Leicester v Ulster

First topic message reminder :

Leicester Tigers (v Ulster, Welford Road, Saturday 6pm)
15 Mathew Tait
14 Niall Morris
13 Matt Smith
12 Anthony Allen
11 Vereniki Goneva
10 Toby Flood (c)
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Tom Youngs
3 Dan Cole
4 Ed Slater
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Jamie Gibson
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane

Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Louis Deacon
20 Steve Mafi
21 David Mélé
22 Owen Williams
23 Scott Hamilton


Ulster

Callum Black
Rory Best
John Afoa
Johann Muller
Dan Tuohy
Roger Wilson
Chris Henry
Nick Williams
Ruan Pienaar
Paddy Jackson
Craig Gilroy
Luke Marshall
Darren Cave
Andrew Trimble
Jared Payne

Rob Herring, Tom Court, Ricky Lutton, Iain Henderson, Robbie Diack, Paul Marshall, David McIlwaine, Michael Allen

Get discussing folks!

Pot Hale wrote:

Notch wrote:When I was 10 years old, I was there when David Humphreys went streaking down the touchline and I think that was the moment I fell in love with the game of rugby…..

Humphreys streaking in front of a 10-year old……..

Is there nothing these Ulstermen won't do to recruit fans?

     

Notch wrote:When I was 10 years old, I was at a home semi-final for Ulster versus Stade Francais- I was there when David Humphreys went streaking down the touchline and I think that was the moment I fell in love with the game of rugby.

That was the last European Cup knockout game to be played at Ravenhill. I feel rather emotional at this, tbh. I'm just about keeping it together. We'll be finally taking a game back to Ravenhill. All those wet Friday nights over the last 15 years, all those last-minute heartbreaks all those long years.

All hell might stand against us, but I wouldn't bet on anyone else.

stop it, you're making me cry.   

Injuries related impacted Tigers, they were well on top in the first 20min but man the was a fantastic effort from every Ulster player to grind that one out under huge pressure at times - amazing win.

Hookisms and Hyperbole wrote:

Notch wrote:When I was 10 years old, I was at a home semi-final for Ulster versus Stade Francais- I was there when David Humphreys went streaking down the touchline and I think that was the moment I fell in love with the game of rugby.

That was the last European Cup knockout game to be played at Ravenhill. I feel rather emotional at this, tbh. I'm just about keeping it together. We'll be finally taking a game back to Ravenhill. All those wet Friday nights over the last 15 years, all those last-minute heartbreaks all those long years.

All hell might stand against us, but I wouldn't bet on anyone else.

This.  If there was a hug emoticon I'd use it right here.  Sums up exactly how I feel right now.

  You mean this one. #SUFTUM

Will Greenwood basically completely contradicting Stuart Barnes on live TV- the cherry on top of a very tasty cake?   

Notch wrote:Will Greenwood basically completely contradicting Stuart Barnes on live TV- the cherry on top of a very tasty cake?   

If he could take George Hook to task for being an arse I'd know I'd died and gone to heaven. You know what Notch, I'm just going to suggested a wife procure me a special treat tonight. If she says yes then I know I'd done something right in an earlier life.

 

It's like you're on a hot streak in Vegas. You've won so much already, why not roll the dice again!?

Cockers giving a good interview

Hookisms and Hyperbole wrote:Chris Henry, face bleeding. One stupid offside decision aside he was brilliant, and Wilson & Best were absolutely superb in the pack. Tight match, tighter than it should have been. Best team won. But Leicester showed their pedigree in this competition and what a bloody good team they are. Welford Road is a fortress but we managed it. We might not be good enough to win the tournament but this shows how far we have come in a short period of time.

Hookie for ten years Ulster couldn't buy a win outside Ravenhill, let alone in France or England - look at who we've beaten over the last few years on the road - Saints, Munster, Montpellier, Castres, Leinster and now the Tigers at Welford - 4 seasons in a row in the KO stages.

