Contract Situation

Talk about the men in white, and everything Ulster!!

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Bart S
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by Bart S »

Dave wrote: Mon May 30, 2022 4:25 pm 1 cap with the all blacks and you're announced like that forever. So the squad is the squad now. New thread needed for the full squad list?
Think Steinmetz was a 1 cap all black. A couple of mins off the bench in an autumn international or something like that.

He was very good though, unlike Matk Bartholomeusz who was capped somehow for the Wallabies
Bart S
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by Bart S »

I think when Milasinovich was signed it was mentioned somewhere that he could cover both sides of the scrum.

Well I suppose given the size of him he literally could....
Neill_M
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by Neill_M »

Senior squad 2022/23

Forwards: Andrew Warwick, Callum Reid, Eric O’Sullivan, John Andrew, Rob Herring, Tom Stewart, Declan Moore, Gareth Milasinovich, Tom O’Toole, Marty Moore, Jeffrey Toomaga-Allen, Alan O'Connor, Kieran Treadwell, Sam Carter, Iain Henderson, Cormac Izuchukwu, Frank Bradshaw Ryan, Nick Timoney, David McCann, Duane Vermeulen, Jordi Murphy, Marcus Rea, Greg Jones, Sean Reffell, Matthew Rea

Backs: John Cooney, Nathan Doak, Dave Shanahan, Ian Madigan, Billy Burns, Jake Flannery, Stewart Moore, Luke Marshall, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Angus Curtis, Rob Lyttle, Jacob Stockdale, Robert Baloucoune, Aaron Sexton, Craig Gilroy, Will Addison, Ethan McIlroy, Ben Moxham, Jude Postlewaite, Michael Lowry, Shea O’Brien
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solidarity
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by solidarity »

Looking at the quality of the NIQs, the days of signing serious Saffers etc seem to have gone. Are Ulster just not an attractive prospect any more? Or were the golden days just an anomaly?
justinr73
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by justinr73 »

I dare you to tell that to DV!
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Dave
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by Dave »

Ulster don't have the cash compared to the top 14. Plus there is a homesickness pandemic on.
I have my own tv channel, what have you got?
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HammerTime
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by HammerTime »

All in all not a great raft of new signings, but not awful either. Mostly squad filler. Hope we are building a war chest for next season if/when Carter,Toomaga-Allen and Vermulan leave but looks like this will be the norm. With the SA sides finding their feet and signing top totty left right and centre for next year it's going to be even harder in the league and also Champions Cup. Also rans again for the foreseeable future.
paddybrown
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by paddybrown »

I think it's more that the gap between the southern hemisphere players and ours is much narrower than it was. We played against Siya Kolisi and Lukhanyo Am last week, and they didn't outclass us the way South African internationals would have done five or ten years ago. Fringe Ireland internationals like Timoney, McCloskey and Hume, and non-internationals like Marcus Rea, Andy Warwick and Alan O'Connor, can front up to world cup winners and, on their day, outplay them.
rumncoke
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by rumncoke »

Ulster's on field first selections would give most sides a game the trouble is that 15 is not available every weak or play 80 minutes every match -- thus most games the on field side consists of about 12 plus the 3 fill -ins this then weakens the content of the bench with more fill-ins. Thus the performance on the field depends on the ability of fill -ins to lift their game and blend with remaining 12 on field preferred selection which may vary week by week .

Sometimes the mix is better than others but when you get down to having to fill the bench with your or 4th choice for a position then the performance is going to suffer .

With the English premiership revising its salary cap their ability to attract SH will be reduced as will their squad depth and there may be a few experienced players available to added to the Ulster squad --- the problem is while they may not in the 15 -they require to have a desire to maintain fitness and on field effort not easy when the player has his mind on not the current season but his occupation when he hangs up his boots.
Within this carapace of skepticism there lives an optimist
allezlesverres
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by allezlesverres »

That's a fair post Rum. Ulster's first XV can compete with most teams. The real difference between us and the likes of Leinster is that we have such a drop between even our first XV and the bench, never mind our first XV and our second string. By contrast, Leinster's bench is often not much weaker than the starting team and their second string (and third and fourth) can still be competitive even against fully stacked opposition. Part of that is the quality of player available to Leinster but part of it is coaching. The Leinster/Munster game a few weeks ago was the perfect example of that. On paper Munster had by far the stronger team, with Leinster down to 3rd and 4th choice in several positions. But Leinster still played like Leinster and the result followed. It would be good to see a bit more of that at Ulster. How often this season did we see a drop in performance when the bench came on? Why can't the bench deliver on the same game plan that the starters are working off?
paddybrown
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by paddybrown »

I think there's adequate cover in most positions except for hooker and the back row. David McCann looked good in the early part of the season before Vermeulen arrived, but we haven't seen much of him since - hopefully he'll get more game time next season, and if Jordi Murphy can get back to his best and Sean Reffell turns out to be useful, that'll take some of the pressure off Timoney, Vermeulen and Marcus Rea. But in the big games, Rob Herring tends to stay on for 80 minutes or near as dammit, and I think most of the last minute defensive collapses come when he's taken off.
wanderer
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by wanderer »

Only supportive comments re T-Allen on their forum here:
http://onceawasp.com/forums/index.php?topic=5295.0
although the local press say he had recently slipped down the pecking order:
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport ... s-24097964
Bart S
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by Bart S »

So the Wasps fans thought he was heading home to NZ but he ended up here.

Must use the same useless travel agent as Jono Gibbes.

Seems like he could be a decent 3rd choice
StandUp
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by StandUp »

Hopefully he views this as both a chance to reset and an opportunity to challenge for number 1 status.
It’s there if he wants it and is hungry enough to take it.
RuGall
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Re: Contract Situation

Post by RuGall »

So out of the only two NIQ players in the squad one of them is Sam Carter. Quite worrying to be honest
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