Scarlets vs Ulster

First topic message reminder :

Tough opening fixture at a venue Ulster lost at last year. That was one of our worst performances of the season and I'd be extremely keen for Ulster to bury that and get a win. Scarlets fielded a pretty hardened looking line-up against Gloucester in their final pre-season friendly, so it will not be easy. Any kind of win will do.

Scarlets

15) Liam Williams
14) Harry Robinson
13) Regan King
12 Scott Williams
11) Michael Tagicakibau
10) Rhys Priestland
9) Gareth Davies

1) Phil John
2) Ken Owens (c)
3) Rhodri Jones
4) Jake Ball
5) Johan Snyman
6) Rob McCusker
7) John Barclay
8) Rory Pitman

Replacements: Emyr Phillips, Rob Evans, Peter Edwards, Richard Kelly, Aaron Shingler, Rhodri Williams, Steven Shingler, Gareth Owen

Ulster

15) Louis Ludik
14) Michael Allen
13) Jared Payne
12) Stuart Olding
11) Craig Gilroy
10) Ian Humphreys
9) Paul Marshall

1) Callum Black
2) Rob Herring
3) Wiehahn Herbst
4) Dan Tuohy
5) Franco van der Merwe
6) Robbie Diack
7) Chris Henry
8) Roger Wilson (c)

Replacements: John Andrew, Andrew Warwick, Declan Fitzpatrick, Lewis Stevenson, Nick Williams, Michael Heaney, Luke Marshall, Andrew Trimble.

Thats not a yellow

I despair, what the hell are our players thinking, a yellow is harsh but don't put yourself in the position to get one aaaaaaaaaaaagh

Christ but the gibbon love the TMO

Thats not deliberate either and I think the ref knows nout about the game

I have no idea what this ref is at now. Two harsh yellows in a row.

That shouldn't have been a yellow either, bad refs kill games and the gibbon is a terrible ref

He really is a bit of a clown out there today. We can only hope his next screw-up benefits us more than his previous screw-ups.

What is this comentary????!!!

Greenwood - Do you ever bring a pair of boots just in case... ?!

Almost a Scarlets' trademark try here.

Ulster look all at sea here

Scarlets look so slick as they put the ball through the hands! It does help with no pressure or agression from the defence though.

And another try from Scarlets who have been the better side by far. Ulster have given up

ARGGG FECCCKKKK!!!

See Humphreys missing his touch! And Nick turning it over in contact again!

F*cking hell Ulster, sort yourself out four tries scored and they haven't had to put in any hard work to score any one of them!

This Pitman chap is a great signing for th Scarlets.

Why do we even bother with Deccie fitz anymore. Herbst looks the real deal. I really haven't missed humphries defence or lack there of.

Suddenly we're back in it, flip

Tell you what it's a cracking game for SKy to show with all them points lol not good if you are a fan though lol

How was his hands not all over that turnover there?

Oh dear Olding down with a leg injury there

seems to be ok now though

Yes Yes Yes Yessssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Trimbs

Trimble scores after the red card, Nick Willaims has down well since he came on by the way worked well there with Heaney and then Trimble.

What a game to begin with.

Wow and Phew, what a game and a bit of a get out of jail card for us. 32-32 full time

Good spirit by Ulster to come back after conceding that fourth try. Both teams leave with 3 match points then?

Just relieved not to lose, but you've got to say it's a draw and we had a perfectly good try chalked off...

I have no nails or hair left

Well now that was some game lol what a game for Sky's first game lol
Well played Scarlets in honesty you deserved to win that I think
From Ulster point of view some seriously stupid moments from us , lots of mistakes as well that need to be cut out. Olding did well and Willaims when he came on too, Humph's defence is an issue we need Jacko back quick there.
I think we can all agree Fitzgibbon should be nowhere near a rugby field as a referee he is woeful at least we got some points out of that when it didn't look like we would so commendable effort there

Scarlets back row disappeared for the last 20

Liam Williams is a good player, but he won't be playing professional rugby for much longer if he doesn't sort out his discipline soon.

Bad loss for the Scarlet, even though they get 3pts

3 points each is a fair result... that was some game!

The scarlets attack was excellent.

Fitzgibbons has not been to specsavers, but clown school.
To take 5 mins to not award a perfectly good try had to be a comedy act. Tragic

Looks like the same old Scarlets, build a good lead, even get the bonus point try... Then concede lots of points in the last quarter. I just wouldn't make any changes if I was Scarlets coach tbh. And Fitzgibbon was crap, ruled out a good try and didn't penalise Scarlets for a high tackle only moments after he penalised Ulster for one.

I have a question and hopefully someone can answer this for me, Fitzgibbon was terrible today and as many people expressed on here has been poor many times so how can someone like that keep getting games like todays. Similar to Clancy this morning who had the South Africa v AUstralia game and made  a bad call there.  Are the alternatives really that bad or what because you would think after a performance such as today he would be demoted or something but Fitzgibbon won't, where is the accountability?

There is none Neil or at least there seems to be none no matter how badly a ref messes up. The gibbon should never officiate against an Irish side for starters, the opposition tend to think it gives us an advantage. The truth being quite the opposite of course with gibbon being a prize clown AND anti-Ulster.We do however have few alternatives.

He might be anti-Ulster, but he's definitely pro-Leinster!

toml wrote:3 points each is a fair result... that was some game!

The scarlets attack was excellent.

Fitzgibbons has not been to specsavers, but clown school.
To take 5 mins to not award a perfectly good try had to be a comedy act. Tragic

Probably agree with you- both teams take 3 points, not unfair.

