Positives and Negatives: Ulster v Glasgow

[againstthehead]

A horrifically difficult game to analyse from the terrace but here goes....

Positives
- quarter final qualification. 3rd year on the bounce and with an opportunity to win next week and take the game to Ravenhill. Can't ask more than that from a tricky enough group.
- dug deep at the end. Down to 14 men and the gap closed to 4 points and it was squeaky bum time. We got back to basics, and powered through very effectively at the end. The first 10 mins was great and the last 10 mins was great..... The middle 60 mins will be dealt with below.
- scrumtastic at times
- Jared was pretty solid at the back, kicked some nice field position and took his try very well indeed
- Defensively very effective all night. Glasgee never looked like crossing the line.
- as mentioned above, we started the game really well. To go 10 points up was a real lift and should have set us up for the game. But we seemed to go for the jugular too soon (or in the wrong way)
- kicking game was generally decent enough. Some good box kicks, some nice kicks through. Generally, we maintained field position pretty well which was always critical tonight. However, what we did when we got there left a bit to be desired....
- nick williams as physical as ever but with a low error count.
- wilson and marshall gave us the injection we really needed. Good shifts.
- to win with so many key players out: Ferris, Muller and Tommy are pretty much world class acts and to win without your key players is always an achievement.

Negatives
- tactically inept for large parts of the game. We started like a house on fire. Kick field position, pressurised, then keep it relatively tight and went through the phases. Basically that was all that could be achieved on a night like that. But we went wide far far too much and coughed up cheap possession time and time again. There seemed to be bugger all forwards wanting the ball at ruck time. Where were the ball carriers? Where were the pick n goes? We did this for a couple of spells at the start and at the end and pulled off 2 trys. Not rocket science. That was a night for Munster rugby.
- PJ did seem to be struggling a bit with his kicking game out there. hopefully, gets back on track soon.
- lineout. Bit shambolic at times but glasgee in fairness disrupted us really well. Not one rolling maul from us from what I remember. flip me, if there was EVER a night to stick it up the jumper and drive a team off the park, then tonight was it.
- leaders. Felt we lacked a bit of leadership there tonight. We seemed to get on the wrong side of the ref early on and we never really seemed to have his ear. Ruan or PW needed to take that game by the scruff and impose themselves. Likewise, Muller would have made all the difference up front.
- the ref. I'd really need to watch the game again but I thought we didn't quite get the rub of the green. Surely there were a couple more pens at scrumtime out there? And did one player get penalised for holding the ball on the ground all night or get pinged from coming in the side or sealing? There were at least 2 occasions were it looks as though henry was on his feat and had rights to the ball but got pinged? Or am I biassed? lol

Overall, job done. Sort out the injuries (darn- jackson, gilroy and NW) and lets get that win in France we are after!!

[Lurgan Lad]

Think we tried a maul or two, one of which when we were down to 14 men which isn't the time to do it, given how big a pack we have need to be doing it more.
Henderson yellow carded again is incredibly disappointing, and in fact he wasn't that noticeable during the game otherwise, probably wasn't the right choice to start him.
Never really thought we were going to lose to be honest, but the best positive is undoubtedly getting through to the QFs once again, fantastic.

[Scholar]

Wasn't hard to get on wrong side of the ref. He didn't even yellow card himself for his deliberate knock on.

[ruckover]

POSITIVES
- Quarter-finals, happy days
- Ground out the win very well despite having our backs up against the wall for most of the second half
- Scrum was incredibly dominant, but only on our put in

NEGATIVES
- As I said, for most of the second half we were on the back foot. Not good enough. Glasgow played it well, but we let them and that could have (and should have) cost us
- Referee I felt had a poor game. Not blaming him for not getting the BP but definitely let Glasgow away with a lot at the breakdown and in the scrum
- Jackson had another poor game unfortunately. Maybe go for Marshall/Pienaar next week due to his knock?
- Injuries
- No TBP. That Glasgow side should've been put away, despite the weather.
- We had no defence to their rolling maul.

[interlooter]

Not too far off the mark against.
Scrum was excellent again tonight and we should have made more of our dominance in this phase, though the ref did nothing for us. They continually engaged early as they knew they'd be fecked otherwise and the ref should have been penalising and warning them for repeated infringements, with the card produced at some stage. We let a penalty try go begging when Ruan went for goal. I know it would have put us 10 clear, but we had just massacred them in the scrum, no annihilated is closer to it.
It would have been a gutsy call as you'd have put the house on Ruan kicking it, but he missed and we never got a better opportunity in the scrum.
Backs looked good again and must be congratulated for their handling and ambition in bad conditions.
We have the choice of how strong a team we send to CO, injuries permitting. Johann is the big question.

