Ulster vs Stade Toulousain 13/01/24 TNT Sports

[Dave]

Toulouse squad is quality. Massive- staying at Crowne Plaza, in gym, cryobath etc. staff astonished by their mass. Apparently bigger than when Racing stayed lol.

Marchand on the bench....

Could they not have poisoned their food like they do in SA?

[Cap'n Grumpy]

What a pasting.

We haven’t turned up at all. Too many passengers.

Sometimes you just hve to stand back and watch a display by the opposition and admit we were beten by a better team.

[Jetstream]

It all boils down to budget. Give Ulster a £30m budget and we will give it a lash. But feçk it at the end of the day I would rather play for pride.

[solidarity]

I guess that match shows both the difference beteen Ulster and Toulouse and the gap between the URC and the Top 14

[richardt84]

Speaking about the seven-try defeat, their second loss of the campaign, McFarland said: "We have to face the fact that they are a really good team.

"It’s a pleasure to be able to play against teams of that quality in this competition but I also think that at stages tonight we certainly didn’t help ourselves.

"They were superb at capitalising on our mistakes. Against a team like Toulouse, you’ve got to be crisp and clean and fair play to them.

"I was really pleased with the way we got into the momentum of the game and scored a couple of tries at the end of the second half that put us in a position that we could have got a bonus point.

"We just couldn’t quite finish it off.

"It’s a disappointing changing room down there but that’s professional sport. You are going to lose games. Even Toulouse lose games here and there."

[Cap'n Grumpy]

Speaking about the seven-try defeat, their second loss of the campaign, McFarland said: "We have to face the fact that they are a really good team.

"It’s a pleasure to be able to play against teams of that quality in this competition but I also think that at stages tonight we certainly didn’t help ourselves.

"They were superb at capitalising on our mistakes. Against a team like Toulouse, you’ve got to be crisp and clean and fair play to them.

"I was really pleased with the way we got into the momentum of the game and scored a couple of tries at the end of the second half that put us in a position that we could have got a bonus point.

"We just couldn’t quite finish it off.

"It’s a disappointing changing room down there but that’s professional sport. You are going to lose games. Even Toulouse lose games here and there."

No arguements from me on any of that.

It would have been nice if one of those defeats for Toulouse had happened tonight - we've beaten them before - several times - but sometimes you come up against a team on the top of their game and it's hard to resist.

Respect

[justinr73]

Men against boys… the pre madonnas getting absolutely humped, deservedly so.

The recent hype about burns after one decent game getting back into the Ireland squad is laughable.

Lowry has had some fall from grace, pulled apart in the back field.

Hume splashing over social media his new BM mid week, perhaps he should be focusing on his discipline and not being a grade A prat. The stupid penalty he gave away early on in the second half says it all.

Timoney and Henderson the only 2 players to come away with any credit.

I’m in close proximity to Hume.

I could try and wrestle his car keys off him if you like?

Or maybe giving his sponsors some publicity is par for the course?

[Dharper]

Sorry don’t like Dans comments, admittedly only reading, not hearing them.

Toulouse are a quality outfit, but so were Toulouse, LAR, R92, Clermont, Montpellier, Leicester, etc etc all sides I’ve seen UR beat in the Euro Cup over the yrs at Ravenhill.

Tonight was a poor show, I’ll explain why:

Toulouse are a big side, we defensively played with little line speed, allowing their big men ridiculous run ups to contact, allowing to win the gainline and offload…yes against DuPont the best trail line runner in the world…..bizarre.

The breakdown was the absolute killer and absolutely dire. No cohesion, lacked aggression and any speed, we couldn’t even win our own fast ball nevermind slow theirs. When in the rare occasion we did, we scored. Apart from treadwell I can barely remember a successful counter ruck. Balacoune stood off breakdowns when he could’ve gone in 1on 1.

These are coaching strategies for me, not just player responsibilities.

So the atmosphere for me pre game was good, you could feel people wanted to get in behind the team, a typical big UR Euro nite on the cards….add in 100yrs for UR at Ravenhill this week. The place should have been bouncing. Now I sat 15 mins pre game so maybe I missed something…..

