Ulster v Edinburgh, Friday 2nd March, Ravenhill (kick off 7.05pm)

First topic message reminder :

Ulster Team and replacements to face Edinburgh, Friday 2nd March 2012, Ravenhill (kick-off 7.05pm)

(15-9): A D'Arcy; C Gilroy, I Whitten, P Wallace (capt), S Terblanche; R Pienaar, P Marshall;
(1-8): P McAllister, A Kyriacou, J Afoa, L Stevenson, D Tuohy, P Wannenburg, W Faloon, R Diack;
Replacements (16-23): N Brady, C Black, A Macklin, N McComb, M McComish, I Humphreys, L Marshall, C Cochrane

Edinburgh Rugby team:
15 Tom Brown; 14 Sep Visser ,13 Matt Scott, 12 John Houston, 11 Tim Visser; 10 Phil Godman, 9 Chris Leck; 1 Kyle Traynor, 2 Andrew Kelly, 3 Ulises Gamboa, 4 Grant Gilchrist 5 Sean Cox, 6 Stuart McInally, 7 Roddy Grant CAPTAIN, 8 Netani Talei. Substitutes: 16 Alun Walker, 17 Robin Hislop, 18 Jack Gilding, 19 Robert McAlpine, 20 Hamish Watson, 21 Alex Black, 22 Harry Leonard, 23 Chris Paterson

Nice one Rory- how come you were chatting to them?

Notch wrote:Nice one Rory- how come you were chatting to them?

They were down in Bangor Elum giving their testimonies, telling us about life in SA and why they came here. Got talking to them at the end and got photographs and stuff. They are both really cool guys, and Muller is an absolute giant, and I am 6 foot 4! My friend who plays scrum half got a few tips as well off Pienaar haha

Thats cool. Yes, he's a big guy alright. Pedrie is also a rather imposing presence up close!

Everything I've heard about Johann and Ruan indicates that they are very generous with their time when it comes to chatting with fans or whatever, which is a real credit to them.

Notch wrote:Thats cool. Yes, he's a big guy alright. Pedrie is also a rather imposing presence up close!

Everything I've heard about Johann and Ruan indicates that they are very generous with their time when it comes to chatting with fans or whatever, which is a real credit to them.

Yeah definitely, especially when they have a game tomorrow night! Some of the adults were worse than the kids though, trying to get up talking to the two of them. Also when asked about who the biggest player they have ever played against, they both said it was probably Sione Lauaki! Which I thought was interesting. I posted a video of him handing off McCaw a few weeks back.

All the Saffers are absolutely gents off the pitch.

What Rory heard fits with what I heard - if it was a HC weekend - Muller and Cave would be playing

Jammy feicer Rory! Nice one!

Was a good night indeed!

We got an email about that and I forgot to remind MrP to take the wee fella!!!

Raggin!

I see that the game is on BBC NI tonight - does anyone know if I'll be able to watch it if I've got Virgin TV? Is it usually on the ref button too?

RDW_Scotland wrote:I see that the game is on BBC NI tonight - does anyone know if I'll be able to watch it if I've got Virgin TV? Is it usually on the ref button too?

Not sure about the red Hutton but it might be online on the BBC website

Red hutton - is that some kind of Ulster rhyming slang I don't know about??

It should be able to be viewed online?

BBC Sport website.

Yeah I'm fairly sure I can get it online, just would prefer it on my big TV instead of my wee laptop!

Thanks guys.

There should be a BBC NI channel on Virgin. Try around the 850s.

WoooooHoooooo!

Lovely try from Ulster in reply to an early score from the visitors!

Great break from Darcy, on to Pienaar and beautifully finished by Marshall!!!!

Score?

Has anyone any links at all to this game?

edit; Even a text commentary or radio link would be helpful.

Terblanche in the corner.

12 v 5 pre conversion!

14 v 5!

Val, PM sent.

Thomond wrote:Val, PM sent.

Cheers, much appreciated. Living abroad can be a pain at times.

Have I sent you the list? It's basically how to watch games if you're abroad will send it over the next few days.

Games on the red button!

just turned it on - not the best to see us 14-5 down already and getting pumped in the scrum.

Thomond wrote:Have I sent you the list? It's basically how to watch games if you're abroad will send it over the next few days.

I have a list off them myself, but its on my computer at home, in paris for the weekend with the work laptop for the match and don't
have them on it and the only ones I could remember don't have this match.

Apparently Edinburgh haven't learnt from the last game the the Ulster scrum half is rapid!

D'arcy showing again why he should be at 15 for this season, such a key in our attack especially when we counter. In saying that Terblanche is just class and always has been

See young Rob Mcalpine is on - 19 year old 2nd row or something like that!

We have a really young pack now...

My bad - he's 20!

Thomond? Gotta link...normal links don't seem to have the game?

Ooft that injury looked bad - all the best to the guy.

Kyle Traynor has got to be the worst prop in the league. Saying, that, he is against a world cup winner!

Not sure about Traynor being the worst, think it might be Gilding, close though.

I think he's fine.

Just got caught by our scrum half's head on his jaw.

Moving all limbs.

So our two reverse props are the 2 worst in the league??

Can't wait for W P Nell to come now!

That's a start, need Sheils as well tbh.

Really hope Matt Scott is in the summer tour squad - another good performance tonight.

Our team resembles more of an under 20's team now!

Our props resemble an under 18 team.

We quite a lot of them are pretty much U20s so....

Tough ask for them tonight.

