Rabo Pro 12 (Round 6) - Ulster vs Connacht: 19:05 Fri, 5th October @ Ravenhill

First topic message reminder :

So - the two powerhouse provinces go to war. I expect a niggly, ferocious scrap before Saturday’s somewhat less exciting digestif, when Munster and Leinster will determine who’s the third best province in Ireland.

Really looking forward to it, although Dan Park rising from the Western mist has caused a bit of consternation. Connacht looked quite a different unit last weekend.

Assuming an ongoing injury list of Birch, Diack, Fitzpatrick, Wilson, Allen (and obviously McAllister and Farrell), and with the HEC on the horizon, I’d go for:

1) Court
2) Brady
3) Afoa
4) Muller
5) Tuohy
6) Ferris
7) Henry
8) Williams
9) Marshall
10) Jackson
11) Trimble
12) Wallace
13) Cave
14) Bowe
15) Payne

And a bench of:

16) Black
17) Best
18) Macklin
19) Stevenson
20) McComish
21) Heaney
22) Marshall
23) Gilroy

Harsh on McComb and Henderson, given their performances, but there’s only 23 spaces.

McComish’s knowledge and experience of the Connacht players pushes him onto the bench ahead of Henderson. On the other hand, if 1F is still out, I’d actually start Henderson, I think.

At the start of this season I was frustrated we’d lost Barker and kept McComb – completely wrong on that one. He’s shown dog, good defensive skills and some great passing and off-loading. I’d be happy to see him play – but Stevenson has been seriously impressive so far, and Tuohy came right back with a massive bang last week (I especially enjoyed Ryan Constable referring to him “emptying” people).

Best to come off the bench and get at least half an hour. Not 100% sure which of Gilroy or Trimble would start – I do think Trimble’s defence is better, and Connacht have some impressive young backs. Gilroy dancing past tired defenders was a highlight last week – can we just replicate that?

Anscombe will probably start some weird team that still works well, however.

He is really impressive Thomond - he is certainly putting in his fair share of work at the breakdown and tackle area. Against the Cardiff Blues he put in something like 15 tackles, according to ESPN.

Was Anscombe the Blues coach when Nick Williams played there?

Don Alfonso wrote:So what's everyone's back row for next week, assuming no Williams, Wilson or Diack? Might see McComish starting.

Henderson in with a shout?

Good to see Rory, he seems to be committed for once. A terrific talent, always looks overweight but gets around the park well!

Thomond,

Williams has been a complete revelation. He came off after 55 mins in our first game against Glasgow and I assumed that was how we would use him, full on for the first 2/3 of a game and then replace him when he ran out of steam. I presumed he didn't have the fitness levels to move that huge frame of his around for the full 80.

Boy was I wrong. He has played at full pelt for every minute of the next 4 games until he came off injured 4 minutes from the end on Friday night. His appetite for work has been huge. He was injured attempting a jackel in the 74th min of a game when we were 20 points to the good if that gives you an indication of his effort level. He has lifted 3 from 5 MOTM awards.

We will miss him next week alright.

Did Connacht throw the game at the weekend?

Fair dues MrsP, nice to see him finally motivated to paly, he has the skills, Munster were in a bit of disarray at the time whn we had him. Didn't use him too well and he was quite unfit and injury prone.

He really looks like he couldn't run the length of himself alright but he has shown that looks can be deceiving!

I suppose things might change when he is asked to play in a freezing cold Ravenhill with the wind flying down the pitch driving the hailstones into his face but I hope not!

I suppose he must be a South African at heart.......

He really does have a lot of pace for the size of him. Watching him burst through a gap really is brilliant to watch.

Anyone got word on Nick Williams injury?

Williams has been awesome, player of the season so far for me.

He looks like Jonah Lomu would look like after a few visits to build-a-burger.

Any news on big Nick's injury folks?

The man those on the UAFC forums claimed was a terrible signing, something they are looking pretty silly about now

Pete I reckon it will be tomorrow before we get a report. The way he looked walking past us I would say he took one hell of a knock and might well be struggling to make the weekend.

The good news is Roger Wilson hopes to feature for the Ravens in the B&I Cup against Bridgend this weekend.

I reckon we have sufficient back up with Diack hopefully fit again and also Henderson, Doyle and Birch. Most sides would be happy with those four plus Ferris, Henry and McComish. Not forgetting McCombe who can also do a good job in the back row.

When you put it like that Rav I don't feel as bad about losing Slick Nick for a week.

Sean Dolye out for 6 weeks but no verdict on Big Nick as yet.

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/10862.php

Henry or Diack may offer us some more control at the base, thats been a problem for Big Nick at times. But is Diack fit? Doyle is now out, Wilson won't start, Henderson isn't an 8.

If Diack is fit it's a straight swap should Williams be ruled out. We're in difficulties if we have to re-jig with Henry at 8. He hasn't played there in a while and there's a big drop off at 7 between him and McComish.

We need a much bigger game from Ferris than he's produced so far. We may need him to be our main carrier if Williams is out. We've relied on Williams more than any other player so far!

Notch wrote:Henry or Diack may offer us some more control at the base, thats been a problem for Big Nick at times. But is Diack fit? Doyle is now out, Wilson won't start, Henderson isn't an 8.

If Diack is fit it's a straight swap should Williams be ruled out. We're in difficulties if we have to re-jig with Henry at 8. He hasn't played there in a while and there's a big drop off at 7 between him and McComish.

We need a much bigger game from Ferris than he's produced so far. We may need him to be our main carrier if Williams is out. We've relied on Williams more than any other player so far!

