Ospreys vs Ulster- Teams Announced

First topic message reminder :

Scott Johnson has named his Ospreys side to face Ulster and it's a landmark for Ospreys utility forward Jonathon Thomas; he's winning his 150th cap

Ospreys

15 Barry Davies
14 Richard Fussell
13 Tom Isaacs
12 Andrew Bishop
11 Hanno Dirksen
10 Dan Biggar
9 Rhys Webb
1 Duncan Jones
2 Scott Baldwin
3 Aaron Jarvis
4 Ian Gough
5 James Goode
6 Tom Smith
7 Justin Tipuric (Capt)
8 Jonathan Thomas

Replacements:

16 Richard Hibbard
17 Cai Griffiths
18 Joe Rees
19 James King
20 Joe Bearman
21 Matthew Morgan
22 Sonny Parker
23 Kristian Phillips

One change in the Ulster team- Luke Marshall comes in for the injured Darren Cave in the centre and Nevin Spence switches from 12 to 13. Willie Faloon replaces McComish on the bench and Academy scrumhalf Blane McIlroy comes in for Ian Porter who has a rib injury.

Ulster

15 Jared Payne
14 Craig Gilroy
13 Nevin Spence
12 Luke Marshall
11 Ian Whitten
10 Ian Humphreys
9 Paul Marshall
1 Declan Fitzpatrick
2 Andi Kyriacou
3 Jerry Cronin
4 Lewis Stevenson
5 Dan Tuohy
6 Pedrie Wannenburg
7 Chris Henry (Capt)
8 Robbie Diack

Replacements

16 Nigel Brady
17 Paddy McAllister
18 Adam Macklin
19 Tim Barker
20 Willie Faloon
21 Blane McIlroy
22 Paddy Jackson
23 Adam D'Arcy

Unavailable due to injury:Callum Black (neck), Darren Cave (hamstring), Ian Porter (ribs)

The game will take place at the Liberty Stadium at 4.30pm on Sunday; the game will be televised on S4C and will be available to stream live on the BBC Sport website for fans located in the UK.

We really need to up our level here. Ospreys certainly looking the better side.

Ffs Ulster, don't make a bad situation worse by mouthing off.

Wannenburg having a nightmare so far. Henry needs to get a grip and we need Faloon on

Ano penalty from Wannenburg. Cop on big man!

The penalty count in this game must be sky-high. Not exactly how we want it to go with a slightly dodgy kicker.

Ospreys go ahead and they are good value for their lead.

Ah ffs, Kyriacou!

We left our discipline in the changing rooms. Need to tighten up.

Ulster should have a man in the bin with all these penalties. without doing an awful lot the Ospreys are by far the better team. Ulster are dreadful with the exception of the try and 1 marshall break

We are getting pinged out of this game.

Seriously need to improve. With a guy like Dan Biggar on the pitch it will lose us this game for sure.

Aw!! Knock-on there. Shame. Much more promising from Ulster.

That's better from Ulster. We look good once we can get our game going but there is simply too many penalties and errors to do that. Our backrow has been almost anonymous. A bit disappointed.

I would be inclined to bring on Faloon and McAllister for Cronin and Wannenburg

Yeah, agree with that.

Well what an inetesting 1st half. Ulster by far look the better team with ball in hand. Young Jackson is brilliant, really like the look of him for the future.
Ospreys look good in the set piece, sorry guys but the Ulster front row are coming up because of pressure, Duncan is driving straight. But we dont seem to be able to string two passes together in open play.
The ref I thin is pretty poor for both sides, clearly has a new whistle and hasn't go over blowing it yet!!!!
Let see what the second half brings

Ball in hand means pretty much nothing if you can't get the platform my friend. I agree when we go through a few phases we look sharp but we need to sort our scrum and cut out the stupid penalties. The ref is very strict in his interpretations but it's up to us to adapt. Biggar is a good kicker and he'll punish, he is punishing us. I think we'll regret those missed kicks at the start if we don't improve.

Cant agree TB. Jones was certainly not driving straight when he was pinged. The recent scrums havent been penalised on that side so i havent seen it replayed.

Ref is quite poor but Ulster particularly are giving him excuses to blow.

THe only way i can see Ulster winning this is through 5/7 pointers. Biggar could easily kick us out of this game the way it is going

Agreed with what you say there Notch. Has Jackson come up through your academy?

Yep, local lad. He's a really exciting talent. Just 20 years old.

I would prefer to see him with someone like Pienaar or Wallace who can kick the goals though because he still hasn't really got the kicking percentage up. Can hardly criticise him for it at his age but our hand is forced.

Well, have to say the Ospreys let us off the hook there.

