Ulster vs Leinster; Official Opening of the New Ravenhill Stadium

First topic message reminder :

Ulster play Leinster on Friday night on the very special official opening of Ulster Rugbys newly redeveloped home. More team news to follow later in the week but until then enjoy these photos from the construction of the original Ravenhill grandstand and the first ever game held at Ravenhill- the same fixture, Ulster vs Leinster, in January 1924. Ulster won, here's hoping for a bit of the spirit of 1924!

The stadium has a rich history having hosted Irelands decisive win against Wales which secured our first ever Grand Slam in 1948, a famous win for Ulster over Australia in 1984 and wins over Toulouse and Stade Francais by a semi-professional Ulster side en route to winning the European Cup in 1999.

This is the beginning of a new era for the stadium and for the team, and it's time for a new generation of players to write their own history- starting on Friday. There will be an opening ceremony at 7pm and the game kicks off at 7.30pm.

Photos from the Opening of Ravenhill, 1924:

Opening Ceremony Details:

The teams are up;

LEINSTER

15: Rob Kearney 14: Zane Kirchner 13: Brian O'Driscoll 12: Gordon D'Arcy 11: Dave Kearney 10: Ian Madigan 9: Isaac Boss
1: Cian Healy 2: Sean Cronin 3: Martin Moore 4: Devin Toner 5: Mike McCarthy 6: Rhys Ruddock 7: Shane Jennings 8: Jamie Heaslip (captain)

REPLACEMENTS: 16: Richardt Strauss 17: Jack McGrath 18: Mike Ross 19: Leo Cullen 20: Jordi Murphy 21: Luke McGrath 22: Jimmy Gopperth 23: Luke Fitzgerald

ULSTER

15: Ricky Andrew 14: Andrew Trimble 13: Jared Payne 12: Luke Marshall 11: Tommy Bowe 10: Paddy Jackson 9: Paul Marshall
1: Tom Court 2: Rob Herring 3: Andrew Warwick 4: Johann Muller (captain) 5: Iain Henderson 6: Roger Wilson 7: Chris Henry 8: Nick Williams;

REPLACEMENTS: 16: Niall Annett 17: Callum Black 18: Adam Macklin 19: Dan Tuohy 20: Sean Doyle 21: Michael Heaney 22: James McKinney 23: Darren Cave

At Ravenhill, 7.30pm. Live on RTE/ BBC NI

Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU, 1st competition game)
Assistant Referees: John Lacey, David Connolly (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: Eugene Ryan (IRFU)
TMO: Dermot Molony (IRFU)

That was a mad half of rugby

(60') Treviso 9 - 38 Glasgow Live
(54') Scarlets 31 - 16 Dragons Live
((HT)') Ulster 8 - 9 Leinster Live
Aviva Premiership
(31') Bath 3 - 3

And I'm staying with this game

Jaysus H on a bike. Just seen the first half notes. What an angry game.

What was the red card for?

Well, where to begin.

Tom Court, what a muppet. Firstly gives away a silly penalty and then deciides to get himself sent off. Can't have any complaints with the red.

Ah dammit. Glasgow already has the bonus point in the bag over in the Veneto, so we were kind of hoping you lads might stick one to the ladyboys so that we can get first place.

I'll buy you all a pint if you do it.   

Couple of things
A) court red is probably right
B) ruddock and Kitchener were both equally at fault only one got pinged
C) red instead of yellow is arguable, unless did he not land on his head? Can't remember.
D) Kearney should have been red
E) ref cocked up by not giving the penalty try and so robbed ulster of 2points.

Court was only half of it.

The strange thing is that Kearney's tackle was probably the worst thing so far.

Got to say that it's incredible to watch overseas club rugby live without ads.

I love the 'independent' h-t commentaries!   

Why would it be in dependant? It's BBCni. No other clubs are in that geographical area.

The ref has gotten his calls spot on so far.

Does anyone think Archer actually contributed to the tip too?

That's the most blatant WUM in the history of the internet! Lol

Leinster absolutely butchered that chance no surprise to see Daverage on the end if it....

Ugh last season we would have finished that off easily,MoC has overseen a shocking decline in our passing skills.

BlueMuff wrote:Leinster absolutely butchered that chance no surprise to see Daverage on the end if it....

What a dumb comment,the pass was what butchered the chance but stick to your pig ignorant name calling of a player with a 6 Nations medal.

Portnoy..I'm Irish..DOD from the old 606

asoreleftshoulder wrote:

BlueMuff wrote:Leinster absolutely butchered that chance no surprise to see Daverage on the end if it....

What a dumb comment,the pass was what butchered the chance but stick to your pig ignorant name calling of a player with a 6 Nations medal.

Ah take a chill pill

BlueMuff wrote:

asoreleftshoulder wrote:

BlueMuff wrote:Leinster absolutely butchered that chance no surprise to see Daverage on the end if it....

What a dumb comment,the pass was what butchered the chance but stick to your pig ignorant name calling of a player with a 6 Nations medal.