Before anyone goes mad with excitement for Ulster can I be the first to say Whats going on with the kicking?

What has our kicking ratio been from the last 3/4 games? It seems to be Pienaar permanently these days despite being quite poor.

A Heineken Cup QF will need a better kicking ratio. For me it could be one of our biggest concerns right now.

aside from that, I'd like to once again call for tonights back three to be our first choice. adam Darcy does not deserve to miss out IMO

oh and one more thing...
...
...

Again the only positives we can take is the young guys getting experience! and what a young team that was!

I think this is the ages of the final players on the pitch:

Front row 19, 20, 23
2nd row 20, 26
Back row 21, 24, 28
SH 20
SO 29
Centres 19, 21
Wings 24, 22, 34 (Mossy!)

Literally was men against boys!

Positives for me though were Hamish Watson, who looked very dynamic, and Matt Scott who had another really good game.

Watson looked like a 9 though. Is he really small or am I misjudging him.

He is very fast.

Mixed feelings as an embra fan.

I think we played much better tonight than recently. If wed played like that against the dragons and connacht, we might have picked up some points. That being said, it was a comprehensive defeat and I am fed up with this.

The pack played with much more intensity tonight, although Traynor, Gilding and Kelly must all be chucked at the end of the season. Traynor and Gilding cant scrum, and dont make up for it in the loose. Kelly is just a walking momentum sapper. Everytime Edinburgh were on the front foot, Kelly would be there to man sausage it up. Be it a knock on, missed lineout, or stupid penalty, he seriously looks like he wants his contract terminated. Walker might still be a bit dodgy in the set piece, but by goodness does he make up for it by having handling skills Andy could only dream of.

We also appear to have pinched young Mcalpine from the weegies. Ive heard good stuff about him, but tbh he looked very small for a lock, and considering the thing Edinburgh need most atm is a massive lock, it doesnt seem to make much sense.

Hamish Watson looks absolutely brilliant. Made crucial turnovers, and a general nuisance of himself at the breakdown. Not to mention his multiple clean breaks where he showed the pace of a winger and great footwork and awareness to keep the move flowing. My MOM from Edinburgh.

In the backs, I think everyone looked pretty good going forward, good hands for Visser jnrs try from Scott, who had another good game, and brilliant finishing from Visser snr, who scored a try so tight that he looked like he didnt think hed scored. Poor defence in the wide channels though (how many times have we heard that?) with Tom Brown and Matt Scott looking like the only decent tacklers (brown especially).

But congrats to Ulster, they were unreal at points, brilliant counter attacking play.

Backrower678 wrote:D'arcy showing again why he should be at 15 for this season, such a key in our attack especially when we counter. In saying that Terblanche is just class and always has been

Make up your mind man Actually D'Arcy had a superb game but the class of Terblanche is evident in everything he does.

Imperialbigdave wrote:Hamish Watson looks absolutely brilliant. Made crucial turnovers, and a general nuisance of himself at the breakdown. Not to mention his multiple clean breaks where he showed the pace of a winger and great footwork and awareness to keep the move flowing. My MOM from Edinburgh.

Absolutely agree. He was your stand out player. Cant fault your effort mate and in Visser you have an absolute International star.

Edinburgh remain a very classy side, very good offloading game, but very much lacking in physicality without their frontline players. They brought on the skinniest lock you'll see all season at professional level- illustrates the lack of depth. And not great defensively. They also don't have a scrum.

But they played with a lot of ambition and are very good going forward, so they very much contributed to an exceptionally entertaining game of rugby.

It was a big improvement from Ulster over last week, a lot more intensity and some very good attacking play. The partnership of Marshall and Pienaar worked much better this week, dictated things very well between them.

Rava wrote:

Imperialbigdave wrote:Hamish Watson looks absolutely brilliant. Made crucial turnovers, and a general nuisance of himself at the breakdown. Not to mention his multiple clean breaks where he showed the pace of a winger and great footwork and awareness to keep the move flowing. My MOM from Edinburgh.

Absolutely agree. He was your stand out player. Cant fault your effort mate and in Visser you have an absolute International star.

Yeah, was he number 20? He was very good. Kept popping up causing us all kinds of problems.

Was he the small guy ?

Yep that was him. Came on after just 15 minutes and was a livewire around the pitch.
Notch, the atmosphere seemed to be better tonight, yes?

Didn't get down so I watched from the 14" in the kitchen.

My view of things:

1. Marshall/Pinaar worked really well at times with Pienaar looking a lot more creative.
2. Front Row were awesome including the second front row at the end.
3. Willie Falloon had his best game this season.
4. If Paddy doesn't get to play at least some of the game against Scotland I'll personally do a streak at Landsdowne Road.
5. D'Arcy played really really well and I can understand some people calling for hime to start but Ternblanche was equally impressive.

All in all a good performance.

The atmosphere was very good tonight actually, yeah. Always helps when it's a dry night and an open game for that.

I thought McComb, Faloon, McComish etc. did much, much better for us tonight. Quicker ball for 80 minutes helps. A lot!

Also very good to see Cochrane, Macklin, Marshall etc. getting some gametime off the bench.

A dry night and a good win.

Well done Ulster.

Beware of the ones they call Warriors. Blues have 2 games in hand also. Munster have 1. 7 teams well in it for the playoffs and positions therin. Its getting stronger. It is blatant now. Aironi at home, a major handful too now.

Big game between Treviso and Blues tomorrow. Blues need it bad.