Ulster Rugby 2017-2018 Part 2

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Part 2

geoff999rugby wrote:Can of worms I know but there is no doubt in my mind Munster have been treated differently from Leinster and Ulster for different reasons.

Leinster simply do not need many NIQ because they are producing so many good players
Ulster are being forced to get there Academy in order because they have underdelivered - they are at last doing so and the fruits of that will be seen in the coming year
However Munster are also under delivering (3 to 10 years ago they were producing quality players) but are being propped up by imports. They need some cold turkey in the way Ulster are getting it
Murray, POM, Earls are great but after that ?
Ulster can match that with Best, Henderson, Stockdale

I would not swap Ulsters long term position with Munsters, assuming they are treated equally by the IRFU

There isn't a huge difference between Ulster and Munster over the last 10 years in terms of win ratio in the league, over 211 league games Ulster have a win ratio of 60.19% and Munster have 67.77% that equates to 143 wins for Munster and 127 for Ulster. That averages over to less than 2 wins more a season.

Over all competitions Munster have played 295 games and won 197 while Ulster have played 283 and won 168 which works out at respective win ratios of 66.78% and 59.36%

We all know that Munster have the ability to win big games over the last 10 years and outside of the Thomond quarter final Ulster have tended to choke, which has been the biggest difference between the two sides in a sporting sense.

From the business side, you would say Ulster are on a better footing given Munster debt, along with the academies seemingly being on par and Ulster having to overhaul their upper management you have to wonder what it is Munster have that gives them that leeway

St John The Enforcer wrote:

Don Alfonso wrote:

geoff999rugby wrote:

St John The Enforcer wrote:

geoff999rugby wrote:O'Sullivan will prove them wrong big time as well

Could well do. Is he better than Ed Byrne or Peter Dooley right now though?

Don't you guys also have Greg Jones? Schoolmate of Larmour and Porter

He has 2 years on Bryne and 3 on Dooley and unlike them is getting regular game time.
Dooley is happy being behind Healy and McGrath rather than move and develop - shows a lack of ambition, same as Deegan
Healy and McGrath are not going away than soon

Jones is with us - behind Coetzee Murphy, Reidy, Timoney and alongside Matt Rea in the pecking order.
Will be tough there are 5 or 6 coming through who have the ability to be contenders

Yeah, it's easy to forget Dooley and the Byrnes are all entering their mid-twenties. Having said that, Dooley seemingly has 54 caps. Not many crunch or Euro games, I'd wager, but it's not like he's never on the pitch. That is since '14.

The point is. If you are sitting down in May 18 deciding who will be backup to your 2 Test Lion loose heads. Do you get rid of Byrne or Dooley and bet the farm on some young lad who looks good and may have potential?

Bird in the hand. It's a gamble either way, but the 2 lads are proven performers at pro14 level and look able to step it up into Europe too.

Who you pick now is different from would you swap, which was the point I made.
Sure the Leinster boys would go to the WC before O'Sullivan but would I swap either for O'Sullivan given where the players are in their careers - definitely not

The original chat was about the affect of homegrown players on the popularity of the team and the sport within Ulster.
We then somehow jumped to some of you saying you were fine with players from other provinces coming through the academy.

Do you really think supporters or potential supporters differentiate between Irish and non-Irish and then also don't differentiate between a Mathody past pupil and some young lad with a southern accent?

I'd have thought it either doesn't matter how many or foreign, or it DOES matter that they are Ulster born.

If players play well and are good in front of camera (Pienaar AND Cooney for example), I don't think it matters at all to potential growth of the sport in the country where they were born.

If you argue the fans want to see local boys play, you can't also say that 'local' just means Dublin young lads. No?

clivemcl wrote:The original chat was about the affect of homegrown players on the popularity of the team and the sport within Ulster.
We then somehow jumped to some of you saying you were fine with players from other provinces coming through the academy.

