Newport Gwent Dragons v Ulster: Rodney Parade, Friday 06/09, 19:15

First topic message reminder :

Dragons squad: D Evans, H Amos, T Prydie, W Harries, R Wardle, P Leach, J Dixon, A Hughes, K Burton, J Tovey, R Rees, J Evans; P Price, A Coundley, O Evans, R Thomas, H Gustafson, F Chaparro, N Buck, D Way, A Coombs, A Jones, M Screech, I Jones, L Evans, N Cudd, J Groves, N Talei.

Ulster squad:
Forwards: Niall Annett, Tom Court, Callum Black, Ricky Lutton, Robbie Diack, Declan Fitzpatrick, Johann Muller (captain), Dan Tuohy, Chris Henry, Roger Wilson, Bronson Ross, Lewis Stevenson, Sean Doyle, Rob Herring.
Backs: Jared Payne, Luke Marshall, Paddy Jackson, David McIlwaine, James McKinney, Paul Marshall, Darren Cave, Chris Farrell, Andrew Trimble, Ian Porter, Michael Heaney.


Referee: Claudio Blessano (FIR)

Assistant Referees: Leighton Hodges, Neil Hennessy (both WRU)

Citing Commissioner: Ray Wilton (WRU)


Will add teamsheets as they become known.


Dragons:15) Dan Evans, 14) Tom Prydie, 13) Pat Leach, 12) Jack Dixon, 11) Hallam Amos, 10) Jason Tovey, 9) Richie Rees; 1) Aaron Coundley, 2) T.Rhys Thomas, 3) Dan Way, 4) Matthew Screech, 5) Andrew Coombs (c), 6) Jevon Groves, 7) Nic Cudd, 8) Lewis Evans.
Replacements: 16) Hugh Gustafson, 17) Phil Price, 18) Francisco Chaparro, 19) Adam Jones, 20) Netani Talei, 21) Jonathan Evans, 22) Kris Burton, 23) Ross Wardle.

Ulster:(15-9): J Payne, A Trimble, L Marshall, C Farrell, D McIlwaine, P Jackson, P Marshall; (1-8): C Black, R Herring, R Lutton, J Muller (Captain), D Tuohy, R Diack, C Henry, R Wilson;
Replacements (16-23): N Annett, T Court, D Fitzpatrick, L Stevenson, S Doyle, I Porter, J McKinney, D Cave

If Ulster do win, I want them to have had to work hard for it. There were too many easy wins for visiting sides last season.

I think Ulster will have to work hard for 80 mins to get anything, I think we will (just) but I think it will be a scrappy, close game. We're weaker for this one than we were for last years visit to Rodney Parade and I think the Dragons will be better.

I wouldn't be at all happy if we did slip up here but I also wouldn't be surprised. We've a bit of rust to blow off yet. Going to be a close game.

This is a massive chance for Roger Wilson. Signed at the same time as Nick Williams and was expected to keep him on the bench before injuries kicked in. He's just not an amazing ball carrier to the same extent, better all rounder but I wonder if we do lack ball carriers in our pack.

Roger looked very good with ball in hand the times he did get a chance, but obviously he isn't as dangerous as Nick. As you say though he is a better all rounder.

From what I hear its going to rain up until 5pm in Newport, so the pitch is going to be greasy. Given that its also the first game of the season I'm expecting a lot of errors and a scrappy game.

It was raining at 5 this morning, but it had stopped by about 6 and hasn't rained since. I think they're promising showers but nothing more than that.

Pretty nervous about this one. The Ulster team is overall substantially weaker than the team we sent over last season, the Dragons team is better - I'd agree that the Dragons have a better bench than ours, on balance. And we look quite rusty. Not overly confident.

On the other hand, it was a drubbing last season. A 27 point margin. There's plenty of scope for iit to be closer and for us still to win.

I think Ulster will be fine. I saw on another forum an Ulster supporter saying he thinks Ulster by 6, which is fairly realistic I think. Most (if not all) Dragons supporters would probably take an LBP right now, if it means an improved performance.

Yep. A hard-fought match and a losing bonus point against last season's runners up really wouldn't be a bad return at all.

But imagine what a win would do for morale...

Can anyone in the Port tell me how wet the North Terrace will be ?

Terrific start for the Dragons. Eight and a half minutes and we've hardly seen the ball!

