Champions Cup Pool 1: Ulster v Toulouse, 11 December

First topic message reminder :

             
Ulster Rugby v Stade Toulousain
Friday 11 December 2015
KO: 19:45
Kingspan Stadium, Belfast

Live on BT Sport / beIN Sports

Referee Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch Judge 1 Tim Wigglesworth (England)
Touch Judge 2 Paul Dix (England)
Fourth Official Jonny Erskine (Ireland)
TMO Graham Hughes (England)
Assessor Jim Fleming (Scotland)

A. Head to Head

7 Played 7
3 Wins 3
3 Losses 3
1 Draws 1
150 Points 171

B. Recent Form

21 January 2007
Toulouse 28 - 13 Ulster

21 October 2006
Ulster 30 - 3 Toulouse

27 October 2000
Ulster Rugby 25 - 29 Toulouse

22 October 2000
Toulouse 35 - 35 Ulster Rugby

C. Teams

Ulster Rugby

Louis Ludik; Andrew Trimble, Luke Marshall, Stuart McCloskey, Craig Gilroy; Paddy Jackson, Ruan Pienaar; Kyle McCall, Rory Best, Wiehahn Herbst, Alan O'Connor, Franco Van Der Merwe, Robbie Diack, Chris Henry, Nick Williams

Replacements: Rob Herring, Andy Warwick, Ricky Lutton, Clive Ross, Roger Wilson, Paul Marshall, Ian Humphreys, Rory Scholes.

Stade Toulousain

Clément Poitrenaud; Vincent Clerc, Gael Fickou, Toby Flood, Maxime Médard; Luke McAlister, Sébastien Bézy; Vasil Kakovin, Corey Flynn, Census Johnston, Yoann Maestri, Joe Tekori, Yacouba Camara, Thierry Dusautoir, Louis Picamoles

Replacements: Julien Marchand, Cyril Baille, Dorian Aldegheri, Edwin Maka, Gregory Lamboley, Gillian Galan, Jean-Marc Doussain, Alexis Palisson.

I can't believe there's still 12 minutes left in this... Paul Marshall will be licking his lips coming off the bench in these situations.

Is this a replay from the Heineken Cup on the British Telecom television channel?

Or else they have scoreboard the wrong way round surely?

38-0 with a banana kick conversion to top it off.

This is what these players are capable of and frustratingly haven't been doing for too long. This could be a great stepping stone to realising that for the lads. COME ON ULSTERRRRR!

Oh dear. The Tv interviewer just said to Paddy Jackson this isn't a score you expect much from Leinster.

Time to get out the maps again....

When was the last time that Toulouse got nul points in a European match?

That was simply fantastic, another huge team nilled and stuffed at Ravespan.

A gold star to the lads for that. A perfect performance that we've always expected but haven't been getting. WOW!!!

Heineken man of the match Piennar towers over the pitch interviewer.

Scrum halves are changing

Pete330v2 wrote:I too am lost for words. On this season's form I didn't see how we'd win this game but this is a transformation. I do hope this is the Kiss factor starting to tell

Ulster played as well last week but came up against a better and more aggressive Edinburgh's defense.

Ulster 38-0 Toulouse
Connacht 25-10 Newcastle

Right then. Can Munster and Leinster manage to get anything?

I was starting to wonder in Ulster still had a performance like that in them... What an answer!

The boys need to get their heads down and do it again next week.

SUFTUM

Ulster look good for reaching the finals stage on that performance.

Can they repeat it next week?

What a win, what a performance. Was thinking before hand we might just edge it but we definitely edged it lol great perfromance and the backs looked like they had serious cut tonight which is great. Fantastic night.

Well, that went fairly well all things considered.

Didn't see the game yet, but what a win. Congrats Ulster.

I think it would be worth your time Sin. It's been a very good night... I think that every Ulster player should be incredibly proud of themselves and I'm delighted to see them earn that result. We exposed the soft underbelly of Toulouse, but to do that we had to win the forward battle against an incredibly hefty and experienced pack. Guys like Kyle McCall and Alan O'Connor have almost no experience at this level and they outplayed their opposite numbers, which was a phenomenal effort whichever way you look at it.

Notch wrote:Well, that went fairly well all things considered.

That'll do, Pig. That'll do.

In other news, Brian O'Driscoll wishes to be made love to by Stuart McCloskey.

And no injuries!!!!!

Fantastic result. I thought we had a chance. I would never have predicted that result. Think every player deserves credit but, as Notch points out, the likes of McCall and O'Connor deserve huge credit playing as they did against a side like Toulouse. Luke Marshall also deserves much of the credit for an outstanding game from him, especially when you think of how he has turned his game around. That was vintage Marshall.
As I say though, all deserve credit. It was the forwards that made that game possible, and personally I would have had Henry as MoTM. Not complaining though. Pienaar had a great game, as did Jackson.

Next weeks game is going to be incredibly tough though. For now, I'm just savouring nilling a top side like Toulouse, and hammering them in the process.

