Montpellier vs Ulster

First topic message reminder :

Montpellier

1. Yvan Watremez - 2. Mickaël Ivaldi - 3.Maximiliano Bustos - 4.Jim HAMILTON - 5. Thibaut Privat - 6. Fulgence Ouedraogo (Captain) - 7. Mamuka Gorgodze - 8. Kélian Galletier - 9. Jonathan Pélissié - 10. François Trinh-Duc - 11. Yoan Audrin - 12. Wynand Olivier - 13. Anthony Tuitavaké - 14. Timoci Nagusa - 15. Anthony Floch

Replacements 16. Thomas Bianchin - 17. Misha Nariashvili - 18. Nicolas Mas - 19. Fred Quercy - 20. Robins Tchalé-Watchou - 21. Benoit Paillaugue - 22. Thomas Combezou - 23. Benoit Sicart

Ulster

1. Tom Court - 2. Rory Best - 3. Declan Fitzpatrick - 4. Johann Muller (Captain) - 5. Dan Tuohy - 6. Robbie Diack - 7. Chris Henry - 8. Roger Wilson - 9. Ruan Pienaar - 10. Paddy Jackson - 11. Tommy Bowe - 12. Luke Marshall - 13. Darren Cave - 14. Andrew Trimble - 15. Jared Payne

Replacements 16. Rob Herring - 17. Callum Black - 18. John Afoa - 19. Lewis Stevenson - 20. Iain Henderson - 21. Paul Marshall - 22. Stuart Olding - 23. Michael Allen

No problem with motivation this week- whoever wins this game, takes control of the group.

Is a win possible? Very much so, although we couldn't be up against a more in-form team. Recent thrashings of Clermont and Toulouse at the hands of Montpellier on their own patch will mean we are the underdogs for the bookies and most neutrals. Right now, its probably one of the hardest places to go in Europe.

That said, we have the depth up front and the classy tactical kickers in our backline to get through this game with a result. A losing bonus point would not be the end of the world but we should be targeting this as a win; play territory, gain parity in the set piece and take our points when on offer and we will be in the mix in the last 10 minutes. Pienaar, Jackson and Payne will be crucial in guiding us through this game but if our tactical kicking and our kick chase is as good this week as it was on Friday we can frustrate them. But we'll also have to negate a typically powerful scrum and maintain very high standards in the breakdown and lineout. Enough to win? We'll see but I genuinely think we have the tools to win away from home in Europe this season- in this group away wins will be like gold dust so this is massive opportunity for us to assert our credentials.

Its a Try ffs.

Damn it

No foot in touch??

Ah Court!!! Butchered it twice!

Great stuff from Henry...

The cow says Moo lads. Leave it at that.

What's the score lads?

asoreleftshoulder wrote:What's the score lads?

8-16 SUFTUM

This ref is embarrassing....

This video replay stuff is absolute nonsense.  I really hate it I must say.  But not as much as I hate poor people.  Fetch me my monocle

Great stuff,keep it up and that puts you in control of the pool.

My stream has just froze - this isn't happening.

This is a bizarre game - Montpellier have handed us the game, only for us to try and hand it back, only for the Ref to hand it back to us again. It seems like the ref wants us to win more than we do.

I cannot believe Montpellier blew that!

Stream just froze for me also - any links?

Tackle of the century by Jackson!

Its back!!

22-8 to Ulster! Blow the whistle ref!

Just saw the replay of the Montpellier near try - Jackson you absolute bloody legend!!

WOW!!!!! We Are Good

Allez Le Blanc

Talk about overrated .... this Montpellier shower would be mid table at best in the Rabo.

Jackson is a genius!

rodders wrote:Talk about overrated .... this Montpellier shower would be mid table at best in the Rabo.

Makes the Ulster performance all the more disappointing - we didn't get the try bonus point.

 

ULSTER!!!!!        WOOOOHOOOOO!!!     

Wow phenomenal result!

That's how its done.

The way Ruan Pienaar and Paddy Jackson pulled us around the park and controlled that game should be required viewing for any team who wants to win away from home in the Heineken Cup. Superlative performances from the halfbacks today.

Superb result.