Do you really think supporters or potential supporters differentiate between Irish and non-Irish and then also don't differentiate between a Mathody past pupil and some young lad with a southern accent?

What about a Methody past pupil with a southern accent?

clivemcl wrote:The original chat was about the affect of homegrown players on the popularity of the team and the sport within Ulster.
We then somehow jumped to some of you saying you were fine with players from other provinces coming through the academy.

Do you really think supporters or potential supporters differentiate between Irish and non-Irish and then also don't differentiate between a Mathody past pupil and some young lad with a southern accent?

I'd have thought it either doesn't matter how many or foreign, or it DOES matter that they are Ulster born.

If players play well and are good in front of camera (Pienaar AND Cooney for example), I don't think it matters at all to potential growth of the sport in the country where they were born.

If you argue the fans want to see local boys play, you can't also say that 'local' just means Dublin young lads. No?

I not sure anyone is claiming player should be local lads - if anything the opposite.
The point being made is whether or not they come through the Academy is significant
Whether they are not they are IQ is also significant

Other than that not sure the vast majority are that bothered

Back to Deegan. I must have seen him play in the U20 All Blacks game. Don't remember how he did but I know he came with a lot of hype at Leinster 2 years ago which has yet to materialise. In that time Doris has appeared and already overtaken him. Penny seems to have also.

From chat on the Planet Rugby forum they've said he's a classy Heaslip style player. A lot of nice skills but probably lacks the dog for the true rough stuff.

Anyway, he would be a welcome addition but all the chat suggests he's not interesting in coming North.

Like with everything there are advantages and disadvantages, if you have a group of young guys from Ulster coming through then it can be a great selling point if done right, you can draw people who may not have taken a interest because they went to school with them, grew up in the same area or their aunty lives next door to their grannys cousin. It can give you an identity, like Celtic and the Lisbon Lions. I heard an interview with JJ Hanrahan this week talking about the kids in his village getting excited when they knew Mick Galway was back home and crowding round his car.

The same can be said by signing characters who will create interest and make headlines, it's like the McGregor effect in the UFC. You have people watching because of him, some in Ireland got behind him in the early days because he's an Irishman. You seem the same kind of effect with Carl Frampton and people who hop on the bandwagon

I'm sure it's generally cheaper too having an Ulsterman compared to someone from outside Ulster, if Jordi Murphy had the chance to play more at Leinster than it seemed would happen a year ago but get paid less would he have stayed put?

Looking back on Ulster over the last load of years, how many would have stayed around as long as they did were they not from Ulster?

Been told Best, Murphy, Stockdale, Coetzee, Cooney amongst others not starting
If you add that my belief both O'Sullivan and Moore not starting we are definitely resting nearly all, if not all,
of the starting 15 for Racing

geoff999rugby wrote:Been told Best, Murphy, Stockdale, Coetzee, Cooney amongst others not starting
If you add that my belief both O'Sullivan and Moore not starting we are definitely resting nearly all, if not all,
of the starting 15 for Racing

Not really a surprise, they'd have hoped to have got something in Galway but clearly this is write off results wise. I think its been a fairly disappointing interpro series where we've come out bottom of the pile again, albeit the fixture list wasn't kind with 2 on the road.

That said I think we are going in the right direction but are probably 2 seasons behind Connacht, who are playing sensational rugby under Friend. I don't think we are too far off Munster actually, they have a bit more depth in some positions and more big match experience when they have their big guns available.

Failure to pick up a bonus against either of these is disappointing but we never looked like doing it, can't see us getting anything at the weekend but here's hoping for a decent performance heading into Europe as we can't afford to ship a hiding here.