I know it's early, very early, but there is certainly a more positive feel about the team. We're actually playing rugby again. The senior members (the more experienced,not necessarily the oldest) are standing up and being counted for. The youngsters behind look very slick with ball hand... ANd just as I say that we knock-on! 2nd half will be interesting, Ulster have a strong bench.

It is great to see Dragons with a bit of a swagger about them again. I know they had a terrible time last year. We've been there and not too long ago.

It would be even better if they worked their way into the season rather than necessarily getting fully into their stride this evening!

 

Try Wilson. Considering how little possession we've had, Dragons will be gutted. The better side so far is behind but how good is it to see Ulster being clinical? Very good (for me).

It is going to be hard for Dragons if they can't scrummage. They are infringing practically every scrum. The free kick they gave away in our half was nerves, but technically our props have their number.

Mind you, PJ would want to be nailing his kicks a bit better and really punishing them for it.

 come on PJ

Rusty.com/ulster

C'mon dragons

Paddy Jackson desperately needs to find his kicking boots. That really isn't acceptable from a test class 10.

I had £1 on Roger Wilson to score the first try at 22-1. Lovely stuff, just need Ulster to win now.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Paddy Jackson desperately needs to find his kicking boots.  That really isn't acceptable from a test class 10.

Here, come on, he is a player who will develop into a test class 10 not a test class 10 yet. Mainly because of his place kicking. I think people forget how early he is in his career.

I think it will definitely take him at least a year or two, perhaps more, to develop his place kicking to test standard. And there's only one way for him to get better to be honest. Without letting him kick in games he won't ever improve.

Scores anyone?

Dragons 6-8 Ulster

Is it just my picture or is it quite dark at Dave Parade?

W are gettin hammered at the breakdown. I don't think I can remember any phase ball.

Cheers Notch

9-8 now

Good to see that the standard of refereeing is as low as ever. Not a clue, I hope this clown never officiates another match again.

I'll be honest; I'd feel if we got anything from this game now it would be overly harsh on the Dragons.

JmD wrote:Good to see that the standard of refereeing is as low as ever. Not a clue,  I hope this clown never officiates another match again.

If every time someone said this, a ref really never did another game there would be no referees at all. Not to say he hasn't been... puzzling at times. But by and large we've been outclassed at the breakdown and deserve very little.

He has given a few bizarre 50/50s against us but on the whole we can have no complaints about the standard of performance we've brought tonight.

Officiating like this is the problem with rugby. How are new fans supposed to watch this inconsistent garbage and understand what is going on when it's clear the men running the show are making it up as they go along? Pure and utter tripe.

Congratulations, Dragons. Well deserved

Notch wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Paddy Jackson desperately needs to find his kicking boots.  That really isn't acceptable from a test class 10.

Here, come on, he is a player who will develop into a test class 10 not a test class 10 yet. Mainly because of his place kicking. I think people forget how early he is in his career.

I think it will definitely take him at least a year or two, perhaps more, to develop his place kicking to test standard. And there's only one way for him to get better to be honest. Without letting him kick in games he won't ever improve.

Notch - you can make excuses for him all you want, but that is not acceptable kicking. His kicking tonight was terrible. His competition will not let opportunities like that slide.

Do you really think we can afford to wait a year or two for PJ to find his kicking form and lose tight affairs like this? No.

The ref was poor, but not as poor as us. Our back row were terrible and we struggled with any go forward ball. That put our backs under pressure and we probably tried to many 50 50 passes. Payne looked sharp, as did porter ( pass still poor). I agree that we deserve to go home with zip.

BTW the scrum was a total shambles - isn't the hit supposed to be eliminated? It totally disintegrated as the game continued.

The time taken at the scrum was ridiculous. I could have had a tea between "crouch" and..." Get it in 9"

Rory_Gallagher wrote:

Notch wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Paddy Jackson desperately needs to find his kicking boots.  That really isn't acceptable from a test class 10.

Here, come on, he is a player who will develop into a test class 10 not a test class 10 yet. Mainly because of his place kicking. I think people forget how early he is in his career.

I think it will definitely take him at least a year or two, perhaps more, to develop his place kicking to test standard. And there's only one way for him to get better to be honest. Without letting him kick in games he won't ever improve.

Notch - you can make excuses for him all you want, but that is not acceptable kicking.  His kicking tonight was terrible.  His competition will not let opportunities like that slide.

