Positives & Negatives: Ulster V Dragons

[againstthehead]

Positives
- given the overall context, missing 6 forwards & 4 backs (including payne...), and playing for a quarter of the game with 14 men, a 5 pointer was some result (and if you also include the fact that we were pish, it's a tremendous result...)
- set-piece super solid
- kick offs better than I have seen in a while. After a ropey start, Stevenson was grand and Spence was tremendous attacking the ball in the air
- defence was excellent albeit against a side with no attacking threat

Negatives
- missed ball carriers. No momentum, no phase building no anything
- breakdown a total shambles. Either we have 15 incompetant eejits (well usually 14 on the field at a time...) or the ref was a joke. The tackle zone was hectic.
- humph just not quite on the money. Not awful but we need him buzzing for the heiny.
- d'arcy a tad rusty at the back. Good call from the Glock to slot stefan at 15.
- a pretty typical lacklustre performance. We always seem to 'play as well as the opposition'. They were crap and we were slightly less crap. I think this is proabably why Glock is 'moving sideways'. We can lift the performance for the big games but overall our level of performance isn't much better than 3 years ago. I've watched some rubbish this season, treviso, connacht, dragons and that's just the home games.... The consistancy is just not there and I don't see much sign of it coming.

Overall, an excellent result but a terrible performance. Take the 5 points and move on....

[UlsterBok]

Overall a rather scratchy performance and most of the players looked incredibly rusty, although that said it was unsurprising given that most have not been playing for the past 3 weeks, team disruptions and off field speculations/issues.

+ Defense - overall I though the defensive shape and mettle were good with a reasonable intensity. Initially I think they allowed the Dragons to breach the line too easily but it seemed to get better overall and considering they played without 2 players for about 15 minutes I think it was reasonable.
+ Set piece - scrums were solid, and even too some extent dominant even when 7 men were pitted against the Dragons full 8. Lineouts were good considering the conditions and I thought Tuohy stepped up quite well calling the shots.
+ Counterattack/Took their chances - I thought Ulster took most of their chances that came their way.
+ Tuohy - was excellent tonight, made ground every time he got the ball and did very well throughout - thought he was the best player on the pitch.
+ Spence - very good game considering that he has not played that much, tackled and ran very strongly and was a nuisance on the ground.
+ Terblanche - didnt have a stormer, but brings so much composure to the back three and keeps so calm under pressure.
+ Bonus point win!

- Negatives
- Little cohesion/synergy - To be expected considering the lack of game time and team disruptions.
- Indiscipline - two yellow cards is not good at this level and a better team would have been far more ruthlesss.
- Officiating - Faloon's yellow card was not a sinbinning offence, it was actually a penalty to Ulster, as the Dragons player was off his feet and trying to compete. I thought Danielli and Terblanche should both also have had tries which were dubiously disallowed.
- Kicking - Both PIenaar and Humphrey's not quite on the top of their game.
- Lack of leadership - Whilst i dont think it was terrible, i dont think there was really anyone on the field, who really commanded everyone's attention. I dont think Afoa did a bad job considering, despite his rather odd decision for the 3 points. Really missed Muller and his overall commanding leadership.

[jackthelad]

Positives - as above.
One negative I didn't understand was playing Spence - a 13 at 12 and Whitten - a 12 at 13. Whitten was poor to awful.

[Big-al]

Agree with most of what has been said.

- Some of the refs decisions at the breakdown were a bit confusing to say the least. Faloon's yellow looked like a perfect turnover to me.

- Thought Paddy Mcallister had a good cameo, very strong around the fringes

- Backrow where non-existant at the breakdown, even worse than I predicted.

[TinPig]

- Backrow where non-existant at the breakdown, even worse than I predicted.

Lightweight in contact. I stopped counting the amount of tackles McComish slid off.

[Tenyarder]

Positives - as above.
One negative I didn't understand was playing Spence - a 13 at 12 and Whitten - a 12 at 13. Whitten was poor to awful.

The whole 10 - 12 - 13 axis was pretty awful, whether it was personal skills, out of position or lack of cohesion.

