Which Ulster halfback pairing?

09 Ruan Pienaar
10 Ian Humphreys

or

09 Paul Marshall
10 Ruan Pienaar

Which Ulster halfback pairing is the better one for the ERC showdown with Munster in Thomond Park. I am interested to gauge the opinions of the Ulster fans who seem to rate Marshall highly and consider Humphreys inconsistent. Do you go for the two exciting players or take a different sort of gamble with Ian Humphreys - probably the only man in the entire Ulster squad to have beaten Munster in the Heineken Cup in Thomond Park.

Which are the two exciting players. For all their faults that is an adjective I would use for all three when at their best.

It will be Pienaer - Humphreys by the way because at their best that is a better combination than Marshall - Pienaer at their best.

All Ulster fans will cross fingers, and everything else, that Humphreys is on song.

I have faith that Humphreys will get his act together after being dropped a week or two back. Marshall is twice the player as an impact sub that he is starting. In a funny way.

I'm also not THAT crazy about Pienaar at 10. Hes better than humphs, but the drop in ability you find in shifting him to 10 is greater than the increase in ability you get playing Marshall over Humph.

Spot on Clive

Pienaar and IHumph for me.

Marshall is having the better season than IHumph but Ruan is a far better 9 than 10 and thats the key for me.

Bring Marshall on for impact late on or drag IHumph off early if he doesn't perform but IHumph should start imo.

Pienaar and iHumph for me as well.
Pienaar is a world class 9 who controls things at the base of the scrum much better than Marshall.
Humphreys is a better tactical kicker than Pienaar, something that could be a key issue in the game. For me Pienaar just hasn't enough flair for the 10 position. He's safe though, but we need to be adventurous and be playing Munster in their half of the pitch.

Right thats 4 - 0 for Pienaer + Humphreys

Someone pick up the phone and tell McGlock and save him the bother of deciding

Seems like its a very straightforward call.

For what its worth I agree with it.

Pienaar / iHumph.

Marshall on for last five/ten minutes against tired Munster legs, to score a superb solo try.

Pienaar is one of the best 9s around, but an average 10

Humphreys is a decent 10, who can provide a good attacking threat (should be useful against ROG) =

Marshall is a very good player, and should come on in the last 20 with Pienaar moving to 10, either to close out the game with a better defence - or try to chase the game with a shift in tactics.

Guess I am alone in thinking Marshall-Pienaar was looking pretty good! Though with Humphreys on top form, I know which partnership I would feel more comfortable seeing on the field for Ulster. Still, Marshall-Pienaar could still be great I think.

When you have 3 players, for 2 positions, and one of them is World Class in one position you play him there.

That 's the bottom line.

geoff998rugby wrote:When you have 3 players, for 2 positions, and one of them is World Class in one position you play him there.

That 's the bottom line.

Yup. Not much else to say, its all about Ruan running the show where he's best and hoping humph has one of his good days.

Completely agree, it has has to be Pienaar - Ihumph to start with marshall to make an impact later in the game (the exact time of which to be determined by Ihumphs performance on the day)

I guess I think Pienaar is world class in more than one position though - he is generally really talented.

I don't think Pienaar is anywhere near as good at 10 Rory, not over 80mins at this level anyways. He can do a job there but at 9 he's sublime, as good as any 9 in Europe.

He did a pretty good job at 10 against the Lions if I remember, but I haven't seen him at 10 since, apart from lately for Ulster. I would like to see him at 10 more for Ulster, but like I said I would feel more comfortable with the tried combo of Pienaar-Humphreys.

Pienaer is a decent 10 but World Class ? - not in a million years

geoff998rugby wrote:Right thats 4 - 0 for Pienaer + Humphreys

Someone pick up the phone and tell McGlock and save him the bother of deciding

First time I read that as,

"........and save the brother deciding!"

Was just about to stamp my little feet!



Then I read it again!

wales606 wrote:

Humphreys is a decent 10, who can provide a good attacking threat (should be useful against ROG) =

I don't actually think this is right.RoG struggles against backrows and big physical centres because he's light and his tackling technique isn't great but he rarely completely misses a tackle or leaves a gaping hole for the opposition to get through.He generally gets bumped off and I don't think Humph has the size or strength to do that to RoG.

Pienaar and Humphreys. Purely because I think having Ruan Pienaar in his best position is best for the team. He's a much better 9 than 10.

Marshall is a great impact sub.

If there is parity in the pack and set piece, will this game come down to a battle between Pienaar and ROG and who can control the game best?

... dum dum dum.....

It would be a bit unfair Rodders, we have TOL( he hasn't been as bad as people say but still not that good) and you would have Pienaar/Marshall. Would someone tell Strings to get his arse back to Cork.

I warned everyone about TOL, but would anyone listen??... noooooooo...

Interesting that Munsters weak link is at 9 (imo) and Ulsters at 10.

I have a feeling that Ulster will take Munster on up front and target their scrum but Munster will try and move the ball wide and get Zebo, Earls and Jones into space as often as possible.

Can't wait!

Ulster would be well served playing Ian Whitten somewhere in the side.

roddersm wrote:I warned everyone about TOL, but would anyone listen??... noooooooo...

Interesting that Munsters weak link is at 9 (imo) and Ulsters at 10.

I have a feeling that Ulster will take Munster on up front and target their scrum but Munster will try and move the ball wide and get Zebo, Earls and Jones into space as often as possible.

Can't wait!

Rodders, I actually don't think he has been that poor. People are just seeing waht they want to see with him. His delivery was solid for the large part on Saturday.

Really? I can't recall a worse performance by an Irish player in recent years as TOL's against England.

The English game he was shoite, no question there, the cross kick was nearly genius, if it was anyone other than that fat fecker Heaslip then who knows. He has been pretty decent for most of the season though.

In fairness he had a good game for the wolfhounds, I've seen him play some howlers for Munster recently but fair enough hes had a couple of good ones too. Good set up for the try last week but I thought generally he was poor.

Nothing against him, I just can't abide slow service from scrum halves under the current laws and hes one of the worst culprits.

To me hes a decent 10 man rugby scrumhalf like Dewi Morris was and doesn't have the skills to adapt to the modern game the way Boss and phillips have.