Ulster v Leicester HC Pool 4. Friday 13th Jan ko 8.00pm

First topic message reminder :

The provisional Ulster squad to face Leicester Tigers in Friday's crucial Heineken Cup match with Leicester at Ravenhill has been named...

Pedrie Wannenburg (foot) and Ian Humphreys (hamstring) were forced off the field in the win over Edinburgh at the weekend but have both been named in the 33 man panel and are in contention to play in the Pool 4 clash. Young backline trio Luke Marshall, Paddy Jackson and Nevin Spence (all ankle) have returned to training this week and are available for selection if required. Mike McComish is also available after shaking off a shoulder injury.
Meanwhile prop Declan Fitzpatrick’s neck injury was reviewed last week and he is likely to be out of action for 4-6 weeks. Paddy McAllister and Peter Nelson also miss out.

Leicester have been hit by injuries to England internationals Toby Flood, Manu Tuilagi and Louis Deacon who are all ruled out, although Flood’s replacement at flyhalf - Billy Twelvetrees - scored all of his side’s points in the 29-11 win over Wasps on Saturday.

Leicester have a formidable record in the Heineken Cup and have qualified for the knock-out stages ten times. They have contested five finals, winning back-to-back titles in 2001 and 2002, but losing the showpiece matches in 1997, 2007 and 2009.

Ulster are currently top of Pool 4 on 14 points, with the Tigers trailing by two going into this crunch match. Defeat for either side would almost certainly end their dreams of reaching the last eight this season. Clermont Auvergne are just one point behind Leicester in the pool standings and will travel to Aironi this weekend before hosting Ulster the following week.

Ulster Team to play Leicester, Fri 13th January, Ravenhill (kick-off 8.00pm):

ULSTER (15-9) S Terblanche; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, C Gilroy; I Humphreys, R Pienaar (1-8) T Court, R Best, J Afoa, J Muller (Captain), D Tuohy, S Ferris, C Henry, P Wannenburg

Replacements (16-23): N Brady, C Black, A Macklin, L Stevenson, W Faloon, P Marshall, I Whitten, A D'Arcy

Leicester Tigers (v Ulster Rugby, Ravenhill, Friday 8pm)
15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Horacio Agulla
13 Matt Smith
12 Anthony Allen
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Billy Twelvetrees
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Rob Hawkins
3 Martin Castrogiovanni
4 Steve Mafi
5 Geoff Parling
6 Tom Croft
7 Julian Salvi
8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements
16 George Chuter
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Dan Cole
19 Ed Slater
20 Ben Woods
21 Sam Harrison
22 Jeremy Staunton
23 Scott Hamilton

Cheers Thomond, buzzing for this game, SUFTUM!

Good try. Excellent conversion.

Just tuned in who got the try?

Trimble

Cheers. Will 19 point be enough to qualify for the quarters?

Poor from Trimble there.

Maybe. I'd expect Quins to finish on 20 points at least, so it depends on how Cardiff and Edinburgh go. I've got Sarries to beat Biarritz though, so I can't see them getting to 19 points.

Gift wrapped stroll in for Murphy.
Entertaining game so far.

COME ON ULSTER!!!

Tigers' kick-chase and defensive line just isn't as good as Ulster's. Breakdown isn't convincing either.

niwatts wrote:Tigers' kick-chase and defensive line just isn't as good as Ulster's. Breakdown isn't convincing either.

Ulster not so much as getting away with murder at the breakdown as getting away with Genocide

Knackeredknees wrote:

niwatts wrote:Tigers' kick-chase and defensive line just isn't as good as Ulster's. Breakdown isn't convincing either.

Ulster not so much as getting away with murder at the breakdown as getting away with Genocide

As the tigers are, both teams are as bad as each other.

F***ing brilliant by trimble.

Also excellent by Pienarr with the pass even if not quite with the kick.

that could be it for the tigers

Poor old Leicester look out of their depth here.

Sums up English rugby at the mo.

trebellbobaggins wrote:Poor old Leicester look out of their depth here.

Sums up English rugby at the mo.

utter crap!!!

