Ulster 2021/22

[Ruckedtobits]

Ulster
Mike Lowry; Rob Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Ethan McIlroy, Billy Burns, John Cooney; Andrew Warwick, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Iain Henderson (Capt.), Marcus Rea, Nick Timoney, Duane Vermeulen.

Replacements: John Andrew, Eric O’Sullivan, Gareth Milasinovich, Kieran Treadwell, Matty Rea, Nathan Doak, Stewart Moore, Rob Lyttle.

Sharks
Aphelele Fassi; Werner Kok, Lukhanyo Am, Marius Louw, Makazole Mapimpi; Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse; Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Thomas du Toit (c), Ruben van Heerden, Reniel Hugo, Siya Kolisi, Henco Venter, Phepsi Buthelezi.

Replacements - Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Khutha Mchunu, Hyron Andrews, Jeandre Labuschagne, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Grant Williams, Boeta Chamberlain.

Defintely one to watch, some big names on those two teams!

No room for Mart Moore in the Squad or is he injured?

Otherwise, this must be close to optimum line up for Red Hand,

[neill_m]

Ulster
Mike Lowry; Rob Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Ethan McIlroy, Billy Burns, John Cooney; Andrew Warwick, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Iain Henderson (Capt.), Marcus Rea, Nick Timoney, Duane Vermeulen.

Replacements: John Andrew, Eric O’Sullivan, Gareth Milasinovich, Kieran Treadwell, Matty Rea, Nathan Doak, Stewart Moore, Rob Lyttle.

Sharks
Aphelele Fassi; Werner Kok, Lukhanyo Am, Marius Louw, Makazole Mapimpi; Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse; Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Thomas du Toit (c), Ruben van Heerden, Reniel Hugo, Siya Kolisi, Henco Venter, Phepsi Buthelezi.

Replacements - Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Khutha Mchunu, Hyron Andrews, Jeandre Labuschagne, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Grant Williams, Boeta Chamberlain.

Defintely one to watch, some big names on those two teams!

No room for Mart Moore in the Squad or is he injured?

Otherwise, this must be close to optimum line up for Red Hand,

Marty Moore has concussion.

The Ulster Rugby Medical Performance team has issued a squad update ahead of Friday’s United Rugby Championship fixture against Cell C Sharks at Kingspan Stadium.

The following players are currently unavailable for selection due to injury:

Jack McGrath (hip)

Will Addison (lower leg)

Jacob Stockdale (ankle)

Cormac Izuchukwu (shoulder)

Greg Jones (thumb)

Marty Moore (concussion)

Tom Stewart (hamstring)

[the spoofer]

Ulster
Mike Lowry; Rob Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Ethan McIlroy, Billy Burns, John Cooney; Andrew Warwick, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Iain Henderson (Capt.), Marcus Rea, Nick Timoney, Duane Vermeulen.

Replacements: John Andrew, Eric O’Sullivan, Gareth Milasinovich, Kieran Treadwell, Matty Rea, Nathan Doak, Stewart Moore, Rob Lyttle.

Sharks
Aphelele Fassi; Werner Kok, Lukhanyo Am, Marius Louw, Makazole Mapimpi; Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse; Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Thomas du Toit (c), Ruben van Heerden, Reniel Hugo, Siya Kolisi, Henco Venter, Phepsi Buthelezi.

Replacements - Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Khutha Mchunu, Hyron Andrews, Jeandre Labuschagne, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Grant Williams, Boeta Chamberlain.

Defintely one to watch, some big names on those two teams!

No room for Mart Moore in the Squad or is he injured?

Otherwise, this must be close to optimum line up for Red Hand,

Marty Moore has concussion.

The Ulster Rugby Medical Performance team has issued a squad update ahead of Friday’s United Rugby Championship fixture against Cell C Sharks at Kingspan Stadium.

The following players are currently unavailable for selection due to injury:

Jack McGrath (hip)

Will Addison (lower leg)

Jacob Stockdale (ankle)

Cormac Izuchukwu (shoulder)

Greg Jones (thumb)

Marty Moore (concussion)

Tom Stewart (hamstring)

No Jordi Murphy.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I'd missed that Izuchukwu was injured again, tough run for him, out for about ten months with his ACL and now has a shoulder injury. Maybe it's not a bad one but he's already played barely any rugby in 13 months.

[Ruckedtobits]

Anybody got a live URC stream yet?

[cormac]

Anybody got a live URC stream yet?

It's on BBC2 NI and Tg4

[Ruckedtobits]

What a great performance by Ulster.......for 73 minutes and then nearly causing heart attacks across the URC in the last seven minutes.

Firstly congrats to McFarland for a truly superb scrum and maul performance by his pack, particularly in the first half. Huge congrats to John Cooney, back to his best Ulster displays and a worthy contender for MOTM, as was Stuart McCloskey. But Nick Timoney was the worthy winner of that award and he certainly indicated his worth as a possible Irish Squad player for the summer.

