Ulster lost against the Ospreys by 27 points to 38.
Despite a scintillating first half of rugby the Red Hand men failed to kick on in the second and a few mistakes and frustrating referee decisions allowed the clinical Ospreys to claim the win and a bonus point.
A subdued Tommy Bowe dotted down for the deciding try with minutes to go to add to the Ulster supporters woe.
Full report below.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief”
As I said above in my spoiler Ulster actually played some exciting rugby in the first half. Power, pace, big hits, explosive drives and exciting offloads all over the place. The move that resulted in Danielli’s try was wonderful to watch with the forwards exchanging intricate passes in confined spaces all done at pace – fantastic.
I’ve always said that Ulster’s forwards are much more attacking with Diack in place and the South African repaid my faith in spades with a breathtaking display of back row finesse putting him head and shoulders above every other player on the pitch – from either side.
The entire team tried their hardest from start to finish and I don’t think there was a single player that didn’t give their all, but here we are again after another home game talking about another defeat. So where did it go wrong?
To me there where two areas where Ulster lost this game, it basically came down to poor decision making on and off the pitch.
On the pitch the first error, in my mind, was early in the first half when Ulster had the O’s scrum under pressure on their line and were awarded a penalty. A more confident side would have went for the scrum again but Ulster opted for the penalty, the resulting three points was not only scant reward for the previous efforts of Ulster, but also let Ospreys off the hook.
Ulster backed down again midway through the second half when they were chipping back at the Ospreys lead. Gough had just been binned and Ulster have a penalty. Instead of kicking to the corner they opt for the posts, again successful, but to me a real cop-out and I think it was this decision that swung the game the Ospreys way.
The off pitch decisions were harder to fathom and, to me, are really more worrying.
It was fairly obvious from early on that Ulster’s forwards were up for this one as they supplied ample ball. Diack provided the link between forwards and backs and the game was begging for a ball handling out half to exploit the opportunities that Ulster were opening up.
Now while Niall O’Connor is a gifted young man with many talents, a fantastic pass, sound defence and terrific boot, I’m sure he would be the first to admit that broken play is not his forte. Why he was not replaced by, one of the best exponents of broken play running, Ian Humphreys as soon as the pattern of the game became clear I will never know. A shocking decision in my opinion.
The second issue is the continued misuse of Rory Best. Once again Rory had given his all by the 50 minute mark and needed replaced as much for his own well being as anything else, but yet again the management fail to act. Both Brady and Kyriacou have performed more than adequately in Rory’s absence this season, both with more wins this season than Best so why the management continue to flog this valuable asset into the ground match after match since his return from his extensive injury is beyond me. To be brutally honest Rory’s line-outs are no great shakes at the minute (one attacking overthrow in the O’s 22 leading to Williams try 2 or 3 plays later) and all three hookers have demonstrated excellent broken play throughout the season, with Kyri probably edging it with his pace.
Both these on field and off field decisions point to a lack of confidence in the squad and it’s something that the management cannot be addressing, for when push comes to shove they have shown little confidence in the squad sticking with their favourites irrespective of performance or results. However what has been the most frustrating has been the lack of ability of the management to assess the game as it unfolds and this has been Ulster’s downfall this season.
Having said all that, Ulster’s last two performances have been a distinct improvement on the two games before that and with a bit of faith in the talented players we have, allied to few Southern Hemisphere bruisers in the pack should put us nearer where we want to be. The question is does McLaughlin have the confidence, belief and ability to take us there?
11 Responses to “Ulster 27 Ospreys 38”
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I am glad Dewi has finally got off the fence and come round to what the Raven has been telling him for months. O’Connors limitations where cruelly exposed last night. If ever a game was made for Humphreys this was it and yet McLaughlin inexplicably kept him on the bench. I have been critical of McLaughlins tactical nous since our win at Bath which resulted in us been dumped out of Europe so I will not dwell on the Head Coach this post.
I have carried out an analyses of Ulster performances in the last twenty minutes of every Magners League game this season and it clearly shows this is where our problems are. Of the 15 matches to date Ulster have failed to out score ANY of our opponents, and that includes 5 wins, in the last quarter of any of any league match this season. This to me points to the conditioning of the players, is it good enough, and a misuse of the bench. No doubt Humph Snr will read my post as usual and make the appropriate adjustments.