Leicester owned the ball but they have done feck all with it besides that lovely try. Fantastic pass from Youngs it was a bit of an all or nothing moment

Trimble makes amends for his earlier defensive error with another brilliant finish.
Excellent half of rugby and the crowd look happy playing their part.
Are you watching this Mr Holland?

doesn't. bit of a mess all round.

I only hope the new set-up can turn some of our youth success into something better at the top.

Ten years of dominance from Ireland.. we can't be happy with that surely given the relative sizes of these countries!

Ulster front row starting to get the better of Tigers in the scrum in my opinion.

Leicester are still in this another score will kill it off. Ulster defending well and are looking threatening in attack

Not enough grunt up front and no tactical kicking edge from tigers. Ulster are getting lucky though. The collapse before going round 90 is reset then they score the 2nd. Nasty high tackle on Allen when he's in but no yc for ferris. Tigers players convinced of forward pass for first try (though I couldn't see it).

Tigers' chase on their kicks is terrible!

Shocker from Twelvetrees.

This 12trees lad is just as awful as he was for eng a here last year.

Not good enough is he.

Twelvetrees needs to get the next thing he tries right or his night is going to descend into the nightmare that is threatening to happen at the moment.

Twelve trees is having a 'mare Tigers missing Flood.

Looks like Lancaster et al made the correct call re 12 3s.

trebellbobaggins wrote:This 12trees lad is just as awful as he was for eng a here last year.

Not good enough is he.

He has had a lot of good games and has potential but he is a 12 and would be much better if he was played there.

Tuilagi is lucky there.

That's fair enough. Did eng play him in the wrong position too? he had a shocker then too.

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:Twelve trees is having a 'mare Tigers missing Flood.

Looks like Lancaster et al made the correct call re 12 3s.

It was always a huge call to select him at FH for this match, he can cover there, and will do OK in average league matches, but in a big HC game he should only be played in his natural position of centre.

how much laying on the wrong side of the rucks are ulster doing!!!!

trebellbobaggins wrote:That's fair enough. Did eng play him in the wrong position too? he had a shocker then too.

I'm not really sure, I'm not an England or Tigers fans but anytime I've seen him play at 12 he's looked good whereas at 10 he plays well more often than not but makes some mistakes which you wouldn't expect any ten to make. I don't know why england play him at 1o tbh and I don't know why tigers won't give him at shot at 12.

Well done Pienaar

Twelvetrees is certainly a centre, and plays like one. He isn't a top 10.

Ulster have been good, but Leicester have been equally poor.

2 huge kicks from Pienaar there.

Ben Youngs that wee tantrum made my night hahahahha

Backrower678 wrote:Ben Youngs that wee tantrum made my night hahahahha

once again, an ulster player laying on the wrong side........

A funny game.... the cheek

Tuohy has been immense today, hopefully he is in the six nations 22 at least.

Youngs losing his head yet again.

Can't believe a team like Tigers haven't got a decent back up 10!

if you go to ireland you have to be better, a lot better because you clearly won't get any help.

he'll be cited for that!

Men against boys tonight.

Eng need to rethink it all. Clearly the prem isn't good enough to make teams ready for this level.


and to think we once said that about the superior celts. how things change.

I'm surprised Allen has stayed on, he's very much looked like a player coming back from injury today. I think they would have done better to keep Smith on and take Allen off.

trebellbobaggins wrote:Men against boys tonight.

Eng need to rethink it all. Clearly the prem isn't good enough to make teams ready for this level.


and to think we once said that about the superior celts. how things change.

arrogant......

Go to Ireland and play rugby and you win. Go and think you don't have to and you get punished.

nathan wrote:

trebellbobaggins wrote:Men against boys tonight.

Eng need to rethink it all. Clearly the prem isn't good enough to make teams ready for this level.


and to think we once said that about the superior celts. how things change.

arrogant......

true, i think eng were for a long time and possibly only now realise how bad they have become. Maybe it will improve in future years?

Pure stupidity

Ravenhill jumping now! Who went off there and why?

ulster reading the tigers moves from a mile off!

Yep, lots of work needed in english rugby.