Aironi vs Ulster Discussion

First topic message reminder :

Ulster will be trying to follow up their win over Glasgow with an away win in Italy next Saturday. Brian McLaughlin has announced his 23 man matchday squad. Andi Kyriacou is available; his wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy in the week, a future Ulster forward no doubt. The only change in the starting XV from last week is Tim Barker coming in to the second row, where he partners Dan Tuohy. Lewis Stevenson is on the bench where he is joined by Declan Fitzpatrick who has recovered from a concussion sustained in pre-season. Callum Black remains unavailable with a neck injury but there is a return for Luke Marshall, who comes onto the bench at the expense of Peter Nelson.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,19077_7160294,00.html

Ulster:

15 A D'Arcy
14 C Gilroy
13 D Cave
12 N Spence
11 I Whitten

10 I Humphreys
9 P Marshall

1 P McAllister
2 A Kyriacou
3 J Cronin
4 T Barker
5 D Tuohy
6 P Wannenburg
7 W Faloon
8 C Henry

Replacements (16-23): N Brady, D Fitzpatrick, A Macklin, L Stevenson, R Diack, I Porter, P Jackson, L Marshall

Unavailable due to injury: Callum Black (neck)

Aironi:

15 Ruggero Trevisan
14 Riccardo Pavan
13 Roberto Quartaroli
12 Gabriel Pizarro
11 Giovanbattista Venditti

10 Naas Olivier
9 Tito Tebaldi

8 Nick Williams
7 Nicola Cattina
6 Josh Sole
5 George Biagi
4 Joshua Furno
3 Fabio Staibano
2 Roberto Santamaria (cap)
1 Matias Aguero

Replacements:16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Alberto De Marchi, 18 Luca Redolfini, 19 Simone Favaro, 20 Frans Viljoen, 21 Giorgio Bronzini, 22 Alberto Benettin, 23 Gilberto Pavan.

Also traveling with the squad this week will be Jared Payne! The New Zealander arrived in Northern Ireland this week. He won't be considered for selection until next weekend, this is just a chance for him to get to know his new teammates and coaches and settle into the Ulster set-up. Unfortunately, it will have to be the radio for this one! If only there was some other televised rugby event this weekend.

Penalty just in our own half.

Yes!!

16 v 25

Humphreys kicks another one!

Aironi 16-25 Ulster

I can see why Aironi don't win many games. We were totally on the ropes for a massive part of this game, absolutely awful, and they got 3 points in that period.

Jackson on for iHumph now.

Seriously, penalty count is abysmal from Ulster. Just can't give teams so many opportunities.

Aironi 19-25 Ulster

Yellow for Cronnin for Off Side while we were on the warning.

Penalty scored.

19 v 25

Come on !!!!

DON'T FORCE OFFLOADS!!!!! JESUS!!!

Sorry Jackson didn't come on.

Another penalty against us.

Now Jackson HAS come on afterall!

How's Marshall getting on? There can't be long left now, can't even get radio coverage here...

Seriously, turnover in their 22, attacking opportunity- just hold onto the ball if it's not on! Recycle! Pressurise!

We try and go for the big play everytime!

And Marshall puts it out on the full!

We are doing everything we can to lose this game.

Macklin on.

Whose cousin is he again?

Small Parcel kicks out on the full again!

Marshall out on the full again. We need to make an example of guys after a performance like this. We go on about depth but if we dont use it then it is wasted. Kyriacou (harsh given his personal circumstances) and small parcel need the drop

Luke Marshall knocks on and time up. Bloody hell. 8 points from a possible 10 will do i suppose

Full time.

Sounds to me like the conditions were pretty harsh.

Seriously, we've absolutely butchered a bonus point win here. We've got in the 22 so many times and been penalised/knocked on/thrown a stupid offload. We've been our own worst enemies.

Everything we could have given Aironi, we gave them.

I think we should all pay for a big banner with 'PATIENCE' written across it for the dressing room at Ravenhill

Yes, we're trying to play Barbarians rugby when we need to recycle the ball. Again I feel totally deflated at the end of the game, just like last week. Those bonus points are so, so crucial.

Sounds as though we got away with one there. Lucky the game finished when it did otherwise you might have burst a blood vessel notch!

One bonus is that report would indicate that it was very humid conditions there and for a lot of the young guys first experience of those conditions at this level.

Im stretching but beyond that and 4 points there seems little to take from it.

Don't say "bonus" Stand.

It hurts too much!

Yeah, a poor performance and we were the architects of most of the problems we had. It's out of the way- but it's a point dropped in terms of the visits we made to the 22 and opportunities we butchered. On top of that, via our appalling penalty count, rickety lineout and- you must give credit to Aironi- under pressure scrum we could easily have handed the game to them on a silver platter. I'm not taking anything away from Aironi here but they weren't the ones who didn't know the lineout calls, put balls out on the full, gave away penalty after penalty and tried to force the game. Those were our errors and our good fortune is they couldn't capitalise on them enough.

So, another win in a 100% MUST WIN game. Good. Everything else needs work. How many Get Out Of Jail Free Cards do we have up our sleeves this season?

Last season we used a lot of those Notch.

I suppose the real "Get Ulster out of jail free" merchant is in NZ at the moment and we still won, so...

The way i see it we need to start actually using the 'depth' we talk about. i thought McGlocks was slow to bring of Kyriacou but i dont think i had the clock right.

Anyway, for next week.

Big call but i would be tempted to throw Payne in (it wont happen) to give some people a kick up the ass. From the sound of it his calming influence is sorely needed.

Luke Marshall at 12. Despite my bigging up Luke, IHumph seems to be struggling without Pienaar and i think giving Nevin a wee rest on the bench wont kill him. Luke provides a kicking outlet that we need

I would give Porter a chance at 9 seeing as Paul intersprese moments of absolute genius with a fundamental lack of knowledge of pitch dimensions.

Brady for Kyriacou. Sounds like he was woeful today and a bench spot must be enough for a guy who has more important things going on atm.

Stevenson in for Barker. Purely based on our lineout malfunctioning i think Stevenson is a better option here (based on my limited observations).

Not sure who was at fault in the scrums. Paddy Mac according to Gusher. Deccie Fitz is looming in the wings.

Thats my complete overreaction and im sticking to it!

Assuming Payne is fit I reckon we might see him in the 23 next week. Cardiff at home are a different animal to our first two matches. Mind you didn't we take 10 off them last season. Out for revenge?

To put it in context though, how many teams got a TBP at Stadio Zaffanella in the league last season?

Second scrappy victory in a row.

Frustrating, but it’s easy to get over-excited at the start of a new season before a ball has even been kicked. Two things worth bearing in mind – we should expect to be finding our feet in the first couple of weeks, and, also, Aironi simply aren’t as poor as many imagine or misremember. They didn’t have many wins last season, but not many try bonus points were earned against them.

We have dropped two potential points. Understandably, we’re exasperated. But I would rather that, and get the kinks ironed out now and decide what parts of our game need addressed. That’s better than dropping four potential points in one game against tougher competition, by losing rather than winning.

Onwards and upwards.

I wouldn't drop McAllister. Callum Black is injured, Tom Court is in NZ and Declan Fitzpatrick is much more comfortable at tighthead.

McAllister played well in the first game and was up against a very tough operator in Staibano. He stays for me.

Sounds like (yellow card apart) Cronin did well for the second week in a row. Late nights seem to have been playing havoc with Andy K.