This team has made massive progress - much of which is down to the fanstastic marquee signings - Muller, Pienaar, Payne, Afoa, Wannenburg, Williams, Terblanche ... even more so its down to David Humphries and Shane Logan... but more than anything for me its down to players like Best, Henry and Trimble who stuck by this side through thick and thin and showed unwavering commitment to the cause when we a big load of pants for years and on a hiding to nothing.

Cockerill was very classy, very respectful. I guess thats a sign Nigel Owen had a good game   

Nah I'm just kidding. That was a bit of class on his behalf. Good man Cockers.

 

Cockerill gets a bollocking when he speaks his mind, think he's learning to hold it in.

not sure what planet Owens was on with the last scrums but the first two should of been a penalty to the tigers. Over the 80 minutes i think the tigers should of just about won, but it was so close towards the end.

think it should of been a yellow for the early tackle on Morris.

overall though i cant complain, was a great game. Well done ulster.

Saracens at Ravenhill, what a monster game - McCall will be relishing that! ....beats playing Toulon away though!

Well done Ulster. Thats a great win. Fairplay to the Tigers, they gave it their all. Great game to watch.

Great that Nigel Wray has to come to Ravenhill  

That was emotional!

Sin é wrote:Well done Ulster. Thats a great win. Fairplay to the Tigers, they gave it their all. Great game to watch.

Great that Nigel Wray has to come to Ravenhill  

Good man Sin-bo! Best of luck tomorrow!   

Sin é wrote:Great that Nigel Wray has to come to Ravenhill  

Our corporate suites serve only the finest prawn sandwiches, but he may find the distilled blood of peasants and rugby administrators harder to source outside the South of England   

He's very welcome. We look forward to showing him first hand the kind of passion, quality rugby and atmosphere his side will be missing out on if we let this great tournament go by the wayside.

Am I correct in saying there is a chance of a Munster vs Leinster quarter-final at Thomond Park? That might well be competitive for the second best tie of the next round.

Away at Clermont for us, we pushed them hard there last time and only a double yellow card from Rolland. If we can put out our first choice pack and a couple of line breakers out in the backs we could get a result.

Disappointing to lose that game, I hope someone is on suicide watch with Flood as he looked devastated after that charge down.

I will be very excited to watch Tigers game Sam. For both Ulster and Leicester to have both gone to France and won already shows how unfortunate it is that someone had to be on the road, but also shows that both teams 100% deserve to be in the quarter-finals.

When we got to the Final in 2011, we did so as eighth seeds (the first time thats ever happened I think) and we got a win in a Stadium no-one had won at in Europe since some team from the East-Midlands went over there so anything is possible.

Feel bad for Flood, but Pienaar gets those charge downs far, far too regularly for it to be chance. He's an expert predator.

When is the next game?

ah April, hopefully we'll have some of our big players back by then.

Well done Ulster... great game... throughly deserved the win. See you in the semi finals!

nathan wrote:ah April, hopefully we'll have some of our big players back by then.

You're all set to reap the benefits of Flood being dropped for the Six Nations at least. He's had a few niggling injuries he's had to play through he could use a few weeks off whereas the England lads will be straight into training on Monday!

Notch wrote:

nathan wrote:ah April, hopefully we'll have some of our big players back by then.

You're all set to reap the benefits of Flood being dropped for the Six Nations at least. He's had a few niggling injuries he's had to play through he could use a few weeks off whereas the England lads will be straight into training on Monday!

hopefully, we could do with getting Manu back. I didn't realise till the other day how big an injury he had. His pectoral muscle had completely detached. eek!

Really good game but absolutely gutted about the result. A win today could have got our season going as we have been stuttering so far. Injuries did hamper us and I think Ulster had better control from their half backs but we shouldn't have let the game slip from 19-9 up. But Ulster were fantastic especially Pienaar, it was almighty close but you just pipped us to it. Enjoy your QF at Ravenhill, you thouroughly deserve it. Hopefully Tigers can build up some momentum over the 6N and not have too many injuries so we can give our QF in France a good go.

