Ospreys v Ulster, Friday 4th October

First topic message reminder :

Better late than never. Big game. 2 good sides. Let's get it on.

At Liberty Stadium, 7.05pm. Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (IRFU, 49th competition game) Assistant Referees: Jon Mason, Wayne Davies (both WRU) Citing Commissioner: Dennis Jones (WRU) TMO: Derek Bevan (WRU)

In the black corner

15 Richard Fussell
14 Jeff Hassler
13 Andrew Bishop
12 Ashley Beck
11 Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9 Tito Tebaldi
1 Ryan Bevington
2 Richard Hibbard
3 Adam Jones
4 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)
5 Ian Evans
6 Tyler Ardron
7 Justin Tipuric
8 Joe Bearman

REPLACEMENTS

16 Scott Baldwin
17 Duncan Jones
18 Aaron Jarvis
19 James King
20 Sam Lewis
21 Tom Habberfield
22 Matthew Morgan
23 Ben John

In the white corner

(15-9): C Gilroy, A Trimble, J Payne, L Marshall, M Allen, P Jackson, P Marshall; (1-8): T Court, R Best, D Fitzpatrick J Muller (Captain), D Tuohy, R Diack, C Henry, N Williams; Replacements (16-23): R Herring, C Black, B Ross, I Henderson, R Wilson, M Heaney, S Olding, D Cave.

Jeez turgid Shiite from both teams. No doubt everyone from Ulster should be on the Irish team after that display. The main game is on tomorrow night, thanks for the warm up

Thanks Ulster.

Sincerely,
Glasgow

ME-109 wrote:Jeez turgid Shiite from both teams. No doubt everyone from Ulster should be on the Irish team after that display. The main game is on tomorrow night, thanks for the warm up

Catch a grip, numpty.

IanBru wrote:Thanks Ulster.

Sincerely,
Glasgow

You won't be thanking us when we knock you out of the playoffs  

Were Norn Iron playing tonight...based on the flags I saw. Some people didn't listen in geography class

ME-109 wrote:everyone from Ulster should be on the Irish team

Totally agree.

ME-109 wrote:Were Norn Iron playing tonight...based on the flags I saw. Some people didn't listen in geography class

Are you really going down this road? Mod's?

Munchkin wrote:

ME-109 wrote:Were Norn Iron playing tonight...based on the flags I saw. Some people didn't listen in geography class

Are you really going down this road? Mod's?

I forgot how everyone is a bit jumpy about flags up there. Just commenting on the lack of knowledge about NI v Ulster

Pretty stop-start game, the way we played the territory and controlled the game was pleasing but Ospreys pressed the self-destruct button- they are so hard to break down and we couldn't open them up at all but they got frustrated. The team with the cooler heads won this not very compelling match.

I think McIlwaine was unlucky to be penalised and could have had a try that would have made it a wee bit less tense... and the TMO for the decision against Tuohy. If thats an elbow, we're going to have penalties in every maul. It would have been absolutely gutting to have lost because of those decisions.

Pleased with the 4 points, same as last year- we'll take a win at the Liberty in any way, shape or form. And hopefully all the Ulster players don't get picked for Ireland as we need them here! Let Schmidt and his Leinster boys lead us to a win over the All Blacks while we overtake Munster and Leinster in the international window- perfect world.

ME-109 wrote:

Munchkin wrote:

ME-109 wrote:Were Norn Iron playing tonight...based on the flags I saw. Some people didn't listen in geography class

Are you really going down this road? Mod's?

I forgot how everyone is a bit jumpy about flags up there. Just commenting on the lack of knowledge about NI v Ulster

Tell you what ME. You ramble on there. As for me, I'm enjoying a win tonight against a side that I reckon will be in the top four finish, and I won't allow it to be spoilt by you. So I'm away from this thread. Goodnight.

Munchkin don't waste your time with the ignorant pillock.
Lets bask in victory and Paddy's kicking

ME-109 wrote:

Munchkin wrote:

ME-109 wrote:Were Norn Iron playing tonight...based on the flags I saw. Some people didn't listen in geography class

Are you really going down this road? Mod's?

I forgot how everyone is a bit jumpy about flags up there. Just commenting on the lack of knowledge about NI v Ulster

It's a pretty common thing, which is seen much more frequently at away games than at Ravenhill these days. At Ravenhill the yellow flag of Ulster has slowly become more popular but I've often seen fans with both flags. There certainly is a widespread lack of knowledge about NI vs Ulster- there's a lot of people who couldn't tell you the difference. Wouldn't be something that would have been covered in geography class for a lot of people.

