The UAFC

justinr73 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:27 pm

Lurgan Lad wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2020 9:56 am What I'm getting at is we need a team that has an 'Ulster' culture right through it, supplemented by quality imports. A team that are proud to play for 'their' province, and have the qualities that make so many of us proud to say we are from Ulster. What I feel we have now is simply another branch of the IRFU with little real identity.

I’ve just had a bid on a house in East Belfast accepted. Hopefully I’ll meet the standard required to be a quality import!

I live in England now Justin so I think we can just call that swapsies between us! Might have to start thinking about changing my name!

Hate to be an optimist BUT Petty's try WAS offside; Cooney's WAS not. That means without Henderson, Balacoune and Addison we lost in Dublin to the best team in Europe by four points. SUFTU !!

The soft underbelly has been exposed yet again. Limited game plan...pass, bosh, recycle, pass bosh, knock on is not effective. watching teams like Exeter and Leinster, it is easy to see how far off the mark we are, and this has nothing to do with 'Imports.' We just arent savvy and hard enough and don't have the wherewithal to make the right decisions at the right time, and being from Rasharkin rather than Avoca will not make one button of difference. Culturally we are weak... and this is evidenced by Stu McCloskey's whinging to Trimble about how Stevie Ferris's punditry annoyed him, bless .... we're soft, molly coddled and simply not good enough... which has been the case for aeons.

therealspratt wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 2:17 pm Ulster's failings are ultimately of Ulster's making, it's not anyone else's fault that the players we're producing aren't of the same standard as Leinster's.

agreed, and foolishly we are still tied to the school's system and clubs are widely ignored, sadly too many players are stopped from playing at their local club, even when the school has no matches, which reduces the numbers club based youth teams, to the point that many clubs have a minimal youth system as a result. too many players are lost as the schools focus on the 1st XV and leave all others by the wayside.

As an example, two of our larger traditional regional clubs have Head coaches who are also the DoR at the local grammar schools and they still stop school players turning out for the clubs... this is a massive problem! so unless you are seen as a potential first XV player at school, you will not get regular rugby, resulting in many kids leaving the game early, and its the clubs that suffer despite that they are often the ones that invest in the kids through the mini rugby system.

My own club for example had 35 boys consistently for 7 years until may 2019, the following season there was no U12's as the schools stopped them from continuing their rugby.

HammerTime wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2020 1:56 pm Elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about we’re missing out on half of our potential young players by not kicking and screaming our way into nationalist schools to play rugby. The odd school has given it a go but most are reluctant. With the success of the Irish rugby team recently this shouldn’t be an impossible task. Dublin needs to take the lead in this. Also the same with working class state schools. Most of the rugby snobs on here couldn’t bare the thought of it but I know Dromore High School bucks the trend with this their program seems to be top notch. We need to spread the net as far and wide as possible. It’s all about the schools rather than clubs the youngsters are there all week so an almost semi professional program can be set up around them. Schools schools schools IRFU were are the grants and the ambition to make this happen?!

increasing numbers of clubs are working with GAA clubs and CCM Schools, can cite Lisburn RFC's excellent work with St Joseph's, Instonians work with local CCMS in South Belfast, Coleraine RFC with Loreto etc... the focus on schools rugby is the issue more than anything as per my rant above.

nonplussed wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 9:04 am The soft underbelly has been exposed yet again. Limited game plan...pass, bosh, recycle, pass bosh, knock on is not effective. watching teams like Exeter and Leinster, it is easy to see how far off the mark we are, and this has nothing to do with 'Imports.' We just arent savvy and hard enough and don't have the wherewithal to make the right decisions at the right time, and being from Rasharkin rather than Avoca will not make one button of difference. Culturally we are weak... and this is evidenced by Stu McCloskey's whinging to Trimble about how Stevie Ferris's punditry annoyed him, bless .... we're soft, molly coddled and simply not good enough... which has been the case for aeons.

