Ulster - Ospreys Positives and Negatives

darkside lightside · Post by **darkside lightside** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:04 am

Well sorry to say, but that was another messy, uncoordinated, poor performance from Ulster.

Positives:
* once in a while we would show what we might be capable of with a sweet bit of play... but all too aften, we just gave it up with errors and indiscipline... sigh...
* our scrum absolutely beasted their's from start to finish - a very good showing by Paddy Mac I thought...
* I thought Spence played well, although I would like to see less of him being brought into traffic inside, and more of him in space outside.. He's such a quick dynamic runner, it seems to me like he's wasted coming inside so much..
* my MOTM was Stevenson - second week in a row I think he's been outstanding, superb workrate, and for such a tall guy he carries his weight excellently, and every single time he was given the ball he went forward.
* Afoa's quick feet, and good hands - a joy to watch from a THP... I love the way his instinct is always, but always, to straighten, he never runs across the park...
* I thought Gilroy and Whitten put in decent shifts, coming inside, defending well

Negatives:
* errors - again
* penalties - again (notwithstanding appalling ref)
* lineouts - whay the living fock was Andi not hooked after 55-60 mins?? When we were destroying their scrum, but choking at the lineout??? bad call by the coaches...
* another game where the bottom line is, we are inefficient - we have possession and territory and don't convert it, through poor handling, poor decisions, poor discipline. Another match I watch where I think we could have won by 20 - and we end up squeaking it by a point...

The ref, incidentally, was truly appalling this week - the amount of manifestly obvious things he missed, or got wrong, on both sides, was just mind-boggling.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:14 am

+Agree DL, Stevenson should have been MOTM. Great rip from Bearman after Diack held him up. Some good carries too. I thought Spence looked good at 13. Phenomenal work rate gives his all. I think in fairness the Spence up the middle ball was played a few times but then it didn't worked and we went wide more often to good effect. Terblanche also a class act at 15 and shows why Darcy isn't starting as ST would be a waste on the wing.

-Too many errors and pens, same ole tune...
Horrendous TMO decision unless some how the ball tipped the line in a super slo mo ultra HD mode that they have...but don't think so.

HighlandRed · Post by **HighlandRed** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:16 am

Highlight for me watching on tv was when the team ran on the pitch at the start- wasn't sure why there were 2 wee kids running on the pitch when there's normally only one, then realised it was Small Paul running beside Pedrie.

Fairly shocking waste of possession and territory, can't help but think we were just a little bit away from running in 2 more tries and everyone being happy clappy, a top team would have made better use of all that possession.

We didn't seem to have much on the bench to come on whereas when the Os made a change I found myself that little bit more anxious.

Big positive for me was both our front and second rows, our back row were alright but someone should have had a bit of a word with the ref about how they seemed to have fallen asleep on the floor- only reason i can think of them not making any attempt to roll away every single god damn time.

ruckover · Post by **ruckover** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:27 am

POSITIVES
+ Paddy Wallace: gem in the midfield. Shows once again why he should be in the Ireland mix
+ Scrum: annihalated theirs. How we didn't get any penalties from it is a bit unfair, they were frequently infringing
+ Stevenson: workaholic. Gave everything for 80 minutes.
+ Domination: we controlled the territory, the possession, every part of the game for 75 minutes (the other 5 minutes are accounted for later on)
+ Defence: in the brief moments they did threaten we held them out.

NEGATIVES
- Result: how did we only win by one point?
- Lack of points: we dominated, yet scored 15 points and 2 tries. Nowhere near good enough. They had 3 chances and took 14pts, we had about 30 and took 15
- The other 5 minutes: they scored 2 tries and nearly a third. Tighten it up.
- Lineouts: all over the place.
- Half backs: still a blatant issue
- Officials: where do I begin? 2 tries that should've been disallowed, a kick to the back that was only a penalty and no clue at scrum time. Wouldn't be surprised if the league picked these guys up off the street 10mins before kick off.

