A few points.

The pen try was wrong, simple fact. the scrum wasnt going forward and a try at that time was never going to happen.It was a pen but not a pen try. it may well have been just delaying the ineviatable but it shouldnt have been awarded at that time.

Court was boring in and losing his bind constantly without penalty.

had parks scored the pen we would have gone in 10-3 at half time and we would have had a different game in the secong half.

That was a serious Ulster side, at home and on a mission, few teams would have won at ravenhill friday night.

Locky is only a baby at tighthead, buckley is the no1 no1, i even think that locky is our no2 no1 esp in the scrum.

we have problems at hooker, marmion is coming on with all the games hes getting, parks will win us more games then he loses us. miah offers us nothing at the moment and i think it could be time to give carty the understudy role to parks.

The defense and work rate was good. beaten by a better team, away, no shame in that.

Last weeks game against Leinster showed what Connacht are like when they are all clued in and we catch a team on the hop.

Last night showed us up to the level we are really at. Which was shown against the Scarlets also. We cannot handle in your face pressure from the opposition. Is that down to being under prepared or the youth in the team?

Last night also showed up again what I had been saying about a few of our players that just can't cut the mustard anymore: Flavin, Swifty.

Unfortunately I'm expecting more games like this throughout the season but in saying that there was a few highlights. Buckley was rock solid in the scrum again when he came on. He's offering far more than Wilkinson right now including open play. McSharry is back to his best. He puts it on the line with every carry and tackle and you can't ask for more. And Robbie Henshaw looks like he's gonna be a good one too.

salmson wrote:

Porterbelly wrote: If Reyneke could throw...

If my auntie had balls... :evil:

sad but true...(not about your aunt, but about Reynecke throws )

Porterbelly wrote: If Reyneke could throw...

If my auntie had balls... :evil:

It looked to me like someone told him to get in position as a last resort he seemed shocked to be even asked, is that something that would be trained for in case of necessity or is it just that we are used to seeing nacewa/howlett manage to step in when needed?

Loughney has come up against Healy/cronin last week and Best/court this week who are irelands 1st and 2nd choice at LH and hooker. He is in his 1st full season as TH and has trained against these lads reg inthe last 9mths so they prob have figured him out. That just means hes on a learning curve and in a 2 v 1 situation which he now finds himself in hes gotta learn quick to be more versatile in the hit and counteract the various moves he will face.
Best and Court do a number on Botha too as they have him worked out from his ulster days. Imo loughney will be fine against most other opposition. I saw whites head popping out on a few occasions when he came on also. He combatted the boreing a bit better tho which shows greater experience in the position.

Good point. If you recheck the pen scrum I don't think McSharry's head was down at all. It bobbed up 5/6 times when the scrum went over.

rossie wrote: I have great time for Buckley. He reminds me a lot of Healy when he first arrived on the scene only imo hes probanly better than Healy was at that stage.
Unfortunately for him he wont get the same opportunities that Healy got at this stage of his career as Healy and Court stand in his way.

Healy/Wilko and White/Loughney are good combinations at prop. We need more ball carrying, dynamism and consistancy in our hooking options imo.

If Reyneke could throw he'd be the man because he's very active in the loose and a bloody good scrummager. JHW didn't impress when he came on, and Flavin wasn't good either

I have great time for Buckley. He reminds me a lot of Healy when he first arrived on the scene only imo hes probanly better than Healy was at that stage.
Unfortunately for him he wont get the same opportunities that Healy got at this stage of his career as Healy and Court stand in his way.

Buckley/Wilko and White/Loughney are good combinations at prop. We need more ball carrying, dynamism and consistancy in our hooking options imo.

Buckley is now first choice LH.

Loughney has come up against Healy/cronin last week and Best/court this week who are irelands 1st and 2nd choice at LH and hooker. He is in his 1st full season as TH and has trained against these lads reg inthe last 9mths so they prob have figured him out. That just means hes on a learning curve and in a 2 v 1 situation which he now finds himself in hes gotta learn quick to be more versatile in the hit and counteract the various moves he will face.
Best and Court do a number on Botha too as they have him worked out from his ulster days. Imo loughney will be fine against most other opposition. I saw whites head popping out on a few occasions when he came on also. He combatted the boreing a bit better tho which shows greater experience in the position.

Hook doesn't even annoy me. He is a fat Ray Darcy - something that makes noise I have no interest in.

Agreed. He's RTE's version of Neil Francis.

Buckley is looking like a great player, Henshaw is getting better by the minute almost and Marmion was imo great tonight, making some speedy and important tackles on Williams. There's some real graft and strength to the other young backs that can be built upon.

Also agreed. I think next season we're gonna have to look at our tight five and see if we can improve it in some play either by bringing in more beef or a dedicated scrum coach. The Ulster pack was imperious tonight.

Good points there from rossie. I agree that we were never going to win that game and with that in mind there were some cautious positives. I thought our defense tonight was really excellent for the most part, there was a point at the start of the second half where they might have panicked under severe pressure and opened up the game for Ulster to win by more than 30 but everything was kept tight. The first two tries were scored while there was a man in the bin, we were always going to concede that penalty try once gannon went off and Ulster were quite lucky to get into that position at the end of the first half to put the pressure on and score a second. Apart from those yellow card 10 minutes we were holding out, even if it didn't ever look like there was much chance of scoring.


