Swansea vs Ulster

[CIMANFOREVER]

Ospreys: Dan Evans; Hanno Dirksen, Ashley Beck, Josh Matavesi, Eli Walker; Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb; Marc Thomas, Scott Baldwin, Dmitri Arhip, Rynier Bernardo, Alun Wyn Jones (Capt), James King, Justin Tipuric, Tyler Ardron#

Replacements: Sam Parry, Gareth Thomas, Daniel Suter, Dan Lydiate, Sam Lewis, Martin Roberts, Sam Davies, Andrew Bishop

Despite injuries, decent Ospreys team. Lydiate on the bench lol.... we could do with him or Tipuric... Alun Wyn Jones our nemesis- great player. We really need to front up.

[Dave]

It's easy to be made look stupid if the ref is clueless and only watches one prop .
The Scarlets prop was smaller went lower and turn down into his hookers feet or instead of pushing up tucked the chin and nose dived .


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This always annoys me. There are apparently hundreds of experts - ex-players, video analysts and (of course) arm-chair pundits - who watch games and are fit to say one prop or other was conning the ref or that the ref had "no idea what was going on in the front row". And yet the referee, whose effing job it is to watch and decide what is happening and award penalties, rarely seems to get it right.

I realise that there are many other things a ref has to watch simultaneously but you would think that referee training would include some input from ex-players and video analysts, and that maybe when a ref realises that a particular player is apparently repeat offending despite having been warned he might look a little deeper to see if there was a reason why the stupid prop in front of him was ignoring his warning. And maybe he would occasionally actually look to see where both props directly in front of him were binding, and even ask his assistant ref to glance at least once at the bindings on the opposite side.

But apparently not.

Am I alone in being dubious about the mythical "dark arts" of the front row?
Don't get me wrong, propping is a highly specialised position, but is it really as shrouded in mystery as the fat lads would want us to believe?
Surely it's more about basic physics than alchemy. Get your shoulders level with your hips and you are stable. Get lower than your opponent and you have a more dynamic position. Push straight and keep your ass behind your shoulders. What's difficult?

Certainly not alone Snipe. I accept there are probably a few subtleties but the idea that no-one can know what is going on except the props themselves is ludicrous.

Well the ref was fairly clear in his instructions. Deccie was told several times to stop bringing his bind up to the arm, and he either didn't or couldn't. I think perhaps he is the Caldwell of the propping world or he else physically couldn't. Whether that was because of something the opposition was doing I don't know. Deccie was indicating to the ref that opposition was driving inwards. The ref said that that didn't matter because the first thing they look at is binding. I don't know if that is what the laws state but that was reason given by Doyle.

[Dave]

So how long before Deccie gets:

Subbed

Yellow carded

Red carded

Breaks


Never before have the words... Stay warm Bros' been so fundamental...

I'd say the reverse of that order would be more like it

[Russ]

I think Deccie will play his best game of rugby this week

Wouldn't be hard, less than 5 penalties and making it to 45 minutes would do it

[MCBwinwinwin]

People should back off fitz. We know that he is a solid scrummager, their prop and hooker where turning him over. If they had done the same with his sub then the red would have smelt a massive rat.


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[Eggs]

People should back off fitz. We know that he was a solid scrummager, their prop and hooker where turning him over. If they had done the same with his sub then the red would have smelt a massive rat.


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Fixed that for you.

He was a good scrummager, but I am struggling to think of the last strong scrummaging performance he has put in.


Mind you, it would be hard to remember, he is only fit to play once in a blue moon!

[Kofi Annan]

People should back off fitz. We know that he is a solid scrummager, their prop and hooker where turning him over. If they had done the same with his sub then the red would have smelt a massive rat.


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When Fatzy went off, Ross immediately got a penalty from the same prop , why was that?

[MCBwinwinwin]

I'm not pretending to be an expert but I think we all know that a lot of scullduggery goes on in the scrum. Maybe he couldn't hack it when he felt under pressure to scrum fairly!

It was only a year or two ago that people were saying how wonderful he was and how he should be playing for Ireland. I disagreed and I stand by that but I think we should be balanced about the good as well as the bad. He is a solid scrummager who had a bad day. My only problem is that he gets injured a lot but I don't think we can really blame him too much for that.


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[Kofi Annan]

I'm not pretending to be an expert but I think we all know that a lot of scullduggery goes on in the scrum. Maybe he couldn't hack it when he felt under pressure to scrum fairly!

It was only a year or two ago that people were saying how wonderful he was and how he should be playing for Ireland. I disagreed and I stand by that but I think we should be balanced about the good as well as the bad. He is a solid scrummager who had a bad day. My only problem is that he gets injured a lot but I don't think we can really blame him too much for that.


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Are you sniffing vagisil, I don't recall anyone saying he was wonderful

[Jackie Brown]

Maybe Fitzpatrick is seriously lacking game time. I mean has any international player in the Ulster setup played fewer games in their time on a pro contract? Would be interesting to know the ratio of game time missed through injury and actual time on the pitch.

Times like this you miss Cables.

[scrum5]

Weihahn Herbst might be back sooner, pictured with the team during the captain's run this morning.

[Eggs]

Weihahn Herbst might be back sooner, pictured with the team during the captain's run this morning.

That would be a massive boost

[Aird]

Still think the major problem lies with the coaches especially Doak and Clark for not hauling him off to protect the team from conceeding any further penalties and the inevitable card. We have seen it often enough before where a ref gets a view and will not alter it whether right or wrong.
Fitzie was hard done by the ref but on the other hand I was surprised he waited so long to produce the YC. As Fitzie looked totally dumbfounded by the penalties surely either he or Best during the game or our coaches at half time should have asked for clarification as to what he was doing wrong.

[MCBwinwinwin]

A lot of people were shouting for him to be be on the Ireland team. I think he will have a good game tomorrow and maybe people will give him a break.


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[Nightsoil]

Saying he should play for Ireland and saying he's any cop are two very different things when dealing with a tighthead...