Rory Best - how many turnovers and penalties? Thats aside from the one that was awarded as a scrum for Montpellier. Tuohy had a big game. Backrow all played cleverly. Payne is a magician and Pienaar and Jackson's kicking just wouldn't allow Montpellier to do anything.

Huge amount of credit has to go Anscombe his strategy today was flawless. It actually reminded me a bit of what Saracens did to us in the quarters last year. Brilliantly planned strategy and tactics - brilliantly executed by all of our players.

Wow!

Brilliant.

Fully agree with Dodger re the tactics but our kicking was so good again this week. Yeas it was completely the right strategy but the execution was soperb from pretty much every Ulster player who put boot to ball.

 

Poor day for he French teams.

Didn't see it, but seems a good victory none the less.
Every win is a good win in La Belle France.

Its a bit hard to understand from scanning the comments here, but were Ulster simply better? Or were Montpellier not playing so well? Seems confusing from everyone's comments. Would be great if you happy people tell me it was all Ulster.........!

doctor_grey wrote:Didn't see it, but seems a good victory none the less.  
Every win is a good win in La Belle France.

Its a bit hard to understand from scanning the comments here,  but were Ulster simply better?  Or were Montpellier not playing so well?  Seems confusing from everyone's comments.  Would be great if you happy people tell me it was all Ulster.........!

Our kicking was certainly good, but honestly I don't think we were all that exciting. Hardly got out of second gear.

Montpellier were very poor.

doctor_grey wrote:Didn't see it, but seems a good victory none the less.  
Every win is a good win in La Belle France.

Its a bit hard to understand from scanning the comments here,  but were Ulster simply better?  Or were Montpellier not playing so well?  Seems confusing from everyone's comments.  Would be great if you happy people tell me it was all Ulster.........!

Its hard to gauge how good or bad Montpellier were because Ulster just didn't allow them to do anything through a rather good kicking game. Constantly pinned them back in their 22 with territorial kicks, some fantastic up and under's and chases and they kept knocking on, got penalized in their own 22 or had to clear to touch under huge pressure to give Ulster attacking lineouts.

Doc Grey;

Ulster set out to stop Montpellier playing and were very successful in doing that. We really looked to use our tactical kicking and spoiling in the breakdown to frustrate them and when they got annoyed they gave away penalties which we accepted gratefully.

Ulster did score one superb try and were one intercepted offload away from another superb score, we did play rugby in patches but mainly we looked to turn Montpellier around, kick the corners and force mistakes. Those tactics worked beautifully.

doctor_grey wrote:Didn't see it, but seems a good victory none the less.  
Every win is a good win in La Belle France.

Its a bit hard to understand from scanning the comments here,  but were Ulster simply better?  Or were Montpellier not playing so well?  Seems confusing from everyone's comments.  Would be great if you happy people tell me it was all Ulster.........!

Well we were better in my opinion, no doubt about it. Montpellier really did very little for a side riding high in the Top 14 and their much vaunted pack didn't come close to dominating - if anything the cohesion and unity of our pack outshaded them.

At the back they couldn't deal with the up and unders and really that, as with Leicester tigers last week was a killer for them.

In terms of us - well unbelievably given the result I thought we weren't great. We got a lot of the 50:50s from a very poor ref. We missed some very kickable penalties and despite playing some very enterprising rugby made a lot of unforced errors. Montpelliers ineptitude let us of the hook for some pretty poor tactical kicking at times - they bombed a certain try when Paddy Jackson made a sensational tackle but like wise Cave, then Court bombed one for us.

Overall a phenomenal result and one which puts us in control of the group but I think we'll need to make some major improvements to be serious contenders.

Montpellier certainly will be very disappointed with their showing but we really just didn't allow them to play.

Given how good our kicking from hand was I think some are being a bit harsh about the missed pens. We were playing into a pretty stiff breeze that first half. One of the kicks by RP seemed to get blown off course when it got high.

We certainly did also get the bounce of the ball several times.

Very pleased with our display indeed.

My previous post was pretty critical - I should probably add that there were some outstanding performances - Touhy, Best, Henry and Jackson in particular - the lineout was near perfect and the pack generally as a unit and to a man were excellent. Paddy Jackson is playing dream rugby - sorry Jonny there's a new sheriff in town.

