Munster v Ulster non event...

First topic message reminder :

Unfortunately as dead rubbers go this weekends game between Munster and Ulster is pretty much a non event except for pride.

Its 18-17 head to head in favour of Munster.

Teams will be interesting. I expect Munster to put out a strong team not sure about Ulster...

Wonder how many Red/Yellow cards will be dished out...

Owens to ref.

Ulster...academy team...

Ulster XV and replacements to face Munster, RaboDirect PRO12, Thomond Park, Saturday 10th May (kick off 18:30):

(15-9): C Gilroy, D McIlwaine, M Allen, S McCloskey, R Scholes, J McKinney, M Heaney; (1-8); C Black, R Herring, A Warwick, L Stevenson, D Tuohy (Captain), M McComish, S Doyle, N Williams;

Replacements (16-23): K McCall, B Ross, A Macklin, N McComb, C Joyce, D Shanahan, R Andrew, P Nelson.

Munster team announced.

Mun XV v Ulster; Jones, VHD, Laulala, Downey, Zebo, Keatley, Williams, Kilcoyne, Varley-Capt, Ryan, Foley, POC, Butler, Dougall, Coughlan

Replacements; MacDonald, Cronin, Cotter, B Holland, O'Donnell, Murray, Hanrahan, Earls

So anyone any idea what the Munster team will be?

Seems POC is mad for road according to today's papers but Duncan Casey and Conway are injury doubts.

No idea....would imagine for the last home game they will go with a fairly full strength team...

Thats one of the big positives this year in that you could name either of 2 players in probably 10 of the 15 and the team wouldnt be weakened that much.

Ulster have chosen to rest a very large number of players.

No Johann Muller, Iain Henderson, Roger Wilson, Chris Henry, Paul Marshall, Paddy Jackson, Luke Marshall, Darren Cave, Andrew Trimble, Tommy Bowe or Jared Payne.

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/News/LatestNews/TabId/149/ArtMID/793/ArticleID/1496/Dan-Tuohy-to-captain-Ulster-against-Munster-.aspx

Kyle McCall is on the bench as a hooker... bizarre for me given his ability as a prop. So we only have one specialist hooker in the 23 and no specialist tight head in the starting XV. As well as that we've chosen to rest 11 players.

Should be a fun game for us...

Ulster XV and replacements to face Munster, RaboDirect PRO12, Thomond Park, Saturday 10th May (kick off 18:30):

(15-9): C Gilroy, D McIlwaine, M Allen, S McCloskey, R Scholes, J McKinney, M Heaney; (1-8); C Black, R Herring, A Warwick, L Stevenson, D Tuohy (Captain), M McComish, S Doyle, N Williams;

Replacements (16-23): K McCall, B Ross, A Macklin, N McComb, C Joyce, D Shanahan, R Andrew, P Nelson.

What a blah team.

I'll be watching McCloskey, Scholes, Warwick and Gilroy at fullback keenly.

I'd like to see Joyce and Shanahan get a bit of game time. Last outing in an Ulster shirt for McKinney, McIlwane and Macklin.

Just not sure what the logic of not affording the same privilege to Niall Annett is.

Thought Ross was a tight head?

That's OK you know, it could be chaos but entertaining chaos

On the other forum they were saying about McCall making a permanant move to hooker. Obviously just rumoured on there but who knows, sometimes they are right. I see Ross is making an appearance on the bench too. I thought he'd been done away with, had he been injured or just not good enough?

Standulstermen wrote: Thought Ross was a tight head?

He is. We have two tight heads on the bench and two loose heads on the pitch.

Not official but Munster team is being reported as follows...

Mun XV v Ulster; Jones, VHD, Laulala, Downey, Zebo, Keatley, Williams, Kilcoyne, Varley-Capt, Ryan, Foley, POC, Butler, Dougall, Coughlan

Replacements; MacDonald, Cronin, Cotter, B Holland, O'Donnell, Murray, Hanrahan, Earls

er...could be interesting

That team should batter our team. If we had the cotton wool crew in our team I'd predict a good game and a close game. But the misfits XV we've put out has little chance to be honest.

I hope this pays off in the semifinal.

Avert your eyes my fellow ulstermen

When Ulster sent down an academy team a couple of years ago against a strong Munster team they kept the game interesting for about 60 mins so you never know. But yeah we should hammer them

Oooooo curveball team from Munster. I honestly didn't expect such a strong side. I predict a riot........an a cricket score.

I would say history will repeat itself. We'll play quite well and fight hard only for Munster to stretch their lead in the last twenty minutes and ultimately win by a decent margin.

Last home game (probable) of the season so it was always going to be strong...probably want to keep some momentum for the semi and stop this lose one, win one run we have been on

We should really link this thread to the Edinburgh v Leinster one as they can now both be subtitled 'lambs to the slaughter'

Re linking to anything with Leinster in it (Never)...

Difference I guess with this Munster team compared to a couple of years ago is they are more capable of putting up a big score...no disrespect to Ulster supporters but I hope they dish out a good hiding.

I hope the Ulster lads tear into Munster like there's no tomorrow. Surely some of the Munster players will be wary of injury and not fully committed?

Interesting battle developing between Dougal and TOD for 7. I prefer TOD myself on the grounds he is a more aggressive ball carrier. Butler has thrown in two huge performances against Edniburgh and Connacht and has brought himself right back into the fold in what is going to be a hugely competitive area next year.

Only Munster first teamers missing that I can see are POM, Murray and Earls (3 of our 4 Internationals this year :-) ).

If are winning this game I would love to see us keep the foot on the throat and not give up till the whistle - but also remember when that weakened Ulster team came down and put it right up to us.

