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One year extension for Paddy Wallace, a year's try-out apiece for James McKinney and David McIlwane.

Two years for Mike McComish. Sigh.

Just need a replacement now for Birch and Ferris. Badly needed.

Unless Ferris is staying...

Grand job indeed!

Things very quiet on the Ferris front......

Wheres Birch going? Is NOC there another year?

Golden wrote:Wheres Birch going? Is NOC there another year?

NOC was confirmed to Jersey yesterday, joining up with Mark McCrea again

With McIlwaine coming in that all but confirms D'Arcy is gone

Yep, pretty much a straight swap- McKinney and McIlwaine in, O'Connor and D'Arcy out. Think that thats an improvement overall. I liked the look of McIlwaine when he was here and McKinney- I wish we had kept him and left NOC, albeit he'll have benefited from more gametime this year.

I saw a bit of McIlwaine for Bristol, I think he'll offer more at 15 than Andrew and think he was Doncasters place kicker when he was there so will be able to chip there too

Think Ricky Andrew was lucky to get the gametime he did this year- bit of an injury crisis at fullback with D'Arcy, Nelson AND Payne all injured at the same time!

McIlwaines not fit to lace D'arcy or Andrews boots if you ask me...

McKinney has far more potential than O'Connor, who looks a broken man. Too sensitive a soul for pro rugby imo.

At some point next season, injury permitting, could we see a XV made up of players all born in Ulster? That would be some feat in the professional era

All "Really Ulster" XV

Paddy McAllister, Rory Best, Ricky Lutton, Lewis Stevenson, Neil McComb, Iain Henderson, Chris Henry, Roger Wilson, Paul Marshall, Paddy Jackson, Andrew Trimble, Stuart Olding, Darren Cave, Tommy Bowe, Craig Gilroy

Not a bad wee team. Problem is the tight five, because Paddy Mac wasn't actually born in Ulster.

We can't name a blow-in XV past scrum-half. Just shows both the production line of talent we have in the backline and the difficulty we're having getting anywhere near the same talent in the forwards.

Tom Court, Rob Herring, John Afoa, Johann Muller, Dan Tuohy, Robbie Diack, Sean Doyle, Nick Williams, Ruan Pienaar... Jared Payne at fullback.

Tasty pack of forwards from outside the province, even if only three are actually NIQ.

rodders wrote:McIlwaines not fit to lace D'arcy or Andrews boots if you ask me...

...did we ask you?

I wouldn't pre-judge him. He's been doing very well at Doncaster and Bristol out of sight and mind of the Ulster faithful and will have developed a lot as a player. When he played for Ulster I thought he had potential, but was rough- remember he was playing in AIL 3 and then was parachuted straight into the Ulster team. It was a big ask, and although he acquitted himself reasonably well he wasn't good enough to establish himself right away. D'Arcy and Andrew both had the benefit of playing at a higher level before stepping up for Ulster (Castres Espoirs and Manly RUFC) so now we get to see him with a couple of years professional rugby under the belt.

If he flops and is not as good as Andrew, its no worries because we do still have Andrew and Nelson and he can play wing too plus goal kick so a good signing all and all I think. I always thought he would come back at some point, he has the talent but needed gametime.

Notch wrote:

rodders wrote:McIlwaines not fit to lace D'arcy or Andrews boots if you ask me...

...did we ask you?

Well no but that's never stopped me before ....

I suspect Nelson is the new D'Arcy, and McIlwane the new Nelson, in pecking order terms.

Definitely, Nelson is a major, major talent. McIlwaine and Andrew will fight it out for third.

Notch was Paddy not born in Ulster then moved when he was fairly young?

PM, Notch.

McIlwaine has done well at Bristol but has missed plenty of games through injury. He has played as much on the wing as FB and is very much in the mould of Niall Morris - big and fast enough. He has a long range boot on him as well so is a different sort of player to D'Arcy.

BTW isn't Birch going to Rotherham?

I am sad to see D'arcy go, he really suited our backs play and looked classy most of the time, bar a few poor games. Not sure about McIlwaine, but time will tell. NOC has been a damp squib since he has returned from the west and we are not posting much from his departure, in fact I am a real fan of McKinney he is intelligent and has serious talent.

