Saints v Ulster Match thread - Teams Up.

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shiversaint
Yet again I ask, what has happened to Grayson? Is there a culture issue with him or something?

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Chris Hoddle
We will be losing Dan very soon. We pay a great deal for him. He is one of the best fly halves in the land. Why wouldn’t you play him in one of the top games?

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Chris Hoddle
We will be losing Dan very soon. We pay a great deal for him. He is one of the best fly halves in the land. Why wouldn’t you play him in one of the top games?

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Deesaint

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Chris Hoddle
We will be losing Dan very soon. We pay a great deal for him. He is one of the best fly halves in the land. Why wouldn’t you play him in one of the top games?

Hearing this a few times
Dan resigned until end 2023 season same time as Courtney
He is enjoying his time at Saints and took a reduced remuneration package as did Courtney

Unless someone is buying out his contract

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Tidy

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Deesaint

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Chris Hoddle
We will be losing Dan very soon. We pay a great deal for him. He is one of the best fly halves in the land. Why wouldn’t you play him in one of the top games?

Hearing this a few times
Dan resigned until end 2023 season same time as Courtney
He is enjoying his time at Saints and took a reduced remuneration package as did Courtney

Unless someone is buying out his contract

I think he means to the 6 nations

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StBleach
You realise how out of touch you are with all things Saints when you look at a Team sheet and realise you don’t know half the players

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Walks11
How is Austin Healey still in a job?

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Awaywin
Basics letting us down again. Line out, scrum and kicking the ball off the field!

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shiversaint
It was interesting hearing Ferguson’s frustration at us blowing a line out.
We won’t win anything consistently without a moderate level of consistency at the set piece elements of the game. We’re still in it, but it would be an identity level change at half time for us to stay in it, I think.

I just can’t see how anyone thinks this approach to the game is sustainable. Feels like playing roulette.

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shiversaint
What on earth was that decision by Waller there? Textbook stupidity. How at that level of experience does he still do stuff like that?
And there’s the try as a consequence. Stupid stupid stupid.

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Longers

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shiversaint
It was interesting hearing Ferguson’s frustration at us blowing a line out.
We won’t win anything consistently without a moderate level of consistency at the set piece elements of the game. We’re still in it, but it would be an identity level change at half time for us to stay in it, I think.

I just can’t see how anyone thinks this approach to the game is sustainable. Feels like playing roulette.

That line-out summed up Saints for me. Forgot the basics, fannied around - and lost the ball.
But they're not doing too bad. If they can aim at the opposition and not their own feet, we could still win this.

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Awaywin
Basics letting us down again. Line out, scrum and kicking the ball off the field!

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Saint Gordo

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Longers

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shiversaint
It was interesting hearing Ferguson’s frustration at us blowing a line out.
We won’t win anything consistently without a moderate level of consistency at the set piece elements of the game. We’re still in it, but it would be an identity level change at half time for us to stay in it, I think.

I just can’t see how anyone thinks this approach to the game is sustainable. Feels like playing roulette.

That line-out summed up Saints for me. Forgot the basics, fannied around - and lost the ball.
But they're not doing too bad. If they can aim at the opposition and not their own feet, we could still win this.

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Awaywin
Basics letting us down again. Line out, scrum and kicking the ball off the field!

And we are feeling good about keeping the same coaches?

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Push Over
For once Austin said something sensible………too many unforced errors.

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Push Over
For once Austin said something sensible………too many unforced errors.

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Push Over
For once Austin said something sensible………too many unforced errors.

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shiversaint

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Push Over
For once Austin said something sensible………too many unforced errors.

Yep. Exactly.

We would perform so much better with a back to basics approach. It may not win trophies but we need some winning momentum now.

Like several of our other recent losses, Ulster clearly have a bit left in the tank if they really wanted to turn the screw. Some very classy play across the pitch from them, Ballycoombe (apologies unsure of the spelling) has been a joy to watch.

Their offloading game is quite exciting. Their 9 also stood out.

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shiversaint
Admiral effort at the end but 80 minutes too late.

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Berkshire-Saint
We are a poor team that doesn’t require any opposition to have a good game to win they just have to wait for our continuous stream of mistakes and capitalise.
I know there was a lot of praise for our result against Newcastle, with someone claiming Newcastle were a notoriously difficult team to beat, they are only a notoriously difficult team for us.
It’s got to the point where I’m just happy that whilst we have had a poor game that the scoreboard isn’t completely embarrassing. We are a team that kill ourselves and that is evident for all to see and we get the odd good game normally against a weaker side that we then think we are world beaters. And people will say we only lost by 4 but ultimately a late score when the game was gone only helps it look better than it was.

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Walks11

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Berkshire-Saint
We are a poor team that doesn’t require any opposition to have a good game to win they just have to wait for our continuous stream of mistakes and capitalise.
I know there was a lot of praise for our result against Newcastle, with someone claiming Newcastle were a notoriously difficult team to beat, they are only a notoriously difficult team for us.
It’s got to the point where I’m just happy that whilst we have had a poor game that the scoreboard isn’t completely embarrassing. We are a team that kill ourselves and that is evident for all to see and we get the odd good game normally against a weaker side that we then think we are world beaters. And people will say we only lost by 4 but ultimately a late score when the game was gone only helps it look better than it was.

Newcastle have beaten Chiefs away and home wins against Wasps, Bristol with a draw against Wuss this season. Last season they had 6 home wins including Sale & Quins as well as us so I’d say Newcastle is a difficult place to go and get a result and no not just us that have difficulty.