Get Faloon on! The ref is killing us at the breakdown!

Jeez that is harsh. What else could Diack have done

Can hardly complain about that decision! Everything is coming up Ospreys. We need to impose ourselves, we're clearly second best.

I think it was a harsh call Notch but once given it had to be yellow. We really are lacking mobility in our backrow

In saying that it was deserved for the way the O's have started the half

Jared Payne has a limp - worried.

I think it was a team yellow Stand. I mean, we have given away a LOT of penalties. That was a technical penalty but it's a cumulative effect.

No complaints about the yellow notch. Had to be given. Not sure it was a penalty was all

Fair enough. Those ones were a player is trapped on the wrong side of the ruck are very difficult. Can't get up but at the same time preventing the ball being played.

Payne off

wtf???

Hoping its just a hamstring or something.

Did anybody else feed just go to QPR v Villa?

What a mess with those scrums

Is the ref seeing the same scrums? The O's TH popped up first and he ping Ulster. Ulster get a good drive and he pings Ulster. Really poor but the O's deserve a try for their pressure anyway. McLaughlin has made the changes far too late imo

Quite right though for the penalty try scrum

Can't deny that was deserved as well. Ospreys much the better side; I'm really disappointed with us today. Our pack have really not played as well as they can; forget about missing internationals, we're not living up to the standards the exact same forwards set last week. That's very disappointing for me.

How was he off his feet there when the ref told him. He was clearly on his feet! Really poor but Ulster need to focus on hitting the tackle hard and letting the ball go on the ground

Ospreys have been excellently controlled here. THey really stepped up the intensity in the 2nd half. Fully deserved

Standulstermen wrote:Ospreys have been excellently controlled here. THey really stepped up the intensity in the 2nd half. Fully deserved

Yeah, it's hard to argue with the scoreline. We don't deserve to take anything from this game really. We've offered very, very little. Hurts to see us play so badly to be honest.

I imagine this is what the Aironi game was like only against better opposition. Fair play to the Ospreys. Really disappointed in the pack today.
To a man they all must do better.

Very poor performance for Ulster - a backrow of Wannenburg, Henry and Diack is surely not an option, its all physicality and no nous, Faloon probably should of started this match.

No Dodger, today it's no physicality really. They've all been well short of what they can do.

Come on Ulster! Consolation try please.

I dont think it was no physicality, I think it was 3 big lumps in the backrow and no mobility, none of our backs row getting to breakdowns anywhere near quick enough.

Is it just me or does the commentator have no idea who any of the Ospreys are?

Duncan Jones is MOTM.

Ironmike - which commentary do you have? I'm listening in Welsh, and he's OK.

FT 32 - 14.

Well done O's and commiserations Ulster.

Yeah, well deserved for Duncan Jones really. Pretty grim and disappointing match from Ulster really. Not many positives to take from an Ulster point of view; I suppose you can see the potential in Paddy Jackson but it was a collective off-day up front.

Congratulations to the Ospreys in any event, most of the time when you dominate the scrum and breakdown you will win the game and thats exactly what they did.

Finally a region that knows how to close out a game!

Wooops Duncan Jones just called you Leinster in his post match interview.

Well done Ospreys. Based on that performance you will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.

Too many errors from Ulster and far far too many penalties. Any other ref would have gone for the pocket a lot sooner. That said the youngsters did show glimpses of what we can expect. Payne was largely anonymous and no surprise he was subbed. Front row were mullered at times but they were up against very accomplished opponents.

I didn't expect to win this but thought we might be good enough to get a LBP.

Another big away game next week. A big improvement required.

Cari wrote:Wooops Duncan Jones just called you Leinster in his post match interview.

We really need an 'angry mob' emoticon

Cari wrote:Wooops Duncan Jones just called you Leinster in his post match interview.

Jeebus Cari, were we THAT bad?

Considering he's on the front row, I'll blame that he's had too many knocks to the head...

The commentator was ridiculous (on the web feed)...

- Kept calling the Ospreys the Dragons all the way through the 2nd half.
- When Phillips came on for Webb assumed it was a straight half-back switch and kept referring to him as the scrum-half, even when the camera was focused on Isaccs.
- Said a few times that Fussell had been signed from the Scarlets (I think)

To his credit though, while he did phrase everything from an Ulster perspective he was surprisingly fair and balanced.

Rick O'shea was doing english commentary. Stay with the welsh, even if you dont speak it lol
Well to Duncan and the O's. Very scrappy but a good result all the same. And I thought Ulster did keep going to the end, I think another young side with a promising future. Looking forward to Ravenhill match. I'm trying to be working in Belfast that week so I can go to the game