Ulster Rugby 2022/2023

Thought it was time for an update on the thread so this is the new all things Ulster thread.

World domination right round the corner. (C) 2015

Theres the eternal hope of a true Ulster fan, still alive a kicking even now lol

https://www.ulsterrugby.com/2021/02/ireland-team-named-for-six-nations-opener-2/

Herring starts for Ireland. Burns and Henderson on the bench

This is the least excited I've been for the 6 nations in living memory, usually I'm like a little spoiled kid at Christmas. The whole Cooney saga has made me feel rather disillusioned. How JGP and Casey deserve to be selected over him is nothing short of criminal and if Farrell starts citing his age profile as a reason he'd need to rid the team sheet of the ageing carthorses that are on it today.

Sorry, rant over but I've not been so angry at player treatment since the banishing of a couple of very handy Irish players, a 10 in particular who should be in green this weekend over geriatric Janny.

I just have a strange feeling that this will be a really bad 6 nations for Ireland and so therefore I have the same level of excitement as you Pete for that reason.

neilthom7 wrote:I just have a strange feeling that this will be a really bad 6 nations for Ireland and so therefore I have the same level of excitement as you Pete for that reason.

I agree, they were worked out under Schmidt and little has changed when change was needed. Our only positive on Sunday is that the Welsh national side has been mirroring the form of their regions for a change.
I don't see there being much glory against England or France and with Scotland's personnel, should they click there could be problems there too.

Please Andy Farrell prove me wrong.

So we are getting O'Toole, McCloskey and Cooney back from Ireland camp. Great for Ulster, we'll need all hands on deck.

Addison and Balacoune recoveries going well and both should be back before season end and Stockdale close enough for him to be broken by Ireland.

Good to get a few guys back, quite a few injuries right now so they will all be needed

Team v Glasgow

(15-9) Michael Lowry, Craig Gilroy, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Rob Lyttle, Ian Madigan, John Cooney;

(1-8) Eric O’Sullivan, John Andrew, Marty Moore, Alan O’Connor, Kieran Treadwell, Nick Timoney, Jordi Murphy (Capt.), Marcell Coetzee.

Replacements: Adam McBurney, Andrew Warwick, Tom O’Toole, Cormac Izuchukwu, Greg Jones, Alby Mathewson, Stewart Moore, Matt Faddes.

Great to see Izzy on the bench - this guy is going to be a hell of a player

On the contract front the ones we haven't, officially, heard about are:

Matt Faddes, Alby Mathewson, Louis Ludik
Bill Johnston, Ross Kane, Adam McBurney, Kyle McCall

(Not included the Academy of Henderson as CC's and Academy are often not made till later)

This could well end up being the players going elsewhere, retiring, being released
If so my guess is Bradley Roberts will continue to cover on an as required basis.
Big step up for Stewart but he is going to be a top player

I'm very excited to see Izzy on the senior team. Power, Physicality and Pace to burn, the 3 Ps

It's a very good match day squad especially when you look at who's unavailable at the minute. We have a bit of depth which is an odd feeling.

This excitement for a rugby match is an odd feeling too, I wasn't feeling anything like this for the 6 nations.

Glasgow side:

1. Oli Kebble (52)
2. Johnny Matthews (7)
3. Enrique Pieretto (9)
4. Richie Gray (53)
5. Leone Nakarawa (73)
6. Rob Harley (241)
7. Thomas Gordon (27)
8. Ryan Wilson (C) (181)

9. Jamie Dobie (14)
10. Adam Hastings (46)
11. Rufus McLean (1)
12. Sam Johnson (66)
13. Robbie Fergusson (7)
14. Ratu Tagive (20)
15. Huw Jones (45)

16. Grant Stewart (39)
17. Aki Seiuli (22)
18. D’arcy Rae (78)
19. James Scott (0)
20. TJ Ioane (8)
21. Sean Kennedy (12)
22. Ross Thompson (2)
23. Ollie Smith (1)

That could have been 5 points and in the end was a difficult 4 points. Some nice play when Ulster got going in attack though.

Will think Ulster will be disappointed with not getting the bonus point. But if someone said you'd win at Glasgow on a wet Friday night, you'd take it.

Well done Ulster, very clinical when you got your chances. Just had that bit more class than we did tonight, even though it was a tough old game.

That was probably the difference today, that Ulster were clinical when they had their chances, certainly Lowry added a real quality to our attack that Glasgow found hard to handle at times.

Good to see Izzy getting some good minutes as well, the more of those he gets the better it will be for his development because the raw talent is certainly there

Henderson 2 year CC confirmed

I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about Ulster than I have for a long time. The main reason is that the academy now seems to be turning out forwards like McCann and Izuchukwu to add to our already (IMO) exciting backs. If we have a good scrum-half to carry on after Cooney, then all we need is a world-class out-half and we can be European champions. Anyone know where we could find one of those?

scrummy wrote:I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about Ulster than I have for a long time. The main reason is that the academy now seems to be turning out forwards like McCann and Izuchukwu to add to our already (IMO) exciting backs. If we have a good scrum-half to carry on after Cooney, then all we need is a world-class out-half and we can be European champions. Anyone know where we could find one of those?