Ulster, Munster and Connacht are very close ability wise, the only plus Munster have is a ability to play the big games with more street wise ability.
Don't agree 2 seasons behind Connacht though

Look at the record this year - we have an identical record to Munster in all competitions and are a whisker better than Connacht in the Pro14

Leinster are miles ahead

geoff999rugby wrote:Ulster, Munster and Connacht are very close ability wise, the only plus Munster have is a ability to play the big games with more street wise ability.
Don't agree 2 seasons behind Connacht though

Look at the record this year - we have an identical record to Munster in all competitions and are a whisker better than Connacht in the Pro14

Leinster are miles ahead

Don't disagree much but I do think Connacht are closer to Leinster than us or Munster and further on in their development. They really should have won at the RDS and that is comfortable double over us this season. I fancy them to put Munster to the sword at the weekend.

geoff999rugby wrote:Been told Best, Murphy, Stockdale, Coetzee, Cooney amongst others not starting
If you add that my belief both O'Sullivan and Moore not starting we are definitely resting nearly all, if not all,
of the starting 15 for Racing

If social media is anything to go by, Murphy and Cooney went away on holiday this week so probably won't even be on the bench. Best and Stockdale on the bench maybe?

EOS, Moore, Treadwell and Coetzee could do with a week off though

That probably leaves us with

McCall, McBurney, Kane
AOC, Nagle
Jones, Timoney, Reidy
Shanahan, McPhillips
Addison, McCloskey, Cave, Kernohan
Ludik

Andrew/Best, Warwick, Herbst, Dalton, Ross, Stewart, Nelson, Hume/Stockdale

It's prob a good strategy to have. Go 100% into the racing and tigers games, and even if you lose this, you are still in playoff contention in the pro 14.

the-goon wrote:It's prob a good strategy to have. Go 100% into the racing and tigers games, and even if you lose this, you are still in playoff contention in the pro 14.

Problem is, after this weekend we are looking at slipping down the conference and potentially out of the HCC places. Every point is crucial now, if we get hammered by Leinster, miss out on Europe next season but make the European KO stages this is it worth it?

It's a gamble. At the start of the season I said concentrate on the league, but we are in with a very good chance of qualifying for a quarter final. That's decent money (though it might all get recycled back to the IRFU) and will make it more likely we can re-sign people like Coetzee, etc.

A quarterfinal really would be a huge boon for the team.

I think it's too good an opportunity to pass up.

Ulster must put their strongest team out at home to appease the fans and more importantly put in a performance against Racing. That is the biggest game of the season for many fans and the reason why they keep buying season tickets (Henderson has already been sacrificed).

However there is little point in doing likewise away to Leicester. Win or lose, if Ulster make the knock-out stages they will undoubtedly have an away fixture and zero chance of progress. Ulster should use the Tigers game to give experience to the players who are the future of the team for this season and beyond, so expect no Best, Coetzee, Cave or Ludik included in the squad.

I think Ulster need to put out their strongest sides against Racing and Leicester as they are both winnable games.

It's unfortunate that we didn't get 5-6 points in the league over the xmas period though as we are on a hiding to nothing this weekend.

It's not just this weekend that'll be a problem, we'll be facing Treviso the week after Leicester and we'll probably not have the Irish internationals available. They gave us a scare in November and it's a game Ulster need to win, everyone in the mix has still to play Dragons, Ulster are the only ones that have to go to play at Rodney Parade though and Scarlets and Edinburgh both face Kings too plus Treviso and Scarlets also face Zebre. The head to heads plus those lesser teams will be crucial.

I think we'll miss Speight as well, he might not have been the most dangerous attacking winger around but he offered plenty of physicality and got through a load of work.

If you take Stockdale and Addison out too that doesn't leave the most exciting looking back line.

Give up on the away game to Leinster is the only sensible option and no risk as all, the risk would be going down with a big team, still losing and then hanging ourselves out to dry in Europe.

