Leicester Tigers vs Ulster - Welford Road ERCC

First topic message reminder :

Think this match deserves its own thread.

Leicester Tigers: Mathew Tait; Blaine Scully, Manu Tuilagi, Owen Williams, Vereniki Goneva; Freddie Burns, Ben Youngs (c); Marcos Ayerza, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Fraser Balmain, Brad Thorn, Graham Kitchener, Jamie Gibson, Julian Salvi, Jordan Crane
Replacements: Harry Thacker, Michele Rizzo, Tiziano Pasquali, Sebastian De Chaves, Robert Barbieri, David Mele, Sam Harrison, Miles Benjamin

Ulster: L Ludik; T Bowe, J Payne, S McCloskey, C Gilroy; P Jackson, P Marshall; A Warwick, R Best (c), W Herbst, L Stevenson, F van der Merwe, R Diack, C Henry, N Williams.
Replacements: R Herring, C Black, D Fitzpatrick, C Ross, R Wilson, M Heaney, S Olding, D Cave.

Benjamin seems to have forgotten how to tackle at half time. Couple of sloppy missed tackles and then steps in to give Ulster the outside break. Ulster seem to gaining momentum.

We are definitely missing Thorne's leadership now he's off.

Charged down conversion, bloody hell do we make this game unnecessarily complicated for ourselves

How often do you see a conversion charged down?!

Some urine poor kickin . Get it off the Frak pitch

told you it was on for Ulster, we're looking tired now

Hmmm, Best didn't look like he came in through the gate!!!!

What was Bowe thinking there?

What are tigers doing going for the corner? Ulster are a converted try away from a draw!

clivemcl wrote:What are tigers doing going for the corner? Ulster are a converted try away from a draw!

Mr P. Try time!

Had to kick at goal, I may be wrong

or maybe not!

Ulster must run with the ball the rubbish kicking is not helping

Goneva has been pretty poor in defence today

Last year, watching the game at Welford Road you got the impression both teams were contenders. Hard to see either of these teams as contenders this year.

forward!!

What a bad call from Poite- advantage over, it should be our put-in non?

Poite makes up his own rules it seems. He said advantafe was over

Very poor from Poite. Advantage over?

Well played Tigers good grit in the end

Notch wrote:What a bad call from Poite- advantage over, it should be our put-in non?

i agree, i think he's made a few bad calls today for both teams. I think best should of been pinged a few more times.

Congrats Leicester

Ulster

Good win for the tigers. You are never going to dominate for the entire 80 mins but they held their nerve.

Well done Tigers, better team and deserved win.

Very poor performance from Ulster. Disappointing to lose at Welford Road by 7? Yeah, in the circumstances, I thought it was a serious underperformance. Deflating but that point means we're not out of it yet.

We need to improve in so many areas for next week to stay in this pool I don't even want to think about it.

Think our confidence is slowly coming back. Ulster could of won today if they didn't have a nightmare first half.

Good game both teams made mistakes and the ref making it up as he went along

4-1 points split is ok for us.

But really, having been 20 points down and played 10 minutes with 14 men, that game was there for the taking.

That decision from Poite at the end is bizarre, how he can say advantage over and then give the scrum to Tigers is very strange. We got a penalty from the scrum, but by that time there was no time to go for touch.

Fantastic second half by Ulster and a cracking game overall. Both teams will be much better for the reverse fixture, it will be a feisty encounter.

Also I am pleased Ulster got the penalty from the final scrum . If they had been denied the chance to get a draw after Poite's howler it would have really put a downer on the win.

Artful_Dodger wrote:4-1 points split is ok for us.

But really, having been 20 points down and played 10 minutes with 14 men, that game was there for the taking.

That decision from Poite at the end is bizarre, how he can say advantage over and then give the scrum to Tigers is very strange.  We got a penalty from the scrum, but by that time there was no time to go for touch.

Sometimes it happens that refs are too quick to say "advantage over" after a kick and when it goes out on the full or goes dead they come back to the initial foul. I have seen it quite often actually.

Its perfectly OK for the ref to reverse that advantage over.

Great character from Tigers. They looked cream crackered in the second half whilst Ulster used their bench for some real impetus. I knew Ulster would come back into it and they were excellent out wide. Glad we held on.

Particularly pleased with Balmian who must have covered every blade of the pitch at 3 and with Gibson and Kitchener who were key to pressuring both the half backs and Best. Great to see the youngsters in the pack showing up well. Part of me would have liked to see Thacker come on for the last ten minutes though.

VinceWLB wrote:

Artful_Dodger wrote:4-1 points split is ok for us.

But really, having been 20 points down and played 10 minutes with 14 men, that game was there for the taking.

That decision from Poite at the end is bizarre, how he can say advantage over and then give the scrum to Tigers is very strange.  We got a penalty from the scrum, but by that time there was no time to go for touch.

Sometimes it happens that refs are too quick to say "advantage over" after a kick and when it goes out on the full or goes dead they come back to the initial foul. I have seen it quite often actually.