Do you really think we can afford to wait a year or two for PJ to find his kicking form and lose tight affairs like this?  No.

Yes, depending on who our first choice place kicker is. It's important we have a high percentage goal kicker for Heineken Cup, big games etc. whilst developing Jackson in the bread and butter. It's not unusual for a young flyhalf to take some time to get his place kicking up to scratch. What is unusual is a 21-year old 10 being as good as Paddy Jackson, or a 21-year old 10 being first choice for his province. I wouldn't suggest we persevere if I didn't think it was in the best interests of Ulster Rugby as a whole not just now or next week but for the next 10 years

I think the time for using PJs age as an excuse should we well behind us. Bottom line is pro kickers should perform better than that. School boys do!

Congrats to the Dragons. That was awful from Ulster, the worst part of it is Dragons never even looked like scoring a try. I agree above about the scrums by the way, but all the penalties given against us there were given by the far touch judge.

Keesie_kee wrote:I think the time for using PJs age as an excuse should we well behind us. Bottom line is pro kickers should perform better than that. School boys do!

Really... I'm not using it as an excuse, I'm saying this is the reality of the situation. He's not going to get magically better over tonight and he's a pretty special talent in terms of his all round game so we're gonna need to give him gametime kicking if we want him to develop into the player everybody seems to think he already is. Those are just the facts.

Only way for a place kicker to get better is to place kick.

Congratulations Dragons!


Ulster in crisis.

I think you are completely exaggerating how good Jackson is at this point. I know he has a lot of potential but unfortunately he has been incredibly inconsistent. I will accept he needs time to develop, but at some point he will have to prove his ability on the field. Otherwise we are simply kidding ourselves. Rhys Patchell for a start is younger than Jackson yet he is thriving for the Blues.

I think the pressure is starting to get to him, but hopefully he will get over this spell and prove me wrong.

Was this the Ulster pub side?

The Great Aukster wrote:


Ulster in crisis.

I hope you're being sarcastic.

Congratulations Dragons, scrums are still a mess like despite the changes. PJ had an off night but he is going to be inconsistent lets not forget this is only first season of actually taking kicks this and the back end of last year, even perfect sexton didn't do well in his first few years, consistency wise. Overall dissapointing loss we need to be more aggressive especially back row wise still onwards and upwards guys.

Artful_Dodger wrote:Congrats to the Dragons.  That was awful from Ulster, the worst part of it is Dragons never even looked like scoring a try.  I agree above about the scrums by the way, but all the penalties given against us there were given by the far touch judge.

Yeah that is fair enough, but I am concerned as to whether or not the referee was officiating the scrums with the new laws in the correct manner. The hit was very much still there, and to be honest it looked like nobody had a clue what was going on. I am fairly sure the props must be completely locked before the push, not simply holding on to the arms. Otherwise, what has changed?

If that is the standard of the scrums for this season, then we are in for a long one.

neilthom7 wrote:Congratulations Dragons, scrums are still a mess like despite the changes.  PJ had an off night but he is going to be inconsistent lets not forget this is only first season of actually taking kicks this and the back end of last year, even perfect sexton didn't do well in his first few years, consistency wise.  Overall dissapointing loss we need to be more aggressive especially back row wise still onwards and upwards guys.

It wasn't just his kicking from the tee though, Neil. Some of his kicking from hand was horrible. He put us under all sorts of pressure, and thankfully Jared Payne was able to rescue us at times with some fantastic kicks.

I will certainly agree from hand he was poor tonight and he has generally been ok out of hand so thats dissapointing.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:I think you are completely exaggerating how good Jackson is at this point.  I know he has a lot of potential but unfortunately he has been incredibly inconsistent.  I will accept he needs time to develop, but at some point he will have to prove his ability on the field. Otherwise we are simply kidding ourselves.  Rhys Patchell for a start is younger than Jackson yet he is thriving for the Blues.

I think the pressure is starting to get to him, but hopefully he will get over this spell and prove me wrong.

 Rory! You're the one who started this by saying he's a test class 10 whilst I'm saying he needs to work on his kicking before we hang that mantle on him!

He actually has been very consistent in terms of his all-round game and very inconsistent to downright poor in terms of his place kicking. In terms of him being an especially talented outhalf who needs to develop his place kicking, I don't see how I'm exaggerating. But to each his own. The internet is indeed a strange and scary place  

Scrum was better for the dragons when chapparo and price came on