I think if we can just tighten up on the handling errors, and show a bit more composure we could well challenge on both fronts this year...there's a long way to go though.

It shows how far we have come that we can get a result like this and still pick holes in the performance.

Pretty poor tacticak kicking rodders?  

Yeah Rodders!!!!

We go and beat the current leaders in the Top 14, on their own patch, and beat then well, and you're still not happy!!!!

Notch wrote:Pretty poor tacticak kicking rodders?  

at times I think was the full quote Notch ...as in there were some excellent kicks, from Jackson and Pienaar in particular, but some not so good that we got away with.

Some of the high balls went too deep for the chasers - allowing the mark and also the likes of Nagusa to counterattack which put us under pressure when we didn't need to be. I think we could have put this Montpellier team to the sword if we backed ourselves more with the ball in hand.

That's a bit ultra critical though - 4 points is a brilliant result.

If anyone has highlights check out Jared Payne's pass at the start of the move which ended in Trimble's try. Not the passes just before the try but way back inside our own half. Its a sensational pass.

Given the way Montpellier were dealing with the aerial bombardment, no kick was too long!

MrsP wrote:Yeah Rodders!!!!

We go and beat the current leaders in the Top 14, on their own patch, and beat then well, and you're still not happy!!!!

Yeah...bizarre isn't it? ....must be getting grumpy in my old age - hope Anscombe flogs them tomorrow, especially butterfingers Trimble - 10 laps for him!.... 

I feel a bit bad for old Jim (Nagusa).  Fair to say we knew he wasn't the most rounded wing when it comes to kicking or being under the high ball and used it against him.  Also, I didn't know he and Darren Cave were so close.  Apparently Nagusa named his son Darren, after Cave.

Inside info on Jim helped, we know his weaknesses and played him well.

It's a shame because I genuinely love the guy- looking forward to giving him a warm reception at Ravenhill in Round 5.

Artful_Dodger wrote:If anyone has highlights check out Jared Payne's pass at the start of the move which ended in Trimble's try.  Not the passes just before the try but way back inside our own half.  Its a sensational pass.  

There was another when he made this long pass back on the inside to Henry after he scythed through the Montpellier defence down the right hand side. Unfortunately Henry got pinged for holding on. It was simply unbelievable vision, Henry just had to check to take it- not sure he expected the pass- otherwise it was a try under the sticks. A jaw dropping piece of skill.

Notch wrote:.................It's a shame because I genuinely love the guy- looking forward to giving him a warm reception at Ravenhill in Round 5.

Aaawww. Young love.  
Warms the cockles of my jaded little heart.

Yeah. A real favorite at Ravenhill. But then again we love almost all our overseas players.

Didn't realise he'd named his son after Darren Cave.

There can't be many lads called Latte in his class.

rodders wrote:

Artful_Dodger wrote:If anyone has highlights check out Jared Payne's pass at the start of the move which ended in Trimble's try.  Not the passes just before the try but way back inside our own half.  Its a sensational pass.  

There was another when he made this long pass back on the inside to Henry after he scythed through the Montpellier defence down the right hand side. Unfortunately Henry got pinged for holding on. It was simply unbelievable vision, Henry just had to check to take it- not sure he expected the pass- otherwise it was a try under the sticks. A jaw dropping piece of skill.

Yep, I said earlier in the post he had touched the ball twice and done something magnificent twice. Those were the two times I was referring two

I know I shouldn't but...

I've just seen this comment on FB.

"Judging by the results this weekend, I'm starting to think the French-Anglo Cup could rival the Amlin."

Sorry Grey, but it had to be done!!!

Did anyone else feel Montpellier were ridiculously indisciplined?

Take that scrum penalty they conceded in our 22. From the first scrum the referee warned them they weren't close enough, they needed to close the gap. Every scrum he told them this. Eventually, after they had chance after chance to change, he gives the free kick. Still no change. End up conceding the penalty in our 22. It was comical- just ignored the ref completely until finally he had no choice! Language barrier?

Just stupid, stupid things- no patience in defence either. Any time we had a few phases together they were queueing up to go off their feet trying to win the ball back.

Montpellier weren't so much outplayed as comprehensively outsmarted.