Ex players involved, old sides on the big screens, what playing for UR meant….get the blood pumping stuff, the crowdbaying for blood……I clearly missed it, all of it.
The highlight was the £7 hotdog, top notch. Sorry it’s a poorly run show for me.

[justinr73]

Jack McGrath appears to be out with the lads tonight.

[justinr73]

The atmosphere was terrible.

Have a listen to the PNE fans at Chelsea.

Much more noise will be made next week of course.

[justinr73]

Now at home with three NI-ers out for the count.

You’re a saft bunch.

[justinr73]

Rumours of the possibility of a Parker Pen game v the Cheetahs in Amsterdam…?!

[Marco]

“It’s the hope that kills you”

Not much to say, tee’d up, only one player injured (Herring), full house, momentum, perfect weather, 8pm kick off, 100 years at Ravenhill, 25 years since the Cup win, opportunity for several to get onto the six nations squad……. but after 15 minutes there was only one winner. An absolute pleasure though, once the ‘hope’ had been ‘bate outta me’, to watch 65 minutes of a superb team, so professional, fast, physical, all the moves created and controlled by they magician that is Dupont. Must say that I was gutted to see the manner of Reffell leaving the pitch, clearly distraught at what seems to be a reoccurrence of the injury, his body language certainly seemed to be saying that, hope I’m wrong but good luck to the lad.

Hard to see us scaling the heights of the top tier of Europe, times have moved on from when the wet and windy landscape of Ravenhill, allied to the crowd, phased top teams, the gulf in class was just too much. A player I love, from my hometown and school, Baloucoune, just looked like a rabbit in the headlights, guileless. Lowry, again such a decent lad, a team player, but looked like a schoolboy in the company of men. We’ll always have the odd good performance and notable wins, but when it comes to scaling the top, we’re more of a Slieve Donard than an Everest. People will point to us only losing by a point in two games against the same team last year, and I accept that, so go figure. We are so consistent in being inconsistent.

NFL playoffs for me today, -20 Celsius in Kentucky last night, now that’s cold.

[Cap'n Grumpy]

“It’s the hope that kills you”

Not much to say, tee’d up, only one player injured (Herring), full house, momentum, perfect weather, 8pm kick off, 100 years at Ravenhill, 25 years since the Cup win, opportunity for several to get onto the six nations squad……. but after 15 minutes there was only one winner. An absolute pleasure though, once the ‘hope’ had been ‘bate outta me’, to watch 65 minutes of a superb team, so professional, fast, physical, all the moves created and controlled by they magician that is Dupont. Must say that I was gutted to see the manner of Reffell leaving the pitch, clearly distraught at what seems to be a reoccurrence of the injury, his body language certainly seemed to be saying that, hope I’m wrong but good luck to the lad.

Hard to see us scaling the heights of the top tier of Europe, times have moved on from when the wet and windy landscape of Ravenhill, allied to the crowd, phased top teams, the gulf in class was just too much. A player I love, from my hometown and school, Baloucoune, just looked like a rabbit in the headlights, guileless. Lowry, again such a decent lad, a team player, but looked like a schoolboy in the company of men. We’ll always have the odd good performance and notable wins, but when it comes to scaling the top, we’re more of a Slieve Donard than an Everest. People will point to us only losing by a point in two games against the same team last year, and I accept that, so go figure. We are so consistent in being inconsistent.

NFL playoffs for me today, -20 Celsius in Kentucky last night, now that’s cold.

Gotta agree Marco, and money talks. We will have big nights in the future and disappointments a-plenty, but on our budget, it'll take a freak year for us to manage anything in Europe again.

And yes, -20C is cold, but nothing exceptional. My home freezer's like that all year round. Even in autumn when I have the leaf-blower out.

[Dave]

Now at home with three NI-ers out for the count.

You’re a saft bunch.

Find some Ulstermen next time . Loyalists have too many bad habits