Positives and Negatives: Ulster v Glasgow
Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 12:07 am
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!!
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!!