Really though, the point of declaring advantage over is that you had advantage and you've chosen to kick with it. The result of that kick should not allow the ref to reconsider his decision.

First time I have ever seen a conversion charged down! In the context of the first half, a losing bonus point isn't the worst result but given Leicester's injuries, this was a missed opportunity. Looking forward to going next week.

A LBP. Considering our 1st half display I have to be happy with that, if not the performance. Big improvement demanded for next week, but I believe we can do it at home next week.

Please can we start with Cave at Centre, and Payne at Fullback!?!

SUFTUM!

Not a moan, just a question from an idiot. For the Ulster jumping over the ruck try, if a tiger had tackled him it would presumably be a penalty for tackling a man in the air, right? So why wouldn't you dive over every ruck?

Munchkin wrote:A LBP. Considering our 1st half display I have to be happy with that, if not the performance. Big improvement demanded for next week, but I believe we can do it home next week.

Please can we start with Cave at Centre, and Payne at Fullback!?!

SUFTUM!

Ludik can burst through a defense. I'd like them both to start, but roles reversed. Payne at 15 is a no brainier as shown tonight.

Well done Tiggers.

I have no idea what was going on with our lineout. Between that and the terrible individual errors I also have no idea how we got a point out of that.

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Also I am pleased Ulster got the penalty from the final scrum . If they had been denied the chance to get a draw after Poite's howler it would have really put a downer on the win.

+1

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Not a moan, just a question from an idiot. For the Ulster jumping over the ruck try, if a tiger had tackled him it would presumably be a penalty for tackling a man in the air, right? So why wouldn't you dive over every ruck?

I don't think so. That would be overly fussy refereeing- what are you meant to do, just let him score?

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Not a moan, just a question from an idiot. For the Ulster jumping over the ruck try, if a tiger had tackled him it would presumably be a penalty for tackling a man in the air, right? So why wouldn't you dive over every ruck?

But your also not allowed to jump into a tackle, i actually have no idea how you would rule all three?

Alkmar, I have sympathy I did the same thing when I went to take my first conversion.

Looking forward to the return fixture. That was a good physical game.

clivemcl wrote:

Munchkin wrote:A LBP. Considering our 1st half display I have to be happy with that, if not the performance. Big improvement demanded for next week, but I believe we can do it home next week.

Please can we start with Cave at Centre, and Payne at Fullback!?!

SUFTUM!

Ludik can burst through a defense. I'd like them both to start, but roles reversed. Payne at 15 is a no brainier as shown tonight.

Lukik could well prove to be our best option at 13, Clive, but I would like to see a bit more of him there first. Just think we are better going with what we know next week. I wouldn't be very disappointed if Ludik was given the call though. Great player.

Yep. Payne shines at 15. Why can't IRFU/Ulster Rugby just accept that fact?

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Not a moan, just a question from an idiot. For the Ulster jumping over the ruck try, if a tiger had tackled him it would presumably be a penalty for tackling a man in the air, right? So why wouldn't you dive over every ruck?

Well, you don't really want to be touching the ball down on the opponent's side of most rucks.

And the in goal area is a bit of a twilight zone where some of the rules are different.

alkmaar67 wrote:First time I have ever seen a conversion charged down! In the context of the first half, a losing bonus point isn't the worst result but given Leicester's injuries, this was a missed opportunity. Looking forward to going next week.

Maurice Field managed several in white and green I think?

You see players diving over opponents for the Try line every week. Just VDM made it look much more dramatic. Smart thinking VDM

Flood had a conversion charged down a couple of years ago, but he takes his kicks from much closer than today's was.

Munchkin wrote:

clivemcl wrote:

Munchkin wrote:A LBP. Considering our 1st half display I have to be happy with that, if not the performance. Big improvement demanded for next week, but I believe we can do it home next week.

Please can we start with Cave at Centre, and Payne at Fullback!?!

SUFTUM!

Ludik can burst through a defense. I'd like them both to start, but roles reversed. Payne at 15 is a no brainier as shown tonight.

Lukik could well prove to be our best option at 13, Clive, but I would like to see a bit more of him there first. Just think we are better going with what we know next week. I wouldn't be very disappointed if Ludik was given the call though. Great player.

Yep. Payne shines at 15. Why can't IRFU/Ulster Rugby just accept that fact?

I'd rather see McCloskey at 13 to be honest. I think he is tailor made for the role, with a playmaker inside him.

How we managed a LBP I will never know. Dreadful performance from 1-9. I spare Paddy inclusion there because of just how bad Marshall was.

Not convinced at all Ulster, and gladly it's nothing to do with Jared Payne at 13

Munchkin wrote:Yep. Payne shines at 15. Why can't IRFU/Ulster Rugby just accept that fact?

Amen, the other centres we have are just too good to keep this little experiment going.

Notch wrote:

Munchkin wrote:Yep. Payne shines at 15. Why can't IRFU/Ulster Rugby just accept that fact?

Amen, the other centres we have are just too good to keep this little experiment going.

They are all pretty average though...mccloskey was found out tonight and was poor enough. the rest well...meh

Apologies, Congrats Leicester