Ulster 2017 - 2018

[Oldschool]

I was thinking more of Stockdale running off the halfbacks into the 10/12 channel.

That could be good but we have not done a lot of that type of play yet this season.
I'm in doom and gloom form as then will be better if we win but not be gloomy if we lose.

You'll get to crow again.
Wasp didn't look great.
Ulster had a chance of a BP but didn't show enough belief.
Missed kicks could have been costly.

[blockhead]

Not a classic.
But Ulster get the win and the (insert prem team here) get fup all, so I'm happy.
Cooney's kicks for points were as bad as Liliafanoanoano's kicks for touch.
Odd game.

[Dave Cahill]

Its always weird how, with the exception of the barnet borg, english teams seem to fall apart in Ravenhill

[jimbobjoe]

Good win although poor to watch for the most part. Think we'll see Stockdale and/or Cooney in the November matchday squads?

[blockhead]

Kiss is without Jackson, Olding, Best, Coetzee, Henry, Payne, Trimble and big Jim Neilly on the mic. Not doing too bad.

[enby]

Goal kicking apart, Cooney was very impressive. Stockdale must be learning so much from Piutau. Henderson looking great

[Aird]

The BT commentary made Jim Neely look like a Nuetral. They even managed to transfer the final to Portugal at one stage of the commentary.

[Fan with smartphone]

Fiji for both i’d imagine and Stockdale staking a claim for more. I think Marmion is playing well so would have him ahead of McGrath and Cooney in benching for Murray. Cooney doing a good job in general though and has kicked well apart from last night. Which to be fair included 2 touchline conversions, one of which clipped the post. Incidentally, one of those conversions he took from wider out than he should have. I’d criticise that error more than the miss!

Fairly impressed with Ulster up front last night. Perhaps injuries de-railed Wasps a bit, but they looked after the ball well in the second half, despite struggling a little with their carrying. It was fairly predictable stuff so it’s not surprising that they struggled with carrying, but it is surprising that they recycled just as well as they did. I do think that’s on Gibbs, because the Wasps back row personnel are probably better on paper.

They need to take Lealifano off kicks from hand. That’s 2 successive games where he either gains 10 metres or doesn’t find touch at all. Surely Cooney could do this better? I’m delighted for Lealifano in that he is playing at a high level so quickly since illness, but he is inevitably going to have ups and downs. He had some good moments last night, but if he plays, he will definitely need to play better if they are to get a result away to La Rochelle.

Piatau was genuinely good, not just flashy, and has a bit of chemistry with Stockdale. He had other options inside on that break last night, but you could see him look for Stockdale. That’s what happened with the try v Connacht too. Same with the try in the corner last night, you could see him just trying to engineer the space for Stockdale in confidence that he will finish.

I really liked Henderson and Treadwell. No big carries really, but to see the basics done well is what you want from them. If a big opening presents, then great, but it’s that donkey work that both need to improve at to play 2nd row in 2019, or to make the squad.

Overall I thought last night was good, but they are up against it to get out of the group. Next week is massive for them. Same for wasps. That’s a no pointer and they are patched up for Harlequins next week. Already this group looks like throwing up only one team for the quarters.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I've heard a lot about it being a poor game but actually thought Ulster were very good in the second half. The pack fronted up much better and they were almost totally dominant. Thought Thomas Young was the difference in the first half so he was a huge loss in the second half even though Ulster stepped it up a lot. He actually looked incredibly comfortable on the ball, hard to tell how bad the conditions were when watching on TV but to me it looked like the players should have done better and were making poor errors regardless of the weather. Stockdale and Piutau were excellent alright, thought McCloskey was very good too.

Ulster might not be setting the world alight but considering the injuries etc they're actually tipping along nicely. No Best, Coetzee, Henry, Jackson, Olding, Gilroy last night, and Bowe and Trimble have lost form quite dramatically. I haven't been impressed when I've seen them but hadn't really taken the state of their squad into account. They have a very thin squad so it may not last but they're probably doing close to as well as they possibly could right now.

