The UAFC

JP's description of the knock out defeats being frustrating and needing to work on getting over the line (literally as well, hopefully) were spot on.......assuming he was talking about the season before last

I actually thought it was very interesting he was even mentioning the playing style and selection of squads, which is as a CEO nothing to do with his role/responsibility.

That said, IF he is telling the truth (clearly DMcF has to be onboard with this as head coach), and we start playing our young forwards in particular far more, and give Flannery a real go at 10 I’ll be very happy in deed. I’m willing to risk the occasional loss, by blooding and investing in our young players. I genuinely hope we now avoid journeymen signings as much as possible and back our academy players where possible instead.

Even as a die hard rugby man it is very difficult to get excited over repetitive rolling mauls….especially when you know they are unlikely to work against the top sides. Frankly I think it showed a lack of confidence and imagination by the coaching tkt to revert to such a conservative game….and I cant imagine it’s a “great sell” either for players or casual supporters.
I did think the comment about the strategy being semi produced by the weather/pitch was a bit of a cop out frankly.

Hopefully great news on Addison, I genuinely think if he could stay fit at 15, he will nigh on transform our backline attack.

I hope as I’ve previously stated that some key goals going forward this season won’t be pts, wins, or necessarily league positioning but will take a longer term view re young player development and style of play.

As an aside, how long does the pitch take to re lay. I’ve got a nagging doubt this artificial pitch for start of season isn’t quite as straightforward as it should be.

Dharper wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:47 am
That said, IF he is telling the truth (clearly DMcF has to be onboard with this as head coach), and we start playing our young forwards in particular far more, and give Flannery a real go at 10 I’ll be very happy in deed. I’m willing to risk the occasional loss, by blooding and investing in our young players. I genuinely hope we now avoid journeymen signings as much as possible and back our academy players where possible instead.

Nail on head Sergeant Harper. Losing doesn't bother me, how we lose does.
If we're always going to setup to beat the teams we're always expecting to beat, pick a team of journeymen and employ tactics that we know will get us a top four in the league spot but also know they it will never get us silverware then that doesn't work for me.

UlsterNo9 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 9:32 am

Dharper wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:47 am
That said, IF he is telling the truth (clearly DMcF has to be onboard with this as head coach), and we start playing our young forwards in particular far more, and give Flannery a real go at 10 I’ll be very happy in deed. I’m willing to risk the occasional loss, by blooding and investing in our young players. I genuinely hope we now avoid journeymen signings as much as possible and back our academy players where possible instead.

Nail on head Sergeant Harper. Losing doesn't bother me, how we lose does.
If we're always going to setup to beat the teams we're always expecting to beat, pick a team of journeymen and employ tactics that we know will get us a top four in the league spot but also know they it will never get us silverware then that doesn't work for me.

Major Sharpe hated losing.

Especially against the damned Frenchies.

justinr73 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 9:40 am

UlsterNo9 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 9:32 am

Dharper wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:47 am
That said, IF he is telling the truth (clearly DMcF has to be onboard with this as head coach), and we start playing our young forwards in particular far more, and give Flannery a real go at 10 I’ll be very happy in deed. I’m willing to risk the occasional loss, by blooding and investing in our young players. I genuinely hope we now avoid journeymen signings as much as possible and back our academy players where possible instead.

Nail on head Sergeant Harper. Losing doesn't bother me, how we lose does.
If we're always going to setup to beat the teams we're always expecting to beat, pick a team of journeymen and employ tactics that we know will get us a top four in the league spot but also know they it will never get us silverware then that doesn't work for me.

Major Sharpe hated losing.

Especially against the damned Frenchies.

Harper at blindside, what position would you play Sharpe?

Openside.

Possibly moving into the backs as the career progressed, albeit reluctantly.

Hagman to take the kicks. Would never miss.

Trimby said on his podcast though that winning is everything, citing Toulon as a case in point. If we had won something, would we be complaining? At a time under Schmidt Ireland were winning with the high ball catching game and most were happy enough. For myself I go to the games to watch open rugby and especially as we keep getting told that we have a good backline, I expect the coaches to focus on that. Equally, forwards win games so you need the balance and the maul game is very good. We lack the coaches to coach that. Can they adapt, I don't doubt that pre-season will be brutal and that they will try. But to catch up with even Munster is now a big challenge and my guess is that we can't afford to buy anyone out of a contract and bring a Prendergast in. It's heads down for a few years I fear.

Pretty sure some would still be complaining.

Either because we didn’t win by enough or because we only won because someone else lost.

The ‘take a few defeats to improve and develop’ argument is an interesting one and I don’t think there are many coaches, with their jobs and future opportunities on the line, who find it easy to take those kind of chances.

I didn’t see too many Munster fans taking the philosophical approach after losing to Dragons and at home to us; one bloke in particular took it upon himself to tear an Ulster fleg out of the hands of a retired gentleman in my company and hurl it to the ground.

JP suggested that we went to the maul as a conservative measure in the light of the run of losses but I’m not sure that argument stands up to even a minimal amount of scrutiny as we’d been playing that way all season.

I think I’d have argued that teams had doubled down on stopping us playing and were therefore giving up penalties and providing us with opportunities to kick to the corner (or a good twenty yards short of the corner in most instances).

I’m happy enough with a maul try personally but we’ve got to mix it up more.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect quicker and more frequent go- forward ball next season and with, hopefully, the likes of Hume, Bobby and Addison being fit and raring to go, there are grounds for optimism.

Is Addison going to be played at 10? Because he'll make zero difference any other way.

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Dharper wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:47 am
As an aside, how long does the pitch take to re lay. I’ve got a nagging doubt this artificial pitch for start of season isn’t quite as straightforward as it should be.

16 weeks apparently and with RWC holding the league startup until 20th October a long window of opportunity to get it done.. they have according to JP been working on this most of the last 12 months so are well placed to get started with funding already secured..

Strange they plan using Rubber infill which has been banned for use within the EU and we fall under EU.

Jackie Brown wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 1:53 pm Is Addison going to be played at 10? Because he'll make zero difference any other way.

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Another one with no decent kick to speak of

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/ ... 85973.html

So “sold out” is not strictly correct!

Rem99 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2024 12:07 pm https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/ ... 85973.html

So “sold out” is not strictly correct!

Well it is a sell out for the crowd they are allowed by the City Council, who seems re the pandemic asked / told Ulster to sell 1,500 less tickets in the Terrace. The financial cost re the 1,500 is estimated at £40,000.

What’s the Council’s issue?

And for those who can’t be bothered to open the BBC link, the Chief Exec of the SRU (who’s done all the hard work) is leaving in the summer.

I would suggest there’s a fairly high chance of JP replacing him.