Ulster squad additions

First topic message reminder :

Trimble has started following Jacques Botes on Twitter if that means anything...?
#Geoffisbetterthantwitter

marty2086 wrote:

Kingshu wrote:So a Sean/John maybe Shane outhalf maybe joining Ulster.

God we're getting desperate for rumors,

I'll add the name James as it can sound a bit like Shane, or John.

Could be a surname as well should we list possibilities for that too?

Barry John is making a comeback

Kingshu wrote:I alway thought the 3 test should be alternatnated around Ravenhill, Sportsground and Thomond. IRFU should really be showing international rugby that everyone in Ireland can access.

I wouldn't want Stringer, (still has plenty to offer) however I think Pieneer, stringer then Marshall, means Marshall wouldn't get enough gametime and not even be on bench for big games.

Hope Munster do use him this year because I would have liked to have seen him give 2 years to Connacht, esp since there are in the H-Cup. mind you Stringer/Parks you'd have can't tackle won't tackle in the half backs.

just checked and I see Sat 17th Nov 12 17:30 F Ireland XV v Fiji Thomond Park Stadium

Thats a start next year Galway year after Ravenhill.

By calling it an Ireland XV I think this avoids it having to be played in NLR

Thomond Park? Delighted!!

Ravenhill should be fully completed before the start of the 2014/15 season. It would be nice if there was a game there in the Autumn of 2014.

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/10597.php

Not what we were expecting but finally more new signings

Doyle? Interesting signing. That's a wrap presumably folks. Hope DH has uncovered another diamond.

What? Whats this? Yikes ****Frantically opening link***

Michael Heaney back to renew his half-back combo wi th Jackson from the School's Cup winning side.

Strange for him to return after so short a time away and after playing at a fairly low level?

Interesting.

This Sean lad might be a decent signing indeed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4PhAlsAQlE

Can someone repost the info please?

clivemcl wrote:overheard a name like Sean or something.

All hail the new Geoff

Doyle is an Australian born openside flanker who has joined from Sydney club side Southern Districts. The Irish-qualified 22 year old has been one of the leading players in the New South Wales Premier Grade over the past four seasons and has also been a strong performer for the NSW ‘A’ representative side.

That explaines Humph being in Oz.

so what are they like????

Interesting..

Hopefully this Doyle dude turns out to be an unearthed gem. Apart from his name, what makes him IQ? Family?

Michael Heaney is cover for Pienaar. Damn Rugby championship! HOWEVER, Sean Doyle is Irish qualified. There is potentially room for one more NIQ signing.

Our squad right now;

PROPS
Tom Court, Paddy McAllister, Callum Black, John Afoa, Declan Fitzpatrick, Adam Macklin
HOOKERS
Rory Best, Rob Herring, Nigel Brady, Niall Annett
LOCKS
Johann Muller (c), Dan Tuohy, Lewis Stevenson, Iain Henderson, Neil McComb
BACKROW
Stephen Ferris, Chris Henry, Sean Doyle, Ali Birch, Robbie Diack, Roger Wilson, Mike McComish
SCRUM HALF
Ruan Pienaar, Paul Marshall, Michael Heaney
OUTHALF
Paddy Jackson, Niall O'Connor, Stuart Olding
CENTRES
Paddy Wallace, Luke Marshall, Darren Cave, Nevin Spence, Chris Farrell
WINGERS
Andrew Trimble, Craig Gilroy, Tommy Bowe, Chris Cochrane
FULL BACK
Jared Payne, Adam D'Arcy, Peter Nelson

Our strength in depth is getting better all the time. I'm STILL hoping for one more NIQ flanker.

red_stag wrote:

clivemcl wrote:overheard a name like Sean or something.

All hail the new Geoff

Also Humph must read these forums, I told him he should sign one of the young Aussie 7s..

Notch wrote:

red_stag wrote:

clivemcl wrote:overheard a name like Sean or something.

All hail the new Geoff

Ha, I got it from UAFC boards. And for all I know it could have been Geoff, whatever he calls himself over there!

Hope to see this lad against Leicester at Ravers!

Are we trying to not use our NIQ quota to butter up the IRFU? Or do we think theres another signing to come?

Notch wrote:Michael Heaney is cover for Pienaar. Damn Rugby championship! HOWEVER, Sean Doyle is Irish qualified. There is potentially room for one more NIQ signing.

Our squad right now;

PROPS
Tom Court, Paddy McAllister, Callum Black, John Afoa, Declan Fitzpatrick, Adam Macklin
HOOKERS
Rory Best, Rob Herring, Nigel Brady, Niall Annett
LOCKS
Johann Muller (c), Dan Tuohy, Lewis Stevenson, Iain Henderson, Neil McComb
BACKROW
Stephen Ferris, Chris Henry, Sean Doyle, Ali Birch, Robbie Diack, Roger Wilson, Mike McComish
SCRUM HALF
Ruan Pienaar, Paul Marshall, Michael Heaney
OUTHALF
Paddy Jackson, Niall O'Connor, Stuart Olding
CENTRES
Paddy Wallace, Luke Marshall, Darren Cave, Nevin Spence, Chris Farrell
WINGERS
Andrew Trimble, Craig Gilroy, Tommy Bowe, Chris Cochrane
FULL BACK
Jared Payne, Adam D'Arcy, Peter Nelson

Our strength in depth is getting better all the time. I'm STILL hoping for one more NIQ flanker.