The one I am properly annoyed about is resigning McComish. He is a not of the standard we have come to expect in this ulster squad, not even as a bench warmer. I haven't seen a game yet were I though, "big mike played alright tonight". I get genuinely nervous every time I see him on the team sheet! I saw his interview during the Connacht match, which showed us that he is about as intelligent as his rugby leads us to believe. I would have much rather us invest in players like Conor Joyce, alright he isn't quite there yet but at least we know there is a deffinit possibly he will improve as he settles into the professional game, whereas with McComish he is in arrested development and won't progress any further.

Sorry about the rant guys but this is the one player in the ulster squad who I truly don't think should be there, and I honestly believe the only reason we signed him back from Connacht is that he is an ulster born "professional" player who is cheap and keeps our quota of home grown players up.

Leinster will take Adam Darcy PLEASE be wing cover for us!!!

Really Pete???

BelfastDickVet wrote:I am sad to see D'arcy go, he really suited our backs play and looked classy most of the time, bar a few poor games. Not sure about McIlwaine, but time will tell. NOC has been a damp squib since he has returned from the west and we are not posting much from his departure, in fact I am a real fan of McKinney he is intelligent and has serious talent.

The one I am properly annoyed about is resigning McComish. He is a not of the standard we have come to expect in this ulster squad, not even as a bench warmer. I haven't seen a game yet were I though, "big mike played alright tonight". I get genuinely nervous every time I see him on the team sheet! I saw his interview during the Connacht match, which showed us that he is about as intelligent as his rugby leads us to believe. I would have much rather us invest in players like Conor Joyce, alright he isn't quite there yet but at least we know there is a deffinit possibly he will improve as he settles into the professional game, whereas with McComish he is in arrested development and won't progress any further.

Sorry about the rant guys but this is the one player in the ulster squad who I truly don't think should be there, and I honestly believe the only reason we signed him back from Connacht is that he is an ulster born "professional" player who is cheap and keeps our quota of home grown players up.

I think McComish has improved this season, he is by no means a world beater but hes become more reliable. His error count isnt what it was hes tackling well and his carrying isnt as bad as it was. There are far better candidates out there but hes fairly cheap too

McComish is pretty much competing with no-one for his contract- I have little doubt if there was a better option we'd have signed him. Hopefully Sean Doyle will get fit and push him out of the matchday squad.

Agreed Notch only competing against Birch who apart from the odd game last season was playing his first season of professional rugby and at times he well outshined McComish. McIlwaine has a big old boot can play fullback or wing, can goal kick and is poweful fella so I think he will definitely be a good asset. McKinney coming back is good he has great potential in my opinion and lets face it O'Connor just is not good enough at Ulster.

Disagree with that. Birch isn't as good as McComish- not that McComish is great. Tbh whenever either is on the pitch it's like having 14.5 men but at least McComish has better discipline than Birch.

Still, Birch has more potential. But I think he'll have to do what McKinney and McIlwaine have done and move to an English club to learn his trade.

I don't know at the min McComish overall is probably better but there were times when Birch played he showed more than McComish has ever shown me, we have a real problem when either of them play and are not accompanied by 2 powerful back row colleagues

I think Birch is off- long term I think thats a good thing, he'll earn his stripes and then come back stronger for Ulster, potentially.

McComish gets a lot of bad press but he did play when Ferris, Williams, Wilson, Henry, Henderson and Doyle were unavailable. Birch didn't.

To be eighth choice and have the attitude he has goes a long way to explain why he has been given two more years.

Agree Notch I think it will be better for him if he leaves and gets some experiance, learns his trade, does a McIlwaine so to speak and Aukster Birch played when those guys were missing too we had severe issues when Birch, McComish and Diack were our back row we were severly underpowered.

This season: McComish 10 + 9
Birch 2 + 2

The only game the two started together was against the Ospreys and yes the backrow looked outmuscled - as it did when Joyce started with Birch against Glasgow.

I hope Sean Doyle comes back from his injury and gets a good full season next year, was so unlucky this year to be ruled out he could have got the chance to shine with our injuries this season

McIlwaine was fairly awful during his time at Ulster earlier in his career no?

