Ulster name side to face Bayonne

1. Tom Court
2. Andi Kyriaciou
3. Declan Fitzpatrick
4. Tim Barker
5. Neil McComb
6. Pedrie Wannenburg
7. Chris Henry
8. Robbie Diack
9. Paul Marshall
10. James McKinney
11. Ricky Andrew
12. Ian Whitten
13. Darren Cave
14. Conor Gaston
15. Adam D'Arcy

Replacements; Callum Black, Paddy McAllister, Adam Macklin, Jerry Cronin, John Burns, Lewis Stevenson, Mike McComish, Willie Faloon, Ian Porter, Paddy Jackson, Craig Gilroy

As I understand it, Ian Humphreys and Nevin Spence are both missing through injury. Possibly Luke Marshall as well? Anyone know anything abiut that? Selection of Tom Court is interesting; probably at the behest of Declan Kidney, who is working with the provinces to get as many players gametime as possible.

This game will take place tomorrow, the culmination of a short training camp Ulster are having in the South of France.

How come Paddy Jackson is not at 10? I don't know anything about McKinney.

Notch how come there are 11 subs?

LCDPete, McKinney was part of the Ireland U20 team at the world championships in Italy a few months back.

He's more or less neck-and-neck with Jackson, I think, both got starts in the competition.

roddersm wrote:Notch how come there are 11 subs?

Pre season. Normally more are allowed then.

McKinney and Jackson are the two current Ireland U20 outhalves. McKinney is a steadier player, more conservative, whereas Jackson is the more creative player.

I'm guessing they are going to give gametime to both McKinney and Jackson over the three pre-season friendlies and have a good look at both of them. I understand Humphreys is touch and go to be back for the start of the Pro12, and with Wallace and Pienaar unavailable it's important to assess who the better option is right now. Jackson will get his chance to start I'm sure.

Cian Healy starting against France so if Horan is with Munster and Court with Ulster.

MBTGOG wrote:

roddersm wrote:Notch how come there are 11 subs?

Pre season. Normally more are allowed then.

This has been advertised as a training game as opposed to a pre-season friendly. I expect most of those players to get on- mass changes, get as many players involved as possible.

Still, four props on the bench is unusual.

MBTGOG wrote:

roddersm wrote:Notch how come there are 11 subs?

Pre season. Normally more are allowed then.

Just checking...

red_stag wrote:Cian Healy starting against France so if Horan is with Munster and Court with Ulster.

I'd say so, yes.

Or Brett Wilkinson?

Wilkinson is injured apararently

Humpries and Spence ae both still rehabing with shoulder injuries/surgery I think.
I though Diack was still out too so he must be recovering more quickly than anticipated. Maybe I got that wrong. Was it Diack who suffered a terrible hamstring tear?
McKinney played for Ireland U20s this year.

When is the Ireland team announced by the way? Today or Thursday?

Good to see McKinney getting a chance. I think he is more ready to play at this level than Jackson but still it's a fine position to be in having these two young fellas to be coming up at the same time.

Conor Gaston on the rightwing would be the one I'm most curious about; he has real potential. Obviously, the duel of the two 10s is going to be massive for us as well.

Whichever of those young guys starts is going to have a massive challenge. We really need one or other to put their hand up.

http://thefrontrowunion.com/2011/08/team-for-bayonne/

"New recruits Callum Black, Lewis Stevenson and Mike McComish are among 11 replacements hoping to see some action. Academy players Adam Macklin and John Burns are also in line to taste their first action in a senior Ulster shirt. Dan Tuohy, Ian Humphreys, Nevin Spence, Luke Marshall and Nigel Brady are being rested to give them extra time to prepare for the new season. Meanwhile, Ulster remain without a number of senior players who are with international sides in the build up to the World Cup next month."

I'm not entirely certain whats happening with Johann Muller. I know he's injured, I just don't know if he's in South Africa recovering or back with Ulster.