Left one out Notch fixed it for you

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Interesting..

Hopefully this Doyle dude turns out to be an unearthed gem. Apart from his name, what makes him IQ? Family?

I don't know, probably 150k a year....

He has an Irish passport apparently. Thats good enough for me. Looks like he's got a great defensive game and lovely hands but lacks outright power and pace. A good scrapper.

Ah yes, Mike McComish. How could I forget?

The video says he also has spanish as a nationality option. spanish ma, irish da, born in Oz?

Seems decent. Will there be more signings. Humph is doing well to get IQs into the country. The IRFU have to be grateful to him and Ulster!

What about my previous question, are we going to use our NIQ quota or leave it at that? What position would we look for now?

To be honest, I'm happy enough with the squad. Maybe an experienced 10 to help Jackson along, but we've been told we won't be allowed.

I'm not sure what else we need. Maybe a really good blindside flanker. We may see Chris Henry spend more time in that position.

Jen has mentioned Botes on the other thread, any info on that?

It's not going to happen rodders. We just signed Nick Williams.

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/10598.php

The man is a big, big guy. Thats what I feel we have been lacking a bit in our backrow. He's scored a lot of tries in this league simply by bulldozing through defences.

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/10598.php

From what Humphreys says seems to be some input from Anscombe with this one

Interesting. We are going to have quite a battle for the back row I think. We have some very good options now. Can Williams play 6?

sho1te! Why did they seperate the announcements by a few hours??

Not sure how i feel about this at all...

ok, that was over reacting on my part, I just thought the williams thing was dead in the water. He is a big ball carrier to be fair, which is what we need. It will be interesting to see the competition for places.

I hope Williams has copped on a bit from his time in Munster. Not a very hard worker.

I also hope that. That's my main misgiving. That said, Anscombe has coached him before and he should know all about him.

If he was a hard worker, he'd be a player. Getting 10 tries in the last two seasons in a team like Aironi is quite an impressive testament to his abilities as a ball carrier.

Notch wrote:
If he was a hard worker, he'd be a player. Getting 10 tries in the last two seasons in a team like Aironi is quite an impressive testament to his abilities as a ball carrier.

Thats the one stat I read that cheered me up a bit. Hopefully anscombe is the kind of coach that will take no nonsense from the players.

No ground breaking signings, but what can we expect? Maybe I've been spoiled from the Bowe and Wilson signing but none of these players look like they will push the starters. If these guys were to start during a six nations period it wouldn't fill me with confidence.

But we'll have to see. Williams is alright, Doyle didn't look amazing from his video and the other I've never heard off...But In Humphrey's We Trust!

After Bowe and Wilson did Ulster have the funds for a big name Southern Hemisphere player.

Contrast that with Munster who said goodbye to Leamy and Wallace. Those boys have 120 Irish caps and about 400 Munster appearances between them.

They were on good wages. That freed up a lot to bring in Downey, CJ Stander, Casey Laulala etc.

Ulster brought in big name Irish guys which meant funds were not as plentiful.

Thats the way Ulster want it though stag rather big name Irish players than more SH guys

Itll be an interesting season with the size of the squad with the new guys and young guys coming into the squad theres a lot of potential there

I think its easy to forget how big a signing bowe is because we are so familiar with him. But I think from a quality point of view and a depth point of view we have done well.

JayMaster, Williams scored 6 tries last season playing for Aironi. Our best scoring forward was Pedrie with 4 tries.

If Nick Williams wants to score tries, I'm happy for him to start...

I disagree, I would be happy to see these guys during the Six Nations international window. We'll be in trouble if they are all in the team in the Heineken Cup though...

The likes of Doyle and Heaney are ones for the future. What we wanted and needed was a bit of depth. We now have it. Reasonably happy.

I guess it depends on who he was scoring these tries against?

Aironi spent a lot of their time being hammered by everyone so I am not sure if looking at his stats from here is reliable, bit of a big fish in a small pond thing... And he only made 20 appearances for Munster as well. Do we really want one of their cast offs?

I am not saying he won't make it, just thought we could have brought in someone a little better, not sure who but someone.

Like I said these guys, right now, would not fill me with confidence if they played during an Intentional window. If we want to be competing at the top of the league we need serious squad depth. These signings are not of Leinster quality.
This is even more important if the French and English force through a reform on qualification for Europe.

But this is not an opinion, just a concern. I will make my real opinion come the start of next season.

Don't really remember Williams much, I remember he was at Munster.