1. We're not in difficulties man. Anscombe has been planning for such eventualities since the season began. I expect anyone coming into the team, be it Birch, Diack or McComish to be at the top of their game. That will be good enough.
2. Agree Ferris hasn't been at his best but he has only had two starts. There were flashes of him in full flow on Friday night though. I thought his lineout work on Friday was quite superb which is something we havent seen a lot of.
3. Isn't it that Williams has been hungry for this work? Maybe the game plan has been to use him as the main carrier? We also have Afoa and Tuohy who can up their quota as well.

I'm sure Henderson has played a fair bit of rugby at No.8 though maybe not recently.

Was just looking at our HEC squad there Rava and Ali Birch is not there.

Not sure how far Diack is off fit. He looked fine dandering around on Friday evening!

The lady beside us said that Roger Wilson was 2 weeks off fit but that might have been one week old news!

I read in yesterdays paper that Wilson hoped to play this weekend.
Birch not in the HEC squad? I know he hasn't featured at all since the pre-season game where he was yellow carded and (possibly) injured. I do think he played at the weekend in the AIL.

Notch wrote:Henry or Diack may offer us some more control at the base, thats been a problem for Big Nick at times. But is Diack fit? Doyle is now out, Wilson won't start, Henderson isn't an 8.

If Diack is fit it's a straight swap should Williams be ruled out. We're in difficulties if we have to re-jig with Henry at 8. He hasn't played there in a while and there's a big drop off at 7 between him and McComish.

We need a much bigger game from Ferris than he's produced so far. We may need him to be our main carrier if Williams is out. We've relied on Williams more than any other player so far!

Hendy's primary position at school was at number 8. He has only played 6 recently in fact.

Rava - very good point about Ferris and his work in the line-outs, I forgot about that. He had a spectacular game in that regard. He hasn't really been used to that extent in the past, has he? He must be adding more strings to his bow.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Rava - very good point about Ferris and his work in the line-outs, I forgot about that. He had a spectacular game in that regard. He hasn't really been used to that extent in the past, has he? He must be adding more strings to his bow.

If you were in that pack would you rather lift Ferris or Williams?

The thing is, Ferris is massive himself. Williams is just a giant!

Ferris is looking leaner and more athletic this season I think, outstanding lineout work and he's now looking for the gap or the pass a lot more than contact.

We'll need him to make a lot of hard yards if Williams is out mind you.

Yeah sort of agree with the Ferris comments. His lineout work has been spectacular and he's put in some huge hits.

However there is something not quite right with his ball carrying. He seems really reluctant to run and take contact and has been offloading very early. When he has taken contact he's been stopped in his tracks and even turned over a few times, which is very uncharacteristic.

He's also been standing off rucks and not getting involved to clear out, something that cost us against Connacht.

He does look lighter and fit but I wonder if his knee isn't 100% since his latest injury? Or maybe the plan is to adapt his game so he's doing less of the carrying?

It's still early days though so maybe he's just easing himself back in. I'm hoping to see a bit more from at the ruck and carrying wise though against Castres because Williams has been our go-to guy this season and will be a big loss.

rodders,

I will pretty much guarentee that his knee is nowhere near 100%. How he is still playing is a bit of a mystery.

However, I am also not at all sure that the man understands the phrase "easing himself back in".

Does not compute!!!

I reckon his role has changed somewhat with the arrival of Williams. Can you imagine the oppostion trying to guess whether they were about to have Williams thundering at them or Fez marauding up the pitch towards them!

Which one do they send 3 men to stop?

No I agree with that Mrs P. Having Williams there means we can use Ferris the decoy and vice-versa. Again his role changing is understandable as he adapts his game.

However the point still remains that when he has had the ball he's looked hesitant to run and has uncharacteristically lost a few collisions this seasons and struggled to gain yards at times.

It's early days and don't want to exagerrate the point, he has been playing well, but as others have pointed out already I thought I'd mention it too.

Last season he was the standout player in nearly every game we played but he has been a bit subdued so far this year.

I had thought about Ferris the other day. I couldn't figure out if he was less aggressive, or if it was just that side by side with Williams he seems less aggressive. One thing is true, teams generally have strict strategy about who is a ball carrier and who is a support runner or ruck hitter.

Its not written in stone of course, but Its probably a fairly obvious thing that Ferris has been told that the pressure is no longer on him to make the hard yards.

Funny to think, last season with pedrie on way out we were saying that we had been suffering from a lack of a big ball carrier over the past few seasons. I think we got a heck of a lot more than what we wished for!

How has iHump been getting on at London Irish, does anyone know?

And what of pedrie? Was he not away to Castres did I hear? Did he sign for them? Anything I find on google about him hasnt updated his loyalties from Ulster.

Clive watched the hilights of the LI v Saints game and Ihumph looked to have played very well. His partnership with O'Leary looks really good.

Haven't seen anything of Castres. Will Pedrie be at Ravenhill on Friday I wonder?

Trying to google Pedrie, and using Google translate. it would seem he got red carded in one of his first games for Castres.

In the past two months Ive only found him to have started one match and benched two.

He wasnt in Castres matchday squad last weekend.

I should add though that I'm not criticising Ferris, he's still for me the best player we have on the Ulster payroll.

I suppose he set such high standards last year, you get a bit concerned given his injuries if he's not hitting them. His improved lineout work has been very noticable.

I do agree that he hasn't been as noticable so far this season Rodders but he hasn't played much. I'm sure we will see him back to his rampaging best soon enough. Friday would be a good time!

I had a wee juke about Pedrie.

Seems he has been on the bench mostly. The red was for a second yellow (high tackle and then professional foul). He was not involved in their last game against Clermont (they beat the champs) but he was on the bench for the game against Biarritz.

I really hope we get to see him at Ravenhill on Friday.