Westies vs. Nordies - The "Oh **** we don't want to play in the Amlin" Interpro

[Peat]

Rebranded for this occasion as the top of the table clash!

Ulster's squad

FORWARDS

Tom Court
Paddy McAllister
Bryan Young
Chris Henry
Rory Best
BJ Botha
Andi Kyriacou
Tim Barker
Johann Muller
Ryan Caldwell
Willie Faloon
Nigel Brady
Robbie Diack
Stephen Ferris
Pedrie Wannenburg
Dan Tuohy

BACKS
Adam D'Arcy
David McIlwaine
Andrew Trimble
Paul Marshall
Ian Porter
Paul Emerick
Jamie Smith
Darren Cave
Ian Whitten
Paddy Wallace
Ian Humphreys
Niall O'Connor

Connacht's squad

Forwards:
Ronan Loughney, Brett Wilkinson, Sean Cronin, Adrian Flavin, Rob Sweeney, Jamie Hagan, Andrew Browne, Dave Nolan, Michael Swift, Bernie Upton, Michael McCarthy, Ray Ofisa, Mike McComish, Shane Conneely
Backs:
Cillian Willis, Frank Murphy, Miah Nikora, Ian Keatley, Fionn Carr, Keith Matthews, Niva Taauso, Tiernan OHalloran, Aidan Wynne, Troy Nathan, Gavin Duffy, Darragh Fanning.

Preview/Ramble:

Two teams in great form and everything to play for. Connacht's forwards have a massive task in that the Ulster pack is now mildly ridiculous, but if they do win enough ball Ulster fans will break out in cold sweats every time Carr gets the ball. Connacht do have a good pack so no room for complaceny for Ulster, although I'd suspect with Taylor and Muldoon out Ulster should have the upper hand. Will that be enough given the disparities in kick ratio?

Will Ulster send out all their Ireland boys to secure the result?

Is Paddy Wallace going to start at 10 as ordered by the evil dictat of Grand Overlord Kidney?

Has anyone told Darragh Fanning that they loved his role in Man on Fire?

Will Brett Wilkinson get confused by all the Saffa accents, forget where he is and pass to one of the Ulster boys?

Can Johann Muller pull off the mighty feat of managing to persuade Caldwell not to commit a single infringement two games in a row? Will Caldwell even play?

Who will win Rory and Niall's secret bet as to who can miss more lineouts/pennos?

These are the questions I wish to see answered. And 5 points for Ulster would be nice... but a bit unlikely.

 

[tinchy17]

THIS SHOULD BE EASY FOR ULSTER! Even though Connacht have done well this season.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Connacht have home advantage, a new sense of belief, a winger who's a try scoring machine at present, a quality scrum which has come out of nowhere and a flyhalf who's throwing the ball around like it's 7s rugby, running from everywhere and kicking with over 80% success. Ulster have the pack to starve Connacht of possession, the most underrated winger and centre in Irish rugby (Andrew Trimble and Darren Cave) but their flyhalf doesn't have the distribution skills to get them enough ball nor does he convert enough chances (he's kicking at below 40%). This will be very, very close. I think home advantage will just about swing this Connacht's way in what could be a high scoring game: 30-24 to the home team.

Battles I'll be looking out for are Tom Court v Jamie Hagan, Rory Best v Sean Cronin and Andrew Trimble v Fionn Carr. Whoever wins those battles could be in pole position for a place in the international squad.

 

[Peat]

NOC's kicking percentage for the season is 61.54 - http://www.statbunker.com/rugby/btb/index.php?PL=competition&CompID=357&statType=ksr

He's also been involved in the majority of Ulster's tries and has created more scoring opportunities. His distribution gets a slagging it no longer deserves.

This said, I'd be utterly confident if we could swap fly-halves and am intrigued by the notion of Wallace-Whitten-Cave

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

Connacht should take this. In fact, I'd predict a rather confortable victory for them. No bonus point, but, say, three tries?

