Ulster vs Cardiff Blues

First topic message reminder :

Ulster; 15 Stuart Olding, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Jared Payne, 12 Luke Marshall, 11 Tommy Bowe, 10 Paddy Jackson, 9 Ruan Pienaar; 1 Callum Black 2 Rory Best, 3 Declan Fitzpatrick, 4 Johann Muller (c), 5 Dan Tuohy, 6 Robbie Diack, 7 Chris Henry, 8 Roger Wilson

Replacements: 16 Rob Herring, 17 Tom Court, 18 John Afoa, 19 Lewis Stevenson, 20 Mike McComish, 21 Paul Marshall, 22 Darren Cave, 23 Michael Allen

Cardiff Blues: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Richard Smith, 13 Cory Allen, 12 Dafydd Hewitt, 11 Harry Robinson, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Lloyd Williams; 1 Gethin Jenkins (c), 2 Marc Breeze, 3 Scott Andrews, 4 Bradley Davies, 5 Filo Paulo, 6 Josh Navidi, 7 Sam Warburton, 8 Robin Copeland.

Replacements: 16 Kristian Dacey, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Taufa'ao Filise, 19 Lou Reed, 20 Rory Watts-Jones, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 Chris Czekaj

So just two changes for Ulster and a positional switch; Payne moves to centre instead of Cave, Olding comes in at fullback and Callum Black comes into the front row at loosehead. Ulster will be targeting a bonus point win as we look to claw our way back up the table but Blues will have renewed confidence after their European scalping of Toulon. Cardiff are without Cuthbert and Matthew Rees- Ulster are missing Craig Gilroy, Iain Henderson and Nick Williams.

Massive welcome back to Ravenhill for Filo Paulo

Notch wrote:Pete here's a playlist that shows all the tries, major incidents- unfortunately it starts at the end and works backwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSsS27eWqKc&list=PLclPnIJd8nRsrt2r3b5N3cBrHNNh5DLw4

If you can get a UK proxy server you can get iPlayer and watch it on there?

 

Trying to sort out a proxy now tbh. I'm pretty crap at these things and the UAE block everything!

Oh forgot to mention...can we lose the brass band please? No need to turn ravers into a mini Twickenham.....  

I actually thought the band added something last night. They seemed to get the crowd involved on occasions when they had gone a bit quiet.

Undecided.

It would be ok if the band played when it's appropriate to do so. Otherwise it's a distraction.

They need to play during breaks in play- not in the midst of the action.

But they did nothing to detract from a brilliant atmosphere at the Leicester game- the crowd were in ferocious form and they just added to that, but against Cardiff the crowd was very subdued and they stuck out and it wasn't good.

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:

Notch wrote:Pete here's a playlist that shows all the tries, major incidents- unfortunately it starts at the end and works backwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSsS27eWqKc&list=PLclPnIJd8nRsrt2r3b5N3cBrHNNh5DLw4

If you can get a UK proxy server you can get iPlayer and watch it on there?

 

Trying to sort out a proxy now tbh. I'm pretty crap at these things and the UAE block everything!

Pete, Thomand sent round some info for foreign online viewing a while back. I'll PM it to you.

Olding is a talent but can't believe not one of you ulster fans have mentioned the poor tackle on the cardiff winger for his try. A one on one head on tackle and he was just brushed aside, not really what you want in the last lne of defence is it?

stevetynant wrote:Olding is a talent but can't believe not one of you ulster fans have mentioned the poor tackle on the cardiff winger for his try. A one on one head on tackle and he was just brushed aside, not really what you want in the last lne of defence is it?

He fell off the tackle. It was a poor effort. It lead to a try. If his tackling thus far was a concern, or if we had have lost the game, I think more would have been made of it, but Olding is not short on courage, and he can tackle. These things can happen to any player, at any level.
There were more than a few errors made by Ulster last night, and more than a few points left on the field, but watching Ulster play each week we can see improvement week on week, and the exciting thing is Ulster haven't yet peaked. Still some way to go.

I think because Cardiff were never in with a realistic chance of taking anything from the game we haven't focused on the scores we conceded. The game was about all-out attack because we needed 5 points, not just 4. They were just sloppy tries we gave them but I was much more anxious that we might miss out on the try bonus point and Olding was involved in several of the scores that got it for us.

Yes, it's disappointing we conceded two soft tries and we unnecessarily gave Cardiff hope of a result by twice inviting them back into the game, but it was all about getting the four tries and we knew if we converted all the chances we created we'd win with a bonus point. The game was unnecessarily close because we missed six kicks at goal and twice dropped our intensity and let them back in, but the result was never really in doubt.

Also, if Olding was a regular fullback he'd cop more criticism. You almost expect a few errors when you throw a guy into a new position. He's a 10/12.

Yeah it was a poor miss - but then you could also say that in that area you'd expect a decent winger to beat the cover defender. The technique was ok, it just a bit of a physical mismatch and I've seen plenty of top fullbacks - including Halfpenny, Kearney and Payne beaten in similar fashion - the 15 is always at a disadvantage once the defensive line is broken.  

Given that Olding played a major role in 3 of the tries I think you can cut a bit of slack for that tackle.

stevetynant wrote:Olding is a talent but can't believe not one of you ulster fans have mentioned the poor tackle on the cardiff winger for his try. A one on one head on tackle and he was just brushed aside, not really what you want in the last lne of defence is it?

Sure he missed a tackle but that was atypical and not reflective of his usual standard.

Kid makes odd mistake - a complete non story

geoff999rugby wrote:Paddy Wallace back in December.
In practise injuries and Internationals will take care of most selection dilemma's

For the International period it is a straight choice between
10 McKinney 12 Olding and
10 Olding 12 Farrell

I hope it is the later, I suspect it will be the former.

As to keeping them all happy not a problem this year or next but then we may have a hard choice or two to make
Enjoy it while it lasts

Looks like I might be getting my wish re 10/12 - certainly the strong rumour is Olding 10

Trimble released for the game more to follow

Pienaar, olding, Allen, Farrell, cave, Trimble, Payne

Not a bad lineup

No Cave though- he might still be with Ireland!