I'd somehow got it into my head Ricky Andrew played backrow. He's one who's studying languages right?

Yes. He's a fullback. Three fullbacks in the back three, a crash ball 12 and a kicking 10. Prepare for some running rugby!

Jackson has already got some Celtic League experience, McKinney hasn't yet so I'd expect to see McKinney being given more gametime in the friendlies, than Jackson. If it's 50/50 between the two, only one sub for the back 3 so I expect the back to get plenty of gametime.

It's funny I always think of Ian Whitten as being a sort of senior player but he's young enough as well.

Would have liked to have seen Marshall there but perhaps there are issues with a niggle or something.

We really need Muller to get back fit and firing. He will be key to us at the start of the season. When does Payne link up with us aswell?

Payne is joining up with Ulster in September. Muller is currently out with a hamstring injury, but the way Pieter De Villiers is running the Boks it's absolutely anybodies guess whether he will go with the Boks or not.

I don't even know if he is doing his recovery in Ulster or South Africa. Here's what the Ulster website has to say on missing players;

Dan Tuohy, Ian Humphreys, Nevin Spence, Luke Marshall and Nigel Brady are being rested to give them extra time to prepare for the new season.

Meanwhile, Ulster remain without a number of other senior players who are with international sides in the build up to the World Cup next month.

We can safely assume that the 5 Ulster players in the Ireland squad and Pienaar will be unavailable. Afoa and Muller are both injured right now, so we're going to have to wait and see whether those two and Danielli are named in the World Cup squads of their respective nations. Danielli is with the Scotland squad right now of course.

Arrrgghhh!

It was Dan Tuohy who had the nasty hamstring injury. Sorry for the mis info!

Awful hammering for Ulster tonight at the hands of Bayonne. 40-3 it finished with our only score being a McKinney penalty. A heavy beating.

It sounds like we came up against a pack of forwards that was way ahead of ours in the physicality stakes; they are at the end of their pre-season while we are at the start of ours, so no panicking just yet. A number of the tries seemed to come from Ulster turnovers and mistakes. There's a definite sense of shaking off the rust, is the impression I'm getting; thats why we have these games.

I'm pretty disappointed with the scoreline but the first hit-out is about match fitness. All eleven substitutes were used tonight, including five separate front row replacements so a lot of changes being made. I'm glad there will be no complacency now. The guys will be absolutely gutted, and hopefully quite angry with themselves. I'm hoping that this means they'll come back with a point to prove. We all know a big improvement is need but I'm pretty sure we'll get it.

I must say though, if Humphreys isn't fit for the Glasgow game we're in a spot of trouble with our first choice 9 and 12 on world cup duty. Humphreys, Spence and Marshall all injured right now I believe? Humphreys and Wallace is one of the best midfields in the league; McKinney and Whitten started tonight. That is a very weak 10-12 combination. We have really no experience there without Humphreys and I wouldn't want to see those two guys line-up together in a league match. Unfortunately the chinese whispers are Humphreys won't be fit for the start of the new season.

David Humphreys had this to say;

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/9570.php

"Given that we are missing so many of our regular match-day 23, either through international call-up or injuries, this game has been a very good opportunity and a steep learning curve for our young players who got a chance this evening to see what playing at this level is all about".

"While we're disappointed with the score-line, it was not wholly unexpected given where the two teams are in terms of their pre-season preparations."

"The game was very set-piece orientated, in typically French fashion Bayonne were very strong up front and mauled us a lot but in comparison to our friendly last season against Harlequins which was very similar, this time we actually got some ball although being the first run-out we had too many turnovers which didn't help and a number of their tries came from our mistakes."

"No-one likes to be sitting in the dressing room on the wrong end of a 40 point score-line but on the whole we're certainly not panicking, and we have two more friendlies and plenty of work ahead of us before our first competitive game against Glasgow in the Pro12."

"As you'd expect from an early pre-season game we had some players with cramp but other than a few bumps and bruises we appear to have come through the match unscathed."

