Positives & Negatives: Ulster V Llanelli

[againstthehead]

Positives
- Solid performances by most of the new guys:
Robbie: thought be played really well, puts himself about, solid in the scrum, runs the hard yards.
Botha: relishes scrum time and decent around the park
Shifty: excellent all round - tough night for goal kicking though
Ed: good journey man
Fiji: Jury is out as far as I am concerned. Could be fantastic could be rubbish, most likely inconsistent...
- Also thought Dewey did okay at centre
- Scrum looked solid, lineout not good enough considering we effectivly play with 3 locks!!
- gutsy 2nd half against a gale but never really looked like scoring

Negatives
- Lost the toss to play with the wind 1st half - at least I assume we lost the toss... That was a 15 point wind and we never looked to take advantage of it 1st half.
- All a bit similar to last season I'm afraid... Lacked a cutting edge going forward, lack any direction from 10, slow ball from 9, pack average at best.
- PW at 10...
- Trimble looked lost on the wing - very poor game
- Our back row ain't balanced - lacks pace.
- Poor turn out by the fans albeit in attrocious conditions - although even the posh seats in the stand were half empty!!

[Big-al]

Big-al has a cunning plan!!!!
My team for Cardiff
1)young
2)best
3)botha
4)del fava
5)caldwell
6)ferris
7)pollock
8)diack
9)willis
10)NOC
11)Nagusa
12)wallace
13)dewey
14)McCrea
15)Shifty

Trimble needs dropped after tonights performance as does Ed, justin, kieren, isaac, darren and Matt

[Jackie Brown]

It was a baptisim of fire for our new fijian winger. He won't get many rougher nights than tonight weather wise.
Thought Shifty was fantastic, just as solid as Bryn in defense but has a HUGE boot and threatening in attack.
Dewey makes plenty of hard yards
Cave was quiet but still young
Trimble is not a winger, put McCrae back on the wing and move Trimble inside
O'Connor has to start
Thought Boss was solid enough
Back Row in general was outplayed, like last season, need Ferris and Pollock on the field
Thought Caldwell was hungry when he came on and had quite a good game
Fitzpatrick doesn't have the legs to play 80 Mins
Botha is a monster at scrum time, hope he gets more vocal round the pitch as the season progresses
Rory played for the shirt, what a guy

It will get better, it was the first time this team was together and with a few tweeks and more tackling practice the signs are positive. As Matt Williams says, we were pretty hopeless last season and change doesn't happen overnight, the rot leading up to last season was aparent to quite a few for a year leading up to McCall leaving and i don't expect any quick fixes. I do look forward to next weekend optomistically though

[Solid Air]

Glaring difference in the teams tonight, for me, was at number 10, the fact that Llanelli had a number 10 was maybe the biggest difference….?

New signings showed well, Diack the pick, Schifcioffskieske solid, Botha ‘quiet’ for his first outing, but subtle and professional about the park; worrying point was that the non-new-signings showed, on match night, some touches of the same-old, same-old from last season, defensive gaps still on offer, some poor tackling etc.

Don’t know what is going on with Trimble, no confidence, and some very basic errors, Bestie led as he said he would, great game; set piece problems were very weather-related.

On the whole, though, positive, beaten by a better side, but beaten whilst playing ‘till the final whistle, as a supporter, therefore, I can’t complain.

Poor conditions definitely didn’t help; maybe the open running game will come during the Indian Summer in October………..

[Big-al]

If you watch the match again you'll notice the scarlets forward offloading, now when did you see the ulster pack offloading tonight. Easterby was looking to do it all match whereas mccullagh was just tucking it up his jumper. We need that sort of skill if we want to win matches

[againstthehead]

2 things we never do:
- off-load
- take the ball at real pace

fairly basic requirements for the modern game. Until we start doing these simple things we'll struggle to break defences down. The only player I saw take the ball at real pace was Robbie. Too stationary...

[GerryO']

Paddy's distribution was dire.
Llanelli defence was very good and we had no answer.
Wide backs had little chance in the conditions.
Matt is too slow at 6.
Our players seem to attempt to hit the opposition very hard and end up mistiming the tackle.

[bootlace]

IMHO Trimble did not have that bad of a game considering he had extremely poor service, and was playing off suicide balls, what would you expect of him,I have one of those funny feelings that he might shine at 13 with Wallace at 12 feeding off balls from NOC at 10.

[bootlace]

Llanelli defence was very good and we had no answer

maybe we made them look good as far as I could see we did not have any attack,until of course NOC came on the field

[BPH]

IMHO Trimble did not have that bad of a game considering he had extremely poor service, and was playing off suicide balls, what would you expect of him,I have one of those funny feelings that he might shine at 13 with Wallace at 12 feeding off balls from NOC at 10.

Funny enough, I didn't think Trimble was that bad either. Not good, and abysmal for the try, but if one winger was gonna be dropped it wouldn't be him.

I can't see MW not playing NOC at 10 and Paddy at 12

[Big-al]

It must also be said that it wasn't a night for wingers

[BPH]

It must also be said that it wasn't a night for wingers

True dat

[Wee Bunz]

Beware the Paddy Brigade. They'll hunt you out like witches and insist that he be given more time at 10.

WB

[ColinS]

I'd say I'm a member of the Paddy Brigade, but I reckon he's a better 12 than 10.

He's a 10 if there's injuries / defence tiring.

[BPH]

I'd say I'm a member of the Paddy Brigade, but I reckon he's a better 12 than 10.

He's a 10 if there's injuries / defence tiring.

What the feck's gotten into you Colzo? I go away for a while and you're talking sense!?