Rest everyone now, win 1 European game and play best side against Treviso is the logical move.
We still have Treviso, Zebre and Kings at home. We will win 4, at least, of the 5 games after Leinster, in the Pro14.
The likes of Ospreys and Zebre will be decimated during the 6Nations - we wont

Also lets stop making the other teams out as supermen.
Edinburgh have won one away game all season.
Scarlets have lost 5 games on the bounce and have not won a single away game. They are a shadow of last year
Trevisio have Dragons at home and Zebre away - other than that a very difficult run in - 4 wins for the rest of the season tops, more likely 2 or 3

We are not world beaters but neither are they.
We will be in the top three - absolutely certain.
At worst we will be 2 points off second place this coming weekend

As for Connacht nearer Leinster than Ulster of Munster - sorry that is total garbage
They are a well run outfit who can worry the best on a good day but better than Munster and Ulster highly dubious
They lack really top class players like Henderson, Coetzee, Stockdale, Best or Earls, POM, Murray

Grow some backbone in the ranks there lads  

geoff999rugby wrote:
Also lets stop making the other teams out as supermen.
Edinburgh have won one away game all season.

Ulster have won two and Edinburgh still has to go and play in Treviso which is one of Ulsters two

geoff999rugby wrote:Scarlets have lost 5 games on the bounce and have not won a single away game. They are a shadow of last year

I was thinking Scarlets would come good but then heard their injuries are getting worse, Halfpenny and Thomson both still suffering concussion symptoms and I hate to say it but it's not looking great for Halfpenny.

Aaron Shingler was originally expected back this month but wont be for another few months now and Davies Jr out

geoff999rugby wrote: Trevisio have Dragons at home and Zebre away - other than that a very difficult run in - 4 wins for the rest of the season tops, more likely 2 or 3

The way some games have went recently, would you bet against some surprises before the seasons out? We can't count on results elsewhere

So you agree the other teams are not supermen.

The holiday period always throws up weird results
Treviso are still not as good as the rest and Scarlets are in crisis

I never said they were though geoff, we have an edge on some of the teams but we've seen how thin our stocks are at lock and LH currently. A few injuries in the wrong positions and we could be in the same position as Scarlets.

The European games will take a toll and we'll probably lose a few players along the way there, a HEC QF will put greater pressures on the squad too. While there seems to be a better attitude around it Connacht showed there is still a drop off in performance at time and expecting to win

The holiday results over the last few years have been pretty much as expected as well

After Treviso we have 3 weeks off.
We lose less far less players than Zebre and Ospreys who are our main opponents over that period.
After Leicester, who have nothing to play for, we will not even think about a QF match.

Players do get injured but they also recover - Warwick, Herbst and AOC all now available.
We actually have better cover now than for many a year.
With the exception of Lock we are ok with one or two injuries in a particular position, not great but ok

I am confident we will be in the senior European competition next year

I see Payne has basically confirmed we are sending the kids to the RDS

geoff999rugby wrote:
As for Connacht nearer Leinster than Ulster of Munster - sorry that is total garbage
They are a well run outfit who can worry the best on a good day but better than Munster and Ulster highly dubious
They lack really top class players like Henderson, Coetzee, Stockdale, Best or Earls, POM, Murray

Come tomorrow evening I expect Connacht to be on 41 league points and Munster and Ulster on 36 and 33 respectively. That is not the only measurable but I think a fair reflection of where the sides currently are. For and against points difference is pretty telling.

In fairness Connacht don't have as much impact with player welfare but their squad on paper stands up pretty well in terms of quality and depth wise is definitely ahead of ours right now, so I don't think it is nonsense at all.

Ulster team to play Leinster, Guinness PRO14, Saturday 5th January, RDS Arena (5.15pm):
(15-9): M Lowry; R Lyttle, D Cave, J Hume, A Kernohan; J McPhillips, D Shanahan;
(1-8): K McCall, A McBurney, W Herbst, M Dalton, A O’Connor (captain), G Jones, S Reidy, N Timoney;
Replacements (16-23): J Andrew, A Warwick, T O’Toole, C Montgomery, C Ross, J Stewart, B Houston, P Nelson

A lot less experienced than I expected

Leinster Rugby (caps in brackets):

