that into the team should be top priority for the ticket next year imo.

As an aside, no idea if it came across on the TV but Cave was on a radger at just about everyone on the pitch at one time or another, and I think it negatively affected his performance. Have rarely seen him so angry at so many different things.

[scrum5]

After reviewing the Red card, I believe it was clumsy and nothing else, if he gets cited for that then so should Landman for standing on Ruan's face.....on the subject of Ah You, management and the S&C coaches should shoulder some of the blame for letting him get so heavy....

[Dave]

Firstly, I thought Rodney was playing well. He scrummaged well, he had a few decent carries and was even clearing out rucks. The red card was not exactly malicious.

You'll never get them to buy into that Dave, they have all bought into Maurice Field's assessment, which you and I know completely disregarded that absolute fact that last night was by a distance Rodney's best contribution of the season, he was indeed more than OK in the scrum, a few shows in the loose and yes he was not ruck-inspecting. He did play well.

On the card, I'm just not sure if it was dumb, incompetent or deliberate, but I wouldn't be surprised if no further action was taken. Fortunately, it didn't matter if it was yellow or red.

However, over the season I do agree with Field, he seems content to be getting a wage, 3 square meals and some burger snacks in between times. He would help himself by getting fit but seems to be thwarting any attempt by the organisation to encourage that. It is a shame for I don't think Rory is that bad a judge of ability.

He can certainly scrum. Did so against McGrath/Furlong and Clermont, bar 10 mins of madness. Rory is right he can scrum. He also made more ground than Hendo, AOC, Chad etc with ball in hand. He will never be consistent enough and will frustrate because he has the ability. We are stuck with him as Herbst is made of paper.

[therealspratt]

After reviewing the Red card, I believe it was clumsy and nothing else, if he gets cited for that then so should Landman for standing on Ruan's face.....on the subject of Ah You, management and the S&C coaches should shoulder some of the blame for letting him get so heavy....

I don't know, when he was at Connacht he was on an extremely carefully managed diet plan with some Connacht staff even going to his house to cook his meals. He may just be unmanageable.

[Bart S]

Our strength and our depth at prop is pretty woeful. Some guys who dont appear to be good enough, others who may be but are regularly injured and some who may be in the future but have a long way to go to be the finished article.

Ah You does appear to be able to scrummage, carry and tackle pretty well when he can be bothered/doesn't have to move.

Chances are that he will never change his attitude and approach towards fitness and therefore never really be good enough, but given the arrival of Gibbes and let's face it, a lack of particularly appealing alternatives right now, i still think we should try again with him in ore-season. A forlon hope in all likelihood but he has actual ability levels ahead of some of the alternatives.

[BR]

After reviewing the Red card, I believe it was clumsy and nothing else, if he gets cited for that then so should Landman for standing on Ruan's face.....on the subject of Ah You, management and the S&C coaches should shoulder some of the blame for letting him get so heavy....

He doesn't need to be cited; he was red carded.

[BR]

I am going to give Herring a byeball on last night. I really like him as a player (not so much a captain). That was a stand-out bad performance during his time here. Line drawn; learn from it; we expect a return to normal next week.

If people are disputing the Dragons' charge down try, could they expand on what they thought was wrong with it?

[damianmcr]

After reviewing the Red card, I believe it was clumsy and nothing else, if he gets cited for that then so should Landman for standing on Ruan's face.....on the subject of Ah You, management and the S&C coaches should shoulder some of the blame for letting him get so heavy....

I don't know, when he was at Connacht he was on an extremely carefully managed diet plan with some Connacht staff even going to his house to cook his meals. He may just be unmanageable.

That's unbelievable. Useless brad pitt.

[Big Smoke Culchie]

Yet another own try by p. He is an unreconstructed shambles of a scrum half. How a man of such disastrously limited talent has had a career in pro rugby says everything about the paucity of options Ulster have faced over the last eleven seasons. Almost unbelievable that UR have been paying someone for 11 seasons who is effectively a fifth columnist, sabotaging the efforts of others for 11 bloody years.

To think some fools several years ago were critical of me for not getting behind p, "a great wee trier who breathes & bleeds Ulster". In my opinion, he hasn't bled nearly enough, where is my machete? Not much point being an enthusiast when you are just a liability, eh?

I hate that little c unt.

[scrum5]

Would it be remiss of me to award Herbst with the DFCT Award.
















The Declan Fitzpatrick Chocolate Teapot Award

[scrum5]

After reviewing the Red card, I believe it was clumsy and nothing else, if he gets cited for that then so should Landman for standing on Ruan's face.....on the subject of Ah You, management and the S&C coaches should shoulder some of the blame for letting him get so heavy....

He doesn't need to be cited; he was red carded.

Correct BR what I meant was a further ban for his indiscretion.

[jean valjean]

Rodney could have done with a year beside a motivated big nick. The guy is severely ill disciplined and cannot seem to motivate himself beyond a few weeks at a time. Expect a slimmed down version come august, but for how long?

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