Scarlets v Ulster next Sunday

First topic message reminder :

How poxed lucky are Ulster? They get to play the 2nd place team in the league....away.....on the weekend that Wales play Australia.

On the other hand it is on a Sunday and their HC game v Northampton is on the following Friday.

So, a few swings mixed in with the roundabouts there. Especially considering Northampton have their game on the Friday.

I'm sure Ulster will cope. Better off having the 2 away matches in a row IMHO

Ulster Team:

P Nelson; A Trimble, D Cave, L Marshall, C Gilroy; P Jackson, P Marshall;
(1-8): C Black, R Herring, J Afoa, J Muller (c), N McComb, I Henderson, R Diack, R Wilson;
Replacements (16-23): R Best, T Court, R Lutton, D Tuohy, M McComish, M Heaney, N O’Connor, T Bowe.

Scarlet's Team:

15. Dan Newton 14. Kristian Phillips 13. Gareth Maule 12. Gareth Owen 11. Andy Fenby 10. Aled Thomas 9. Gareth Davies 1. Phil John 2. Emyr Phillips 3. Jacobie Adriaanse 4. Johan Snyman 5. Richard Kelly 6. George Earle 7. Johnathan Edwards (capt) 8. Kieran Murphy
Replacements
16. Kirby Myhill 17. Shaun Hopkins 18. Deacon Manu 19. Tomas Vallejos 20. Craig Price 21. Aled Davies 22. Adam Warren 23. Nick Reynolds

neilthom7 wrote:Also 4 wins from 4 Away in Wales makes a nice change for us

...and at the rate things are going I wouldn't be surprised if Ireland beat us next year at home as well!

Pot Hale wrote:Luke Marshall is quite a bulky centre.

I think the description you are looking for is 'barrel chested', like Miguel Ángel Jiménez. You see when he retires he's gonna be a beefy big fatty.

9 points against Saints, a home win against Leinster and a losing BP against Munster would be a reasonable enough end to 2012 for me.

Beating Munster would be nice of course but you can't be too greedy about things....

Very poor kicking and all round performance from Thomas. Scarlets generally poor and thought the Ulster front row and Afoa really beat us up (at least until the subs came on) and we were guilty of not concentrating, making silly and poor errors and did more than our part to contribute to a very poor match.

Ulster won because their hard to beat

That was Hopkins, the replacement LH wasn't it Smirnoff? I think he might compliment Jacobie better. It didn't help having your stronger hooker go off early either I suppose.

Good to get away rom PYS with a win.

Conditons looked pretty terrible. Not really a night for the lads with high numbers.

Anyone know why the director didn't seem to know that Ulster's head coach is neither Jonny Davis nor Alan Clarke?

Hey. Wins away in Cardiff, Llanelli, Newport and Swansea since the start of the season!

The days of travel sickness for Ulster in Wales are over

I've just noticed that we have played 6 away and only 4 at home so far which is good news too given the way the table stands.

I know we still have more than half our games against the top 6 teams but still.

We still have away games against Leinster and Munster of course. But we've played and beaten every team in the league except Leinster who are next up, so looking good coming up to halfway.

First match I haven't watched this season, glad we got the win.

If we can beat Leinster it will be huge too cos they have been a real monkey on our back in recent years, I think that would really boost the boys on again. Munster will be very tough away as usual off course.

Wilson has been very impressive so far. He leads by example and seems to be mr reliable when it comes to tightening the game up. He made many great carries to put us back on the front foot, and some crucial tackles.

Will he get his wish and get a chance with Ireland in the future? It is unlikely, but I haven't been impressed with Heaslip for a while.

Callum Black appears to be a very very good scrummager, gave Nel of Edinburgh all sorts of problems and he did the same today to Adriaanse, two highly rated TH in South Africa.

He is Vince he has done well all season and also last season when the kids played leinster it got the better of big mike ross certainly looks like a great prospect

rodders wrote:9 points against Saints, a home win against Leinster and a losing BP against Munster would be a reasonable enough end to 2012 for me.

Beating Munster would be nice of course but you can't be too greedy about things....

All I want for Xmas....

rodders wrote:9 points against Saints, a home win against Leinster and a losing BP against Munster would be a reasonable enough end to 2012 for me.

Beating Munster would be nice of course but you can't be too greedy about things....

You snuck that one is there very nicely Rodders!

Love it!

So who would you pick for next week?

I'd go for;

Court Best Afoa
Muller Tuohy
Henderson Wilson Henry
Pienaar Jackson
Trimble Marshall Cave Bowe
Payne

Herring Black Fitzpatrick (?) McComb Williams Marshall Wallace Gilroy. 7 changes in all.

I'd go along with that notch. Marshall deserves a starting chance to prove his worth on the big stage. Williams possibly in for Henderson who's had a lot of minutes recently.

Notch wrote:So who would you pick for next week?

I'd go for;

Court Best Afoa
Muller Tuohy
Henderson Wilson Henry
Pienaar Jackson
Trimble Marshall Cave Bowe
Payne

Herring Black Fitzpatrick (?) McComb Williams Marshall Wallace Gilroy. 7 changes in all.

+1

neilthom7 wrote:

Notch wrote:So who would you pick for next week?

I'd go for;

Court Best Afoa
Muller Tuohy
Henderson Wilson Henry
Pienaar Jackson
Trimble Marshall Cave Bowe
Payne

Herring Black Fitzpatrick (?) McComb Williams Marshall Wallace Gilroy. 7 changes in all.

+1

+2

Marshall was our best back yesterday IMO. It's never easy throwing the new guy in for his first 'big' start buti think he has earned it. He is certainly ready physically

Marshall was really impressive yesterday. Cave didn't have his best game though.

Big game by Trimble and one in the eye for those writing him off.... still a massive player for us, Gilroy or no Gilroy.

Very impressed with Mccomb. Might he get the nod ahead of Touhy? Diack looked in good nick too.

Quite a few guys putting up their hands for the Saints game but I suspect the team above isn't far off the mark. With the 5 day turnaround though I wonder if a few guys who did the 80 yesterday may just miss out on a starting spot.

Agree on Trimble. His chasing game is terrifying to any opposition. And was wrongly called offside. Truth is, he gets his timing spot on more often than Gilroy and Bowe.