He was alright Willy didn't do anything outstanding but not anything memorably bad either, didn't play many times just a few at the start of the season when we had injuries or somehting. A few years of rugby in England at a decent standard should have helped him too, will be a useful back up

I'm not exactly over the moon with these signings. Solid enough, maybe slight improvements on our third choices (I suspect Darcy is better than McIlwaine but deemed to be injury prone), but hardly anything to get excited over. I want the real news, is Afoa definitely gone, and who is replacing him, and are we really not getting another player in when Birch and Ferris leave?

Also, sad to see D'arcy go, I believe this to be one of his finest moments...

1hr20m30seconds in...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8mIO5m_WZk

The Great Aukster wrote:McComish gets a lot of bad press but he did play when Ferris, Williams, Wilson, Henry, Henderson and Doyle were unavailable. Birch didn't.

To be eighth choice and have the attitude he has goes a long way to explain why he has been given two more years.

I like McComish actually. Nice traditional openside, nothing spectacular but does a decent job when he plays..

clivemcl wrote:I'm not exactly over the moon with these signings. Solid enough, maybe slight improvements on our third choices (I suspect Darcy is better than McIlwaine but deemed to be injury prone), but hardly anything to get excited over. I want the real news, is Afoa definitely gone, and who is replacing him, and are we really not getting another player in when Birch and Ferris leave?

Also, sad to see D'arcy go, I believe this to be one of his finest moments...

1hr20m30seconds in...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8mIO5m_WZk

Every team needs squad players- not exciting or glamorous but you need these guys. I liked D'Arcy a lot but with the emergence of Peter Nelson he was always going to find his opportunities limited.

I'm excited to watch Nelson develop.

D'Arcy is/was one of my fav Ulster players, sad to see he's going, I hope though he stays in ireland, hopefully with Connacht. He didn't have the brightest first couple of games and some sections of fans never warmed to him, even though he did play very well afterwards, they still picked up on his first games and never really supported him, same fans remember did the same to Pienaar who didn't have the best first few games either.

Rem he has started a H-cup Qfinal, and played plenty of other games, Connacht have good fullbacks, in Henshaw and Duffy, So may find it as limited there?

On McComish, I think thats hes a player the boo boys like to single out, (same as they did D'arcy). Under Anscombe he is much improved, yet they won't recongise this as they like to think back to his first impression. He's not the best but as squad cover he is OK, not good but not as bad as made out. Anscombe rates him enough, to have given him games when we didn't think he would play. Who knows anscombe may get more out of him next year and he could move up from ok squad player, to decent squad player.

Just come across this article from a few weeks back.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/ulster-pick-rds-as-their-home-venue-for-pro12-final-29204730.html

Ignoring the RDS story, it states that Logan said their would be no signings. Either McIlwaine and McKinney were last minute, or he just didnt think they were significant enough to be media worthy.

That aside, it certainly sounds like we are not signing anyone else and I've heard from other forums that the plan is to keep afoa but allow him significant time off to be going home.

TBH, I'm a little angry that we are going to be paying so much for a part timer.

McIlwaine and McKinney have probably been done deals for a while. He probably meant no 'new' signings. Ulster tend to hold back on news of minor signings and then announce three or four contract signings at once. Certainly the McKinney signing seems to have been taken as granted for sometime.

I wouldn't take internet gossip on Afoa as gospel. What seems likely though, is that we plan to keep him. And to be honest, in his last year we were always going to have to give other tightheads a lot more gametime because we need to be preparing for life without an NIQ tighthead.

I will be annoyed if he is not around for the key games but a few weeks at the start of the season, over Christmas, in the Six Nations- not a problem. Our main priority is to have him fully fit and available for all Heineken Cup games and knockout games.

Keeping Afoa on a part time basis could be a masterstroke.

It would allow gametime for the likes of Lutton, Macklin, Fitzpatrick etc. and we'd have Afoa for the heino games.

The worry for me is whether Afoa would stay match fit playing so little and whether his heart would be in it. He looked a shattered against Saracens. Traveliing back and forth to NZ is bound to take its toll.

Any Ferris news??

rodders wrote:The worry for me is whether Afoa would stay match fit playing so little and whether his heart would be in it. He looked a shattered against Saracens. Traveliing back and forth to NZ is bound to take its toll.

If it's 2 or 3 short trips back in the year he should be fine. More than that is a problem.