Negs.
Hendo binned again. We were getting on the refs mammaries at that stage and he was unlucky, but he will be the one that refs are looking for now and will need to be squeaky clean, which will not help his effectiveness.
Glasgow were a game but limited side that we should have put away much earlier. Great to start a game well for a change, but moving the snooze to after half time is not great progress.
More fecking injuries

[Snipe Watson]

I take it you were watching from home. It was a shocking night for rugby and scores were hard to come by.

[ruckover]

For the "penalty try" opportunity - it was the right call. Tonight was about winning the game, not the BP, and if we had got the points we would have restored our seven point cushion. No point in chasing a BP and then losing it altogether. At that point we still weren't really in control.

Another positive was that we showed great character to come out of their "dominant" spell with only a 6 point loss. Our defence was brilliant and we managed to hold on very well. That's the sign of a good team.

[interlooter]

Yes, stuck at home tonight, but dry and warm and no knobs shouting abuse.
Just the wife telling me to be quiet when I shouted at the ref when they replayed another scrum free kick against the weegies and I thought it was live
Yeah, fair enough, the 3 points was the right decision, but what we'd just done to that Glasgow scrum was unreal, and as a front rower I was gagging to see us wipe the floor with them again. This goes back to our discussion on penalty tries and how certain would we have been to get one?

[BPH]

The mate that used my season ticket tonight, said that he was impressed by McComb when he came on - added some real physicality. Couldn't really judge from TV, but I'd like to see Henderson revert back to 6 and Neil start in the row

[againstthehead]

Yes, stuck at home tonight, but dry and warm and no knobs shouting abuse.
Just the wife telling me to be quiet when I shouted at the ref when they replayed another scrum free kick against the weegies and I thought it was live
Yeah, fair enough, the 3 points was the right decision, but what we'd just done to that Glasgow scrum was unreal, and as a front rower I was gagging to see us wipe the floor with them again. This goes back to our discussion on penalty tries and how certain would we have been to get one?

no certainty. esp with that ref. refs often gte impatient and can ping the attacking side for all manner of things - early engagement etc. It was the right call to kick.

[Agers]

- the ref. I'd realy need to watch the game again but I thought we didn't quite get the rub of the green. Surely there were a couple more pens at scrumtime out there? And did one player get penalised for holding the ball on the ground all night or get pinged from coming in the side or sealing? There were at least 2 occasions were it looks as though henry was on his feat and had rights to the ball but got pinged? Or am I biassed? lol

I think he was a bit harsh on the sealing but he did seem to be pretty consistent about it to me. Totally agree about the scrum. On TV you could hear him giving Moray Low a verbal warning saying that's 2 penalties against you, no more. I'm pretty sure he gave away another couple at scrum time after that but no further action.ll

I would add another postive. Thought beagle was incredible last night. Good quick ball from the rucks, added a lot of momentum to our attack and a lovely little pass to Payne for the 3rd try. Sky commentators were saying he must feature for Ireland

[Neil F]

There was a ten-minute spell at the start of the second half, from about 42 minutes on, where the referee totally lost control of the game. I think the best example came in the Ulster 22; a Glasgow player was, I think, offside. The referee went to whistle for a penalty but stopped short of doing so because the ball went to Ulster. Either way, it was still a penalty and it should have been called. To be honest, he looked a little out of his depth and seemed to penalise, literally, everything in that ten minute spell.

[bazzaj]

As usual all very valid comments.
The reasons we lacked leadership is because Muller isnt playing really who makes such a difference.
Williams, Best,Henry, Wallace and Wilson when he came on stepped up in that regard and it was better than it has been.

The main point I would like to make would be the possible start pairing of RP and small P.
It maybe inevitable depending on PJs injury.
Asides the fact that RP is better at controlling a game at 9 rather than 10 and PM makes more of an impact off the bench, I would like to make a case for sticking to start PJ at 10.

There are definiately parts of his game which he needs to improve which will come with experience in terms of line breaks and kicking.
His distrubution is excellent but my main point is the way he shuts down the 10 channel like no other 10 in europe outside of Wilkinson or Sexton.
Can anyone recall the last time a player broke through that channel?
His defence is now something we are all taking slightly forgranted but it also has a knock on effect to our outside backs who can concentrate on their defence without any inside worry.
It is one of the reasons why our defence has been water tight this season.

Also when Big Nick threw the ball to no one in our 22 and our player was caught in possession, it was PJ who was first on scene to secure the ball in the ensuing ruck allowing us to clear the danger.
He does the dirty work which is something I am sure that is not lost on the likes of Bell and MA.

Great to see Darren Cave taking that try brilliantly last night.
I have been critical of that aspect of his game but if he keeps doing that I will well and truely swallow some humble pie with relish.

[Rooster]

Positive, we won and are in the quarter finals
Negative it was a wet miserable night answer shipped a few more injuries

[Scholar]

Time we had an 80 minute hooter