Ulster vs Cardiff Blues

Ulster v Cardiff Blues
Kingspan Stadium, Belfast
Friday 27th March 2015
19.35 Kick Off
Live on BBC 2 NI and BBC 2 Wales

Team News
Ulster- (15-9): L Ludik; C Gilroy, D Cave (Captain), S Olding, M Allen, P Jackson, R Pienaar; (1-8): C Black, R Herring, W Herbst, D Tuohy, F Van der Merwe, I Henderson, C Ross, N Williams;
Replacements (16-23): J Andrew, A Warwick, B Ross, R Diack, A N Other, P Marshall, I Humphreys, R Scholes.

Cardiff Blues- 15 Rhys Patchell, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Cory Allen, 12 Gavin Evans, 11Lucas Amorosino, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Lloyd Williams; 1 Sam Hobbs, 2 Matthew Rees (c), 3 Adam Jones, 4 Jarrad Hoeata, 5 Lou Reed, 6 Josh Turnbull, 7 Ellis Jenkins, 8 Josh Navidi

Replacements: 16 Kristian Dacey, 17 Taufa'ao Filise, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 Macauley Cook, 20 Manoa Vosawai, 21 Tavis Knoyle, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 Tom Isaacs

A discussion point for everything related to the game on Friday. Ulster should have Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding available start the game after injury.  Roger Wilson is unavailable after suspension due to personal reasons and Iain Henderson returns at blindside after coming off the bench for Ireland at the weekend.  

Ulster have next weekend off as they aren't in any European competition and will be looking to take a maximum 5 points from this before that ummm let's call it tricky run of fixtures we have coming up as we try and head for a home Semi Final.

Cardiff have The Dragons after this in the Challenge Cup Quarters and will want to win this for form and also to help avoid being the last placed Welsh team in the Pro 12.

Should be a cracking fixture

I'm scared to death of watching any rugby this weekend as nothing can come within a hundred miles of what we witnessed on super-saturday. It's all going to feel so...........unsatisfying

Anyway, it's fantastic news that Paddy and Stuart will be available, the healing tonics at Ulster are bordering on witchcraft. It should be a good game and I won't take anything for granted after our last outing against the Dragons. Nothing less than a bonus point win will do so it's all hands on deck, back to the grindstone and once again onto the breach.

Agreed Pete mind you another day of that kind of action and I might be writing this from a hospital bed lol
The starting line up will be very interesting for this, will either Olding or Jacko make it or will he play it safe with them after injury and what way will our Locks and Back Row line up too

So there we go Olding and Jacko start which is great to see.
I think we will still have the same problem as the last few weeks though with the back row is not balanced and we have an issue at the ruck which may very well stop us getting good ball or at worst look at us conceding pens again.
We need our backline to play well but Olding and Jacko are just back so is there a danger we put too much pressure on them?
Also were are our leaders in that team?

Please please please lets see a performance very unlike that we had to endure against the Dragons. Home advantage, fortress Ravespan etc etc ...

Aaaaaah Feck
This clashes with the Leinster v Glasgow game. I'll be watchin this on the big TV with the Leinster game on the laptop. Can't be missing a moment of either

I still haven't forgiven them for not turning up against Dragons, and I won't unless they fight their way to a home final.

Not happy with the Back Row. Hopefully Williams has one of his good game's, and hopefully Jackson, and Olding, can shake off the rust pronto.

Cardiff will be confident considering they are playing against a bunch of clowns  @Anscombe

I think we will be ok with Jacko and Olding, if they can get their kicking from hand correct then everything else should fgall into place for those 2.
We need to start well because we have a real lack of leadership so if we go behind there may not be the guys there to pull the team back up especially if discipline becomes an issue.
The back row is a problem all we can hope is that Henderson in on his game and that Ross decides he wants to hit rucks a lot quicker than he has been.
I wonder who the last guy on the bench will be, presumably it will be another back row

I agree. i think we really need to get ahead, and stay ahead. Cave isn't leadership material, but needs must, I guess, although I would have thought Van der Merve would be an able leader from the Lions games I watched. Too early maybe.