The commentators were claiming Loughney took a knock, he certainly didn't seem right after a massive tackle from Afoa I really like Loughs but I'm beginning to think he might be a little underweight to match and overcome a strong opposition scrum, both in this game and last week against healy there were times when he was almost thrown in the air from the combined forces surrounding him. I don't know about anyone else but it looked at the start of the game like our scrum was a bit unsure of themselves, tried to get ahead of Ulster or avoid getting smashed and it backfired, and from then on the ref was always going to be watching Connacht rather than Ulster.

Buckley is looking like a great player, Henshaw is getting better by the minute almost and Marmion was imo great tonight, making some speedy and important tackles on Williams. There's some real graft and strength to the other young backs that can be built upon.

I wanted to critcise Swifty Rossie, but considered I had enough waffle in my last post, he should have been yellow carded against Leinster and although I didn't see the attempted knee during a clinch with an Ulster player (touch judge never said what number) tonight, it seemed like he was lucky to get away with no yellow (as he didn't make contact) but it was a costly, stupid and unnecessary penalty to give away.

In relation to your first 2 paragraphs, I thought that we played a lot better than I thought we would against a strong Ulster side, was never under the mind frame that we should have won it, just think that the gap could have been closer, a lot closer (I think we all expected a 10-3 half time score when Parks was lining up that kick). Ulster were expecting 4 tries tonight, depriving them of that can be considered a small moral victory.

Marmion wrapping up Williams was another great highlight of the game, think he got him on a break as well.

Lads i think yee need a severe dose of reality around here and im not talking about the team.

We were playing The HEC cup final team(minus pienaar) at a venue we havent won in since the 60s in their first home game since the biggest tragedy poss ever to hit Ulster rugby. We were always on a hiding to nothing in this fixture and huge credit must go to the 23 who wore the jersey tonight for the defensive effort they put in.

Gannon imo got the yellow because someone had to and he took loughneys card for repeat scrum infringements. On the scrummaging Loughney was ganged up on by two internationals tonight and imo Court was guilty more than once of boreing in on Loughs. Wilko was pushing against noone on a few occasions with the angle the were going at loughs. But you play the ref at scrum time and Clancy was more interested in getting his calls right at scrum time than watching for boreing. Hes not alone in that and more and more teams are doing it esp in the aviva.
This is where the game was won and lost. Our lineout was good for the most part but we lost 3 vital balls which put us under more pressure at a time when we badly needed to keep it for a wee breather. I think the first half try came off a lost lineout.

To say we were poor going forward is rubbish because we never had the ball long enough to go forward with purpose such was the pressure we were under in the first half. In the last qtr we got a foothold in the game and in other circumstances we would have kicked a few pens but we looked good in the backline at this stage but the game was over. The zero score is disapointing and parks missed an easy kick in the first half which if we are being consistant here isnt good enough.

When a team of ulsters quality are that pumped up, playing in front of a pumped up home crowd your pack are always going to take a hammering. Scrum aside i thought our lads stood up to it quite well.

Gannon is a 2nd row playing out of position. He is always going to struggle against a team of that quality. Every team/supporters have scapegoats. i notice noone has taken the time to critisise swifty for his indiscipline again tonight. he was looking at his 2nd yellow in a row for retaliation only for he missed! it was a peno at a vital time too and kept us under pressure in our own half if i remember correctly.

There are certain games in this league that even Munster, Leinster and the Ospreys travel in hope more than expectation. Ulster away is one of them.
The damage is done when you lose at home to the scarlets and Cardiff.

Swifty unfortunately isn't really up to it anymore at this level and was poor tonight. Also Macca isn't firing on all cylinders. Loughney suffered at scrumtime, and I really feel now that Buckley and White should be our go-to props. Buckley was our best player tonight. Gannon proved he's not a 6, and we should look at giving TJ a run out if we need back-up to Muldoon. Marmion and Parks didn't have the opportunity to do much. Backs were good though, with all showing up well but especially McSharry and Henshaw.

Funk It wrote: Now I want to say first off that Ulster were the better side and deserved the win.

Thought that there were a few harsh calls on Connacht, from the off there was a penalty given to Ulster for Connacht not releasing in the tackle when it was a collapsed maul, the same thing happened moments later and we were given the put in to the scrum.

Regarding Gannons yellow, I am really unsure here, if he did pull it down, then fair enough, but he is picking up more yellow cards than is acceptable.

Another point was when Clancy said "advantage over", and then when Ulster knocked on he blew for the advantage claiming another advantage was given (trip by JOC apparently), but why shout advantage over then.

I would like to see it again when Henshaw tried to offload to Fetu and it appeared that Fetu was getting pulled back, I thought that a yellow and a penalty may be issued for cynical play, but if the pass was forward, then again fair enough.

When Court seemingly blocked Loughney prior to the ball being held up over the line, ok, I will admit that Ronan looked like he was playing for the penalty.

Big positives from the game were Buckley, McSharry and Henshaw for me, showed loads of promise.

Oh, I was watching the game on BBC NI, and they did pass a comment regarding the citing commissioner, this was around the time that Nick Williams went down, but I don't think that the comment was linked to that event, it just looked like he got twisted when he went down in the ruck, just wondering if anyone else spotted anything that we should be worried about regarding losing a player to a citing investigation at all? I thought it was funny when they said after the game that all the 50:50 decisions were given Connachts way, the grass really is greener on the other side when it comes to the ref.

Regarding Flavin, he has had better games I suppose.

ya i was of the same opinion thought he was a little dodge, i think connacht are not seen in a great light by many of the irish refs who are mostly munster and leinster but i could be wrong