PRO12: Treviso v Ulster (Sat)

Ulster team and replacements to play Benetton Treviso, Saturday 10th September, Stadio Comunale di Monigo (kick-off 5.05pm BST):

15 L Ludik
14 R Lyttle
13 L Marshall
12 S Olding
11 J Stockdale
10 B Herron
9  R Pienaar

1 K McCall
2 R Herring (c)
3 R Ah You
4 K Treadwell
5 F van der Merwe
6 C Ross
7 S Reidy
8 R Wilson

Replacements (16-23): J Andrew, A Warwick, R Kane, P Browne, R Diack, A Lloyd, S McCloskey, D Cave



Treviso

15 Jayden Hayward
14 Angelo Esposito
13 Tommaso Benvenuti
12 Luke McLean ( C )
11 Andrea Buondonno
10 Tommaso Allan
9 Giorgio Bronzini

1 Nicola Quaglio
2 Ornel Gega
3 Simone Ferrari
4 Marco Fuser
5 Filo Paulo
6 Francesco Minto
7 Marco Lazzaroni
8 Marco Barbini

Replacements:
16 Roberta Santamaria, 17 Alberto De Marchi, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 Filippo Gerosa, 20 Dean Budd, 21 Edoardo Gori, 22 Ian McKinley, 23 David Odiete

Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU, 62nd competition game)
Assistants: Sam Grove-White (SRU), Simone Boaretto (FIR)
Citing Commissioner: Stefano Marrama (FIR)
TMO: Charles Samson (SRU)

Very attacking team and good to see Ah You and Treadwell getting a start, hopefully Herrons a bit more composed with his passing this week and gets things moving

Treviso

15 Jayden Hayward
14 Angelo Esposito
13 Tommaso Benvenuti
12 Luke McLean ( C )
11 Andrea Buondonno
10 Tommaso Allan
9 Giorgio Bronzini

1 Nicola Quaglio
2 Ornel Gega
3 Simone Ferrari
4 Marco Fuser
5 Filo Paulo
6 Francesco Minto
7 Marco Lazzaroni
8 Marco Barbini

Replacements:
16 Roberta Santamaria, 17 Alberto De Marchi, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 Filippo Gerosa, 20 Dean Budd, 21 Edoardo Gori, 22 Ian McKinley, 23 David Odiete

Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU, 62nd competition game)
Assistants: Sam Grove-White (SRU), Simone Boaretto (FIR)
Citing Commissioner: Stefano Marrama (FIR)
TMO: Charles Samson (SRU)

So much for neutral refs!

Well lets face it, we should win this with a little to spare unless Dudley is feeling moodily anti-Ulster. Treviso were right in it until the end last week against Leinster so should never be taken lightly but we're still going to win.......seemples!!

The Great Aukster wrote:Treviso

15 Jayden Hayward
14 Angelo Esposito
13 Tommaso Benvenuti
12 Luke McLean ( C )
11 Andrea Buondonno
10 Tommaso Allan
9 Giorgio Bronzini

1 Nicola Quaglio
2 Ornel Gega
3 Simone Ferrari
4 Marco Fuser
5 Filo Paulo
6 Francesco Minto
7 Marco Lazzaroni
8 Marco Barbini

Replacements:
16 Roberta Santamaria, 17 Alberto De Marchi, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 Filippo Gerosa, 20 Dean Budd, 21 Edoardo Gori, 22 Ian McKinley, 23 David Odiete

Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU, 62nd competition game)
Assistants: Sam Grove-White (SRU), Simone Boaretto (FIR)
Citing Commissioner: Stefano Marrama (FIR)
TMO: Charles Samson (SRU)

So much for neutral refs!

Until there are more Scottish and Italian refs, this will continue to happen for next three years. The commitment this season is have neutral Asst refs and TMOs.

Looking forward to watching Treadwell play.

Not a bad side, and should be more than enough to come away with a win, but not confident of a bonus point win. Knowing our form in Italy hopefully we don't slip up.

It will be interesting to see how Lloyd performs. I'm not very optimistic for him, but who knows. Lyttle and Stockdale must feel they are in a dream. They're certainly playing like one at the moment. Great start to the season for them. They must have the old guard chewing their fingernails.

Treviso have been a bit of bogey side for Ulster and even when we win its usually by making harder work of It than it needs to be, if we can get a convincing win it'll be a good sign

Delighted to see Filo still kicking about. If Herron doesn't step up, it could be a long evening.

Think Herron will be absolutely grand to be honest. From where I sit in the ground his positioning was spot on- deep enough to always have time on the ball, close enough to the line to always interest defences. He made good decisions as to when to run, when to pass and when to kick. His kicking down the line and from hand has been accurate these last few weeks. And the try we scored the week before where he provided the assist was a very well-judged kick indeed.

He was responsible for their try with a sloppy pass and some of his other passes were poor, but it looked like he got the call wrong for the try we gave away. He passed it to no-one, but his passing technique itself looks fine. I would say it was down to rustiness or nerves or both. Now he has that game behind him, I'm not worried at all. These rusty passes will go as the season goes on and he gets more familiar. He's got the tools of a good number 10- he looks to me to be a very capable understudy with a solid all-round game.

My only major misgiving is we haven't seem him kick at goal yet. Rob Lyttle was brilliant off the tee against Saints, Pienaar missed a lot last week but should be grand and Jackson is grand- but what if Lyttle misses out to our plethora of other wingers and Pienaar and Jackson are away at the same time? Can he step up then?

Glad McCloskey was dropped since he had a poor game last week, disappointed McCloskey was dropped since he's in my fantasy team and I'm out of transfers for this week.

Ulster come racing out of the blocks. They score the try and Treviso have yet to have possession of the ball.