15. Rob Kearney (203) CAPTAIN
14. Adam Byrne (45)
13. Conor O’Brien (9)
12. Noel Reid (110)
11. Barry Daly (28)
10. Ciarán Frawley (8)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (62)
1. Jack McGrath (137)
2. Seán Cronin (163)
3. Andrew Porter (42)
4. Ross Molony (75)
5. Mick Kearney (43)
6. Josh Murphy (14)
7. Scott Penny (2)
8. Max Deegan (31)

16. James Tracy (80)
17. Ed Byrne (33)
18. Michael Bent (114)
19. Oisín Dowling (0)
20. Caelan Doris (7)
21. Hugh O’Sullivan (5)
22. Ross Byrne (60)
23. Jimmy O’Brien (2)

Any more info on the Huston lad?
And we may be lacking a bit of experience but we have a decent amount of pace.
I think we can give them a scare.

And where is Curtis?

Houston covers 10 and 15, saw him play in the Celtic Cup at 10 and he looked awkward there but then again the whole team really looked out of their depth

Was wondering about Curtis myself the other day, hasn't played since the Leicester game and picked up a concussion there. Hopefully not still an issue for him

For a little fella Curtis really hits above his size. Think it was his second appearance he absolutely threw himself into about 3 rucks on the bounce, smashing Into back and second rows and making an impact.
His tackling is very aggressive to,

rodders wrote:

geoff999rugby wrote:
As for Connacht nearer Leinster than Ulster of Munster - sorry that is total garbage
They are a well run outfit who can worry the best on a good day but better than Munster and Ulster highly dubious
They lack really top class players like Henderson, Coetzee, Stockdale, Best or Earls, POM, Murray

Come tomorrow evening I expect Connacht to be on 41 league points and Munster and Ulster on 36 and 33 respectively. That is not the only measurable but I think a fair reflection of where the sides currently are. For and against points difference is pretty telling.

In fairness Connacht don't have as much impact with player welfare but their squad on paper stands up pretty well in terms of quality and depth wise is definitely ahead of ours right now, so I don't think it is nonsense at all.    

Re points that's speculation and even if it comes to pass is nowhere near enough evidence.
So far Munster have won 8 games, Ulster 7, Connacht 7

This year Munster lost 10 players in the autumn Internationals, Ulster lost 8, Connacht lost 4
Both Munster and Ulster have played 4 Championship games at a level of intensity Connacht have not in the Challenge Cup
In both cases I would expect Munster and Ulster to take a negative hit in the Pro14 in a way Connacht do not
You simply are not comparing like with like.

Don't get me wrong Connacht have improved and are contenders but nowhere near enough evidence to suggest they have gone past the other two provinces.
Here is a scenario for you - a game against any English team in a major European final.
Who would back to win - Munster or Connacht ?

Connacht are currently comfortably better than Ulster, but only one of those teams is rebuilding from the ground up.

I think the biggest difference with Connacht now is they have a good squad.

I would still rank them
1) Leinster - way out in front in first team and squad
2) Munster - better first team than Ulster just and much better squad
3) Ulster - full first team are a match for Munster. Their squad is probably worse than Connacht' s but has much more potential with so many young players coming through.
4) Connacht - first team a little worse than Ulster but squad is better (street wise).  Having Marmion and Blade as scrumhalfs helps were as Conney is a bit ahead of the back up.

On the plus side each of these teams could make the playoffs with Ulster hosting Connacht in the quarters and Leinster hosting Munster in the semis.  As the WC gets closer the Welsh and Scots might be rapped in cotton wool while the 4 provinces fight it out in mortal combat to impress Joe and take the Pro14.

Don Alfonso wrote:Connacht are currently comfortably better than Ulster, but only one of those teams is rebuilding from the ground up.

I’ll agree with you but I’m far from convinced by it. Take the game over Christmas. Had it been at ravenhill I think Ulster would have won and indeed they won the last 30 despite having a massively callow team. I came away from that game thinking one side has made giant strides since the October game and it wasn’t Connacht. Still I hope next season this isn’t even a question as McFarland gets backed in the market and the youngsters continue to improve.

