Ulster v Ospreys. Friday 24th February 2012 KO 7.05pm

First topic message reminder :

Ulster Match Day Squad to face Ospreys, Friday 24th February 2012, Ravenhill (kick-off 7.05pm):
(15-9): S Terblanche; C Gilroy, N Spence, P Wallace, I Whitten; R Pienaar, P Marshall;
(1-8): P McAllister, A Kyriacou, J Afoa, L Stevenson, D Tuohy, C Henry (capt), W Faloon, P Wannenburg;
Replacements (16-23): N Brady, C Black, A Macklin, T Barker, R Diack, I Humphreys, S Danielli, A D'Arcy
Unavailable due to injury:
Declan Fitzpatrick, Jared Payne, Johann Muller, Darren Cave, Ali Birch

Ospreys Team:
15 Richard Fussell
14 Hanno Dirksen
13 Andrew Bishop
12 Stefan Watermeyer
11 Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9 Kahn Fotuali'i
1 Duncan Jones
2 Scott Baldwin
3 Joe Rees
4 Ian Gough
5 James King
6 Tom Smith (Capt)
7 Sam Lewis
8 Joe Bearman

Replacements:
16 Mefin Davies
17 Ryan Bevington
18 Will Taylor
19 Jonathan Thomas/Lloyd Peers
20 George Stowers
21 Rhys Webb
22 Matthew Morgan
23 Ashley Beck

Aukster there's some great Ulster posters on here ...but you just might be the best sir...

I wouldnt rule Pienaar out at 10 yet but i think we have to consider Paddy Jackson now. He needs the experience either side but then we will most likely have Paddy the rest of the season anyway.

whitten made superb decisions last night. He showed he knew when to come in and make the hit (although at the end it nearly cost us).

Pienaar for all the criticism has the best pass i have ever seen. He threw a couple of 20+ yard passes last night like a bloody bullet. its such a phenomenal asset whether at 9 or 10. I do think our backs coaching is a massive issue and i am grateful that ulster are dealing with it (albeit McL seems to be collateral damage).

There is no ideal time to change things and especially now with Limerick only a month away. I think we will see Humph/Pienaar in harness again for that but we need Cave back asap aswell. Short of that i hope we see Luke Marshall in the squad soon. Im not sure what happened with Danielli last night but right now i dont see the point of him being around the squad, harsh as that is.

Farrell and Jackson will be left with the U-20's i feel.

Not to totally lambast pienaar, he is a quality 9 and we are lucky to have him...BUT... quite often he is lazy. On a few occasions you can see him giving up the chase long before others.

I think this single flaw in his 'style' will be more an issue if hes played at 10 than 9.

To me it is a straight choice between a 9 out 10 Number 9 + a 5 out of ten Number 10

or

a 7 out 10 Number 10 + a 6.5 out of ten Number 9

which is the better combination.

geoff999rugby wrote:To me it is a straight choice between a 9 out 10 Number 9 + a 5 out of ten Number 10

or

a 7 out 10 Number 10 + a 6.5 out of ten Number 9

which is the better combination.

I would go for the 9/10 Scrum Half and the 5/10 OH. Simply because we know the OH in question can deliver much better performances and I also think we need Pienaar back at the base of the scrum directing things.

Hey, its possible that Friday night is all it took to get iHumph a kick up the arse. Maybe he will play better again. We can't really try any other options this close to the Munster QF can we.

Show faith, or continue punishing him?

It has to be Humph, we need Pienaar at 9 and Humph back on form to beat Munster.

roddersm wrote:It has to be Humph, we need Pienaar at 9 and Humph back on form to beat Munster.

]

I agree Rodders, lets hope he bucks up his ideas!

roddersm wrote:It has to be Humph, we need Pienaar at 9 and Humph back on form to beat Munster.

That's what I said

Rava wrote:

roddersm wrote:It has to be Humph, we need Pienaar at 9 and Humph back on form to beat Munster.

That's what I said

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery rava.....