Most fans here were saying we didn't want williams, so how do you feel now?

is he a decent player? who would you compare him to? Wannenburg? Henry? McCormish?

Apparently he is very lazy, but he is meant to be a fantastic ball carrier. I'm not sure the Ulster lads will let him get away with not doing his fair share of work. Hopefully Williams will really shine for us. Wilson will surely be first choice 8 though.

JayMaster3000 wrote:I guess it depends on who he was scoring these tries against?

Aironi spent a lot of their time being hammered by everyone so I am not sure if looking at his stats from here is reliable, bit of a big fish in a small pond thing... And he only made 20 appearances for Munster as well. Do we really want one of their cast offs?

I am not saying he won't make it, just thought we could have brought in someone a little better, not sure who but someone.

Like I said these guys, right now, would not fill me with confidence if they played during an Intentional window. If we want to be competing at the top of the league we need serious squad depth. These signings are not of Leinster quality.
This is even more important if the French and English force through a reform on qualification for Europe.

But this is not an opinion, just a concern. I will make my real opinion come the start of next season.

Jay if you playing for a teams thats the perenial whipping boys but still have a good personal try scoring record surely that a good thing that means that pretty much every week your playing against better teams

marty2086 wrote:

JayMaster3000 wrote:I guess it depends on who he was scoring these tries against?

Aironi spent a lot of their time being hammered by everyone so I am not sure if looking at his stats from here is reliable, bit of a big fish in a small pond thing... And he only made 20 appearances for Munster as well. Do we really want one of their cast offs?

I am not saying he won't make it, just thought we could have brought in someone a little better, not sure who but someone.

Like I said these guys, right now, would not fill me with confidence if they played during an Intentional window. If we want to be competing at the top of the league we need serious squad depth. These signings are not of Leinster quality.
This is even more important if the French and English force through a reform on qualification for Europe.

But this is not an opinion, just a concern. I will make my real opinion come the start of next season.

Jay if you playing for a teams thats the perenial whipping boys but still have a good personal try scoring record surely that a good thing that means that pretty much every week your playing against better teams

Exactly Marty, We should be optimistic. And have faith in the likes of Best/Muller/Anscombe to give this guy the necessary motivation!

Kingshu wrote:Don't really remember Williams much, I remember he was at Munster.

Most fans here were saying we didn't want williams, so how do you feel now?

is he a decent player? who would you compare him to? Wannenburg? Henry? McCormish?

Slightly disappointed but hopeful being reunited with his old coach Mark Anscombe (apparently a no nonsense hard-nosed barsteward) and Ulsters semi-sadistic strength and conditioning coaches can get the best out of him.

Of the players you list he is most like Wannenburg, but not as good. His main asset is sheer power and size. He would be a better ball carrier than Wannenburg but weaker at most other facets of back row play. He probably won't be good enough to make the matchday squad in the Heineken Cup unless there are injuries but will contribute well in the Pro12. The main concern is his workrate and attitude. If those are sorted out he will be a major asset. If not, expect him to disappear off the radar.

This will be a signing Ulster have had lined up as a back-up for some time in case we couldn't get who we really wanted.

Nick Williams could be a great signing. He was injured a lot when at Munster. Great ball carrier. Major problem is that when at Munster he was far to fond of the pints & pies. Not sure if the reason he liked his pints was because of injury, but on one occasion he turned up for an AIL match for Dolphin against St. Marys (in Dublin) late and peed!

Seems to have done reasonably well in Italy though. Scored a try against Munster!

See, if he pulls a stunt like that in Ulster we'll know why he mysteriously disappears. Not joking. Humphreys is like Michael Corleone when an Ulster player pulls a stunt like that.

To be fair, If he's lazy I don't think the Ulster team would be any better at snapping him out of it than the Munster team, think of PoC shouting at you, and Axel etc.

The only hope is that he has matured and grow up himself, cos if the Munster team then couldn't get him active the Ulster team now won't.

Hopefully he has cottoned himself on, and going from European heavyweights Munster to Airoini woke him up and this is his last chance to play with one of the big teams of the game and will some real silverware.

Guys lets wait until he pulls on a shirt before we start to judge him.
Sin lots of guys have made mistakes in the past. I'm sure that is an embarrassing occasion he will wAnt to forget.
You guys were questioning Wannenberg when he arrived. I'd say we are getting at least as good a player if not better. He's only 28 as well. In his prime. He is also hooking up with an old friend in Anscombe. He will want to impress. I'll not be surprised if he is our first choice 8 come Christmas.

The way I see Williams as a player is it will take two guys to mark him around the fringes of every ruck he gets to and he will add serious weight to our driving maul.

The big question is; how much we get out of him. If he makes it to the number of rucks we need him to get to, he will be very valuable. If he can't get that workrate for 80 minutes we'll be carrying him.

In the Heineken Cup especially he'll need to up his fitness to get near the intensity required.

I'd say the one thing Ulster will work on straight away will be his fitness. Strikes me as an Anscombe signing Notch. I don't think either will want to let the side down