Kingshu wrote:

On McComish, I think thats hes a player the boo boys like to single out, (same as they did D'arcy). Under Anscombe he is much improved, yet they won't recongise this as they like to think back to his first impression. He's not the best but as squad cover he is OK, not good but not as bad as made out. Anscombe rates him enough, to have given him games when we didn't think he would play. Who knows anscombe may get more out of him next year and he could move up from ok squad player, to decent squad player.

i disagree, he slips tackles almost every match, he gives away plenty of stupid penalties, his distributions skills are poor, he isnt a line breaker, i doubt few if any opposition defenses worry to much about his "attacking" threat, he is not up to the standard required. the reason Anscombe picks him is propably to do with the fact that he has f**k all else to choose from, apart from big Ali, whom he doesnt seem to rate anyway.

also people say he is a cheap option, and has a really good attitude for being 8th choice, i would bet that an academy player would be alot cheaper again and would be just as, if not more enthusiastic, and would be a better prospect for ulster in the future.

Dick I have to say Kingshu is right on McComish, while you ar right you wont see him many any line breaks he has improved his basic skills and become more reliable and hopefully he'll keep improving which will be better for everyone

You can't expect Academy players to step straight into the squad theres a big physical and mental jump between the two and time needs to be taken to develop them

He's about the 4th/5th choice in his position, no 4th 5th choice player is going to worry opposition defenses.

Oh no Blues have thier 4th choice fullback on, we better watch out!!!

he hasn't the greatest skills, otherwise he wouldn't be 4th choice, for a squad player you want someone that wil put in solid performances, under Anscombe he has. As soon as someone in the pecking order is fit again or not being rested McComish will be dropped. He's not a good player, i'm not saying he is, but under Anscombe he's not the player I worried about taking the pitch, as I was a year ago, and I think he deserves credit for that. While an Acamady player may be better long term, sometimes you have to let them physically develop a bit more, and thats where McComish fits in.

BelfastDickVet wrote:

Kingshu wrote:

On McComish, I think thats hes a player the boo boys like to single out, (same as they did D'arcy). Under Anscombe he is much improved, yet they won't recongise this as they like to think back to his first impression. He's not the best but as squad cover he is OK, not good but not as bad as made out. Anscombe rates him enough, to have given him games when we didn't think he would play. Who knows anscombe may get more out of him next year and he could move up from ok squad player, to decent squad player.

i disagree, he slips tackles almost every match, he gives away plenty of stupid penalties, his distributions skills are poor, he isnt a line breaker, i doubt few if any opposition defenses worry to much about his "attacking" threat, he is not up to the standard required. the reason Anscombe picks him is propably to do with the fact that he has f**k all else to choose from, apart from big Ali, whom he doesnt seem to rate anyway.

also people say he is a cheap option, and has a really good attitude for being 8th choice, i would bet that an academy player would be alot cheaper again and would be just as, if not more enthusiastic, and would be a better prospect for ulster in the future.

The Academy players are all already on contracts though

Its not either/or.

McComish will cover when needed really there is no point in us signing a another 7 or someone because they might only get frustrated at having to bench alot if Henry stays fit then again whos to say we wont have the same injury problems again if Ferris is leaving we could really use a good 6 though, with only Henderson there and then you are relying on Diack not being needed elsewhere or failing that young Joyce. McComish is good where he is because realistically at 27 with a fair number of years experiance here, Connacht and in England he is not going to get any better but he will do a job, Birch is better going off to learn in England and then come back a better player in the future.

Playing devils advocate here but why is it we have to send players off to England to develop their game, granted most are fringe players, you don't see this as much in the Southern Hemisphere, is this due to the more free movement of players between the franchises or do they just blood more young guys and give them more oppertunities. I also understand that we are limited to four provinces here but all the same shouldn't the oppertunities we are providing to players be e ought to battle harden them?

I'd say its more to do with there been a much higher standard of competition below the top level in the Southern Hemisphere. All we have here below the provinces is the AIL which is just not good enough to develop players.

Bowe only Ulster player in Lions !!??

I do hope Best will get to travel with the team, Hartley to pick up a suspension before the summer hopefully.

To be fair I think Best and Bowe were the only ones in with a good choice, Gilroy would have been a surprise, same with Jackson.