Cardiff Blues v Ulster Friday 17th February, Cardiff Arms Park (kick off 7.05pm):

First topic message reminder :

Ulster Match Day Squad to face Cardiff, Friday 17th February 2012, Cardiff Arms Park (kick-off 7.05pm)
(15-9): S Terblanche; C Gilroy, N Spence, P Wallace, I Whitten; I Humphreys, R Pienaar;
(1-8): T Court, N Brady, J Afoa, L Stevenson, D Tuohy, C Henry (capt), W Faloon, R Diack;
Replacements (16-23): A Kyriacou, P McAllister, A Macklin, T Barker, M McComish, P Marshall, S Danielli, A D'Arcy

Unavailable due to injury: Jared Payne (achilles), Declan Fitzpatrick (neck), Darren Cave (foot), Pedrie Wannenburg (foot), Johann Muller (calf), Ali Birch (knee)

Cardiff XV: 15 Ben Blair 14 Richard Mustoe 13 Gavin Evans 12 Gavin Henson 11 Tom James 10 Dan Parks 9 Lloyd Williams 8 Xavier Rush 7 Josh Navidi 6 Michael Paterson 5 Paul Tito (c) 4 Cory Hill 3 Scott Andrews 2 Ryan Tyrell 1 John Yapp

Replacaments: 16 T Rhys Thomas 17 Nathan Trevett 18 Ryan Harford 19 Maama Molitika 20 Martyn Williams 21 Richie Rees 22 Ceri Sweeney 23 Chris Czekaj

Perhaps dropping behind Navidi (who was supposed to start) is helping Martyn rediscover some form.

Rush was made to look better than he was imo. He ran at Humphreys time and again and reaped the rewards fair play to him.

Paterson and Williams were given carte blanche by the ref to an extent but they played it beautifully. They made a mess out of most of the ulster ball. As has been mentioned it was a bit of a mismatch as Diack and Faloon were ineffectual.

One thing i would say is that i dont think Tuohy was as bad as has been said. We had a functioning/dominant lineout and he was calling it from what i saw. There is development in his game.

How many times did we drop the ball in that first half?

My problem with Tuohy is I expect more from him. He missed too many tackles, and I feel he could have made his presence known a bit more. He is a fantastic ball carrier, and also has a huge work rate when he puts the effort in.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:My problem with Tuohy is I expect more from him. He missed too many tackles, and I feel he could have made his presence known a bit more. He is a fantastic ball carrier, and also has a huge work rate when he puts the effort in.

Absolutely agree Rory. He should be reaping the rewards of training with the elite squad. He showed up well in the lineout but lost possession in the loose too easily.
I don't want to start any disagreement with you personally but as a fan of Falloon you must be disappointed with his last two performances. Really hasn't put his hand up at all has he? Diack has camouflaged his performances with two tries but really but for Henry our back row was missing tonight.

I am disappointed Rava yeah. He hasn't really put his hand up for the 7 shirt at all, while Henry is still playing brilliantly. Was carrying the backrow all by himself I thought.

Diack is starting to remind me of Tom Croft.

Not really doing the "hard yard" stuff we need from our back row.

Chris Henry is the epitome of Ulster Rugby and it would be a travesty oif he didn't get a cap this 6 Nations. He has been let down massively by his colleagues tonight I feel.

I'm not suggesting Tuohy was brilliant but there was a time last season that muller out (and prior to muller it was o'donoghue) meant we had a 50:50 line out. He is developing. Ball protection needs to be better though.

Chris Henry seems to me to be a lot stronger in the tackle than I can recall before. He is ridiculously powerful in defence.

Is there a better 6/7/8 in Irish Rugby? Is that a problem in him establishing himself?
For a guy who has played mos of his rugby at 7 this season I thought he was superb at 6 tonight.

Well the problem is, throw him in the current irish setup and he will come out looking a worse player.

They seem to prefer O'Mahony, a similarly versatile player. Not much between them. I have a lot of manlove for Chris Henry. He IS Ulster Rugby.

MrsP wrote:Diack is starting to remind me of Tom Croft.

Not really doing the "hard yard" stuff we need from our back row.

I was going to say something very similar, good at the flash stuff rubbish at the hard graft of a forward.

Rava wrote:Is there a better 6/7/8 in Irish Rugby? Is that a problem in him establishing himself?
For a guy who has played mos of his rugby at 7 this season I thought he was superb at 6 tonight.

