Ulster vs Scarlets

Match thread.

Jonathan Davies has just been ruled out, must have done something in the warm up as he was due to start. Very disappointing, Scarlets lose one of their key players and Ulster fans want to see players like him at Ravenhill.

Early thoughts...

Scarlets at the breakdown a world away without Beirne and Barclay, Ulster winning the breakdown at the minute. As far as the new look Ulster is concerned, Addison has been brilliant at fullback, Billy Burns less so at 10. Ulster's halfback partnership of Cooney and Burns is very light.

My thoughts so far.
Loved the double hit from Marcel and O'Toole early in the game.
Our off loads for the most part are working.
Our line our defence has been very good.
Our kick chase has been very good.

Negatives.
Getting a bit narrow in defence
Our scrum scince O'Toole has gone off has been a bit wobbly.
Really should be making more from our line breaks

This is quite exciting! End to end stuff. Deserved card for Scarlets. Could have been red but glad for the game and the Scarlets it was only yellow. Scarlets holding on. Ulster with a kick to potentially win it.

And he misses! A lucky break for the scarlets.

What a gimp. Scarlets no.4 gives away a penalty in front of the sticks with 40 seconds to go. Tw@t.

And that’s the win for Ulster. What an absolute bell end.

Congrats Ulster

Great result for the new look Ulster.  Hugely impressed with Addison and hope he isn't injured.  I also hope Burns grows into his role, always hard for a 10 with a new backline.  We got glimpses of what Speight can do and it's great to see Coetzee almost for the first time.

All in all a great result with Jordi Murphy and Marty Moore yet to feature.

The Oracle wrote:What a gimp. Scarlets no.4 gives away a penalty in front of the sticks with 40 seconds to go. Tw@t.

That was bloody uncial and stupid. Thought Cooney was,going to blow that last kick too - looked very nervous.

Good start for Ulster in their redemption season.

The Oracle wrote:What a gimp. Scarlets no.4 gives away a penalty in front of the sticks with 40 seconds to go. Tw@t.

Commiserations buddy, it was properly stupid by the 4.

Have to say that was bloody close. 2nd half Ulster tried to force far to much.
But I like the way we're trying to play

Artful_Dodger wrote:

The Oracle wrote:What a gimp. Scarlets no.4 gives away a penalty in front of the sticks with 40 seconds to go. Tw@t.

Commiserations buddy, it was properly stupid by the 4.

I’m a Dragons fan to be honest, but do have a soft spot for the Scarlets!

Artful_Dodger wrote:Early thoughts...

Scarlets at the breakdown a world away without Beirne and Barclay, Ulster winning the breakdown at the minute.  As far as the new look Ulster is concerned, Addison has been brilliant at fullback, Billy Burns less so at 10.  Ulster's halfback partnership of Cooney and Burns is very light.

That’s not good news. Scarlets game plan relies on winning the breakdown. Shingler can’t come back quick enough, and they need to hope that guys like Boyde and Macleod come on strong this season.

Does Jean Deysel still play for Ulster?

mikey_dragon wrote:

Artful_Dodger wrote:Early thoughts...

Scarlets at the breakdown a world away without Beirne and Barclay, Ulster winning the breakdown at the minute.  As far as the new look Ulster is concerned, Addison has been brilliant at fullback, Billy Burns less so at 10.  Ulster's halfback partnership of Cooney and Burns is very light.

That’s not good news. Scarlets game plan relies on winning the breakdown. Shingler can’t come back quick enough, and they need to hope that guys like Boyde and Macleod come on strong this season.

Does Jean Deysel still play for Ulster?

He does, think he might be injured at the minute.

Ken Owens needs to have a better poker face. If he had celebrated I think the ref would have gotten given it.

mikey_dragon wrote:

Artful_Dodger wrote:Early thoughts...

Scarlets at the breakdown a world away without Beirne and Barclay, Ulster winning the breakdown at the minute.  As far as the new look Ulster is concerned, Addison has been brilliant at fullback, Billy Burns less so at 10.  Ulster's halfback partnership of Cooney and Burns is very light.

That’s not good news. Scarlets game plan relies on winning the breakdown. Shingler can’t come back quick enough, and they need to hope that guys like Boyde and Macleod come on strong this season.

Does Jean Deysel still play for Ulster?

Boyde is our for a while too. Dan Davis looked ok when he came on for a nipper.

But fair play to Ulster, they deserved the win.

Also Kennedy should’ve been red. The shoulder was bad, but he was also pulling back the winger at the same time. Almost like he was begging to get sent.

On a side note. The final pen was twp, but I got s feeling Ulster May well have had the edge on us fitness wise, which could be why there were a few players getting pulled here and there. I’m not sure the the Ulster lad would’ve received the pass if he was running in hindered, which just compounds the stupidity of it.

Oh well live and learn Leinster this week so we need to show improvement or we will get slaughtered

That was the thing that baffled me about the card for the shoulder, I was at the game so missed what the TMO said, but if he was pulling back Gilroy with one hand it means he had no intention of completing a legal tackle on Speight making it reckless and that's before you get into that it looked like he seemed to go with force

You make a good point about fitness SS as Scarlets did seem to do a lot of pulling that wasn't getting picked up on

Wayne Pivac mentioned something about fitness before the game I think. Something along the lines of the price you pay for being in finals and play offs at the business end of the season means carrying more injuries into the start of the season compared to teams who finished that bit earlier. Could be the case that the Scarlets have had a shorter break and less chance to get players back fit?

