We had more than enough in our team to beat
Treviso and considering they had been decimated the week before at the Liberty
Stadium it just highlights what a pathetic performance it was from us. In a
game where a bonus point was very much on offer, we put in one of our worst
performances of the season and ended up limping over the finish line with a two
point margin seeing us home.
While I don’t think the loss means we have
any severe problems, it does highlight some very interesting ones. Mainly our
loosehead situation which seems to be somewhat up in the air. I’ve been
questioning this for a while now: why did we start Callum Black in our biggest
game of the season against Leicester, and yet start Tom Court in the next two
Pro12 games? And on Sunday, Court was badly shown up by Fernandez-Rouyet yet
whenever Black came on the scrum was solid.
It makes me wonder who our best loosehead is.
Black has been one of our most improved performers this season and I would
start him this week against the Dragons due to Court’s perceived failings on
Sunday. It’s not up to me though, and I just wonder what Mark Anscombe sees in
Court to keep starting him. He appears to be struggling with the new
scrummaging laws and doesn’t have the same impact he used to. It will be
interesting to see how long Anscombe sticks with him.
This week I’d also give a start to Rory
Scholes on the wing. On Sunday he came on in the fiftieth minute and was our
best back within about five minutes with a strong burst near the line and then
a jinking run up the touchline from a kick-off too. With Michael Allen still
seemingly struggling to find the try line on a regular basis and Craig Gilroy
becoming a rather predictable winger for opposition defences to stop, it’s
maybe time to give Scholes his shot after a decent cameo in Italy.
Sunday’s game also proved that we have no
decent back-up to Paddy Jackson. James McKinney wasn’t trusted to fill the
Ginger Prince’s shoes and instead we had to watch as the Marshall-Pienaar combo
struggled as per usual. I’m not a big fan of Pienaar playing 10 (as you can
guess) and I still feel it should be a ‘break glass in case of emergency’
selection. For next season we desperately need someone who can partner Pienaar
competently during international periods – and probably someone who can fill in
for Pienaar in case of injury too.
But the main problem I want to address is
Ulster’s mindset for these games. In the big matches like the Heineken Cup and
interprovincials, we can match anybody as proven by this season’s Heineken Cup
pool campaign. But in the bread-and-butter Pro12 games such as Sunday, we are
suddenly found severely lacking. On Sunday we were very close to losing a game
that looked like an away banker on paper, and against Zebre back in December we
weren’t exactly convincing against them either.
Johann Muller is an exceptional captain,
don’t get me wrong, but these matches should be games we put away with relative
ease, and that means the captain should motivate his team accordingly. I’ll
admit part of the problem on Sunday was referee George Clancy who was rather
poor, but he’s still no excuse for our terrible play. It seemed like the
players were wandering around as if they had the five points in the bag and we
were nearly punished for it.
Although we weren’t punished this week, we
now languish twelve points off leaders Munster (albeit with a game in hand) due
to early season losses to the Dragons and Glasgow which we shouldn’t have lost.
It’s games like those that we really need to be winning every time, but time
and time again we don’t get motivated enough to win. That must change – I don’t
know how, but it has to somehow otherwise we’ll never win a trophy. In order to
win the Pro12 this season we’ll probably have to win two away knockout matches
– more than likely both in Ireland – and that’s never easy.
I back us to do it though. If we get there
and with a full team out I think we could defeat both Munster and Leinster away
as well. However, we’re not there yet, and Sunday proved that we are not the
complete package just yet. Nevertheless, we now sit in third place and we have
plenty of games to make up ground on the top two.
Anyway, rant over.
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