SUFTUM

Don Alfonso wrote:

Notch wrote:Well, that went fairly well all things considered.

That'll do, Pig. That'll do.

In other news, Brian O'Driscoll wishes to be made love to by Stuart McCloskey.

ROG tweeting his praises as well:

Ronan O Gara ‏@RonanOGara10 2h2 hours ago
What a game McCloskey is having.. Next stop Carton House?
Nothing like a bit of fear to bring out the best in the irish players...

Notch wrote:I think it would be worth your time Sin. It's been a very good night... I think that every Ulster player should be incredibly proud of themselves and I'm delighted to see them earn that result. We exposed the soft underbelly of Toulouse, but to do that we had to win the forward battle against an incredibly hefty and experienced pack. Guys like Kyle McCall and Alan O'Connor have almost no experience at this level and they outplayed their opposite numbers, which was a phenomenal effort whichever way you look at it.

Oh, I will watch it. What a lift for everyone going into this weekend. I'm so fed up of hearing about how Irish provinces just are not at the races anymore. Fair play to Ulster, would have thought they would have given Toulouse a game and probably have won, but that scoreline is just an emphatic win. Lets hope Munster and Leinster can raise their games tomorrow and Sunday now.

These head to heads are always interesting when you have a result like this... The loser always has a point to prove, and the bigger the loss the bigger the point is!

I've seen it said that Toulouse gave up, but I don't think thats true. They just lost their heads and started playing as individuals, especially in defence. It's got to be unbelievably hard to take that scoreline. To see their reaction next week will be fascinating.

Who's the coach of Toulouse now that Noves is gone?

Well done Ulster, a marker laid down there!

Fabien Pelous with a coaching staff of Uga Mola, Servat and Elissalde.

Fabulous stuff Ulster - what a result!

Luke Marshall, Stuart McCloskey, Paddy Jackson and Ruan Pienaar played absolutely brilliantly last night. Throw in Andrew Trimble as well who had a great game.

The Ulster forwards put Toulouse on the back foot but the Ulster backs showed and excellent ability to run good lines and offload in the contact.

Missed the game last night but watched it this morning, there is night and day in Ulsters performances in the space of a few weeks and they even butchered a few more try opportunities.

Williams yellow was definitely harsh especially when the TMO pointed out to Barnes his left arm got caught on a Toulouse player and he couldn't bring it round, dismissed it and said it was irrelevant even though it shows an intent to wrap the arm

Ulsters attack not so long ago involved big ball carriers getting over the gain line and if they couldn't, the ball went from side to side and through the phases until someone put boot to ball or there was an infringement. Last night there was much more variation I don't think Toulouse were prepared for it

Toulouse have lost 2 out of 3, Oyonnax are bottom of the top14 and have survival in the league as their main priority. Ulster should be targeting 10 pts from the Oyonnax games and a minimum of a lip from the away games against Toulouse and Saracens. That would give 17 pts and a chance of a best runners up place for the knockout. Do a repeat job on a hopefully disillusioned Toulouse and a place in knockout should be defo on.

Hope Leinster and Munster watched that game and take some inspiration

marty2086 wrote:Ulsters attack not so long ago involved big ball carriers getting over the gain line and if they couldn't, the ball went from side to side and through the phases until someone put boot to ball or there was an infringement. Last night there was much more variation I don't think Toulouse were prepared for it

Fantastic to see Jackson running loop plays with Luke Marshall, switching play when it was on and taking the ball a lot flatter on the gainline. His understanding with Marshall really helped him.

Notch, it wasnt even just the loop plays. For Williams try you had Diack getting rid of the ball as soon as he got it, Pienaar was going to the second receiver at times and only a few weeks ago it was constantly going to the first receiver, the same in open play guys were putting width on their passes and cutting out the next guy in the line. Guys would go one way and flick the ball out the backer for a strike runner

Yeah, agreed on all of that. Much better- and I was particularly struck by how improved van der Merwes handling of the ball was too! Franco actually showed a ball playing side to his game. Seemed before he had been under instruction to hit it up. Players like Diack will never make that game plan work for them but they are good footballers.

To be fair marty they said after the Edinburgh game last week that they had worked on a lot more than we saw in terms of back line moves but when they realised the wind they were playing in they basically had to ditch a lot of it and play very simple rugby.

It's great to get a bit of the feedback factor in.

VdM took the ball in one hand at one point and threw a dummy which was definitely something different from him

I didnt really see any interviews after Edinburgh so hadn't heard anyone talking about the back line moves but even last week there seemed to be more variety which was expanded on this week

I think it was Paddy Jackson who said it; basically they had to completely adapt the game plan to the conditions and a lot of what they had prepared (edit!) kind of became impractical. For anyone who watched that game on TV, it doesn't do justice to how insane the wind was!

But yeah, I'm really enjoying this weekend and enjoying the afterglow of a big game from Ulster but we're not going to have that emotional high every week. I'm very happy to see the players basically parking the celebrations and being realistic; it's one game.

The big benefit is that its shown the players what they are capable of and given them a platform to build from and that will hopefully start next weekend