As I was saying about the way results have been going

That's twice in 6 minutes Cronin has walked through Lowry as last man.

You get the feeling it may well be a long night for Ulster tonight.

Agree Redman Lowry is simply too small.

Boy's taken a big hit there. Not the Leinster 11's fault, he's entitled to jump for it. Nasty, nasty collision though.

Nice try from McBurney and then we just fall asleep for the restart. It's the sort of try Stockdale has scored against some teams. Great running but defence is all at sea.

Ulster will lose this massive - maybe worse than at Thomond, but this experience is priceless for some of them. Once Leinster realise that Ao'C is the only lineout option the wheels will be completely off.

The Great Aukster wrote:Ulster will lose this massive - maybe worse than at Thomond, but this experience is priceless for some of them. Once Leinster realise that Ao'C is the only lineout option the wheels will be completely off.

And to that point we had a decent enough throw to 6 and just missed it completely.

Wonder how the crowd view Leinster 2nds hammering the Leinster rejects? There seems to be zero atmosphere at the ground.

Leinster doing what they need to do, but hardly got out of second gear.

It was a cold night, but there was no danger of any sweat being broken in a blue shirt. O' Brien wasn't even out of breath immediately after the game.

From an Ulster perspective thought Hume was very good and the only player in white to make a combined team of the match.

I expect to see some of these players get another outing at Welford Road as the experienced guys should be kept for the far more important Treviso game the week after.

It’s all very well us in the know understanding the small squad, the IRFU restrictions, the need for testing key player, balancing the priorities of one competition against another, but what about growing the sport and fan base. Or even simply maintaining the more casual supporter/fairweather fan.

Surely spending money on better squad depth is essential in terms of making most games at least watchable. Many a casual supporter might give a an Edinburgh or Dragons game a miss, but Leinster is more likely to attract the eye of less hardcore supporters.

We are not going to inspire many supporters who may have casually decided to browse that game tonight.

In this day and age of the club being a lot about marketing and business, how can they ignore that this was a horrible excuse for entertainment, and a side selected that was never going to come close to sneaking a win. This was not good for Ulster Rugby in more ways than simply getting zero points on the table.

Am I wrong to expect my club to be able to put out a team that can potentially compete in an inter pro even though key players are rested.

We were not outclassed tonight, but rather we just were a million miles away from the adequte standard.

We should have made more signings in the summer, we shouldn’t have got rid of some players, and we should have got another medical joker IMO. We should also have kept one or two key players in among these young lads. And Cave no longer counts - I hope he isn’t still on big money.

clivemcl wrote:It’s all very well us in the know understanding the small squad, the IRFU restrictions, the need for testing key player, balancing the priorities of one competition against another, but what about growing the sport and fan base. Or even simply maintaining the more casual supporter/fairweather fan.

Surely spending money on better squad depth is essential in terms of making most games at least watchable. Many a casual supporter might give a an Edinburgh or Dragons game a miss, but Leinster is more likely to attract the eye of less hardcore supporters.

We are not going to inspire many supporters who may have casually decided to browse that game tonight.

In this day and age of the club being a lot about marketing and business, how can they ignore that this was a horrible excuse for entertainment, and a side selected that was never going to come close to sneaking a win. This was not good for Ulster Rugby in more ways than simply getting zero points on the table.

Am I wrong to expect my club to be able to put out a team that can potentially compete in an inter pro even though key players are rested.

We were not outclassed tonight, but rather we just were a million miles away from the adequte standard.

We should have made more signings in the summer, we shouldn’t have got rid of some players, and we should have got another medical joker IMO. We should also have kept one or two key players in among these young lads. And Cave no longer counts - I hope he isn’t still on big money.

