Dragons Vs. Ulster

First topic message reminder :

Venue: Rodney Parade, Newport
Date: Sunday, 8 March
Kick-off: 17:15

Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Ben Whitehouse, Martyn Lewis (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Gwyn Bowden (WRU)
TMO: Derek Bevan (WRU)


Newport Gwent Dragons: Geraint Rhys Jones; Tom Prydie, Jack Dixon, Ashley Smith, Hallam Amos, Dorian Jones, Jonathan Evans; Boris Stankovich, T. Rhys Thomas (c), Brok Harris, Andrew Coombs, Cory Hill, James Thomas, James Benjamin, Nick Crosswell.
Replacements: Rhys Buckley, Phil Price, Lloyd Fairbrother, Matthew Screech, Scott Matthews, Luc Jones, Carl Meyer, Ashton Hewitt.

Ulster: L Ludik; C Gilroy, D Cave (capt), M Stanley, M Allen, I Humphreys, R Pienaar; C Black, R Herring, W Herbst, D Tuohy, F Van der Merwe, I Henderson, C Ross, N Williams.
Replacements: J Andrew, A Warwick, B Ross, L Stevenson, R Diack, P Marshall, S Arnold, R Scholes.

That doesn't stop us playing on a Friday mind.

Late change for us, with Ebbw's centre Carl Meyer at 15 and Angus on the bench. Going to be interesting now

Pro 12 Referees -

http://www.pro12rugby.com/matchcentre/referees.php

19 refs in total :-
Irish = 7 (8 if you include Paterson)
Welsh = 5
Scottish = 3 (or 2 if disregarding Paterson)
Italian = 4 (Mitrea was born in Romania, but played rugby in Italy)

glamorganalun wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Sunday games should be shared equally between all twelve sides, regardless of TV. Why should we suffer more of them than anyone else?

The reson the Dragons play on the Sunday is Newport County grabbing the Saturday games in sum cases but this weekend they played away.

Good news the rain has stopped and the sun has come out, hopefully the ground will dry out a little.

I notice another Irish ref for this one, it will be interesting to see the stats for the Pro12 as there seems to be very few non Irish refs.

Hers the list of refs http://www.pro12rugby.com/matchcentre/referees.php

7 Irish, 5 Welsh, 4 Italians and 3 Scots

Lloyd Linton is from Belfast, so 9 Irish refs!

greygoose wrote:Lloyd Linton is from Belfast, so 9 Irish refs!

Both him and Paterson work for the Scotish RFU therefore classified as Scotish refs so 7 Irish is correct.

Louis Ludik is out, Craig Gilroy moves to fullback and Scholes comes in on the right wing.

Will be interesting to see how that goes, will be a more attacking fullback but will he suffer on the defensive side?

Risca Rev wrote:That doesn't stop us playing on a Friday mind.

Late change for us, with Ebbw's centre Carl Meyer at 15 and Angus on the bench. Going to be interesting now

Very true also the commentry will be in English, not many Welsh speakers in this part of Wales.

Looks like a tchange at 15 already making a positive impact for the Dragons.

Humphreys doesn't even pretend to try in defence

Jones exposed the weak defence in the Ulster 9 10 channel leading to 3 points. So far Ulster lacking in ideas so far.

glamorganalun wrote:

Risca Rev wrote:That doesn't stop us playing on a Friday mind.

Late change for us, with Ebbw's centre Carl Meyer at 15 and Angus on the bench. Going to be interesting now

Very true also the commentry will be in English, not many Welsh speakers in this part of Wales.

The commentary is never in English on s4c, what are you on about?! It's on the red button in English, but then it always is no matter where in wales the game is played.

That mishap between the centre's there was an absolute howler. Has there been a late change due to injury?

Well played Rory Scholes. Gilroy has been great counter-attacking so far!

Pienaar

We'll need to kick better than that!

Ian Humphreys drifts across killing the space then throws a very simple pass forwards. Paddy jackson can't come back soon enough...

The Saint wrote:That mishap between the centre's there was an absolute howler. Has there been a late change due to injury?

For me there was a man taken out which created the gap.

Ulsters forwards need to pull their finger out fast. Hitting some f£%&ing rucks would be start!

Just shown the replay yes Smith taken out, up to the Dragons captain to ask the question.

Awful performance from the forwards so far. Lazy, slow, inaccurate.

I can't agree with the scrum decisions. Herbst is dead straight, Stankovich is walking around.

Where the is the support for the ball carrier? Ulster need a bollocking at half-time.

The backs have hit more rucks than the forwards.

Clear pen should kick this one

There's a lot of Ulster forwards out there need to take a long, hard look at themselves.

Ulsters rucks and Kicking game have been dire in that half. Where is Clive Ross?
Dragons deserve their lead. Only positive is we are close at half time and when we get the ball through the hand we look dangerous

Is there any player more missed than Chris Henry? He'd sort out the rucks.

Ian Humphreys has been dire recently. At this point we may as well be throwing Stanley into 10 and see what happens. He wouldn't do anything special but at least he wouldn't make as many mistakes.

Notch wrote:There's a lot of Ulster forwards out there need to take a long, hard look at themselves.

You aren't wrong there mate, I am thinking of phoning the police in Wales to go looking for some of them because I haven't seen them in that half.

JmD wrote:Is there any player more missed than Chris Henry? He'd sort out the rucks.

Ian Humphreys has been dire recently. At this point we may as well be throwing Stanley into 10 and see what happens. He wouldn't do anything special but at least he wouldn't make as many mistakes.

He would certainly help, but it would be naive to think that the rucks would be drastically improved. It is a team game, and collectively the pack is slow and cumbersome, not to mention lethargic in everything they do.

They look aimless, and this is where we have sorely missed the leadership of Muller more than anyone.

Did I just see one of academy guys with Pink hair? I thought we hid all the hair dye after the Paddy Wallace incident

It's not complicated; every team a back makes a break and is tackled the first two players there are backs. Every f'ing time. Where the hell are the forwards?

Amos did not want to kick as he keeps being charged down

Jim Neilly gets a lot of criticism over his commentary, but he's the best in the commentary box today. My word Reggie Corrigan talks some garbage.

What the hell is Humphreys doing! That's brainless

Dragons need to wake up and get the ball away from scrum

chr!st, this is a horrible game

FFS we have no breakdown.

Time for yellow keep infringing Dragons back in front

Henderson you f'ing absolute moron. Why the f£4& would you do that. You complete idiot.

Another warning

Terrible decision. How could he have stopped?

Anyone has time to stop if you watch it in slow enough motion. Oh well, I'm sure he will be banned for 6 months.

JmD wrote:Anyone has time to stop if you watch it in slow enough motion. Oh well, I'm sure he will be banned for 6 months.

Where was the red though? You own them cards at the moment.

Some good stuff from the Dragons forwards

This performance from Ulster is just two fingers up to our fans. Absolutely disgraceful.

Another penalty a yellow a bit of hard luck with that one

JmD wrote:Anyone has time to stop if you watch it in slow enough motion. Oh well, I'm sure he will be banned for 6 months.

He took two steps after the kick and the second was on the kickers ankle and that penalty led to the try

Well done Dragons a deserved try, they need to build on this against 14 men

I think Ulster are doing well so far considering we are playing with only 7 players today

Dragons need to keep ball in hand