Not overly concerned to be honest so long as we escaped with no injuries. Nevin and Marshall where apparently doing water boys this evening. Spence hoping to fit I heard. IH not so. Didn't even know Marshall was injured.

Maybe Marshall was just given a break for this one, hope to see Marshall and Spence actually start a game together again soon. Spence was talking on his twitter feed about doing extra contact sessions so he mustn't be too far away.

Didn't Marshall miss the end of last season with a reasonably long term injury?

He was back at the iRB Junior World Championships though. Probably just getting a rest after a long first season as a pro.

Yeah, hopefully. He and Gilroy were one of a few players to play both Magners League rugby and at the U20s. They came back into preseason a little bit later than everyone else.

Gilroy played last night off the bench, no idea for how long.

. Tom Court
2. Andi Kyriaciou
3. Declan Fitzpatrick
4. Tim Barker
5. Neil McComb
6. Pedrie Wannenburg
7. Chris Henry
8. Robbie Diack
9. Paul Marshall
10. James McKinney
11. Ricky Andrew
12. Ian Whitten
13. Darren Cave
14. Conor Gaston
15. Adam D'Arcy


Replacements; Callum Black, Paddy McAllister, Adam Macklin, Jerry Cronin, John Burns, Lewis Stevenson, Mike McComish, Willie Faloon, Ian Porter, Paddy Jackson, Craig Gilroy


To my mind, the names in bold are likely to start or be on the bench at points through the season, especially consider the RWC. So based on that, I find the scoreline rather worrying.

I know its not a nice thing to do, but it would calm my nerves if someone was able to single out 2 or 3 of these young guys and place the blame of the poor defence squarly at their feet.

Anyone?

clivemcl wrote:
I know its not a nice thing to do, but it would calm my nerves if someone was able to single out 2 or 3 of these young guys and place the blame of the poor defence squarly at their feet.

Anyone?

To be honest Clive I don't think you can blame a defeat of that magnitude on a few players. You'd have to presume that from 1-15 attitude and performance was lacking although that is just speculation as I didn't see the game.

I'm probably more concerned and disappointed with the more experienced players like Wannenburg, Henry, Barker, Diack etc.

There was plenty of experience and quality in that line up so I don't think there are any excuses for a scoreline like that really.

Oh relax would you? It's the first game of pre-season, an extended training exercise. If we were on the end of that kin d of scoreline in the 2nd or 3rd game I would be more worried.

Having only had a week's training on actual systems of play in defence and attack it's no surprise things need tightened up.

Notch wrote:If we were on the end of that kind of scoreline in the 2nd or 3rd game I would be more worried.

You'd be more than worried, you'd be a Connacht fan!

(Ah, only kidding Connacht fans!)

Still, ok, it wasn't a great scoreline, but it's hardly hang 'em and quarter 'em time. We've all seen matches where one team falls away and the other just can't help scoring. I seem to remember Ulster doing that to Blues (away!) last season, one of the best ML matches I ever saw I reckon.

Obviously everything isn't perfume and roses, defensive patterns need to be revisited for a start, obviously, but Ulster are perfectly capable of learning from mistakes and making sure they improve.

When and where is their next match?

Neath at the Gnoll. That's a week today. A good choice for a young, inexperienced side. Then Harlequins at Ravenhill.

Neath as in the real actual Neath? Sweet, nice match. Black V White, simple. I like it.

I used to love watching them play back in the 80s when Rugby Special was on.

Bayonne 40 Ulster 3
To be honest I don't care about pre-season scores or results, as they are really just training ground runs against a different set of players for a change.

However I think this is a good result for us, it's just the kick up the backside that the players may have needed to make ensure complacency doesn't set in. They know they'll have to give 100% every game from right at the very start of the season.

Better to get this wake-up call now, than when the season starts.

Yeah. That week is the week Ireland are playing Connacht and France. So it's likely to be an even younger, more experimental side versus Neath.