Munster v Ulster Sat Jan 8th 7:35pm KO RTE/Premier Sports

[for dog and ulcer]

I can't believe Burns got a new contract.

Totally agree. I can't see what value he brings to the side. I was waiting for him to improve but it hasn't happened. English coaches in Ireland and Ulster favouring an English 10?

[Big-al]

He hasn’t been selected for Ireland after last seasons 6 nations, and is slipping quickly downs the pecking order

At best he’s 5th choice for Ireland. (Sexton, Carbery, H Byrne, Carty… then probably Ben Healy)

[HwoodMike2umate]

Just shows that you dont want to be winning at half time eh.

[justinr73]

I can't believe Burns got a new contract.

Totally agree. I can't see what value he brings to the side. I was waiting for him to improve but it hasn't happened. English coaches in Ireland and Ulster favouring an English 10?

Really?

[UlsterNo9]

I can't believe Burns got a new contract.

Totally agree. I can't see what value he brings to the side. I was waiting for him to improve but it hasn't happened. English coaches in Ireland and Ulster favouring an English 10?

Really?

It's up there with 5G and Covid vaccines

[rumncoke]

Can't believe Our ex CEO and IRFU f-cked PJ to foster us with Burns at the time it occurred Ulster had Potentially one of the best backlines in Europe now were hobbling with an out half with inferior skill set and a mind two seconds faster than a sloth playing predictable rugby.

And wingers who seldom receive a pass . Conway and Earls see the ball more often than Ulster wingers and that is saying something when Munster wingers are given more opportunities to run ball in hand than Ulster.

[rumncoke]

You forgot Ross Burn and the fact that if PJ was still available Sexton would be retired

[allezlesverres]

That was hard to watch. After the early dominance and the early maul try it felt like Ulster were going to win at a canter. Then came the red card and I almost stopped watching, so convinced was I that there would be no contest in the match and Ulster were going to put a cricket score on them. Wish I had stopped watching to be honest. BB was poor, he had one of those games where it seemed every time he got the ball he just planted his hips to telegraph the fact he was about to ship the (hospital) pass on to the next poor sod outside him. Moxham at 13 was an experiment I would not be keen to see repeated - he was poor on both sides of the ball and looked terrified. Munster's game plan was very simple in attack, get the ball to a pod of forwards, run at 10 or 13, make 5 yards in contact or just break right through, recycle and repeat. It was so effective and the most frustrating thing is that we all knew that was what was coming and the players/coaches seemed to be able to do nothing to counter it.

[HammerTime]

Same old Ulster no killer instinct. Even an average side .. Scarlets/Treviso/Edinburgh would have finished the job on what was a fired up, but extremely limited Munster side. After these two euro games Lowry needs a run at 10. He got a run mid season last year and it wasn’t great but he’s a year on and it would be impossible to be any worse than what we are doing currently.

[Big-al]

Hopefully Addison will be back sometime in the spring, so Lowry can focus on 10.

[rumncoke]

Get real Al I fear he might not last a half never mind a game to many nasty front row forwards willing to hit late, high, and hard

[big mervyn]

Get real Al I fear he might not last a half never mind a game to many nasty front row forwards willing to hit late, high, and hard

I'd back him to last longer than Addison

[allezlesverres]

Get real Al I fear he might not last a half never mind a game to many nasty front row forwards willing to hit late, high, and hard

I don't think that's the biggest concern - Lowry has been consistently brave and effective in defence so I think he would hold his own on that front.

My real issue with Lowry has been his lukewarm performances when he has been given a shot at the 10 jersey. Having said that, I think I have to acknowledge we are approaching, if not past, the stage where its hard to see him doing much worse than BB. And it is also fair to say that we can't expect Lowry to be the finished article at 10 without giving him a run of games there to allow him to bed in. If Dan is being conservative he could still bed Lowry in by having a competent full back/wing on the bench then subbing BB at half time, moving Lowry to 10 and shuffling the back 3 to accommodate the move. Perhaps we need stockdale back to do that so we have someone who can play 11 and 15 tolerably well.

[paddybrown]

Bit late to the conversation. My take on Saturday night is we were playing to a game plan to defend a lead with a man advantage by kicking long and pegging them back. Gonna defend Billy Burns on that one, he was following the plan and it was working, up until Treadwell's yellow card.

I have a higher opinion of Burns than apparently most of the board (he's not international class and his confidence is fragile, but when he's on he runs the backline well and has an excellent attacking kicking game), and I don't think he played badly on Saturday. He's been shaky so far this season, but I thought he had a decent game.

As for Treadwell, I'm drunk off with him. The tip tackle needs to be driven out of the game, it's inherently dangerous and its only purpose is to injure an opponent - like Clermont did to Rob Baloucoune. And when your game plan is to hold onto a narrow lead against 14 men, the last thing you need is someone making a dangerous tackle and losing you your man advantage.

[Big Smoke Culchie]

Burns inability to control a game without Cooney really shows how much Cooney controls the game. Either we need a new quality OH or we need to start giving Lowry a lot more game time there, becuase Burns has already shown he cant play outside Doak with any real authority.