For those of you who haven’t listened to the podcast, what Stu actually said (making the above summary appear somewhat ironic) was that Ferris was misrepresenting what actually happened.

It seems Aki said “not today ‘slot machine’ “ to Cooney rather than “not today champ” to Stu.

justinr73 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 11:54 am

nonplussed wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 9:04 am The soft underbelly has been exposed yet again. Limited game plan...pass, bosh, recycle, pass bosh, knock on is not effective. watching teams like Exeter and Leinster, it is easy to see how far off the mark we are, and this has nothing to do with 'Imports.' We just arent savvy and hard enough and don't have the wherewithal to make the right decisions at the right time, and being from Rasharkin rather than Avoca will not make one button of difference. Culturally we are weak... and this is evidenced by Stu McCloskey's whinging to Trimble about how Stevie Ferris's punditry annoyed him, bless .... we're soft, molly coddled and simply not good enough... which has been the case for aeons.

For those of you who haven’t listened to the podcast, what Stu actually said (making the above summary appear somewhat ironic) was that Ferris was misrepresenting what actually happened.

It seems Aki said “not today ‘slot machine’ “ to Cooney rather than “not today champ” to Stu.

Listening to yesterday's podcast, it seems that stu asked to make the point on the podacst, if that's what hes worried about then his priorities are all fecked up, its nigh on pathetic in my humble opinion... its not like Ferris called him Shoite or anything... to me it points as a soft underbelly, which is our problem and has been for some time. A serious dose of tighten up syrup is required

I don’t have a problem with ‘fact-checking’ - sadly it’s all too necessary in this day and age.

If Ferris is unable to accurately report back from the touchline then they should get someone in with better hearing, although the decent point he was actually trying to illustrate was regarding the influence of Aki (comfortably the star of the show since the restart imho).

Ok, no one acknowledges that we won the best boots and may just have edged the hairstyles, so what else positive can I say?

James Hume looks the part, has a brain that understands avoiding contact can be smart.

Fitness better than I thought, Cooney outpacing a fresh Leinster speedster after 75 odd minutes seriously impressive.

Last season we gave the Leinster firsts at home a serious game and Jacob not falling on the ball rather than showboating would have made it seriously close

There will be a game when the passes stick and the smarts kick ion. No, I don't think it will be in a desultory Murrayfield but perhaps Toulouse!!

Lurgan Lad wrote: ↑Fri Aug 28, 2020 7:27 am Part of me thinks the sooner young people get it and get over it the better, as long as it is then somehow not spread to older people. It is looking like it is going to be with us all for some time yet!

BREAKING: #PennState's director of athletic medicine, Wayne Sebastianelli, says that cardiac MRI scans revealed that roughly 30-35 percent of Big Ten athletes who tested positive for COVID-19 appeared to have myocarditis. https://t.co/md4p1IoaLh

Big ten are college teams.

damianmcr wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 5:08 pm

Lurgan Lad wrote: ↑Fri Aug 28, 2020 7:27 am Part of me thinks the sooner young people get it and get over it the better, as long as it is then somehow not spread to older people. It is looking like it is going to be with us all for some time yet!

BREAKING: #PennState's director of athletic medicine, Wayne Sebastianelli, says that cardiac MRI scans revealed that roughly 30-35 percent of Big Ten athletes who tested positive for COVID-19 appeared to have myocarditis. https://t.co/md4p1IoaLh

Thanks for that, that is a seriously high percentage. I've minimal knowledge in this area, wonder is it going to be a similar percentage for the general population and will be interesting to see what the long term effects on individuals are.

There’s enough scaremongering on the Daily Mail website.

Let’s stick to the rugby on here or start a separate thread elsewhere on the forum.

Go win it for us John in the second half. You are now a true Ulsterman and we are totally proud of you. My family think with all your community work and love of living in Ulster it make you a true Ulster man in our eyes for ever.