Leinster v Ulster: AVIVA, Heino QF

[neiliog93]

Got out of jail there. Treadwell and Cave would be two guys I would single out for Ulster who played extremely well. If Treadwell can keep that up he'll definitely add to his very limited experience of the Ireland camp. Leinster got out of jail today because of youthful stupidity/arrogance from Stockdale.

Leinster's best players were Ross Byrne (even with a few mistakes), Conan, Ruddock, James Ryan (as always) and Adam Byrne (who grew into the game in attack, defence and the high ball after a shaky start). Just relieved to have gotten through the game, all the injuries (both pre- and mid-game) had a big impact, as did the disruption of having so many players in the Ireland camp for the Six Nations. They'll be better prepared, integrated and organised (as well as having had a wake-up call) for the semi-final, which I have a sneaking suspicion might be against Toulouse in the Aviva.

[Jackie Brown]

Gutted

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[Hippo]

Devastated for Leavy, he made a huge difference when he was on. Cronin was our best back and Ryan is a freak.

Stockdale keeps his head and we were goosed, a very close thing.

[Ruckedtobits]

That was as physical an encounter as Leinster have had in Dublin for a long time. Well done Ulster, a superb performance. Welcome back.

[awaaf]

I didnt see a replay but D Kearney seemed to do a good job in stopping Stockdale having 2 hands to play with for the non-try.

[CiaranIrl]

I've never been so deflated after a knock out win.

[Blueberry]

Conan, Ryan, Ruddock superb, great cameo from Mick Kearney.

Ross Byrne some balls for that kick with cramp.

Poite atrocious.......really atrocious....

Stockdale will be having nightmares.

Awful to see Leavy, does not look good.

If we can get Henshaw and J10 back and possibly Toner for the Semi we can make Newcastle.

Serious argument for risking no JGP and Lowe starting.

[Oldschool]

The old traditional HEC nerves are at me today!

Allez les bleus.

You left it late enough.

[blockhead]

Phew!
Ulster played well, no doubt about it, way above anything they have shown this season.
We were ok, but we showed a lot of balls for that last few mins and closed out the game.
For their 2nd try, seemed like an obvious forward pass in the build up to Marshall's grounding, they never showed a replay so ,,,,,?
Once again we found a way to win. Got to be proud of the guys. And the management of course.
Really hope Toulouse win tomorrow.

[blockhead]

Conan, Ryan, Ruddock superb, great cameo from Mick Kearney.

Ross Byrne some balls for that kick with cramp.

Poite atrocious.......really atrocious....

Stockdale will be having nightmares.

Awful to see Leavy, does not look good.

If we can get Henshaw and J10 back and possibly Toner for the Semi we can make Newcastle.

Serious argument for risking no JGP and Lowe starting.

Yes, Yes and Yes again.
We have got to get Jlo on the field.

[Blueberry]

Phew!
Ulster played well, no doubt about it, way above anything they have shown this season.
We were ok, but we showed a lot of balls for that last few mins and closed out the game.
For their 2nd try, seemed like an obvious forward pass in the build up to Marshall's grounding, they never showed a replay so ,,,,,?
Once again we found a way to win. Got to be proud of the guys. And the management of course.
Really hope Toulouse win tomorrow.

Looked well forward....

[Ruckedtobits]

Have no recording of that. Anybody know where I can get a stream replay?

[Dave Cahill]

Have no recording of that. Anybody know where I can get a stream replay?

Up on acrossthetasman.com already

[tingman]

Ulster fronted up but bottom line - if we play like that we will not win this thing.
We have players to return but we should be better. A fairly limited side made us look ordinary. Plenty of work
for Leo and the rest to do - we are simply not running to full capacity.

[Gearzbox2]

Crazy crazy game from minute 1 to 80
Before I get into our performance, hats off to ulster...they’re Defence was exceptional and not too shabby in attack too
They took the Racing blueprint from the final and really hammered our ruck and their line speed was very good

To us
We started shaky and gifted them 13 points, Ringrose charge down and 2 brain dead penalties in front of the sticks (Healy and O’Brien I think)
Our backs looked frazzled with their line speed and never settled and we played too much between the 2 10m lines when we should’ve targeted Lowry more in the air
Scrum went really well bar the last one and lineout was generally good, that 5m attack was a killer to lose, don’t know exactly what happened but looked like Fardy had no back lift

Major wake up call, squad will be better for it and imo that’s a huge banana skin to get over
Thought Conan, JR and DK were my stand outs

Interesting to see how tomorrow pans out, love Toulouse to do it but can’t see it happening

[tingman]

Go Toulouse- we will not want to travel to Racing playing like this....yes Ulster were good but we offered little offensively....thought our back 3 were insipid....Byrne is an athlete.....not convinced about having it all rugby wise.....DK spirited but limited.....Larmour for all the hype was a speed bump for Stockdale...this was a game made for J Lo....Overall we are not running full throttle.

[ronk]

The gaps were there when they sent shooters. We adjusted by playing deeper and some better passing from Reid. But we didn’t exploit it.

We need to improve in that area. They targeted Larmour’s passing under pressure. The options were usually there we just couldn’t get it to stick.

Don’t think Ross Byrne was fully fit, but he did well.

Adam Byrne did some effective damage limitation on Stockdale.

Not a good game for Schmidt: Best on crutches, Leavy on a stretcher. Most of the old reliables are injured or out of form.

[FourMasters]

Watching the highlights after being at the match - the Ringrose blockdown looks worse with each viewing. He ran sideways, then slowed down to kick. Two Ulster players right on him, but there were multiple Leinster forwards close by for protection if he took it into contact and fought to buy a few seconds. He's a smart guy, I'd be surprised to see him doing that again.

Stockdale - poor guy - but that habit of dotting down one-handed was going to bring trouble eventually. I guess it's good for Ireland that he came a cropper in a lower level match, and should learn from it.

[wixfjord]

Good result if not the performance we've come to expect I'd say.

Ulster's first 10, possibly 13 points were gifted to them, really surprised at Ringer doing the same thing twice.

Our backplay was pretty poor and I thought we could've done with RK starting. Larmour was caught a few times, albeit was probably our best back coming into the line.

Thought Ryan and Conan were our best players.

Most worrying now is our 7 selection. SOB just doesn't look like the player he was.

Can we win two trophies with him at 7?

I wonder might we see Penny dropped in at some stage...

[FourMasters]

I wonder might we see Penny dropped in at some stage...

Is Penny in the squad?