So far Jim Neilly has told us that Connacht beat Leinster at Scotstoun and gotten confused between Clive Ross and Jacob Stockdale.

Ulster started brilliantly but Treviso have really woken up. Ding-dong game here. Very hot in Italy. Ulster blowing a little bit after starting with crazy intensity.

What's the news on Payne, when will he be back?

eirebilly wrote:What's the news on Payne, when will he be back?

Several more weeks I think. Picked up yet another injury. Might see his game time for Ireland limited this year if he continues to be so injury prone. Fortunately O'Hallornan, Olding and Marshall all coming through strongly

Given the pressure Ulster are under, we are doing fabulously well to hold them out. Rarely seen Treviso play this well. Dragons and Edinburgh should be worried on this evidence. Been a really good game of rugby.

Cheers Notch.

Ulster look quite good defensively out there.

Latest update from Jim Neilly.

"Is Jacob Stockdale wearing yellow boots? I can't see... no he's not"

Given how well Treviso are playing 10-6 at half-time would be cracking scoreline for us. We've been under the pump.

Far, far too sloppy here by Ulster. Time for our Ruan to take control again

Commentators calling out Ulster for their error count. They're right, but mistakes are forced by pressure. Treviso are testing us at the scrum, going through the phases very, very quickly and are right up in our faces when we have the ball.

They've been very, very good.

That kick out on the full by Treviso is, I think, one of only five or so errors by them all game.

Andy Ward

"Ulster are playing like amateurs- no disrespect to amateurs"

Treviso are playing well for Treviso, but Ulster are inviting pressure on themselves with far too many errors. Hopefully they get a kick in the @rse at the half-time talk.

Finally the Ulster commentators talking about how good Treviso have been. Thats the big story here, they look top class- and the fact they've played us off the park and yet are 4 points behind? Not a coincidence. Appreciate Ward's frustration but we've certainly not defended like amateurs.

Munchkin wrote:Treviso are playing well for Treviso

Get used to it- their new coach Kieran Crowley did a very good job with Canada, he's an excellent coach and the impact he's had already is clear to see. No argument about the errors. Whenever we are in possession we look dangerous and if we can hold the ball, we'll win. If we can't they'll break us down sooner or later.

It will be fantastic if Treviso can start climbing the table, Notch. Great for Italian rugby and great for the PRO12, and hopefully silence those that want them out.

Good to see Herron going to the corner again- if we can get a try here, that will be a big psychological blow.

Shambles at the line-out though.

Yeah, high risk option at the lineout looking to set-up the maul at the tail. Very hard to defend if they get it right, unfortunately Herring overthrows.

Rob Herring throws an offload to no-one out of the back of the hand just outside his own 22.

Got to question that decision by the skipper. If he kicked we were in their 22

Rob Herring not having a good game at all. Lineout overthrows cost us badly.

Gonna be a card for Treviso here potentially. If it's yellow think we should go to the corner, safe ball at the front- looking at you Rob Herring-nconverted try here could be massive for us.

Bit harsh on Paulo.

This is a very attacking Ulster team, they really should be doing better than this... No disrespect to Treviso but Ulster are really making some bad decisions.

Think it was a lazy tackle but Dudley was generous not penalising Treviso for bringing that maul down

I can't wait to see what Aukster has to say about all these kicks to the corner

Thank goodness for that.

eirebilly wrote:This is a very attacking Ulster team, they really should be doing better than this... No disrespect to Treviso but Ulster are really making some bad decisions.

Think Ulster have actually made very good decisions but executed them very poorly. Knock-ons make decision look bad in hindsight, but then look how good that maul was for us to get the second try. We will be disappointed with our conversion rate but we have a maul that we should have confidence in.

Beautiful Try.

Good try here. Ulster now chasing the TBP with 20 mins left.

Notch wrote:

eirebilly wrote:This is a very attacking Ulster team, they really should be doing better than this... No disrespect to Treviso but Ulster are really making some bad decisions.

Think Ulster have actually made very good decisions but executed them very poorly. Knock-ons make decision look bad in hindsight, but then look how good that maul was for us to get the second try. We will be disappointed with our conversion rate but we have a maul that we should have confidence in.

You are probably right, think I may just have higher expectations of Ulster.

Ulster getting a bit of a hard time from the ref at the minute. Think it wasn't a knock-on, and then think that scrum penalty could've gone the other way.

eirebilly wrote:

Notch wrote:

eirebilly wrote:This is a very attacking Ulster team, they really should be doing better than this... No disrespect to Treviso but Ulster are really making some bad decisions.

Think Ulster have actually made very good decisions but executed them very poorly. Knock-ons make decision look bad in hindsight, but then look how good that maul was for us to get the second try. We will be disappointed with our conversion rate but we have a maul that we should have confidence in.

You are probably right, think I may just have higher expectations of Ulster.

So do I but I've been extremely happy with the tactics and decisions. It's the unforced errors that are undermining all of that, which is infuriating.

However, very happy with how we've defended and managed to turn the game around since half time.

Thats a lovely piece of play from Brett Herron there.

Thats so stupid from Rob Herring, that is really dense. Treviso were in their 22 going nowhere.

Herron has been impressive today, HerrING not so much

Pete330v2 wrote:Herron has been impressive today, HerrING not so much

Had a bit of shocker did Rob Herring. But do you know who's been fantastic so far this season? Clive Ross. He's really developing into a good player these days. I honestly didn't think he had it in him.

Herring still has credit in the bank. Still a very good player

eirebilly wrote:Herring still has credit in the bank. Still a very good player

Oh yeah, he was fantastic last season. We could be losing two hookers to Ireland duty this year.

Good to see Ian McKinley on the pitch