All in all, 4 points, job done. But it should've been a lot easier. Lots of work still to be done before the 8th of April...

John_e_boy · Post by **John_e_boy** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:27 am

positives
* individual performances by both Paddies, Whitten and the engine room
* the scrum

negatives
* the ref - we lost a bet and he was the boobie prize
* the TMO - he needs to be suspended for thon shocking decision
* errors all over the park
* beagle - distribution erratic, decision-making woeful
* line outs - once again shocking
* discipline - P3 could be cited for the trip
* overall performance was shoddy against - it cannot be denied - a very weak Hairspray team

devonredhand · Post by **devonredhand** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:37 am

ruckover wrote:POSITIVES
+ Paddy Wallace: gem in the midfield. Shows once again why he should be in the Ireland mix
+ Scrum: annihalated theirs. How we didn't get any penalties from it is a bit unfair, they were frequently infringing
+ Stevenson: workaholic. Gave everything for 80 minutes.
+ Domination: we controlled the territory, the possession, every part of the game for 75 minutes (the other 5 minutes are accounted for later on)
+ Defence: in the brief moments they did threaten we held them out.

NEGATIVES
- Result: how did we only win by one point?
- Lack of points: we dominated, yet scored 15 points and 2 tries. Nowhere near good enough. They had 3 chances and took 14pts, we had about 30 and took 15
- The other 5 minutes: they scored 2 tries and nearly a third. Tighten it up.
- Lineouts: all over the place.
- Half backs: still a blatant issue
- Officials: where do I begin? 2 tries that should've been disallowed, a kick to the back that was only a penalty and no clue at scrum time. Wouldn't be surprised if the league picked these guys up off the street 10mins before kick off.

All in all, 4 points, job done. But it should've been a lot easier. Lots of work still to be done before the 8th of April...

Spot on! good summary. Thought Wallace was immense and deserved MOTM.

Rocket · Post by **Rocket** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 1:07 am

+ve
For me I thought Ian whiten and paddy Wallace were super..

I think the Marshall/Ruan partnership linked ok in attack. And ruan threw some beauts out the backline. But not sure defensively two small men together

Ref give us some strange calls. Take them when u get them. Suppose the ospreys will have a thread should he ref another ospreys game, similar to our George Clancy thread.

-ve
Ruan had a bad night kicking.

Did think marshal was a bit slow getting the ball away from breakdown but in his defence there seemed to ospreys player at his feet all the time getting in the road.

I sang Spences praises last year but he not at his best at the moment and doesn't know how to pass.

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 1:09 am

The "War Office" escaped tonight so for the first time in ages had to
watch tonight in front of the old Goggle Box. By no means an easy game
to view....even with the few beers.

Positives:-
- Win, 4pts
- Some good individaul performances, Whitten, PW, Paddy Mac & the every improving Stevenson (best game so far)
- Scrum solid and effective. Afoa is a gem - one scrum in first half in particular where he just locked it down.
- Combination of RP and PW went well (quick minds)
- ST, cool personified. Would love to have seen him when he had a 5th Gear.

Negatives:-
- Error and penalty count, first half in particular.
- RP kicking from the tee not up to scratch at the mo.
- Small Paul (NOT knocking him) lacked the explosive urgency and was slow off the mark at the back of the scrum too often.
Couple of good box kicks though.
- Ref, loud and woeful. TWO suspect tries.
- Line out, miss JM.
- Too many visits inside their 22 without reward.
- Watching on TV, just can't do it.

ruckover · Post by **ruckover** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 1:11 am

Rocket wrote:+ve
For me I thought Ian whiten and paddy Wallace were super..

I think the Marshall/Ruan partnership linked ok in attack. And ruan threw some beauts out the backline. But not sure defensively two small men together

Ref give us some strange calls. Take them when u get them. Suppose the ospreys will have a thread should he ref another ospreys game, similar to our George Clancy thread.