Lowry was very significant while he was on the pitch as were Burns and Hume, notably in the first half. McElroy created a try for Lowry but oh did he make a lot of mistakes, particularly when filling in at full back for Lowry.

If Ulster are to stay competitive in the remainder of the season, he must be reminded not to try counter-attacking on his own, behind all his team-mates. He also must focus on giving and taking a pass under pressure as at least twice he missed putting Balacoune away for tries when all the inventive work had been done inside him.

Henderson was awesome as an international second-row and as captain. He and Herring were magnificent in keeping the Ulster pack in the game and the quality of defensive tackles from both was top class international standard.

South African teams be warned. You may have given Irish teams a hard time on your patch but you're going to get some of that back on our turf. SUFTUM!

[enby]

I never understand how neither Joe nor Farrell have fancied Cooney. He definitely has been far better than Murray for the past couple of seasons.
Timoney was outstanding in all departments and it was great to see Henderson playing so well.
Ref was a bit of a homer, something that was even the one eyed BBC NI panel acknowledged. Nevertheless it was a well earned win for Ulster even if the last few minutes were a bit hairy

[blockhead]

Great game for the neutral but Sharks were disappointing in attack. If they couldn'y break Uster after 1-2 phases they ran out of ideas. Ulster backline is young and dynamic. Sharks seem to lack structure plus Kolisi was very quiet tbf.

[the spoofer]

Interesting comment that KRavenhill is turning to a 3G pitch.

[neill_m]

Ulster confirm that Jack McGrath will leave the province at the end of the season as he rehabs his hip injury. Sean Reidy, Dave O'Connor and Mick Kearney also depart, as does Ross Kane, who is already confirmed to be joining Ealing.

[neill_m]

Interesting comment that KRavenhill is turning to a 3G pitch.

Interesting, the players do seem to get some nasty injuries on them. Already one in Cork and Connacht putting one in with the redevelopment of the Sportsground.

[wixfjord]

Ah that's terrible news for Jack. Hopefully he picks up a contract somewhere. Hard to see him getting one in a province though.

[riocard911]

Interesting comment that KRavenhill is turning to a 3G pitch.

That's disappointing, but I'm not surprised. Compared to our one in the RDS their pitch in Ravers frequently looks in absolute rag order, as if they don't water it enough or something. Last Friday for the Sharks match for example the very centre of the pitch, where the restarts go from, was grass-free at about a half a metre diameter.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Ulster confirm that Jack McGrath will leave the province at the end of the season as he rehabs his hip injury. Sean Reidy, Dave O'Connor and Mick Kearney also depart, as does Ross Kane, who is already confirmed to be joining Ealing.

Always thought Kane was quite a solid TH, was surprised he never became a constant member of the 23.

Reidy has obviously dropped down the pecking order but they're even lighter in the back row now. They really need McCann to step up and maybe even Crothers, I'd say they could do with two signings.

[neill_m]

Ulster confirm that Jack McGrath will leave the province at the end of the season as he rehabs his hip injury. Sean Reidy, Dave O'Connor and Mick Kearney also depart, as does Ross Kane, who is already confirmed to be joining Ealing.

Always thought Kane was quite a solid TH, was surprised he never became a constant member of the 23.

Reidy has obviously dropped down the pecking order but they're even lighter in the back row now. They really need McCann to step up and maybe even Crothers, I'd say they could do with two signings.

Did sign Irish Qualified backrow Sean Reffell from Saracens.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Ulster confirm that Jack McGrath will leave the province at the end of the season as he rehabs his hip injury. Sean Reidy, Dave O'Connor and Mick Kearney also depart, as does Ross Kane, who is already confirmed to be joining Ealing.

Always thought Kane was quite a solid TH, was surprised he never became a constant member of the 23.

Reidy has obviously dropped down the pecking order but they're even lighter in the back row now. They really need McCann to step up and maybe even Crothers, I'd say they could do with two signings.

Did sign Irish Qualified backrow Sean Reffell from Saracens.

Yeah I forgot about him alright, thanks!

[Aird]

With regard to the pitch at Ravenhill unlike the RDS which is only used for occasional Leinster matches that aren’t being played at the Aviva there are a whole series of cup finals etc with regard to club and schools competitions that are played there especially at the latter end of the season on the pitch.
I know that the branch have tried to reduce the number of games but it is still a big deal for schools and community clubs to play on the in any peoples minds the hallowed turf.
But they are certainly reviewing the question of renewing the pitch but not necessarily a 4 G pitch as experience has shown that they can cause un necessary injuries and some very unpredictable ball reactions.
Like Leinster and the new RDS development these things take time and money and the branch will want to try to get it right and doubtlessly there Landlords will also have an input.

[ronk]

The RDS, like the Aviva is a multisports venue. A 4g pitch isn't possible because of the lease in both places. Moving the other sports isn't remotely feasible.

[Dave Cahill]

Ulster tweeting that they'll be announcing a new signing 'soon'