So yes we are a poor side but your Newcastle reference is an insult to them and dismissive of what was a good win last week. It’s funny, every week when we lose it’s us that are poor, it’s the ref, it’s this and that, very little reference to the opposition. When we win it’s the opposition that’s poor never us that play well

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stoofer
This was just another carbon copy performance for me. You can pretty much tell how things are going to unfold from the first five minutes. We’re just that 5-10% off in terms of standards and intensity against the more serious teams. Some of the tackling, especially around the tries, was particularly resigned imo.
Still, we collectively shrug and move on to next week. Getting rather boring though!

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Sir Hector
We were a mixed bag today but it could so easily have been different but for a few unfortunate errors. We were two scores down early on despite having had pressure and opportunities. Even so when we did score the momentum shift was noticeable and the Ulster forwards were blowing (so were we mind). Yes there were too many unforced errors, and Ulster off-loaded well and rode their luck. We scored two well constructed tries, their scores benefitted from our errors or luck in the case of the knock-on that wasn’t for their second try. We should have done better and a one or two percent swing our way would have given us the victory. It was all fine margins stuff really IMHO!

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Stoofer
Apologies Gordo, that wasn’t directed to people on here. More a comment on the general atmosphere of malaise around the club atm.
Even the post-match interviews and Fergie’s comments at pitch side seem relentlessly repetitive at this stage. Everyone seems to know what the problems are, but no one seems to be able to address them.

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shiversaint
What on earth was that decision by Waller there? Textbook stupidity. How at that level of experience does he still do stuff like that?
And there’s the try as a consequence. Stupid stupid stupid.

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stoofer
Apologies Gordo, that wasn’t directed to people on here. More a comment on the general atmosphere of malaise around the club atm.
Even the post-match interviews and Fergie’s comments at pitch side seem relentlessly repetitive at this stage. Everyone seems to know what the problems are, but no one seems to be able to address them.

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stoofer
.......Also your optimism!

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Matthew

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shiversaint
What on earth was that decision by Waller there? Textbook stupidity. How at that level of experience does he still do stuff like that?
And there’s the try as a consequence. Stupid stupid stupid.

I'm going to stick up for Waller a bit on this one, having just seen a replay of the moment on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Murray_Kinsella/status/1482780147958915073). Very easy for Waller's perception to have been: Litchfield's tackled, Ulster player goes for the ball and no Saints player contests the ball (so no ruck), so I'm good to tackle that player as soon as he's up with the ball. That tackle was made prematurely, but I'm not sure it's as dumb a moment as it first looked.

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Matthew
I'm not trying to say that it was the wrong decision, just that it's not as dumb a thing to have done as it might have seemed. I think Waller bodged the timing of the tackle, making it too early, but that's all.
It doesn't reflect this scenario, but how does the bit about 'any player gaining possession of the ball following a tackle can only be tackled by someone from the direction of their own goal line' work if the player gaining possession after a tackle has nobody between himself and the tryline he's trying to score over? No defender chasing him down is going to run around him before making a tackle nor be obliged to, surely?

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Dragonboy
So first try of the match directly traceable back to Alex hinging 7 points. 4th try directly attributable to Rory flying out of the line and missing the tackle creating a dogs leg. 7 points
These 2 issues are groundhog day moments. Time and time again but no one seems to learn.

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shiversaint
Admiral effort at the end but 80 minutes too late. I hate to say it but Skosan has not had a good few games, frequent handling basics for stuff a winger should be very strong at.

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Saint.Kenneth

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shiversaint
Admiral effort at the end but 80 minutes too late. I hate to say it but Skosan has not had a good few games, frequent handling basics for stuff a winger should be very strong at.

That’s like Captain Edward Smith complaining that the band was out of tune as his ship sunk. So much going wrong way before the ball gets to the wingers.

We play such a frantic game. It’s one thing to try offloading etc from anywhere on the pitch but where’s the structure? Where’s the tactics? Where’s the possession or the field position? Instead we try and play this high speed game where we are only seconds away from yet another dropped pass or knock on.

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Statesman
Ulster reserves far too good for us. We played some decent rugby but our basics are so poor that any well organised side is going to beat us. On a weekend were Prem clubs have done well in Europe that is a very disappointing performance.

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Matthew
Good shout, LeicesterSaint - we're quick to criticise when the top 2" doesn't get used, so let's be happy where we do see it!
Compare with the end of Wasps vs Toulouse if you like - Wasps kick a penalty when they could not possibly lose the game rather than kick for touch and aim for a fourth try, and Toulouse subsequently chase for a try (which they did get), risking injuries etc., when they couldn't even get a losing bonus point from it.

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Deesaint
I wish I could see improvements
Where is top 4 coming from
Where is our European challenge

Just wish I had the confidence that so many show

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Saint.Kenneth

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shiversaint
Admiral effort at the end but 80 minutes too late. I hate to say it but Skosan has not had a good few games, frequent handling basics for stuff a winger should be very strong at.

That’s like Captain Edward Smith complaining that the band was out of tune as his ship sunk. So much going wrong way before the ball gets to the wingers.

We play such a frantic game. It’s one thing to try offloading etc from anywhere on the pitch but where’s the structure? Where’s the tactics? Where’s the possession or the field position? Instead we try and play this high speed game where we are only seconds away from yet another dropped pass or knock on.

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Sir Hector
We certainly came off second best on the score board but I think Ulster were fortunate with the odd bounce, knock-on and fumble. Our backs created two good tries and I thought they played pretty well. We did struggle with kicks and high balls but I think I’d like to see better quality phase ball to work with.