I’m just not sure he’s concerned enough about what he’s seeing. All the emphasis on an open free-flowing brand of rugby, but it is missing the hard edge needed to set the conditions to allow the backs to open up. No mention of focus on retention of the ball when they do have it. Nothing on the scrum.
Out picking up a few bits in Lidl last night and they had a bunch of these on the shelves, as fronted by everyone’s favourite hard as nails adopted Ulsterman utility back. I’d read that he’d got a deal with Lidl, but never seen them in my English shops until now. Maybe still time for a BBQ before summer ends? 😎
Conditions clearly not only affecting Ulster. And Montpellier are three places higher up the Top 14.
And looking to the future, of two teams who have come up fairly short this weekend, Ulster are the younger and with more ceiling to reach.
Look, I’ve enjoyed a lot of this season as much as anyone, the first half especially was a step forward and a breath of fresh air. But missing top 8 is still a terrible result. Even winning next week - feels like it would be a massive outcome - doesn’t cover for the collapse in the latter part of the season. I’m not a Richie critic, i think he has taken Ulster forward, but that squad has underperformed. Tell me I’m wrong?
Despite the late call in tonight’s game, Doaky has been outstanding and gets better every week. Surely must be in line for automatic international call ups now - it’s a good job Devine is on the way.
Was this expected? I can’t remember if I’d seen any rumours. Good luck to him, did good things for Ulster when he joined, but lost the players before he left.