We really need to be taking a serious look at the 10 shirt for the rest of this season and thereafter. At present what does iH actually contribute to the team (apart from letting whoever wants play at 10 on a defensive set piece)? I think Marshall has come on in leaps and bounds and deserves the 9 shirt, with the sainted Ruan going to where he does not want to go. Big Johann is going to have to have a word in his ear.

[Starsky]

- Backrow where non-existant at the breakdown, even worse than I predicted.

Lightweight in contact. I stopped counting the amount of tackles McComish slid off.

I thought he was our best back row player, not that it was saying much, but I think you're being hugely unfair to single him out.

[Big-al]

Not really. TinPig was correct. McComishs tackling was awful. We'd have been better picking Spence at 6!!!

[Lurgan Lad]

One of the worst 5 point performances I have seen in a while, I think that pretty much sums it up. Ref was just abysmal at the breakdown, any time you tackle someone and knock them back you fall on them and get penalised, was just stupidity. The Dragons had the ball for a huge amount of time and apart from Tovey and to a lesser degree Brew they were pretty useless. I think we are showing a bit of killer instinct with the ball, but to be fair in a match where Diack looked good that would sum up the standard of a lot of the play. Really we should have put 40 on them easy.

[Neil F]

Poor performance but I find the complaints a little odd; have you watched Leinster or Munster around international breaks in recent seasons? Although Leinster have improved in this area significantly in the last season or two, before that, neither ever looked particularly good during international breaks, etc. What was noticeable about their performances was not the nature of the performance but the result. That is what Ulster achieved this evening; 5 points from the weak performance of a seriously disrupted team. Maybe I'm a bit of an optimist but that seems like something worth celebrating, not something worth complaining about...

Positives - as above.
One negative I didn't understand was playing Spence - a 13 at 12 and Whitten - a 12 at 13. Whitten was poor to awful.

Think the call was fairly sensible; Wallace was away at Ireland training and was released for this game. Whitten was initially named at 13; as such, I presume that the week's training was based around Whitten in the 13 channel to play with Wallace. Presume Spence took the 'Wallace' role for the parts of training Wallace missed whilst away with Ireland. As such, when Wallace was called away at short notice, it probably made more sense to go with the training ground pairing, rather than the more 'natural' positions of each player because they would have been used to those attacking and defensive calls.

[Harold7]

Really we should have put 40 on them easy.

In fairness we did put 30 on them.

I don't know what some people were expecting from some of our third choice players.

Job done, 5 points in the bank, move on...

[gannonman]

As bad a bonus point win as you can get but who cares? Happy. Also thought the Rockettes had a decent outing!

[mikerob]

I don't know what the possession stats were but wouldn't be surprised if the Dragons had far more possession than Ulster.

OK, they couldn't do much with the ball when they had it, but at least they could hold on to the ball more more than a couple of phases, unlike Ulster... really not much in the way of continuity play or sustained pressure from the home side.

Was puzzled by Afoa's decision to go for a penalty when Ulster were 8 points ahead. An 8 point lead or an 11 point lead still needs 2 scores to overhaul, and Ulster needed all the BPs we can get to improve the table position.

I don't know if I am reading too much into this, but 3/4 Ulster tries had either Falloon or Birch being a link man. Does the inter passing leading to the 2nd try, or exploiting opposition mistakes (3rd and 4th tries) work better with a traditional open side than the 6s/8s back row that seems to be favoured by BMcL?

[TommyBowe]

To be honest...i didnt really see many positives, very scrappy play against newport a team that is very very poor at the best of times!! I think ive changed my mind about the move........

[Starsky]

I don't know if I am reading too much into this, but 3/4 Ulster tries had either Falloon or Birch being a link man. Does the inter passing leading to the 2nd try, or exploiting opposition mistakes (3rd and 4th tries) work better with a traditional open side than the 6s/8s back row that seems to be favoured by BMcL?

In a word yes (I think you're reading to much into it). I'm quite happy with P3, Ferris and makeshift 7 Henry and the bonus points we've scored with that unit.