Ulster v Edinburgh Positives and Negatives

[damianmcr]

Positvies
We win
In the final
Doesn't seem to be any injuries (I know Stevie came off)
DIdnt hear he fans since the sound wasn't up but heard the fans were great

We will need to be much better in the final but then there will be nothing left to lose so play as we want.

Shocking his low Edinburgh are based on well they can play.

[fermain]

The singing. The flags. meeting friendly faces again and for the first time. Having a brilliant day and night with so many and we going all the way. & The singing! EPIC!

[damianmcr]

The Aviva was just a sea of white

[Mac]

Positives
we won
In the final.......again
Scrum
LIne out
RP kicking
PJ graduates
The Fans 40,000+ crazy
John & Chris (hopefully) back for the final
Half time team talk

Negatives
Turnovers
Lack of cohesion in first half.
Willie missed a couple of tackles.
Slow to come to terms with high ball tactics in first.
Missing bite, urgency or could have been nerves

Another day of days
And we're not finished yet

[breakdown]

Does it really matter, we're in the final!!

[Big-al]

Biggest Negative was how much we missed Chris Henry. Willie was poor again unfortunatly, Ferris was average by his standards too.

Biggest positive was the teams/squads ability to take control of the match at a vital time with Ruan leading from the front.


Onwards and upwards, this team has shown this season that they can match anyone in Europe on their day.

[Snipe Watson]

bit of a pointless thread really semi finals are just about being the last team standing at 80.

But in the spirit of the occasion....
Meeting our proprietor was a positive
My sore throat is a negative...............

[Muddy Bless]

Positives were that Roman Prat didn't think that the ball was out in the build up to P3's try! And that he didn't think 1f deserved a yellow for slapping the ball out of blair's hands! It was a gutsy performance, and a deserved win, but I think we dodged a few bullets with a few of the major reffing calls.

Credit to Edinburgh they had me worried the whole game, suspected it was going to be tight... But 10 minutes to go and still within 7... Too tight for my good health!

Well done our lads! It was worth staying up till 2.30am to watch the end!

SUFTUM

[BR]

Just been looking at the match stats,

Edinburgh beat us on every stat except 2!- Penalty goals scored (5 v 4) and tackles made (134 v 65) - this is no way to win rugby matches, but it seems to work.

[Cockatrice]

Positives ... I'll be in London for the weekend of 19th May everything else is pretty irrelevant.

Negatives.... Can't get to Manchester to see United win the title.

99 was a United/ Ulster double year just hope 2012 can be.

[TriGav]

For all the hand wringing and any expression of negatives about yesterday let us just have a quick review. Ulster were without their most consistent player (Chris Henry), their scrum lynchpin (Afoa) and basically denied the services of their talismanic player (Stevie) as he played on while obviously more than mildly crocked. Yet still we won. Not making excuses as I don't have to cos we won. But just saying. For me sign of a great team spirit, will to win, oh and more than a sprinkling of the old dust of talent from St Ruan. Truly a great, great player

[damianmcr]

Was reading on boards.ie a comment from a bar man who works all the rugby and footy matchs at the Aviva. He said yesterday was the best atmosphere the place has had since it opened.

[bangorboy]

I have been down for half a dozen Ireland matches and never ever heard noise like that yesterday!!!

[BaggyTrousers]

Positives
Ruan Johann Darren Paddy W & the scrum & lineout
The sea of Whit
3 weeks to get our back row fit.

Negatives

Freezing my balls off in upper west
Willie Faloon
Pedrie & Fez both limping badly, neither fit I suspect
Paddy Jackson played as if trying to ensure nobody could blame him for anything. A couple of pressure situations where iHumph would have tried something. As a result we created absolutely nothing.
We made Embra look a very good side.
People asking me all night why I wasn't happy.
A performance like that and we will be obliterated in the final.
Can't understand why I feel so deflated.

[UlsterBok]

Positives were that Roman Prat didn't think that the ball was out in the build up to P3's try! And that he didn't think 1f deserved a yellow for slapping the ball out of blair's hands! It was a gutsy performance, and a deserved win, but I think we dodged a few bullets with a few of the major reffing calls.

SUFTUM

I think the reason why the ball popped out was because Edinburgh stood up in the scrum, which is illegal itself, which stopped the momentum and caused the ball to pop out - if you watch the replay you will see that Poite had his hand out for advantage for it. As for the yellow card for slapping the ball out of hands - sure that could have been but there were at least two times when Edinburgh came blatantly and cynically in the side during mauls close to their line around the 50min period so equally that would have resulted in a yellow card.

As for the Terblanche yellow - I think this is beginning to be a worrying trend in rugby. It is so frustrating to see players provoke other players by pushing faces into the turf, holding players back off the ball, grabbing them around the neck etc. Clearly you should not react and it was definitely a penalty - but at the same time Ford grabbed Terblanche around his neck and was holding him - albeit not in a malicious way or anything - but why arent players who provoke getting penalized??