I haven't a clue who the A.N.Other will be, but would be delighted if it was Henry. I won't get my hopes up though.

Do they have injury worries or something because otherwise why would it be A.N.Other and not just name the guy
Maybe it is too early for VDM or maybe Doak just likes Cave better as a leader, who knows

Not sure, Neil, but what put Henry in my head is that he is close to a return, and maybe Ulster are waiting for some sort of confirmation on his fitness to return, before naming either him, or McComish for the bench?

5 points or do one for ulster. I'm not saying they will get it but they need it. With Leinster having a tricky Glasgow fixture we need to put as many points between us as we can

Just looking at the fixtures it isn't entirely inconceivable we could (with results going our way) head into the Leinster game knowing a win guarantees top four

We need to win against Cardiff first lol

I forgot about Anscombe calling Ulster a bunch of clowns. The worry being he might yet be proven right if we play the gash we did last time out.

The good thing is that Jackson outside Pienaar is a very strong combination, Olding and Cave being the cherry on top.

I don't remember seeing Cave doing much in the way of captaining in the Dragons match. I know it's far too difficult to tell from TV coverage but you usually do see the 'go to' guys speaking out or remonstrating with players etc or at the very least in discussion with the ref. I saw none of that from Cave. I'd rather he was left to what he does best to be honest.

neilthom7 wrote:We need to win against Cardiff first lol  

I think we will win at home. We need to win with the BP

Standulstermen wrote:

neilthom7 wrote:We need to win against Cardiff first lol  

I think we will win at home. We need to win with the BP

I thought we'd win against the Dragons.

I find it difficult to do but I'll be willing Glasgow on against my second choice side which with a win would keep us in second place whilst widening the gap from the boys in blue.

Not blown away by the Blues team. Dacey should be starting infront of Rees. Glad that Filo isn't starting. We have Gavin Evans and Alex "Loves2Sulk" Cuthbert in the backs too. Hoping Cuthbert has seen that he is replacable and turns up to play. Hoping Evans dosn't cripple our attack. 

Nick Williams has beat us on his own in the past and Pienaar is quality. See how we do on the day i guess.

Don Alfonso wrote:

Standulstermen wrote:

neilthom7 wrote:We need to win against Cardiff first lol  

I think we will win at home. We need to win with the BP

I thought we'd win against the Dragons.

As did I but in thinking that we were flying the face of this seasons away form. So far this season Toulon have won at Ravenhill and they alone

Coleman wrote:Not blown away by the Blues team. Dacey should be starting infront of Rees. Glad that Filo isn't starting. We have Gavin Evans and Alex "Loves2Sulk" Cuthbert in the backs too. Hoping Cuthbert has seen that he is replacable and turns up to play. Hoping Evans dosn't cripple our attack. 

Nick Williams has beat us on his own in the past and Pienaar is quality. See how we do on the day i guess.

You also have two opensides against a side thats all carriers with no-one to clear out and secure the ensuing ruck... on paper we should be able to win, but actually we are very poorly coached in that vital, game deciding area. The breakdown is a sure source of penalties against us for a team that is capable of exploiting our weakness there.

Well that is something for us to target. Jenkins is very exciting. Josh is basically a one man back row carrying, jackling and tackling all day. I just worry about our front row and our ability to get the ball wide to Patch and Amorosino. Our wide defense has been gash as well.

That's our problem we have to win the ball first before we can attack you out wide although Gilroy has been doing a good impression of someone who doesn't care if we get front or backfoot ball he's still going to beat players recently

Ulster should win this comfortably

gcBlues wrote:Ulster should win this comfortably

That's exactly what Dragons were saying pre-match. You lot are using it to jinx us aren't you ????

Andrew Trimble tweeted that we'll be seeing Chris Henry back on the pitch tonight... the mysterious A N Other.

