Stormers v Ulster Saturday June 11 2pm UK Time Premier Sports / RTE / URC TV / Super Sport

[Lurgan Lad]

Just watching the highlights and it was clear how incompetent Adamson was, at a scrum he didn't penalise someone because they slipped, since when has slipping been an excuse not to award the penalty? Bottom line is not having viable options on the bench in the forwards undid us, plus obviously poor game management at the end.
As others have said not sure the final kick actually split the posts, but we would have lost in extra time given how exhausted our forwards were. One positive is when you look at all these big names from South Africa, a lot of our non internationals have matched them.

[jean valjean]

Putting the game on in the lounge would be worth doing every away game.

what was the uptake?

A good turn out?

Would the cleaning bill (spilt milk/beer/pi$$) not make it unprofitable for each defeat?

As per Soda, it was good. Better than I thought it would be. The lounge is a decent size and it was pleasantly full.

The atmosphere was decent and nothing was spilt, apart from the odd tear maybe.

It was a good afternoon in the lounge. There might be something about the bar/entertainment licence that stops them doing it more often, otherwise it could be a winner. A couple of hundred people paying a fiver in each time and spending money at the bar for 2-3 hours? Ker-ching!

Was everyone able to park in the car park at the ground? I suspect some locals would object to ravenhill being open most weekends of the season but that shouldn't be the blocker. Would there be a desire amongst fans to go to ravenhill to watch an away match against the dragons would be the real question. Partnering with a bar or hotel to set up an official fan zone type location may be the better option.

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[UlsterNo9]

Cooney lacks that control to finish games. Remember that pop pass to Rea against Quinns. Everyone blames Rea for knocking on but the 9 should be slowing it down.

Doaks fault he didn't get on

Cooney was still putting up kick and chase efforts for the few minutes that RB could hardly walk!!
Ffs!!
And correcting my earlier post.....30 secs after JCs aimless box kick, At 72.02, they were 5 metres from Ulster line.
Simple rule.....they can't score if we have the ball. What's hard to understand about that?

And why were Billy B and JC will on after 65/70 minutes?

I admire and agree with all the positives being identified on other threads but this game management and substitutions management is appalling.

Accepting that our " match" squad needs to be 30strong.....not just even 23 strong.....we really need to be playing smarter with what we have

And Dan McF has to bear some responsibility for this?

Questions have to be asked on our game management when we try to see things out, the subs made or not made. That all comes from the coaching box.

Andrew is a more than capable hooker, certainly good enough to play 20 minutes off the bench. The reluctance to use Reidy at all this season is a head scratcher, he has always been super and brings energy. Jordi Murphy has been given next to no game time since his return to fitness. Doak can be trusted to do 20 minutes. Carter! Where the F was he, again I'm not a fan but he can bring 20 minutes of intensity.

McFarland has done a lot of great things but our last half hour game management and how we utilise the bench is an area that needs fixed.

I'm not even convinced it is personnel, we start playing very negative rugby and try to defend a lead rather than taking a game by the scruff of the neck and trying to go out to win it.

[richardt84]

In his post-match comments McFarland has stated "We played against red cards before and it's galvanising for the team with 14 [men]," There’s an element of truth in that but equally, you’d be hard pressed to find a worse team in the league than Ulster when it comes to taking advantage of a red card. The Munster away game earlier in the season was one such example where you could argue that the red galvanised Munster, but Ulster didn’t try to utilise the man advantage. With the boot on the other foot where was the galvanising effect that McFarland talks off after O’Toole was sent off against Toulouse? Many of us accepted that was the losing of the game but somehow when Ulster play against 14 our coaching team are trying to say it’s a positive for the other team.

Others have pointed out box kicks in the final ten minutes but additionally, (in the small short period of possession Ulster had when a man up) I had a fear due to the speed in which Ulster were going through the phases. It feels like other teams, when a man up, build the phases slowly and either wait for the penalty or wait until the pressure on phases builds an overlap. In contrast, we go looking for the overlap very early and allow the other team to win a breakdown penalty from an isolated runner or box kick as we did on a couple of occasions yesterday.

My biggest frustration with yesterday is if you switched roles and Ulster were down to 14 with 10 minutes to go there would have been a slow march up the pitch from the Stormers. Any decent game management would have known that a team 15-10 down would be reluctant to take too many risks and concede a breakdown penalty to lose the game.

[Amiga500]

Andrew is a more than capable hooker, certainly good enough to play 20 minutes off the bench. The reluctance to use Reidy at all this season is a head scratcher, he has always been super and brings energy.

Agree on these two.

Jordi Murphy has been given next to no game time since his return to fitness. Doak can be trusted to do 20 minutes. Carter! Where the F was he, again I'm not a fan but he can bring 20 minutes of intensity.

Not sure on Murphy - did you see how slow he was when doing "sprints" at the Munster match? I'm not sure what shape he's in.