Ah take a chill pill

Stop with the ignorant name calling of Irish players,try soccer if that's what you're into.

Definitely go for goal. 15 mins left - bags of time.

Payne's class really shines out.

asoreleftshoulder wrote:

BlueMuff wrote:

asoreleftshoulder wrote:

BlueMuff wrote:Leinster absolutely butchered that chance no surprise to see Daverage on the end if it....

What a dumb comment,the pass was what butchered the chance but stick to your pig ignorant name calling of a player with a 6 Nations medal.

Ah take a chill pill

Stop with the ignorant name calling of Irish players,try soccer if that's what you're into.

Ah would ya stop you'll be genuflecting to him next! He is average and it's a bit of light humour

Ah lads sure there's enough drama on the pitch!

MrsP wrote:Ah lads sure there's enough drama on the pitch!

There sure is credit to ulster sticking in there and not giving up a man down and it's a one score game!

Looks like the semis will be Leinster v Ulster and Glasgow v Munster

Ulster can definitely win theirs based on this, provided that they engage with the novelty of keeping 15 men on the pitch.

ME-109 wrote:Portnoy..I'm Irish..DOD from the old 606

Ah. That'd be the old imperfect competition then Joan.

Leinster do love to pile over the ball to kill it.
And seeing as they get away with it 90% of the time that's a great strength.

But they are definitely on a steep decline imo.

Ohhh, COME ON ULSTER. Go for the try.

   

BlueMuff wrote:

asoreleftshoulder wrote:

BlueMuff wrote:

asoreleftshoulder wrote:

BlueMuff wrote:Leinster absolutely butchered that chance no surprise to see Daverage on the end if it....

What a dumb comment,the pass was what butchered the chance but stick to your pig ignorant name calling of a player with a 6 Nations medal.

Ah take a chill pill

Stop with the ignorant name calling of Irish players,try soccer if that's what you're into.

Ah would ya stop you'll be genuflecting to him next! He is average and it's a bit of light humour

I'll remember that the next time you get your knickers in a twist over over some perceived slight to a Munster ligind.

Do you know something? if you watched that 2nd half would you have thought we only had 14?

2 away wins in the semis and it's Munster v ulster in the final :-)

Great effort, we will get them in the semi! SUFTUM

Glasgow deserve the title. I hope they win it this year

ME.

I'll PM you if you don't PM me first.
I'm off to watch the dregs of the Jeff game.

Wow. 65 minutes with 14 men again and once more finish a baw hair away.

Who would bet against Ulster winning the whole jamboree.

Dammit Ulster, you had ONE JOB!

Say goodbye to that free drink I promised you.

Does anyone in their right mind want to try to put money on the winner of a Leinster v Ulster semi? Way, way too close to call.

IanBru wrote:Dammit Ulster, you had ONE JOB!

Say goodbye to that free drink I promised you.

It's all right, Ian. The might of Edinburgh still stand in their way.

Er. Oh. 

Well done both.... Grr... From an Osprey fan ;-)

IanBru wrote:Does anyone in their right mind want to try to put money on the winner of a Leinster v Ulster semi? Way, way too close to call.

I half fancy Ulster. Leinster playing poorly under MOC.

Refs failure to correctly give a penalty try instead of a regular try cost ulster a draw. If the ref agrees that the high tackle occurred before the grounding surely it's a penalty try regardless of grounding. Kick from between posts instead of touch line.

profitius wrote:

IanBru wrote:Does anyone in their right mind want to try to put money on the winner of a Leinster v Ulster semi? Way, way too close to call.

I half fancy Ulster. Leinster playing poorly under MOC.

Yeah. Amongst the unpolished diamonds sent back from Welford Rd there will be the odd highly polished turd.

Just got up and watched the highlights.

The rule makers need to have a look at themselves otherwise rugby is going to become a joke.

Court was a red no argument.
Kearneys tackle was as dangerous for the victim as Courts was, he was hanging off Jackson's head, yet it is a yellow. Surely that is an inconsistency.

Ruddocks was not a big deal, but to referee how a player lands rather than the action/intent is bloody bizarre. If rugby became more like soccer ( let's hope not) we'd end up with the player in the air intentionally coming down on his head ( with a cheeky forearm beside it for protection) to try and deliberately sent off.
Jump into player- fall on your head- player sent off

Surely refereeing has to be on the action and perceived intent, not on the consequence.

Ruddock was very unlucky as ZK pushed into the back of him which threw Ruddock off guard. If anything ZK deserved the yellow for being totally incompetent in the situation.

Yeah we won, yeah we have a home SF, but that was a display of appalling ineptitude by Leinster - and I don't think anybody would have a doubt that had Ulster had 15 men for the whole game they would have played us off the park.   We were total crup!