Maybe he's in the Sparky suit?

Nope, no moonlighting for him! He's confirmed to be back

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/News/LatestNews/TabId/149/ArtMID/793/ArticleID/3439/Chris-Henry-named-in-Ulster-squad-to-face-Cardiff-Blues-.aspx

Delighted to see Henry return! He has quite clearly been a huge loss for Ulster as a player, and as a leader.

No less than a 5 point win required, and expected.

Coleman wrote:Well that is something for us to target. Jenkins is very exciting. Josh is basically a one man back row carrying, jackling and tackling all day. I just worry about our front row and our ability to get the ball wide to Patch and Amorosino. Our wide defense has been gash as well.

Hey, we're marvelous at huffing and puffing though.

Pete330v2 wrote:

gcBlues wrote:Cardiff should win this comfortably

That's exactly what Dragons were saying pre-match. You lot are using it to jinx us aren't you ????

Un-jinxed for you.

Munchkin wrote:Delighted to see Henry return! He has quite clearly been a huge loss for Ulster as a player, and as a leader.

No less than a 5 point win required, and expected.

Catch and drive for Ulster I feel. For some reason we are particularly pants at defending a rolling maul. Of course it doesn't help either that Cardiff doesn't have a head coach.

Cardiff Dave wrote:

Munchkin wrote:Delighted to see Henry return! He has quite clearly been a huge loss for Ulster as a player, and as a leader.

No less than a 5 point win required, and expected.

Catch and drive for Ulster I feel. For some reason we are particularly pants at defending a rolling maul. Of course it doesn't help either that Cardiff doesn't have a head coach.

Which is better than what we have I can assure you
I don't suppose you'd be interested in a Doak? One careful owner, only dropped once

Pete330v2 wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

Munchkin wrote:Delighted to see Henry return! He has quite clearly been a huge loss for Ulster as a player, and as a leader.

No less than a 5 point win required, and expected.

Catch and drive for Ulster I feel. For some reason we are particularly pants at defending a rolling maul. Of course it doesn't help either that Cardiff doesn't have a head coach.

Which is better than what we have I can assure you
I don't suppose you'd be interested in a Doak? One careful owner, only dropped once

Low mileage?

Cardiff Dave wrote:

Pete330v2 wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

Munchkin wrote:Delighted to see Henry return! He has quite clearly been a huge loss for Ulster as a player, and as a leader.

No less than a 5 point win required, and expected.

Catch and drive for Ulster I feel. For some reason we are particularly pants at defending a rolling maul. Of course it doesn't help either that Cardiff doesn't have a head coach.

Which is better than what we have I can assure you
I don't suppose you'd be interested in a Doak? One careful owner, only dropped once

Low mileage?

Showroom mileage

Oldings knee gone 1 minute into his comeback. How to unlucky can get me man be

Ah Christ. Olding injured again. I can't even feel happy about that terific start by Ulster now

What was Nick Williams trying to do there ?

This could be red here.

Thats terrible news for Olding so unlucky but did we bring him back too soon?
That is at best brainless from Willaims at worst a terrible foul and this could easily be red

LordDowlais wrote:What was Nick Williams trying to do there ?

Red?

Absolutely gutted for Stuart Olding.

Yep. Defo red for me.

He is going to get away with a yellow here, it should be a red for my liking.

Also, I expect to hear from Chunky later.. stupid stuff by Nick Williams.

neilthom7 wrote:Thats terrible news for Olding so unlucky but did we bring him back too soon?
That is at best brainless from Willaims at worst a terrible foul and this could easily be red

It was a completely unrelated injury from his last one, just terrible luck.

Irish players do not get red cards in the pro12 though do they.

I really hope Patchell is ok after that, Nick Williams is more than welcome to go to Harlequins as rumored in the summer because he does that kind of thing far too often, he could easily have seen red there.

LordDowlais wrote:Irish players do not get red cards in the pro12 though do they.

Are you stupid or something?

Why nick? Why?