Most fans with the Ulster Banner just want to have a good time, support the team and wave a flag which has a red hand on it and is the same colour as the teams kit. It would be very wrong to read any kind of political statement into this. Also, there is indeed a crossover between the Northern Ireland football fans and Ulster rugby fans which is good in general for everyone involved. I certainly don't think Ulster Rugby as a nine-county organisation should use the old UB, and they don't, but as far as I'm concerned the fans can bring it along if they want. So long as they are friendly, non-sectarian and vociferous in their support there's not a problem... right?

The Ospreys have got to get a decent Full back, Fussell is going backwards. The kicking by the scrum half killed all the back play and the kick out's were too far. Ulster derserved the game for hanging in there but what a ref, he had no idea in the scrums and took an age to get the scrums going, the ref's in the RABO are getting worse.

That ref is up there with the worst of them. I do feel he was just as abysmal for both teams mind you.

After 50 minutes I thought we were in for a very disappointing night but I would take any win over at the Liberty. Season back up and running

Peter Fitzgibbon isn't the finest we have to offer, that much is certainly true.

Pete330v2 wrote:Munchkin don't waste your time with the ignorant pillock.
Lets bask in victory and Paddy's kicking

Your right. Except for PJ's kicking there wasn't much to go on about

In fairness the Ospreys started to make mistakes when they tired. Ulster had a pretty stacked bench which they used to good effect

Just a case of who was the better team over 80 minutes, which was Ulster obviously. The game raises a lot of concerns for both teams though, with the european competition beginning in two weeks.

Actually next week Saint!

That said, I can't see too many teams getting anything off the Os at the Liberty. We were probing all night but found very few weaknesses in their defence. Add in a good set piece and a metronomic goal kicker and it makes the Liberty one tough nut to crack.

As for us, we could have used a better performance to cue up the Leicester game... but I think we have the depth on the bench to get a result if we are as composed and play in the right areas as much as we did tonight.

I think Pienaar probably starts on the bench, despite my misgivings about Marshall Pienaar will only be back in Ulster four days before the match! But as impressive as Allen has been he unfortunately misses out if Craig Gilroy, Tommy Bowe and Jared Payne are fit. Payne and Bowe should be (food poisoning and dead leg) which makes me think Bowe and Trimble for the wings and Gilroys ankle will determine whether Payne plays 13 or 15. Either way, I think we are strong. Cave had a good game today I thought. Took his chance well.

I actually thought potato head had a reasonable game. It was the assistants and the TMO that had the most capricious decisions.

Anscombe deserves a lot of credit for that victory. He identified that the O's might be vulnerable under the high ball and the spills by Hassler and Fussell bore that out. Ulster had obviously been told to kick whenever possible and that 'Munster mode' was exactly right! They played territory territory territory and the kicking game was worthy of ROG but it is so alien to the way Ulster have been playing that it probably took the O's by surprise. For all the talk of the Ospreys front five dominance before the game, it was Ulster who had the edge in the scrums and even more so from the line. Bearman was excellent but again Ulster won the breakdowns.

I didn't think Jackson would have won the battle of the 10s but that was an impressive performance.

The Great Aukster wrote:I actually thought potato head had a reasonable game. It was the assistants and the TMO that had the most capricious decisions.

Anscombe deserves a lot of credit for that victory. He identified that the O's might be vulnerable under the high ball and the spills by Hassler and Fussell bore that out. Ulster had obviously been told to kick whenever possible and that 'Munster mode' was exactly right! They played territory territory territory and the kicking game was worthy of ROG but it is so alien to the way Ulster have been playing that it probably took the O's by surprise. For all the talk of the Ospreys front five dominance before the game, it was Ulster who had the edge in the scrums and even more so from the line. Bearman was excellent but again Ulster won the breakdowns.

I didn't think Jackson would have won the battle of the 10s but that was an impressive performance.

I think Anscombe was also behind the change of emphasis at half time as well. In the first half we were trying a lot of thing in the backline and it wasn't working as the Ospreys were just to good defensively. It was clear the O's were just going to grind it out. In the second half Ulster said, ok then if you want to grind it out with us we'll grind it out and it worked. That Ospreys pack had 5 Lions, 4 in the tight 5 and for my money we got the better of them in the scrum (the last one not withstanding), lineout and maybe marginally in the loose and breakdown as well.

Artful_Dodger wrote:Paddy Jackson's kicking finally comes good.  He's a confidence kicker, if he gets the first couple he'll bang them all over, if he misses the first couple he falls to pieces.

... except for against Connacht when he missed his kicks in the first half and turned his game around in the second?

Im not sure who got the better of who in the scrums. One penalty he gave against us I thought was harsh but then he reversed that in the 2nd half. The Tuohy and Luke Marshall penalties were dreadful officiating but there were some that went for us too.