-ve
Ruan had a bad night kicking.

Did think marshal was a bit slow getting the ball away from breakdown but in his defence there seemed to ospreys player at his feet all the time getting in the road.

I sang Spences praises last year but he not at his best at the moment and doesn't know how to pass.

You put the refs calls as a POSITIVE??? What game were you at mate?

John_e_boy · Post by **John_e_boy** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 1:18 am

ruckover wrote:
Rocket wrote:
You put the refs calls as a POSITIVE??? What game were you at mate?

the penalty try for us perhaps?

Otherwise...... it was frustrating to see the amount that he penalised us in the first half (mostly correct decisions to be honest) but failed to marshall the O's offside line until the 55th minute.

and as for their slowing the ball down and loitering on our side of rucks... tsk tsk

at one point in the first half there was a mini-maul. Ospreys #6 joins in (from the side) and grabs Spence by the head. Ref sees it at taps Ospreys #6 on the back and says "let go of his head". Spence was wrestled to the ground by the head and he did SFA.

I think every maul Ulster formed tonight, the O's tried to collapse and got away with 50% of them.

BaggyTrousers · Post by **BaggyTrousers** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 1:39 am

And further John-E, our resident ref, he penalised the dominant scrum twice & I could be wrong but I don't think their struggling scrum was penalised at all.

I thought we were a tad lucky to get the penalty try and wonder would we have taken another scrum or kicked the pen?

He didn't do us as much damage as Clancy, who for the entire 1st half last week penalised every attacking position on the Caaaadiff 22, but he was shockingly bad and it is clear the is a real problem with the standard of ref in the Pro 12.

Apart from Nigel the Welsh are poor, Rolland is quality compared to most & the Clancy/Fitzgibbon combo would be best served as a Laurel & Hardy tribute act. Indeed go for broke & add in Dudley Doright Phillips and bingo, a reprise of the Three Stooges.

Then the Scots are a joke & a bad one at that, the Italians - a bit meh!!!!! - but at least with them there is just incompetance rather than Clancy's brand of one-eyed sectarian bigotry.

Ulster throw in · Post by **Ulster throw in** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 9:58 am

BaggyTrousers wrote:
I thought we were a tad lucky to get the penalty try and wonder would we have taken another scrum or kicked the pen?

He didn't do us as much damage as Clancy, who for the entire 1st half last week penalised every attacking position on the Caaaadiff 22, but he was shockingly bad and it is clear the is a real problem with the standard of ref in the Pro 12.

Agreed.

Snipe Watson · Post by **Snipe Watson** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 11:46 am

HighlandRed wrote:Highlight for me watching on tv was when the team ran on the pitch at the start- wasn't sure why there were 2 wee kids running on the pitch when there's normally only one, then realised it was Small Paul running beside Pedrie.

I noticed that too, very funny. I honestly thought for a moment Chris has forgotten one of the mascots

Eggs · Post by **Eggs** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 1:01 pm

Having just rewatched the match on tv, biggest +ve was Wallace for me, great in attack and saved the try at the last gasp, and several other times! He is playing some great rugby, would have lost without him!

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 1:35 pm

Wallace, Whitten, Paddy Mac and Stephenson were the positives for me. If Whitten is playing to try and earn a new contract he did himself no harm whatsoever last night, possibly the best I've ever seen him in an Ulster shirt.
going through the phases for PW's try
PW was excellent and Paddy Mac and Stephenson did a huge amount of grunt work.
the squeezes at the scrum and rolling mauls. excellent.

-ves:
ref
penalty count
missing JM at the line out
how we're using Spence. I'm sure he loves the physical side but there's something perenially disappointing in the manner in which we throw him short ball and invite him to run inside to direct contact.
not quite making our domination count. at one point I thought 4 tries might be a possibility, we didn't quite raise the intensity / have the creativity on the pitch to make it count.

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