That's how I'm feeling too, there's light at the end of the tunnel etc.
I was watching the English lads at the weekend and the pundits were saying there was a young man who is perhaps the form outhalf in the Premiership, Irish qualified, very solid at controlling a game and excellent at reading a game playing heads up rugby. Can't remember his name.

Did I hear Baloucoune might be fit for Friday?

He is 28 years old now and will never return

As someone has said though Gatland should consider him for the Lions - he's outperforming Biggar, Farrell, Ford at the moment.

In all honesty it could could be reasonably argued that the two best 10s in the English Premiership, Smith and Jackson, are not playing International rugby

Baloucoune is close, very close, bench would not surprise me

It would be good if Gatland picked Jackson and Cooney for the Lions.
Neither will get a look in for Ireland, and both arguably the best in there positions in the UK and Ireland.

Would be fantastic to have Bobby Baloucoune for the final stretch.

Stockdale back from the start, reidy and baloucoune on the bench.

(15-9) Michael Lowry, Rob Lyttle, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale, Ian Madigan, John Cooney;

(1-8) Andrew Warwick, John Andrew, Marty Moore, Alan O’Connor, Kieran Treadwell, Greg Jones, Jordi Murphy (Capt.), Nick Timoney.

Replacements: Adam McBurney, Eric O’Sullivan, Ross Kane, Cormac Izuchukwu, Sean Reidy, Alby Mathewson, Matt Faddes, Robert Baloucoune

Sam Carter I think has used this extended break to spend some time in back in Australia where restrictions are more relaxed.
Probably going through a return to Ulster isolation requirement.
Great to use the time to give Izzy more exposure
Also great to get the three lads back

geoff999rugby wrote:Sam Carter I think has used this extended break to spend some time in back in Australia where restrictions are more relaxed.
Probably going through a return to Ulster isolation requirement.
Great to use the time to give Izzy more exposure
Also great to get the three lads back

It certainly is, it's especially great to welcome Bobby Baloucoune back, can't wait to see him get back in the harness and of course Reidy who has been the backbone of so many wins for us. I don't even have to mention how important Stockdale's return is....oh I just did.

I hope we can have this one sewn up by half-time and then take Cooney off and give Mathewson some decent minutes. He didn't have a great game against Glasgow and I'd like him to get a chance to do better. Also looking forward to seeing guys like O'Sullivan, Izuchukwu, Reidy and Baloucoune coming off the bench. Some hard work up front + the Cooney/Lowry connection and this could be a 5-pointer.

Oh man. What a team. Delighted.

Ospreys aren't the pushovers some are assuming, though.

A starting 15 with no NIQ players in it and only 2 non Irish born and one them is Jordi Murphy

Certainly not pushovers but Ulster have got to the stage where an away win at Glagow is a disappointing result for some people because we didn't get 5 points.

Seeing the "A" team for tomorrow shows what Geoff was saying about Ulster Rugby being in a better place than ever. Reading names like Shanahan, Johnston, Moore, Moxham, Sexton And McIlroy in the backs sounds pretty good.None of them look out of place in the first team line-up. I'd like to see more of Milasinovich. I saw him come on in one match (can't remember which one) and he seemed to really strengthen the scrum.

Ulster have started this game all over the place, errors everywhere

Ospreys must be wondering how Ulster are level because they have been woeful this half

Lucky to be level. But there’s something to be said for the scoreline considering how one sided it has been.

Feel Ulster came out with an ambition to play everything from the off. Then turned out they couldn’t string their passes together and Ospreys decided to play high tempo also, but minus the mistakes so they build more phases and keep possession.

Ulster kept them out for most of the half in fairness, but if Ulster are to get a try bonus point, a very different team needs to come out of the changing rooms.

I thought we defended well and if things go better in attack, I think we can still make this a 5-pointer.

When a win feels like a loss...

They won, and yes they did better in the second half but Ulster were extremely average throughout that game apart from a few moments of quality. They will have to be 10 times better next week

Did they just recently change it from ‘man of the match’ to ‘player of the match’ or has that been the terminology for a while?

ALthough we may not win the league, I'm really pleased with the way we were able to turn that match around and win by 14 points. At the beginning every scrum was a penalty for Ospreys but then we managed to get at least parity. When we started to string a few phases together we looked good. Definitely some positives. Izuchukwu looks like the real deal and great to see Reidy back. Timoney was good, Lowry is a real live wire and Cooney knew exactly where to be to keep us in the game at half-time. Ok. we didn't get a bonus point but after that first half hour to win so comfortably felt to me quite good.