I wouldn't be too worried after that performance. It showed our tight five can mix it with a 4/5 lions tight five and we have depth in the backrow with genuine impact. Add in Pienaar, Payne, Bowe, Afoa and that's some quartet. Personally with full availability I would go for

Court
Best
Fitz (can't throw Afoa in straightaway)
Muller
Tuohy
Henderson
Henry
Wilson
Pienaar (just)
Jackson
Trimble
Marshall
Payne
Bowe
Gilroy

Black, herring, Afoa, Williams, Diack, Marshall, Olding, Cave

...for Leicester

Evening all.

That first 50mins may have been the least interesting rugby I have seen for a long time. Not solely the fault of the 30 men with numbers on their backs.

I am reluctant to celebrate the win incase yerman decides he wants another look at the players running out for the warm up just incase one of them looked at the other funny!

Anyway.

I think we really missed Payne tonight. His absence added to the very early loss of Gilroy combined to reduce our attacking threat considerably. Plus the Os defence of course.

So good to see PJ kicking well. I think the Sportsground was a poor reflection as the wind there was pretty bad.

Good to get the win though.

And, there seemed to be a lot more people there than in previous seasons too!

I thought Paul Marshall did well today, considering how effectively he was targeted at times. He wasn't flustered despite the backrow being all over him. He just gone on with it and generally made the right decisions. He dealt with it well.

Yeah, and Adam Jones too.

He definately put himself about a bit!

Big hairy bully!!

 

Watch out Paul, he's behind you!!

Oh yeah, Europe is next week. O's task against Leinster should be a lot more difficult now that Ulster have shown them how to win at the Liberty. It wasn't really a winnable group for them anyway given that Saints are also in very good form.

Ulster v Tigers will be good. They've built up a bit of a rivalry over the past few campaigns.

MrsP wrote:
I think we really missed Payne tonight. His absence added to the very early loss of Gilroy combined to reduce our attacking threat considerably. Plus the Os defence of course.

Definitely, Payne has become the real focal point in attack and everyone else plays off him.

Think I can be quoted on other threads as saying Paddy Jackson is a weak link but he won the game tonight, not just with his place kicking but his kicking from hand was excellent too. If he played like that every week we'd be laughing.

The state of the pitch seemed terrible tonight and along with Fitzgibben conspired to spoil the game but we were good for the win I think. We'll need a huge improvement to win next week though....

The Saint wrote:Oh yeah, Europe is next week. O's task against Leinster should be a lot more difficult now that Ulster have shown them how to win at the Liberty. It wasn't really a winnable group for them anyway given that Saints are also in very good form.

Ulster v Tigers will be good. They've built up a bit of a rivalry over the past few campaigns.

It's nice to be able to sit back with a win and watch tigers and saints tear strips off each other tomorrow for sure. I suspect even the ospreys will be delighted they have an extra days rest and will be watching Munster v Leinster keenly too

The Saint wrote:Oh yeah, Europe is next week. O's task against Leinster should be a lot more difficult now that Ulster have shown them how to win at the Liberty.

Leinster don't have the big power players in the back five of the pack that we have. We can give as good as we get in a slog against any Pro12 side anywhere- but when the game slows down, Leinster are less physical than the Ospreys so they're not gonna play like we did. They are going to try and keep the tempo very high.

Nothing to see here - move on. Toonie please note.

rodders wrote:
The state of the pitch seemed terrible tonight and along with Fitzgibben conspired to spoil the game but we were good for the win I think. We'll need a huge improvement to win next week though....

I think the ref is coming in for some harsh criticism. The fact is that both sides have strong defenses and both played a cagey kicking game and both let the ball spill out of their hand often. The ref could speed up the scrum sequence but the criticism is over the top.


As for the game itself. I thought that Ulster played Ospreys at their own game. They made life very difficult for the Ospreys back 3 and the Os couldn't get any momentum.

tense at the end but not a great game.

It will take a while but I promise to buy all Ulster fans on these boards a crepe du Ravenhill to say thanks for doing this.

George Carlin wrote:It will take a while but I promise to buy all Ulster fans on these boards a crepe du Ravenhill to say thanks for doing this.

If the Scarlets would just follow suit now. Life would be great

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:

George Carlin wrote:It will take a while but I promise to buy all Ulster fans on these boards a crepe du Ravenhill to say thanks for doing this.

If the Scarlets would just follow suit now. Life would be great

Are you going to be brave enough to predict a score for that one, Jen?
 
Scarlets missing Gareth Davies, Gareth Owen, Scott Williams and Samson Lee. Glasgow missing Josh 'Bluto' Strauss, Michael Cusack (still), Ryan Wilson (still) and Stuart Hogg, Matawalu is starting on the wing and will switch back to 9 at half time.
 
I'll get you a second crepe with extra mayo if you get the margin right, plus or minus 7 points. I can't say fairer than that.

As a Dragons fan I am hoping for a favour of both the Scottish sides this weekend now.