Got to say some of Scarlets attacking play was scintillating, defending was shocking. For Ulster- exactly the same.

If we play like that against Zebre on Friday we should be able to score another four tries and then we could be 8 points after two games, which isn't the worst lets be honest.

I'm with you guys.

3 points is fair enough to both teams and it was a great display of attacking rugby, nothing to be said about the defence though. I do however feel like Ulster won after that, I was sure we were on our way to a large defeat there, it looked like the team thought the same.

Ludik and Franco look like 2 class signings, Ludik being the best signing of all. Olding didn't look at all rusty which is always a sign of class and I want him cloned. If Ulster can use whatever they used in the last 20 mins of that match for the season we are smiling.

Mind you, it may take a miracle to beat the likes of the Weegies who are bottom humping the ladyboys right now.

I'm just watching the ten of the last 15 minutes I missed- 65 to 75- we seriously left more tries than the two we scored out there. How did Gilroy NOT score?

That missed chance and the Ludik disallowed try... this was really 1/2 points dropped. With the chances we had we should have won this outright.

Last 15 minutes dominated possession. Gave ourselves way too much to do with stupid defensive errors and brainfarts. But encouraging our fitness looked a lot better than the Scarlets.

Notch wrote:Looking at our defence in these past two games we won't be leaking four tries. It's been extremely physical, organised and effective. Maybe if we had the team that finished against Exeter we would be leaking tries but this will not be a game in which the try bonus point is scored.

Sorry Notch but who's talking "nonsense" now?

You're not sorry.

I don't want to get into the minutae of the gibbons idiocy but safe to say I thought both the initial yellows (Tuohy and Williams) were harsh and I believe neither were actually penalties in truth.i can't fathom it exactly but I believe there is simply no alternatives because what i saw today was atrocious (not pro one team or other, just atrocious).

Gilroy (and Marshall) was the big loser for me. Could have offloaded to Ludik for a score in the first half. Marshall (Luke) was desperately trying to take the ball off him to go forward in the second but he seems incapable of the offload.

The new saffas did well for me as did Olding and Humph.

Not to mention running into the post and not just grounding the ball against it Stand...

neilthom7 wrote:I have a question and hopefully someone can answer this for me, Fitzgibbon was terrible today and as many people expressed on here has been poor many times so how can someone like that keep getting games like todays.  Similar to Clancy this morning who had the South Africa v AUstralia game and made  a bad call there.  Are the alternatives really that bad or what because you would think after a performance such as today he would be demoted or something but Fitzgibbon won't, where is the accountability?

Was neutralish for this game (well slightly rooting for the Scarlets as they play a great brand of rugby) and Fitzgibbon had a good game overall despite these soft yellow cards.

Great game though what an advert for the league eventhough i thought they were playing touch rugby in the first half.

Notch wrote:Not to mention running into the post and not just grounding the ball against it Stand...

Need to watch that one again. Not so sure. Sounds bad when you put it like that and he could have dived I suppose but Scarlets did well there too

Standulstermen wrote:
The new saffas did well for me as did Olding and Humph.

Humphreys did have a good game. But hes just such a liability in defense, particularly when his half back partner is Paul Marshall. Marshall and Humphreys, in defensive terms, is one of the softest half back pairing you are ever gonna get. Opposition teams will have a field day attacking that channel, as Scott Williams did today.

VinceWLB wrote:

neilthom7 wrote:I have a question and hopefully someone can answer this for me, Fitzgibbon was terrible today and as many people expressed on here has been poor many times so how can someone like that keep getting games like todays.  Similar to Clancy this morning who had the South Africa v AUstralia game and made  a bad call there.  Are the alternatives really that bad or what because you would think after a performance such as today he would be demoted or something but Fitzgibbon won't, where is the accountability?

Was neutralish for this game (well slightly rooting for the Scarlets as they play a great brand of rugby) and Fitzgibbon had a good game overall despite these soft yellow cards.

Great game though what an advert for the league eventhough i thought they were playing touch rugby in the first half.

I think we may have to agree to disaggree on that Vince lol
I felt he had a very poor game in general for both teams but leaving the ref out of it that was a spectacular game of rugby,a great advert for the league a point i shall be reminding some of my bosses off lol Heart stopping if you are a fan of either side though I'm pretty sure at one stage my heart actually jumped right out through my mouth and I had to stuff it back in again

Notch wrote:You're not sorry.

I'm sorry that I have to point out to you that you called my post "nonsense" when I suggested there would be a load of mistakes in the game and therefore logically the chance of a load of tries.

I'm sorry that as a moderator you consider it acceptable to dismiss another point of view using the inflammatory term "nonsense" when more moderate language would encourage better debate.

Most of all I'm sorry that having been proved wrong you cannot man up and apologise.

Oh oh trouble in paradise....

Anyhow..whats that about Babyhumphs defence..i could have sworn it was the best thing since the sliced pan a few years back...

Did Luke Marshall come on at 13 then?

It was a great game. Like some have said, it was a perfect advert for the league. Only downside IMO was Sanjay being sent off, I didn't we what he did so I can't really comment s such.

But 3pts each seemed fair.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:It was a great game.  Like some have said, it was a perfect advert for the league.  Only downside IMO was Sanjay being sent off, I didn't we what he did so I can't really comment s such.

But 3pts each seemed fair.

It was his second yellow SS - first was a deliberate knock on second was pushing Marshall over when the Ulster scrum was going forward.