Thankfully Diack has proved to one and all who the best number 8 in Ulster is, well done Robbie. If only Brian would realise that the best number 10 in Ulster still goes by the name of Humphreys things would be a lot easier for him.
What are you squawking about Raven. I’ve always said Humphreys is Ulster’s most attacking outhalf and if the pack is on top he’s the best option to exploit the front foot ball.
However, O’Connor is a hell of a lot more talented than some of the anonymous cowards on message boards are making out. Aged only 22 he is undoubtedly one of Ulster’s most talented young players and has developed his game tremendously this season.
Editor ……….. are you Matt Williams in disguise?
He he! Just call me Swiss Dewi!
Now that your flights look cancelled tomorrow Raven are you just going to walk across to Scotland?
It is my belief that the Ulster management decided that Ulster should play a flat attacking backline with O connor running at the opposition hoping that a delayed pass to the centre at pace would provide the gap for the break. It is a very high risk attack and makes for the suicide pass and the interception.
Myself I prefer the Ulster backs to run form deep to provide the wings with quick ball in space it also makes a defence which lies near off-side ( if not off-side ) more obvious .
O’Connor in the off season should spend some time working to develop an up-n-under and grubber kick to add to his long boot and soft across field kicking thereby he might be able to vary the attack more. His other major weakness appears to be a tendency when running with the ball to run at an angle across field– if an out half runs across field the problem is the whole backline runs at the same angle across field denying space to the wing and taking the defence across the field as well.
Dewi I can’t agree with your take on going for a scrum when points are available from a penalty early in a match.
given that most referees ( and esp scottish referees ) haven’t a clue about scrummaging — if the scrum drops its 50/50 the penalty will go to the opposition.
With regard to the Best substitutions I doubt if it would or would not have made a difference and it could be that management consider that two substitions in the front row would weaken the scrum .
Similiarly while Humphreys may add flair; against the Os backline his weakness in defence would have been a serious liability — Humphreys in defence drifts onto wing and would definitely not offer much against two lion’s wingers.
The match in my opinion was not decided in the first few minutes of the first half but in the first 10 of the second half when the six point cushion was lost. The Os had always the potential to score trys in the second half thus the two quick penalties increased the pressure on the Ulster players for the rest of the game.
The chargedown kick try was a soft try but there are better outhalfs than O Connor have suffered the same fate. the last try was really down to Ulster chasing the win.
As usual the referee ( scottish ) was of debateable quality not only for the decisions made but the decisions he failed to make one of the biggest being near the end with Ulster attacking the Os line Fuzzy Jones off his feet diving down on the ball in the ruck — and the scrum is awarded to the Os
I’m not going to say I was surpised that Ulster didn’t win more surprised that given the quality of the opposition that Ulster came so close to winning a much improved performance
Dewi, at least I’m not an anonymous coward…perectly happy to openly criticise NOC. Watch my lips – he’ll never make the grade!!!!! Reckon he cost us about 18 points between missing easy kicks and giving away another joke try. Humps jnr. is not the complete answer for us, but dammit he’s vastly superior to NOC.
Diack was outstanding, which probably means he’ll be sent back to the bench again.
Can I start a bring back McCall campaign?
Look forward to seeing you put forward your forthright views at the URSC AGM next week.
They won’t let me in. Apparently you need to be a member or something like that. What is the world coming to, I ask you.
You can still join and prove that you’re not an anonymous coward!
How many points has Ian cost us ? but then we all see what we want to see !!
No’C will never have the instinct of Ian but then Ro’G never had the instinct of David
But Ro’G recognised the talent he had and worked to perfect it
Compared to Ro’G — No’C has a better defence is faster and has a better pass but and this is the major difference RoG controls the game with his boot and always knows exactly what he is going to do before the ball hits his hands.
He set his objectives and work hard to achive them.
NoC has a lot of work to do to say he lacks talent is a falsehood — he has to recognise the difference between what he can do and perfect those talents he has.
With regard to his place kicking he has to realise that kicking the ball hard only magnifies any directional error it really is not necessary to kick the ball out of the ground every time.
I have always thought Ian had talent ball- in- hand unfortunately his lack of defence is in my view a incorrectable weakness because it is not due to an error in technique but reluctance when faced one on one.
the mote – I agree with your comments, NOC can perfect those raw talents with good coaching and practice and become a reasonable 10 in my humble opinion. IH on the other hand has matured and has those deft touches with the boot , but his defence is his weak point probably because of his lightly built frame.