 

[coonor]

I think this game will be tight and thats why connacht have the upper hand with the better kicker and home advantage. I can see this game being one with alot of tries and I think the team with the best defence and most reliable kicker will win.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Connacht: Gavin Duffy; Troy Nathan, Niva Ta'auso, Keith Matthews, Fionn Carr; Ian Keatley, Frank Murphy (capt); Brett Wilkinson, Sean Cronin, Jamie Hagan, Michael Swift, Bernie Upton; Michael McCarthy, Ray Ofisa, Mike McComish.
Replacements: Adrian Flavin, Ronan Loughney, Rob Sweeney, Andrew Browne, Shane Conneely, Cillian Willis, Miah Nikora, Darragh Fanning.


Ulster: Jamie Smith; Paul Emerick, Darren Cave, Ian Whitten, Andrew Trimble; Paddy Wallace, Paul Marshall; Bryan Young, Rory Best (capt), Tom Court; Tim Barker, Ryan Caldwell; Stephen Ferris, Chris Henry, Pedrie Wannenburg.
Replacements: Andi Kyriacou, BJ Botha, Paddy McAllister, Dan Tuohy, Willie Faloon, Ian Porter, Niall O'Connor, David McIlwaine.

 

[munstermuffin]

Will someone tell me if Wallace starts at 10 does that mean it's possible ROG won't even make bench for Ireland any more

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

It's sad to see Ruan Pienaar still isn't available for Ulster. He will bring so much more variety to the squad. I hope Ulster can win this one and I hope to see some nice line-out action from Muller

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Muller, Diack and Pienaar are being rested for this one. Botha is on the bench. It'll almost be an Irish team taking the field rather than a South African colony in Belfast!

 

[Conal]

how many niq's arein the other provinces??
even if ulster lose tonight whcich i think is a possibility we wont end up in the amiln cant se the westeners holding onto this form all season
id love tosee caldwell do well but he probaly wont
if we losr tonight i bet now its down to ian keatly the man has been on fire recently

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Are you dyslexic or drunk? Your post is a bit messy

 

[Feicarsinn]

Will someone tell me if Wallace starts at 10 does that mean it's possible ROG won't even make bench for Ireland any more

That would be awesome!

 

[munstermuffin]

I think Feic it possible we will have
A scrum half
Wallace covering 10 and centres
A back covering back 3 too
that'll be make up of bench but it'd be a worry if Sexton did get injured

 

[Feicarsinn]

There'd be another back sub in there,but anyway, we digress. Ulster by 6.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

I think Connacht will win this with home advantage playing a key part.

Ulster will miss Johann Muller's presence in the second row- without him Caldwell is a liability and Barker is a nothing player. Best can't throw straight which'll impact on their lineout. Court is a quality loosehead but very average tighthead and Young's career never took off- picking Young and Court will see the scrum in a bit of bother. Wallace at 10 could be a good move since Whitten and Cave are developing a decent partnership. At least Wallace will get the ball wide unlike O'Connor who although improving, is still little more than a squad player.

 

[durbutter]

I think Connacht will win this with home advantage playing a key part.

Ulster will miss Johann Muller's presence in the second row- without him Caldwell is a liability and Barker is a nothing player. Best can't throw straight which'll impact on their lineout. Court is a quality loosehead but very average tighthead and Young's career never took off- picking Young and Court will see the scrum in a bit of bother. Wallace at 10 could be a good move since Whitten and Cave are developing a decent partnership. At least Wallace will get the ball wide unlike O'Connor who although improving, is still little more than a squad player.

#

Barker was decent in the games i saw this year. Even picked up a motm against Ospreys i think

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

He's not the type of player you build a team around and would be easy to replace in the lineup. That's what I mean by a nothing player.

 

[Peat]

I'm nervous about no Muller, the line out could go nastily wrong and if Caldwell goes stupid again its all uphill. Muller seemed to calm him. If Caldwell doesn't go stupid though, Barker and Caldwell are good enough. This pack should certainly front up to Connacht in the loose but both set-pieces are now at risk. Wallace at 10... could work, could not. Would have liked to see D'Arcy in simply to kick goals.

Too tight to call this. But a very good test of Ulster's strength in depth.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

After picking up Botha, Pienaar and Muller maybe Ulster should focuss on Ryan Kankowski as their next Natal Shark to move to Belfast It's sad to see Muller not starting. This will only be my 4th match of Ulster I am going to watch and I am very curious to see how they do without Muller