Court's red card - I suppose it's the letter of the law but Toner didn't come down on his neck so maybe somebody leeway might have been applied by a more experienced ref. And if Court's tip tackle was deemed dangerous and worth a red card then Kearney's neck tackle on Jackson was equally dangerous and he was lucky to get away with a yellow.  And as said by earlier posters, if Kearney's tackle was worth a yellow why wasn't a penalty try and a conversion under the posts given.

Quite honestly it's hard to think of a single Leinster who played well and a lot easier to think of those who were sh1te - Boss, Madigan (no question now who is Sexton's understudy - Jackson is miles ahead, and i there is one player in the entire country who has gone backwards more in the past year than Madigan then I can't think of one.)

It's gas to think that a couple of years we were feared as having the best back line in Europe - tonight there was no penetration, no different lines of running, sh1te passing (Darcy should be hung for that ankle pass to DK), BOD anonymous.   We were tryly sh1te and a 15-man Ulster would have made us pay for the ineptitude.

No doubt, there will be lots of Leinster fans looking at this game with blue-tinged specs, but unless this team can sort itself out fast then I fear for next year in the new Euro cup.  

So that brings us to the coaching team - the best part of which Jono Gibbs is leaving - and that leaves us with O'Connor.  If he is the best that a supposed grade A team in Europe can do then we are in trouble.  Probably cost too much money to get rid of him so we're stuck - a depressing prospects.

Sorry for being such a misery guts, but tonight I had to fight off the temptation to cheer for Ulster - a team with spirit, invention and guts.  Didn't see too much of any of those from Leinster.

I don't know if "lurker" is an official internet forum term but if so it's probably descriptive of myself. I follow everything you guys write and enjoy the craic in a hitherto voyeuristic sort of way.

I'm moved to actually get finger out of arse and post something because that was just wrong tonight. If (as the studio suits at half time were suggesting) the Tom Court incident is genuinely a red card then rugby as I have always known and played it is in serious trouble. There was simply nothing in that collision that warranted a red card. Even the Leinster players as far as i could tell didn't look too concerned until the ref blew the whistle.

We also need some sort of consistency across different types of incident; to me the most "dangerous" bit of play witnessed tonight was Kearney Snr's tackle on Paddy Jackson.

So that I am not later accused of backtracking my personal view of the cards this evening would have been:

- Court: Penalty at best.
- Kearney: Red
- Ruddock: if a yellow for anyone it was Kirchner.

Hope this didn't amount to a ramble for a first effort!

I thought the cards were all correct by the letter of the law. The red was a red; I thought Paynes was a yellow against Saracens (did I mention that before?) but Courts was definitely a red tonight. Ironically if it had been against a shorter player he would have almost certainly been fine but he's driving the player down into the ground. Unlucky, but thats how the cookie crumbles. Feel gutted for Tom Court. That is very likely to be the end of his Ulster career once the disciplinary hearing is done. Horrible way to go out and not a fair reflection on his outstanding contribution to Ulster over the years. Was glad he still got the ovation his 150+ caps deserve leaving the Ravenhill pitch for the last time despite the circumstances.

Yellow was sufficient for both Leinster players.

We really should have won the game. The try we conceded was unbelievably soft, a total gift and it was the difference between the teams. 14 men or not we shouldn't have conceded that and we actually 'won' the period that followed Courts dismissal. Leinster were already 6-0 up when we had Court sent off, so after that the score was 20-16 to Ulster. 14 men and no specialist tighthead on the pitch until the last 10 minutes and we only lost by 2 points, I have little doubt if we can keep 15 men on the pitch, cut down the penalties and we see Best, Pienaar and Afoa come back into the team we can go down to the RDS and get some payback.

Its a weird feeling qualifying for the playoffs with a losing bonus point. Firstly, yay we're in the playoffs but I'm still gutted.

Finally, we need a gif of Dave Kearney falling victim to the Ravenhill quicksand! This is truly a winger who couldn't finish his breakfast

ShanesBridge77 wrote:

We also need some sort of consistency across different types of incident; to me the most "dangerous" bit of play witnessed tonight was Kearney Snr's tackle on Paddy Jackson.

And consistency in the same types of incident. Yet to see a team shafted as badly by an accidental collision as in the Payne incident

George Carlin wrote:Looks like the semis will be Leinster v Ulster and Glasgow v Munster

Ulster can definitely win theirs based on this, provided that they engage with the novelty of keeping 15 men on the pitch.

Even against Glasgow we had to play 30 minutes with 14 men for committing the offence of having three props go off injured   

Notch wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Looks like the semis will be Leinster v Ulster and Glasgow v Munster

Ulster can definitely win theirs based on this, provided that they engage with the novelty of keeping 15 men on the pitch.

Even against Glasgow we had to play 30 minutes with 14 men for committing the offence of having three props go off injured   

Yes, that was reasonably sneaky.

If we didn't have bad luck, we'd have no luck at all. But I'm still confident we can be a force in the playoffs. Leinster are beatable. No doubt about it.

Notch wrote:I thought the cards were all correct by the letter of the law.

That is far from a ringing endorsement of the law. It hasn't taken into account how dangerous the action is merely what it is