Ulster vs Toulon

Probably the match of the round and no thread yet??

Toulon leading 6-3 with 30 minutes gone. Giteaus off injured with JOC on at ten to replace him.

Anyone else watching?

yup

bit more open and adventurous than last nights match even though its the same score.

that did not look forward to me!

mermoz looks awesome

guess it was forward

Ye Armitage over ran it a bit.

Toulon are making lots of yards in contact.

Marshalls having one of his better days.

Toulon's defence is so good.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:Toulon's defence is so good.

Armitage is a beast on the deck

few dodgy decisions by barnes at the breakdown

amazing team try. impressive.

Great try. Ulster must be really regretting not taking the three points when they were on offer. Big gap for themto close in the second half

whats the score guys?

Ulster are being thoroughly outplayed, they have absolutely no ball carriers in their pack and Toulon are well on top at the breakdown.

Toulon 1st try was perfectly legit too.

Disagree about Marshall playing well- he's far too predictable. It's not only armitage that Toulon have for groundwork, their whole pack is good at it. Marshall is passing into the same areas consistently and Toulon are able to queue up to poach.

Marshall needs to organise some blindside runners, and have them run at pace. Basically they need start making Toulon second guess their defensive positioning, because at the moment Ulster last about 4 phases Max in toulons 22 without getting turned over.

It's 16-3 to Toulon Nathan.


Stupid stupid stupid of Ulster not to take the easy 3 points but hey, not so bad so far otherwise. Toulon beating the life out of us at the breakdown but an early score in the second half and it's all to play for.

Just stolen back the remote, muahahah.

Keep it man, take out the batteries

Pete330v2 wrote:Keep it man, take out the batteries

she'll find another way of putting Downton Abbey on!

pen only is the right decision on that one, wasn't as bad as it first looked.

Does anyone know if Barnes is secretly Irish?

i think we need refs from another planet if they are not to be swayed by home crowds. they are only human after all

listen to that crowd baying for a yellow. its a bit sad.

quinsforever wrote:i think we need refs from another planet if they are not to be swayed by home crowds. they are only human after all

listen to that crowd baying for a yellow. its a bit sad.

I know what you mean, but all fans are like it including me. If i were an Ulster fan i would be screaming yellow, but in reality there was nothing wrong with that.

Nothing currently in the rules about it. But if they're going to outlaw competing with a player in the air, they might outlaw fly hacking near heads in future- it's probably more dangerous, look at the o Connell/Dave Kearney incident a couple years ago

The scrums need a look at again by the IRB. Complete lottery.

i definitely think broadcasters need to be stopped from choosing what to show on the big screen independent of the refs requesting to see incidents.

always works in the favour of the home side as the crowd get to go mental and try to con the ref in their mock outrage.

same at all clubs. but would be happy to not see it any more.

That was at least a yellow for reckless play if i'm honest.

quinsforever wrote:i think we need refs from another planet if they are not to be swayed by home crowds. they are only human after all

listen to that crowd baying for a yellow. its a bit sad.

Do give over about that, you were on about that with the Munster game too, of course the crowds do that, always, even quins fans

VinceWLB wrote:That was at least a yellow for reckless play if i'm honest.

Not a chance, his vision was blocked by the player holding him.

I cant' see what Ulster can do here to get even a losing bonus point the way this is going, lets focus on the Pro12 eh

understand that clock? If there's a player on the pitch that doesnt know how a clock works by now they should go back to primary school.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:The scrums need a look at again by the IRB. Complete lottery.

still an improvement on the poop-show of 2 years ago. wales never played the ball out of the back of their scrum, they kept it in an tried to con penalties from refs. made for an absolutely awful spectacle. and is obviously why they changed the rules.

on scrums i think the other side touch judge needs to come a lot closer and be equally involved in the rulings. would massively cut down the messing around

Best off his feet again!

Nathan If you're the first Man and take the ball, then go off your feet it isn't a penalty because no ruck had formed- that's why Barnes said first man

I think that's game over. Toulon have been pretty good today.

What a complete waste of space Nick Williams is

kunu wrote:Nathan If you're the first Man and take the ball, then go off your feet it isn't a penalty because no ruck had formed- that's why Barnes said first man

But that isn't what happening (I think), he got there, flopped over the ball with his forearms on the floor then got up with the ball. You see it all the time (Not just best)

A for f-sake, twit

That's game,set and us well and truely out of europe, too many of our most key players out at the opening stages to be honest. No biggy, it's a long season to go and plenty of wins to come.

Armitage was'nt on his feet then!

Yeah that's a matter of the refs interpretation, almost no northern refs ping it , and rightly so because realistically it's nearly impossible to bend over that low without touching the grass. I think Joubert likes to penalise it- either way I've no problem with a refs interpretation as long as he is consistent with it

Quins, the scrum are still are farce and at this stage they are not that much better than before. This season already they have been especially messy with players pushing before the ball is gone in.

I just don't get why they can't get rid of the set part and just put the scrums together from the start like they used to do.

i used to hook. it worked fine when no-one was allowed to push until the ball went in and it was the hooker who signaled the put in to his scrum half.

agree that the set part seems not really to be working.

problem was too many teams were using the scrum as a means of getting penalties. i'm not a huge rugby league fan, but at least their scrums do manage to get the ball into play almost all the time!

Ulster actually did pretty well in the first half but now look all at sea. Payne needs badly to frick off to the 15 shirt. He hasn't been bad but just not as good as our other options. We needed McCloskey badly today to stop Bastereau.

would love to see the turnover stats

have the breakdown rules changed? cos i'm just not seeing it the same way Barnes is. i have counted 5 instances where players were clearly off their feet playing the ball. both sides.

quinsforever wrote:have the breakdown rules changed? cos i'm just not seeing it the same way Barnes is. i have counted 5 instances where players were clearly off their feet playing the ball. both sides.

I know what you mean!

Some refs never ping it, sure Nigel Owens straight up penalises nothing, just shouts at players to fix it, and he's regarded as a great ref.

kunu wrote:Some refs never ping it, sure Nigel Owens straight up penalises nothing, just shouts at players to fix it, and he's regarded as a great ref.

i suppose its difficult, let the game flow vs ping everything

quinsforever wrote:have the breakdown rules changed? cos i'm just not seeing it the same way Barnes is. i have counted 5 instances where players were clearly off their feet playing the ball. both sides.

Missed some of this 2nd half, but Toulon do that all the time and mostly get away with it.

Alain Rolland used to love penalising every little thing, and it made for some awful games!

toulon outmuscling ulster all over the park.

tough opponents when they are in this kind of mood.