Certainly playing better than our current 3 backrowers. Will Deccie pick him for the 6n? Will he feck! Surely that will exceed our quota. There's more chance of me getting a second date with Natalie Portman (and she hasn't returned any of my phone calls).

Hang in there Willie mate

9154.

Cardiff Dave wrote:9154.

I tried that number Dave. No reply

Excruciating. The following Ulster players do not deserve a slap:

Chris Henry.

Maybe Paddy Wallace.

Last season we had three/four wins on Welsh soil - this season, none. Marshall and Pienaar next week, please. The Rab C. playoffs must surely be gone. Let's see what Paddy Jackson can do between Pienaar and Paddy. Give Birch a bit more time.

When we are stripped of Muller, we look very poorly coached.

Don Alfonso wrote:Excruciating. The following Ulster players do not deserve a slap:

Chris Henry.

Maybe Paddy Wallace.

Last season we had three/four wins on Welsh soil - this season, none. Marshall and Pienaar next week, please. The Rab C. playoffs must surely be gone. Let's see what Paddy Jackson can do between Pienaar and Paddy. Give Birch a bit more time.

When we are stripped of Muller, we look very poorly coached.

I was just having a look at the rest of the season, and sadly I have to agree. Ulster (and Scarlets) chances have all but gone after last night. It looks like a 5 team race, with Cardiff or Glasgow to lose out.

Munster have a dream run in, with Scarlets the only hard away game. I can see them winning almost ALL their remaining fixtures.

They are probably the only ones with a chance of catching Leinster, but we will need to slip up next week to let them in. (Very possible in Firhill)

The Ospreys have a tough run in, but they are out of the HC and will be looking to stay 2nd. I can see them 3rd.

Thats the thing i would highlight Don. For all those bemoaning Brian Mclaughlins departure, when we lose Muller we dont look half the team. Without him we lose more than we win and i wonder is this significant.

I still the play offs are possible. But we need to beat Ospreys, Aironi, Edinburgh and leinster at ravenhill (with a couple of BPS there aswell) and also at least two of Treviso, connacht and munster away.

Cardiff and Glasgow will drop points. Cardiff still have to go to Munster, Scarlets and glasgow as well as a couple more welsh derbies. Ospreys still have to come to us, leinster and cardiff.

we have IMO the best run in (last two games excepted). Birch over faloon wouldnt be a bad call. we really miss Pedrie aswell.

I saw about 15 minutes of the game, mainly because I watched Leinster instead, but Parks was magnificent from what I saw. Magnificent pass that lead to his try and controlled the territory.

Nice to see Ulster in Crisis again

Don Alfonso wrote:Excruciating. The following Ulster players do not deserve a slap:

Chris Henry.

Maybe Paddy Wallace.

Last season we had three/four wins on Welsh soil - this season, none. Marshall and Pienaar next week, please. The Rab C. playoffs must surely be gone. Let's see what Paddy Jackson can do between Pienaar and Paddy. Give Birch a bit more time.

When we are stripped of Muller, we look very poorly coached.

I'd also add Spence to that. He had a stellar performance in defence.

Thomond wrote:I saw about 15 minutes of the game, mainly because I watched Leinster instead, but Parks was magnificent from what I saw. Magnificent pass that lead to his try and controlled the territory.

Nice to see Ulster in Crisis again

hmph - you're gonna eat those words after the HC quarter final

Certainly not in crisis

Ospreys, Edinburgh, Aironi and leinster all at home. No reason why we cant get four wins there especially as leinster will more than likely be resting guys for the HEC semi final.

Treviso, Connacht and Munster away. 2 of those are very very winnable. The margin for error has been removed though. We need to win the next 6 games in the Pro12.

The sooner that game is forgotten about the better, thought the defence was good in the 1st half but we were awful in the 2nd half. Gilroy and Whitten need to learn to come off their wing and look for some work or at least offer themselves. Considering the lack of game time Paddy has had i though he looked pretty sharp going forward, his 2 missed tackles were poor however some of the "attempted" tackles last night were woeful!! Missed Pedrie and Muller massively and it showed badly, still got to pick ourselves up for next weeks game.

On the Cardiff Blues front i though Henson also looked rather sharp considering his lack of game time, some nice touches, passes and his defence was solid as it always was. I hope he can get a run of games going for yous as i rate him as a player (though his head may be stuck somewhere else) on the pitch he is a great player when in form

Standulstermen wrote: No reason why we cant get four wins there especially as leinster will more than likely be resting guys for the HEC semi final.