Please please please can Ulster send that bunch of silly hat wearinng wallies from London (south Africa), back to their overrated competition.

Goodness. Who will Biltong be supporting in that one?

Biltongs an Ulstermanne, he knows which side of the bread the butter is on   

Tigers just couldn't click in the backs. The pack did well but they missed Salvi and Manu most. Couldnt do enought to generate quick ball and couldn't use the slow stiff they got.

Saying that a griping game and going by Clermonts meh form so far they're still well in it!

yappysnap wrote:Tigers just couldn't click in the backs. The pack did well but they missed Salvi and Manu most. Couldnt do enought to generate quick ball and couldn't use the slow stiff they got.

Saying that a griping game and going by Clermonts meh form so far they're still well in it!

 Salvi?

I thought Salvi was on the pitch. He probably lost the individual duel with Henry- he wasn't the influence I feared.

Are Leicester the only English team to not be involved in the European Challenge Cup.

 If so pretty proud of that in itself. (looking at some positives).

Chris Henry made 23 tackles tonight. That's nine more than the next player who was Rory Best. Henry was fantastic once again. He and Best are Ulster's most important forwards.

If Kidney was still Irish coach he still would be on the bench.

Wow just an awesome moment. Leicester that was a great performance and such a great atmosphere at Welford Road with the silence for the kicks very respectful too best of luck in the next round. Saracens welcome to Ravenhill trust me you won't enjoy it here, good to see Mark McCall coming back home too.

Great game. Intense! My nerves were shredded by the end. Forwards were immense, including Court for the last ten minutes. Proud of the whole team who gave it their all. Pienaar is superb.
To come back from 10 points down demonstrated great strength of character, and belief, in this Ulster team.
Leicester threw everything at us from start to finish, as we knew they would, and were right in it until the very last second. A great team, and will be shouting for them in their quarter against the French.
The Sarries at Ravenhill next. Just what I, and just about every other Ulster fan, was hoping for   

SUFTUM!

SUFTUM!

Such a proud Ulsterman. What a game, what a competition. Best 8 sides in the quarters.
How about Rory Bests Clearance kick? What a player!

Great result, well done Ulster. It seems we may see an Irish team on the trophy this year? Playing much better rugby than the French IMO, which will subsequently lead to them and the anglo's walking away. Ulster vs Sarries; very interesting, after how last year's game went.

BTW, where does this leave Tigers?

Toulon or Clermont away. Ironically I think the latter is the easier draw. Sarries will be happy they aren't going to France. We just have to make them hate ravenhill

Leicester proved why they are only fifth in their league, weak team and weak performance, they are nothing without Tuilagi.

The easiest possible away game for London Saracens now, who'll be the only 'English' side to make the semis. Ulster will be praying that nothing happens to Pienaar to stand half a chance. A one-man team if ever there was.

Who out of Ulster and Saracens will be fielding more foreign born players on the day?

yappysnap wrote:

Nachos Jones wrote:Why Henry, why?

Stupid.

To be fair one of the funniest tries scored was by Mccaw leaving his own scrum so early that he could receive the pass from the 9 at the base and dot it down. Literally stood with the backs

I remember that one.  I used it as an example with our old friend GG of one of the many things McCaw got away with and GG swore blind there was nothing wrong with it.

Just finished watching the replay and I have to say I think the penalty that put Ulster 22-19 up looked like a mistake by Owens - the ruck was on the halfway line and if you watch the Tigers they all retreat a yard or two behind the line before coming forwards - didn't look offside to me.  And as has been mentioned already the scrum decisions at the end were a bit puzzling.

Owens is a good ref, probably my favourite, but I do think he loses the plot sometimes near the end of close matches.  The end of Munster v Northampton a year or two ago springs to mind where he ignored POC swimming up the side of a maul and then allowed Munster to go off their feet sealing off at many of the 20 odd phases that led up to their winning drop goal.

Nevertheless a great game and overall well reffed.