I disagree with most of this. Ok so this game would not have been appealing to the causal fan, but the way we have rotated the team gives more chance of making the knock outs in Europe and PRO 14 which is definitely more appealing to a neutral fan.

Who should we have signed in the summer, there are not that many IQ players available. We had the 4 NIQ players we were allowed at the start of the season, next season is a better time to sign them as well rather than this season.
Maybe there are one or two players let go we should have kept, but my understanding is they were on more than they were worth and its better to make a clean start.
I hope that the reason we didnt keep one or two of them or get in a medical joker is because we are sacing the money not being spent on them to afford better NIQs next year.

clivemcl wrote:It’s all very well us in the know understanding the small squad, the IRFU restrictions, the need for testing key player, balancing the priorities of one competition against another, but what about growing the sport and fan base. Or even simply maintaining the more casual supporter/fairweather fan.

What is a 'fairweather fan' - someone who jumps on the bandwagon of success but has no loyalty to the team. Should Ulster Rugby be formulating their strategy around such fickleness?

Ulster won the European Cup with almost exclusively homegrown players and there were 49,000 fans at the final - less than a year later Ulster lost to Bourgoin in front of a 6000 strong Ravenhill crowd to finish winless at the bottom of their pool. The difference? Ulster 'strengthened' the team by signing Paddy Johns, Eric Millar, Dion O’Cuinneagain, Riaz Fredericks and Joeli Veitayaki. All arguably better players than their predecessors (including Joeli at least on paper) but they were outsiders and the team unity had gone.

Ulster have a decent first team but those players cannot play every game. They need proficient understudies and that depth has to be developed because it has been neglected for years. In the short term Ulster have to attract players other provinces don't want, but the goal has to be to produce their own. Even against Leinster 2nds the young players will have learned a lot.

It was summed up by Caleb Montgomery conceding a naive penalty, drawn by Conor O'Brien. COB has 4 senior caps despite being in the Leinster Academy and plays for Clontarf at the top of the AIL. Claleb Montgomery is a year older and in the Ulster senior squad despite having no appearances before last night. He plays for Banbridge who are in the lower half of AIL 1B. Ulster need to saturate (no more than) two teams with all their academy/development players to get at least one into AIL 1A. Otherwise the step up is too great.

The Great Aukster wrote: Ulster need to saturate (no more than) two teams with all their academy/development players to get at least one into AIL 1A. Otherwise the step up is too great.

Thats short termism at it's finest, that means Ulster are over reliant on two teams and the ups and downs they have. You do that you damage the rest of the teams in Ulster and weaken the Ulster Senior League which in turn has a knock on effect on the two teams you have saturated because they aren't competing against good enough teams in Ulster and are out of their depth when they play in the AIL, just like Celtic in Scottish Football

Anyone know how many play the game in the different provinces? From the outside looking in, it seems as if Leinster have more playing the game at different levels meaning they have greater competition, a big pool to pick from and develop from and this improves quality. Ulster need to grow the game.

The new CEO indicated he would be having a meet the fans event sometime in the new year, it would be interesting to hear his thoughts on it all

No time to respond to all these, but I would argue than more casual fans (as in players who enjoy it socially) would be tempted to watch a Leinster/Munster derby than a Europe QF. I could be wrong. But I think glotyhunter fans definitely don’t overcome their doubt until there’s a semi final or a final.

I just se UR churn out a super happy YouTube interview with Houston on his debut.

Fair play, it’s right for him and his family to be proud if this achievement, but not once did he say ‘it’s a pity it couldn’t have been better’ for example.

It just stank of ‘sure there was no pressure, no expectation, this was just about me reaching a milestone in my young career’.

Surely when you have people paying tv subscriptions or paying ticket prices, they can’t be expected to simply be happy with watching young lads get a wee run out. There has to at least be a chance of success on every game where UR accept hard earned money in return.

Yes it is short term - but only until more players start coming into the system. There are too few players of the required standard to spread them over lower divisions. They aren't getting the exposure or the intensity to ready them for the next level.