dobby wrote: I tend to call muck muck.

How about you go to the ploughing championships so?

To be fair Dobby has some good points about tonight game.

Kelleher has lost his spark, I cannot remember the last time he took on and beat his man.
Healy is struggling to find form, (but I have a feeling he will be back soon)
You have to take points when they are available.
And try to KL get another opportunity to win the game.

The problem is Dobby, you are probably the best person here to pick out the negatives. You are never positive.(try to be positive once in a while it's good for you)

I always believe you must try to be balanced in all aspects of life.
And the end of the day we do not have the budget and players of other squads.
All the players are giving their best which is all we can ask.

There is vast improvement over the last 2 games especially defence.

If we can win the remaining home games. And
Reverse our the losses we had at home when we meet them away. We can still get Top 3.

All teams will take points of each other this year.
We are a small band of supporters, let's get behind the team.

Even though I'm feeling a bit pessimistic about our start to the season it really is fairly fine margins and one or two individual errors that has been the difference between wins and losses, so at least we can take solace in that. In many areas we do look better game after game, but it continues to be a number of basic issues that are letting us down, also decision making at times can be quite poor, like throwing passes when their not on and missing kicks/ not taking kicks. But rugby like any sport is results based and without a win soon the morale of the team will struggle to improve, so let's hope we can get two wins under our belt in the Challenge Cup and come into the Munster fixture with some confidence, because due to Ospreys awful start and Cheetahs ineligibility we still could land a European spot via the league if we get our act together.

I thought we all learned a lesson about taking 3 points after Toulouse away last year.

We're now 12th overall in the championship...

I was so optimistic about this season, I still think we can improve but it's going to a long season

NI folks are not much fun.

Enda wrote: Have to say, really poor of the Ravenhill crowd jearing Carty taking that penalty.

Nobody (in rugby) does belligerence like a Ravenhill crowd when the game is running against them... I've always found it a miserable atmosphere for games (being 5 mins from the ground I go to a few from time to time), great when Ulster are doing well, dour verging on unpleasant when they're not.

Neil Francis wouldn't give us a chance if we were the only ones playing not sure if you realised but he never has had much time for us down the yrs !!!!
Even though my Irish is poor at best I would rather watch TG4 than listen to Jim neiley on bbc Ulster

Dobby go back into your box

Conn Not 65 wrote: In our last 2 games we have come on in leaps Tonight loads of good performances but there is a lack of cohesion genuinely think we're getting there . The body language around the park is way ahead on last year. On a side note the BBC coverage tonight was rabidly partisan. Their reaction to Jack being booed was shameful. If I witnessed that in the Sportsground I would have been disgusted

Muted it and listened to music for the second half while watching. Robson is nothing short of hilariously inept, doesn't know players names, mixes players up (backs and forwards ffs), and doesn't seem to have even a slight rashers of the rules or even what's going on. At one point Bundee clearly did a clever quick release and regather of the ball and he called it a "tap and go". They might as well give the mic to Joe Bloggs Ulster supporter in the crowd.

Evil_g wrote: You single handedly ruin this forum and the thread on Boards.

Darn it. I do hugely apologise. I tend to call muck muck. If that hurts your feelings then ....

In our last 2 games we have come on in leaps Tonight loads of good performances but there is a lack of cohesion genuinely think we're getting there . The body language around the park is way ahead on last year. On a side note the BBC coverage tonight was rabidly partisan. Their reaction to Jack being booed was shameful. If I witnessed that in the Sportsground I would have been disgusted

can't believe the pessimism on here. how many teams beat Ulster n ravenhill ? very few. and we cud easily have beaten them. neil francis amongst others said ulster wud score 40+ points, they didnt. Ulster played as well as they were allowed. I really think our performances are improving week on week, the win will come next week. our scrum was brilliant. we were unlucky to lose TOH early on. challenge cup is a great opportunity for us......

Good post spot on on a lot of your points

Low quality game and a frustrating outcome. Defence showed some signs of improvement although I'd reserve too much judgement on that based on how poor Ulster were but in attack we're blunt and toothless as we've been for a long time. The try was just poor option taking and a potential 14 point swing.

The decision making at the end in 3 or 4 different instances frustrated the life out of me. We worked really hard tonight and by making rational decisions at the end we'd at least have gone home with 1 point for our efforts and something to build on.

For me the Pro 14 season died the day we lost to Cardiff but for now we need to park it and move on. The Challenge Cup group presents us with a huge opportunity. If we can win next week given the mess Worcester and Brive are in domestically we'll have a great chance at a home quarter final. Anything other than 2 wins in the next 2 weeks and it's going to be a long grim winter following Connacht.

In terms of the wider picture for me we just don't have the ball carriers up front and we just lack the necessary quality from 10-15 that we had. Our squad seems to be stacked with an awful lot of middle of the road players. The recruitment in the last couple of seasons has really let us down. I understand we probably don't have the same budget to work with as the year we brought in Bundee, Tom McCartney, Muliaina etc. but the painful reality is that we haven't really brought in anyone that has really improved the first team in the last couple of years. Maybe Butler will but losing Muldowney, Henshaw, McGinty, Nathan White and the best of players like Matt Healy along with frequent injuries to other key players we needed some reinforcements and we haven't pushed on.

The moral win was last week. This was a game we threw away several times and didn't show any intensity until there was 90 seconds left on the clock in that second half. Serious questions need to be asked because teams have figured out who to target in our attacking line like Bundee and Heff. Our tactical kicking has been dreadful too from all parties.

We weren't any worse than Ulster tonight tbh. Healy gets another few yards on that chip and we win the game by 6 points.