As for Carter... first f**king plane back to Australia if you ask me. No hunger.

[UlsterNo9]

Seen elsewhere, our last 8 games from 65 minutes on. Scored 10 points, conceded 64 points total.

[big mervyn]

Seen elsewhere, our last 8 games from 65 minutes on. Scored 10 points, conceded 64 points total.

That's a telling stat at the business end of the season.

[Dave]

Seen elsewhere, our last 8 games from 65 minutes on. Scored 10 points, conceded 64 points total.

That is shocking but I'm not surprised. If that makes sense.

[UlsterNo9]

My own calculations, still doesn't make for good reading

Bulls Vs Ulster FT 34-16 Last 15 minutes 14-0
Toulouse Vs Ulster FT 20-26 Last 15 minutes 7-7
Ulster Vs Toulouse FT 23-30 Last 15 minutes 3-7
Ulster vs Munster FT 17-24 Last 15 minutes 7-3
Edinburgh Vs Ulster FT 10-16 Last 15 mins 7-0
Ulster Vs Sharks FT 24-21 Last 15 mins 0-14
Ulster Vs Munster FT 36-17 Last 15 mins 0-7
Stormers Vs Ulster FT 17-5 Last 15 mins 7-0

Last 15 minutes
Points for - 17
Points against - 66

[solidarity]

Ahh, sure it's only a game.

Always worth remembering

always worth remembering wot?

Er, hmmm. Give me a minute and it'll come to me.

[richardt84]

Some more context on performances during the last 20 minutes on this thread on Twitter…

https://twitter.com/samlstandsup/status ... CVwWr5rDZQ

[Bart S]

This list doesn't include other games such as Clermont at home, Northampton (home and away I think) where ulster capitulated after the bench was emptied.

There are clearly some bench players like Doak who are good enough to come on with 20 to go, but being brutal here, some aren't, as we have seen.

Reidy was always an excellent bench man. What happened to him in terms of selection? Brought great energy and physicality off the bench.

[kingofthehill]

Some more context on performances during the last 20 minutes on this thread on Twitter…

https://twitter.com/samlstandsup/status ... CVwWr5rDZQ

1. Bench not trusted
2. Bench not being used because they aren’t good enough and starting 15 knackered leading to tries.
3. Bench comes on and tries conceded.
4. We defend leads?

[StandUp]

Some more context on performances during the last 20 minutes on this thread on Twitter…

https://twitter.com/samlstandsup/status ... CVwWr5rDZQ

1. Bench not trusted
2. Bench not being used because they aren’t good enough and starting 15 knackered leading to tries.
3. Bench comes on and tries conceded.
4. We defend leads?

Surely this is bad coaching/management.
If the bench isn’t good enough or trusted then why are they on the payroll? Get them out the door and give the academy lads a run. It’ll be the same result anyway. No point people getting a decent wage if they aren’t earning it.
Something needs to change or the same sh1te will happen again and again.

[kingofthehill]

Some more context on performances during the last 20 minutes on this thread on Twitter…

https://twitter.com/samlstandsup/status ... CVwWr5rDZQ

1. Bench not trusted
2. Bench not being used because they aren’t good enough and starting 15 knackered leading to tries.
3. Bench comes on and tries conceded.
4. We defend leads?

Surely this is bad coaching/management.
If the bench isn’t good enough or trusted then why are they on the payroll? Get them out the door and give the academy lads a run. It’ll be the same result anyway. No point people getting a decent wage if they aren’t earning it.
Something needs to change or the same sh1te will happen again and again.

I have to disagree .

Absentees through injury and returning from injury- McGrath,Moore, Roberts, Stewart, Izzy, Jordi, Addison, stockdale, Marshall, Lowry, Gilroy, Lyttle. Not even mentioning our NIQ Carter or what has happened with Reidy.

Yesterday we had this Bench
John Andrew(average)Eric O’Sullivan (average) Gareth Milasinovich (poor), Kieran Treadwell(penalty machine in close games), Matty Rea, (laughable) Nathan Doak(should of been on) Ian Madigan(best days well well behind him), Ben Moxham (will end up in Jersey or Ealing)

If there were no injuries our bench would be very different.
TOT, Stewart ,Warwick, Treadwell(Carter,Izzy),Jordi (Reidy), Doak,Lowry (Marshall), Stockdale (Addison/McIlroy,Gilroy)

Team for next year

1. AW EOS CR
2. RH TS JA DM
3. MM JTA TOT GM
45. IH AOC KT CI SC
678. NT MR MR DV DMC JM GJ SR
9. JC ND DS
10. BB IM JF
12/13 SMC JH LM SM JP AC
11/14 BM CG RB RL EMC JS
15 ML WA

If we can sign SK and a quality 2nd row after WC then Ulster are not far away.


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