Heaf wrote:Just finished watching the replay and I have to say I think the penalty that put Ulster 22-19 up looked like a mistake by Owens - the ruck was on the halfway line and if you watch the Tigers they all retreat a yard or two behind the line before coming forwards - didn't look offside to me.  And as has been mentioned already the scrum decisions at the end were a bit puzzling.

Owens is a good ref, probably my favourite, but I do think he loses the plot sometimes near the end of close matches.  The end of Munster v Northampton a year or two ago springs to mind where he ignored POC swimming up the side of a maul and then allowed Munster to go off their feet sealing off at many of the 20 odd phases that led up to their winning drop goal.

Nevertheless a great game and overall well reffed.

Owens looked a bit bemused to me when the TMO told him that the ball which led to that scrum had gone dead.  I think Owens thought it was a lineout in the Tigers 22.  I did wonder if that impacted his decision making at those scrums, but hes probably too good a ref for that.  Haven't had a look at that sequence of 3 scrums again yet but its the second match between these two sides that Tom Court has done Dan Cole in the scrum on numerous occasions.  The final scrum of this match (as well as the last of the controversial series of 3 scrums you mention) Cole completely capitulated under pressure from Court but Tigers just managed to get the ball away.  In the game at Ravenhill Court also won two penalties against Cole which were 3 pointers for Ulster.

cface wrote:Leicester proved why they are only fifth in their league, weak team and weak performance, they are nothing without Tuilagi.

The easiest possible away game for London Saracens now, who'll be the only 'English' side to make the semis.  Ulster will be praying that nothing happens to Pienaar to stand half a chance.  A one-man team if ever there was.

Who out of Ulster and Saracens will be fielding more foreign born players on the day?

Think your name probably sums up your knowledge of rugby quite succinctly - to88er

" I thought Salvi was on the pitch. He probably lost the individual duel with Henry- he wasn't the influence I feared."

Salvi was quiet but slowed ball down. Henry was more prominent but gave away some daft unnecessary penalties.

" Tom Court has done Dan Cole in the scrum on numerous occasions."

The first game had Court giving away multiple penalties and then standing up at every scrum in the second half. He got away with collapsing and then standing up before Owens penalised Tigers for erm... being driven backwards? Owens only howler of the night for me.

Gave away some daft penalties, but made nine more tackles than the next man. 23 tackles in total and a couple of turnovers to boot!

The scrum is the only weakness in Owens game. Both teams knew how he handles the scrum going in to the match, to be fair.

I honestly thought that Leicester were the better side last night. Had Ben Youngs not have been so ponderous with the ball then I think Leicester would have scored 1 or 2 more tries.

That said, it does appear that Ulster just cant lose on the big stage.

To be fair to cface he is right. Ulster away is the least toughest away game. It will still be very tough of course but it's less daunting than a trip to Toulon, Clermont or back to Toulouse. Plus we beat Ulster last season in the quarter finals so there's no mental baggage.

Ulster will still start as deserved favourites but there's more belief of an away win now. Plus Mark McCall has that extra motivation.

Oho, this is going to be fun!

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:

cface wrote:Leicester proved why they are only fifth in their league, weak team and weak performance, they are nothing without Tuilagi.

The easiest possible away game for London Saracens now, who'll be the only 'English' side to make the semis.  Ulster will be praying that nothing happens to Pienaar to stand half a chance.  A one-man team if ever there was.

Who out of Ulster and Saracens will be fielding more foreign born players on the day?

Think your name probably sums up your knowledge of rugby quite succinctly - to88er

Big games do bring out trolls.  

I have to say leading into the game I would have preferred Leicester to Saracens. They are clearly the best side in England at the moment. But the more I go on and think about I think last year will be in every ulster mans head. They will have a massive chip on their shoulder going into this game which I like. Lots of rugby to go before that anyway but if we can not lose anyone and get Bowe and (whisper it) Ferris back....  

Think Toulon is by a margin the weakest of the quarter finalists. With a bit more power Glasgow could have easily won yesterday. Anyway the next round is in while so current form doesnt matter much.