[simonokeeffe]

Good win although poor to watch for the most part. Think we'll see Stockdale and/or Cooney in the November matchday squads?

Stockdale yes. Cooney probably not

Falling over left wingers now. Be interesting if Sweetnam can hold on to his jersey

[rooster]

Surprised Wasps are so poor this season I thought they would have had the edge on us.
Anyway decent start but looking at the Quins v Rochelle match yesterday next weekend could be very messy, best chance is probably a 4 try bonus in an open game but anything will be a big surprise.

[simonokeeffe]

Surprised Wasps are so poor this season I thought they would have had the edge on us.
Anyway decent start but looking at the Quins v Rochelle match yesterday next weekend could be very messy, best chance is probably a 4 try bonus in an open game but anything will be a big surprise.

La Rochelle seem interested in the competition, cant see a runner up coming from the pool now

[Oldschool]

Surprised Wasps are so poor this season I thought they would have had the edge on us.
Anyway decent start but looking at the Quins v Rochelle match yesterday next weekend could be very messy, best chance is probably a 4 try bonus in an open game but anything will be a big surprise.

La Rochelle seem interested in the competition, cant see a runner up coming from the pool now

Wasps will be eminently beatable at home and quins aren't any great shakes either.
La Rochelle have yet to taste the delights of Kingspan Stadium.
Ulster's pack are the key and so far so good. I'd say there's every chance of two teams getting out of this pool.

[rooster]

Surprised Wasps are so poor this season I thought they would have had the edge on us.
Anyway decent start but looking at the Quins v Rochelle match yesterday next weekend could be very messy, best chance is probably a 4 try bonus in an open game but anything will be a big surprise.

La Rochelle seem interested in the competition, cant see a runner up coming from the pool now

4 wins with a couple bonus points should get a runner up spot, more evenly matched groups tend to have lower totals as they beat each other.

[simonokeeffe]

Surprised Wasps are so poor this season I thought they would have had the edge on us.
Anyway decent start but looking at the Quins v Rochelle match yesterday next weekend could be very messy, best chance is probably a 4 try bonus in an open game but anything will be a big surprise.

La Rochelle seem interested in the competition, cant see a runner up coming from the pool now

Wasps will be eminently beatable at home and quins aren't any great shakes either.
La Rochelle have yet to taste the delights of Kingspan Stadium.
Ulster's pack are the key and so far so good. I'd say there's every chance of two teams getting out of this pool.

would you trust this Ulster team to beat a half decent side on the road?

Pool 3 (Clermont) Pool 5 (Scarlets or Toulon in Italian pool) will definitely produce a best runner up

[Aird]

Not many sides relish a visit to Kingspan on an European night, the Key match will be next Sunday away to Rochelle where they need to be back some form of points. I don't see too much threat coming from either Aviva side.

[Oldschool]

would you trust this Ulster team to beat a half decent side on the road?

Pool 3 (Clermont) Pool 5 (Scarlets or Toulon in Italian pool) will definitely produce a best runner up

Trust is too strong a word but I trust that Wasps and Quins are beatable even at their home venues.

[Oldschool]

Not many sides relish a visit to Kingspan on an European night, the Key match will be next Sunday away to Rochelle where they need to be back some form of points. I don't see too much threat coming from either Aviva side.

Something could be as little as 4-0 to Rochelle whose game against Quins was probably meaningless and might even
lull them into a false sense of their own invincibility.

[simonokeeffe]

would you trust this Ulster team to beat a half decent side on the road?

Pool 3 (Clermont) Pool 5 (Scarlets or Toulon in Italian pool) will definitely produce a best runner up

Trust is too strong a word but I trust that Wasps and Quins are beatable even at their home venues.

so are Treviso

[CiaranIrl]

Ulster getting smashed on this away day anyway.