They only played 6 days after Ulsters final game, Ulster do tend to go hard with their fitness in preseason. It would explain why they usually start so well

Pivac may have had a point - he may also have been having himself a wee excuse-making party. Might be that they have poor S&C / medical staff as well. As Marty says - playing a game six days after your opponents at the end of the previous season - it's not a massive imbalance.

Perhaps he meant the extra games for getting to the knockout stages. Who knows? Ulster's last Euro games was 21st Jan. Scarlets last Euro game was 21st April. Only an extra 4 games or so on the whole season, but they all count I guess.

Just to add, the last regular game of the Pro14 season was 28th May. After that:

Ulster played one game on 20th May (vs Ospreys - like playing a pub team )
Scarlets played on 5th May, 12th May, 18th May, 26th May.

So yes, 6 days apart is no much difference. But 4 games v 1 in that time might be some difference at the end of a long season.

In fairness that is quite a disparity.

But he's still making excuses. I don't recall any other coach blaming a rubbish opening on this. Ulster certainly didn't when we were kicking about the closing stages of both competitions five or six years ago. No harm to them, but the Scarlets aren't the first team to be in play-off games and still have to play at the start of the following season...

Maybe it was the Welsh tour? Didn't that happen in the interim?

Anyway, they'll bounce back. Too much quite not to.

How good are their medical team and S&C? D4 came in and fired Ulster's long-established S&C crew in the summer. Don't know who's doing it now.

Sorry - "too much quality not to." Bloody auto-correct.

Yes, it is a difficult task balancing two important contests through a season, and it gets more difficult the longer you last in both.  Thus why winning both is a monumental task.
Leinster and Munster fans, to an extent, have been saying this stuff for years but it has tended to fall on deaf ears through that time though.  "Where's your best players??!!!"  "Disrespecting the ProWhat'sItsNumber!!" "Fans want to see the Stars!" "Forfeit Europe to give more quality players to the better contest (Pro14)!."

Indeed, I know we all love rugby (some of us watching more than others in a year but all loving the sport) and yet at the beginning of each new season, and knowing the brutal schedule for many of the players ... especially into next year with the WC also on the agenda.... I do often feel the break is much too short.  I know there would be enthusiasm from young players seeking to make a name for themselves but some of the more experienced ones must truly have a secret 'back-to-school' groan in private.
I think rugby fans maybe need to cut back on their obsession a little (I certainly have in recent years).  I think for such a tough game at the highest levels, it really has become too intense, too continuous, too 'always on' - and it's basically fans (and the plethora of competing Sports Channels I suppose) that create the drive for more and more and more.

Don Alfonso wrote:In fairness that is quite a disparity.

But he's still making excuses. I don't recall any other coach blaming a rubbish opening on this. Ulster certainly didn't when we were kicking about the closing stages of both competitions five or six years ago. No harm to them, but the Scarlets aren't the first team to be in play-off games and still have to play at the start of the following season...

Maybe it was the Welsh tour? Didn't that happen in the interim?

Anyway, they'll bounce back. Too much quite not to.

How good are their medical team and S&C? D4 came in and fired Ulster's long-established S&C crew in the summer. Don't know who's doing it now.

As I posted previously, he said it before the game.  Not after the loss.  I think he was asked about the players missing due to injuries and he said it's what happens when you're in the business end of tournaments, that they have a knock on into the start of the season.  People blowing things out of proportion here!

The Oracle wrote:People blowing things out of proportion here!

On 606?????  Surely not!  You insult the good peoples of 606 Oracle!   You are a cad, sir!  Get your weapon, this calls for a duel.  Give the man the pistol with the blan.............. I mean give the man his pistol please.

Don Alfonso wrote:
How good are their medical team and S&C? D4 came in and fired Ulster's long-established S&C crew in the summer. Don't know who's doing it now.

Was only Jonny Davis who was fired from S&C, Kev Geary is still in place and Gareth Robinson was the one from the medical side who was fired but the rest remained. All a bit strange to be honest.

Yeah, fair enough on Pivac’s comments. I did think the. Scarlets were blowing out their hoops towards the end. However, I suspect that’s more to do with being down to 13 for twenty minutes.

Don Alfonso wrote: I suspect that’s more to do with being down to 13 for twenty minutes.

Shouldn't that be 14 for 11 minutes?
A bigger issue might have been being forced to bring on a prop to replace Dan Jones?

Yeah, sorry - mistyped that badly! Was the second Scarlet only sent off with a minute to play?

If they’re that knackered at this stage of the season, they may kiss it goodbye, because they’re not going to get any more rested.

Don Alfonso wrote:Yeah, sorry - mistyped that badly! Was the second Scarlet only sent off with a minute to play?

If they’re that knackered at this stage of the season, they may kiss it goodbye, because they’re not going to get any more rested.

Bulbring was carded for tackling Cooney without the ball - conceding the winning penalty at the end of the game.

Ulster top off-loaders across first games. 18! McCloskey and Coetzee both on 4, Addison on 3.

Don Alfonso wrote:Ulster top off-loaders across first games. 18! McCloskey and Coetzee both on 4, Addison on 3.

Oh this is getting exciting..... Schmidt has finally released the shackles in pre-WC year! "Okay so I have a half pound of Set-piece purring like a happy cat - pour that in. I have a collection of tough as f**k forwards to both enforce malevolence and torpedo into the opposition at will. Sprinkle that on. I have me 10 fluid ounces of strength-in-depth.... pour that in. I have me seasoning of relentless defending and ferocious break-down clearing......And now the final ingredient....
yes, it's time to give the fans what they've been wanting for so many years and I've been planning to give them all along..... time to increase the percentage of time defending from 70 minutes to 78 minutes per game! The gloves are off."