Bloody Irish teams... always resting their top players in the rabo.

Have you seen the Sarries team this week Jen? There will be no slabberin' from the PRL boyos this week I think

Notch wrote:

Standulstermen wrote: Thought Ross was a tight head?

He is. We have two tight heads on the bench and two loose heads on the pitch.

Isn't McCall normally a tighthead too? I make that 1 hooker in the matchday 23, starting with 2 loosehead props and sitting with 3 tighthead props on the bench.

McCall was a loosehead, nominally. Last year he was pressed into service at tight head and did really well so we've switched him to hooker. Obviously.

I have no idea what the coaches are thinking when it comes to McCall.

Notch, we've struggled to develop props properly for a few years now. What's going on with McCall is only the most recent example of it. Hopefully the new academy system can help address this.

I think they think Warwick is a better prospect as a loose head than McCall, which is fair enough. With Warwick at tight head though, I don't understand as McCall did pretty well there last season. I suppose it means that we may be hard up for fit tight heads in the semi-final and Warwick needs all the time there he can get. On the other hand, the fact they probably think Herring can play 80 minutes bodes well for Rory Best coming back in next week.

Also this is the first time Bronson Ross has been in a match day squad since we beat Treviso at Ravenhill in September. So he played in that and the pre-season friendlies and thats it. Good debut season...

BlueMuff wrote:Interesting battle developing between Dougal and TOD for 7. I prefer TOD myself on the grounds he is a more aggressive ball carrier. Butler has thrown in two huge performances against Edniburgh and Connacht and has brought himself right back into the fold in what is going to be a hugely competitive area next year.

Only Munster first teamers missing that I can see are POM, Murray and Earls (3 of our 4 Internationals this year :-) ).

If are winning this game I would love to see us keep the foot on the throat and not give up till the whistle - but also remember when that weakened Ulster team came down and put it right up to us.

You forgot Botha...

Also I agree that Butler is starting to make an impression. Needs to be more consistent though (a bit like CJ)....TOD I feel is still better overall than Dougal once he gets the holy Joe messing out of his head and is back to playing the way he can.

McCall has been playing LH for Hinch and I was led to believe his time at 2 was merely out of necessity and it wasn't to be continued. Which makes his selection all the more baffling

Trying McCall at hooker in a real game is probably to see if he can hack the pressure.

Ross hasn't had a chance due to his injury so has something to prove.

Warwick deserves another chance at TH as he looked good there. He got mashed in the first scrum and Court said something to him and thereafter held his own pretty well for a tyro. It will be interesting to see how he handles Killer.

Ulster have some decent backs there. McCloskey and Scholes are ones to watch.


Whats happened to Gilroy this season?

They're decent players with loads of potential, definitely not experienced enough yet to pose any substantial threat when thrown together.
Gilroy has been trying really hard all season but it's just not happened for him. I think he just needs a summer off rugby to relax a bit.

Going to be wet and windy this evening in Thomond so it could be a bit of a leveller and make it more competitive.

To be honest I wouldn't trust mccomish, McKinney, Williams et al to look after a dry ball. A wet one will be a disaster. If it's blowing a gale I wouldn't trust any of our backs to know how to handle it. The conditions might make the scoreline closer but I doubt it'll make it more competitive.

We're not going to win whatever the conditions are with that back row out against Munster. Doyle is a useful enough squad player who'll be missed but fairly average at ruck time, Williams is good when paired with back rowers who make up for his shortcomings which include an aversion to rucks but McComish is very poor. Collectively they'll be overpowered. More rucks and slower ball isn't going to make them look any better!

If we return to Thomond for a hypothetical final I would pick Diack-Henry-Wilson. I'm sure that part of the logic of this team selection is about giving Munster as little insight as possible into what a Munster-Ulster final would be like.

Nigel Owens tweeting its the worst weather he's ever reffed in... hopefully we just make it as awkward and ugly as possible. Munsters task will be complicated by the fact the try bonus point might be crucial but difficult in the weather, so that'll make it more interesting than the procession anticipated.

By the look of things its bucketing down in Limerick with strong winds....clearing a bit here in Cork but I think the weather is coming in from the wesht...so could be a slugfest...

ME-109 wrote:By the look of things its bucketing down in Limerick with strong winds....clearing a bit here in Cork but I think the weather is coming in from the wesht...so could be a slugfest...

I wouldn't fasht yersel, DOD, Edinbokke will let you roll over the top of them - theyre good like that

Its Leinster who play Edinburgh. This is the thread for Ulster vs Munster   

Weather in Dublin is also shoite.

Someone been having a dram or two...

A few hardy souls from Ulster....

Great try

Sleeping

The one thing with Keatley is sometimes he doesnt see the overlap and makes the wrong pass/kick...

Calling this game a non-event has turned to be a fair call.

Munster half asleep, Ulsters Reserves trying but limited.

Positive is Andy Warwick holding his own on the other side of the scrum.

Only 2 players in the team likely to start next week, guess who gets injured? Someone up there hates us this season.

Flip, Ulster can't catch a break at the minute with these injuries!

Am only keeping an eye on this through live scoring. Has it been a decent match or a bore?

Mainly a bore. Munster complacent, Ulster unrecognisable. Low quality but Ulster are staying in touch. 10-10.

Would trade a win for getting a few players back. Now Williams is out we need one of Diack or Ferris to be passed fit- doesn't look like Big Nick will be contributing again this season.

Terrible match Munster are shocking under 10s wouldn't make some of the handling errors

Oh well, it wasn't expected to be a great match but I always want a win no matter what.