Does that mean Ulster won't?

Don't tell me you're giving up that easily.

Standulstermen wrote:Certainly not in crisis

Ospreys, Edinburgh, Aironi and leinster all at home. No reason why we cant get four wins there especially as Leinster will more than likely be resting guys for the HEC semi final.

Treviso, Connacht and Munster away. 2 of those are very very winnable. The margin for error has been removed though. We need to win the next 6 games in the Pro12.

Thanks for getting ahead of yourself on our behalf there.

Munster's run in is even handier than Ulster's. I hope you can harness the Ravenhill factor for us next week and beat the Ospreys though.

Ah, we're still in with a shout of the playoffs. We've just made it way harder for ourselves.

What disappointed me most was the lessons of last week were not learned. We didn't play well at all but we got 5 points- so alls fine. Except the exact same things we did poorly against the Dragons (breakdown, discipline, intensity and continuity) we did poorly again. And this time, it lost the game for us.

We should have learned from last week even though we got a great result. It feels like we rested on our laurels and glossed over our weaknesses. Maybe thats unfair, but of we had played like we did last week and lost there would have been a major backlash. We should have produced that anyway. Need to set the standards higher than a win being enough, even with a BP.

Tom James comes in for a fair bit of stick, but he played well. It's a shame he's clumsy about passing.

BlueNote wrote:Tom James comes in for a fair bit of stick, but he played well. It's a shame he's clumsy about passing.

Say what you like about T.James he is the Blues top try scorer - by some distance now with 5 tries in his last 2 games (should have been 6 of course...)

asoreleftshoulder wrote:

Standulstermen wrote: No reason why we cant get four wins there especially as leinster will more than likely be resting guys for the HEC semi final.

Does that mean Ulster won't?

Don't tell me you're giving up that easily.

Much trickier task for ulster but we should target a win in all the home games anyway.

I think munster and Leinster will finish in the top two in the pro 12. Ospreys I would be surprised to see balls it up but Cardiff and Glasgow are there to be overhauled. Like I said if munster beat Cardiff in thomond next week and we beat the ospreys at raven hill we go above Cardiff again. They have a game extra but we have a handy run in.

Standulstermen wrote:

asoreleftshoulder wrote:

Standulstermen wrote: No reason why we cant get four wins there especially as leinster will more than likely be resting guys for the HEC semi final.

Does that mean Ulster won't?

Don't tell me you're giving up that easily.

Much trickier task for ulster but we should target a win in all the home games anyway.

I think munster and Leinster will finish in the top two in the pro 12. Ospreys I would be surprised to see balls it up but Cardiff and Glasgow are there to be overhauled. Like I said if munster beat Cardiff in thomond next week and we beat the ospreys at raven hill we go above Cardiff again. They have a game extra but we have a handy run in.

I meant to infer that Ulster should be aiming to rest players for a HC semi in that game too.

I don't know that we would to the same extent as Leinster. Don't forget that Leinster are walking the league as well. They will be far less inclined to risk players as they won't need the points.

I hope ulster are in the position that we might rest players but I would think it would depend on where we are in the league. Leinster are almost guaranteed to be top at that stage.

Yeah we'll definitely be in a better position to rotate but I think if Ulster made a HC semi then McLaughlin could be excused if he said screw the league I'm putting all my eggs in the one basket.

The fact that his contract is up would mean he'd be more likely to try going out with a bang as even if you do make the playoffs it's unlikely to be higher than 4th which means an away semi and final,a big ask anyway but if you're still involved in europe then something has to give as the Ulster squad isn't big enough yet.

Yeah. Plenty of rugbyto be played before we need to worry anyway

Great to hear that Jamie Roberts was sat in the stand and Halfpenny was stood on the terrace.

Ulster are 4 points behind 4th place with the following being the next 5 fixtures

Home: Ospreys, Edinburgh, Aironi
Away: Trevisio, Connacht

The play off are defintely not gone

Birch was going to start on Friday - he will play next in front of Willie.
Who is back up 7 is now in the balance.

Didn't see the match yet but a disappointing result given the significance with regards league standing and getting a play off spot.

It will be very difficult to sneak into the top 4 now but certainly not impossible.

SUFTUM.