We only had one of the my first choice starting forward pack playing on Friday (Murphy) and it showed.

Having said that Ospreys in the first half were as good as anyone (bar Leinster and Toulouse) we have played this season.
They are clearly on the up

Leinster beat Glasgow and got bonus point today, how many teams can lose that many people to Ireland duty and still just be going around tanking teams.

Going to be a bit of work to do if Ulster are to catch up to them over the next few years but at least Ulster look like they are heading in the right direction.

neilthom7 wrote:Leinster beat Glasgow and got bonus point today, how many teams can lose that many people to Ireland duty and still just be going around tanking teams.
 
Going to be a bit of work to do if Ulster are to catch up to them over the next few years but at least Ulster look like they are heading in the right direction.

To be fair, Leinster hardly tanked Glasgow, who played most of the game with 14 and the last ten mins (when Leinster scored 2 tries) with 13. The game was within a score until then.

Glasgow actually showed the blueprint to beat them for you, in that you have got to take the game to them. Give them the ball and they will keep it and eventually score. easier said than done i realise but not impossible.

BigGee wrote:

neilthom7 wrote:Leinster beat Glasgow and got bonus point today, how many teams can lose that many people to Ireland duty and still just be going around tanking teams.
 
Going to be a bit of work to do if Ulster are to catch up to them over the next few years but at least Ulster look like they are heading in the right direction.

To be fair, Leinster hardly tanked Glasgow, who played most of the game with 14 and the last ten mins (when Leinster scored 2 tries) with 13. The game was within a score until then.

Glasgow actually showed the blueprint to beat them for you, in that you have got to take the game to them. Give them the ball and they will keep it and eventually score. easier said than done i realise but not impossible.

Sorry I was being a bit disingenuous to Glasgow but my point was more that they are just bonus point machines even without their ireland players.

They can be beaten, connacht proved that but they just keep racking up bonus point wins and its that gap that we will have a lot of work to do to close, especially if more of our players do actually start to get called up

Loosehead:
Eric O’Sullivan
Jack McGrath
Andy Warwick
Kyle McCall
Callum Reid

Hooker:
Rob Herring
John Andrew
Adam McBurney
Bradley Roberts

Tighthead:
Marty Moore
Tom O’Toole
Ross Kane
Gareth Milasinovich

Second Row:
Iain Henderson
Sam Carter
Alan O’Connor
Kieran Treadwell
David O’Connor
Cormac Izuchukwu

Back Row:
Marcell Coetzee
Sean Reidy
Jordi Murphy
Nick Timoney
Greg Jones
Matty Rea
David McCann
Marcus Rea

Scrumhalf:
John Cooney
Alby Mathewson
David Shanahan
Nathan Doak

Outhalf:
Billy Burns
Ian Madigan
Bill Johnston

Centre:
Stuart McCloskey
Luke Marshall
James Hume
Stewart Moore

Back Three:
Jacob Stockdale
Robert Baloucoune
Michael Lowry
Rob Lyttle
Matt Faddes
Craig Gilroy
Ethan McIlroy
Aaron Sexton
Ben Moxham
Lous Ludik

Senior players not selected due to injury: Will Addison, Angus Curtis
Academy players lined up to play but not selected due to injury: Tom Stewart

48 players used this season.

David McCann has signed a full contract for 2 years.
Ross Kane has signed a 1 year contract

So that leaves
Matt Faddes, Alby Mathewson, Louis Ludik
Bill Johnston, Adam McBurney, Kyle McCall

Seems to me everything wrapped up except the Hooker situation with respect to McBurney and Robert
I would like to see Matthewson get 1 more year - by then Doak will be ready and Finlay will be good as cover.

Geoff - don't suppose you've heard anything about this Peel situation?

Don the extent of my understanding is that he is definitely leaving but there is some uncertainty if its Cardiff or Scarlets.
No acrimony just he wanted to try his hand coaching in Wales.
Three people up for the job of Attack Coach/Assistant Coach - Soper, Payne and Doak.
Soper got the job.
Not heard anything about a contract extension for Payne yet

Cheers G.

Million and a half from the NI Executive for Ulster Rugby

Ulster team to play Leinster Rugby, Guinness PRO14 Round 14, Saturday 6 March at Kingspan Stadium (kick-off 7.35pm, live on Premier Sports):

(15-9) Michael Lowry, Robert Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale, Ian Madigan, John Cooney.

(1-8) Eric O’Sullivan, John Andrew, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Kieran Treadwell, Nick Timoney, Jordi Murphy (Capt.), Marcell Coetzee.

Replacements: Adam McBurney, Andrew Warwick, Marty Moore, Cormac Izuchukwu, Sean Reidy, Alby Mathewson, Stewart Moore, Rob Lyttle.

Strong side to face Les Blues, fast start needed, no time to get up to speed against them. Any kicking needs to be absolutely on point to keep them pinned back and well away from our 22. It can be done, BELIEVE!!