Ulster V Edinburgh 2/12/23

Be Better

I hate to break it to some of you but Edinburgh are not Leinster but based on some of the comments following last weeks defeat you’d think that we were. If you’ve followed this club for any length of time you must know that humiliating defeat, defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, unexpected defeat and just aww for petes sake defeat are always just round the corner.

You are allowed to be disappointed because we should be better, that’s a given. There is however no excuse for comments like, ‘you are trash’ and ‘twats’. I even had to block and report someone for mysognist abuse of the referee, and heard reports of similar from the stands as well.

Bottom line folks, if you come across that kind of language at the game report it to a steward. We want our ground to be a hostile place for the opposition so that they don’t look forward to coming to us but we should be doing that via a hopefully noisy support of our own players/club and by a great performance on the field.

We didn’t get that performance against Benetton unfortunately.

I had to leave the ERS at halftime on Friday due to a family emergency so didn’t get to see the second half live. I did read some of the opinions about how it all went wrong though so when I did get to review the game in full those were at the forefront of my mind. There were 2 main things that came up.

1. Lack of leadership/poor decision making

2. We took it for granted

Last things first. When I took my leave at HT we were ahead by two scores. We had scored 3 tries, had another three chopped off and it seemed like we were cutting Benetton apart. Even their try had come from an interception when Edinburgh were on the attack (and was there a high tackle on Healy that led to the turnover?). So if you’d have asked me I’d have said there was 30 Edinburgh points on the cards for the second half. Was that attitude echoed onfield?

I don’t think so. At 53 minutes we took the 3 points that followed the Yellow card issued to Mirco Spagnolo. A sensible and pragmatic decision based no doubt partly on the fact that it was an easy kick for Healy and then Benetton would kick the ball back to us at the restart with the bulk of the YC period still to come.

The trouble is that decision looks at odds with the one taken at 66 minutes to go to the corner instead of for the 3 points. A slightly harder kick but one well within Healy’s ability which would have given us an 8 point lead with only 13-14 minutes to go. At that stage it must have been apparent throughout the team that Benetton were on the front foot and had dominated possession and especially territory in the second half. It felt like a moment to protect the lead, keep the scoreboard ticking over and retain possession from the restart. Instead we failed to take the lineout and then conceded possession repeatedly with handling errors all the way back to our own try line. We could have been 2 scores clear instead we ended up 2 points behind and chasing it.

As an aside if I was Eli Snyman i’d have bet my last euro on that throw going to Gilco. It’s pretty much our go to at crucial moments. If I know it then Benetton certainly do.

Overall It just felt like we fell off the pace in the second half and couldn’t find a foothold to change the narrative. Maybe that IS an on field leadership issue.

Following on from only our third defeat at home in 2023 we head to Belfast to take on Ulster who we haven’t beaten since a 17-18 victory in 2018 at the Kingspan. John Cooney scored all of Ulster’s points that day - a try, a conversion and 3 penalties but Edinburgh won it at the death with a Duncy Weir drop goal. A memorable win as it was not only Edinburgh’s last victory against Ulster but it was only the 4th time in our history that we’ve won across the water. Our overall win rate v Ulster is 28%. We’ve actually beaten Leinster more often.

Our last outing in Belfast came at the end of Mike Blair’s reign last year. Despite some decent moments in the game we had little to play for and Ulster needed the win to secure 2nd place in the league. it showed.

Ulster were pretty quiet in the recruitment stakes in terms of numbers in the off season but did bring in some quality in the shape of double world cup winner Steven Kitshoff and Exeter Chiefs double centurion Dave Ewers. Kitshoff finally made his debut off the bench last week v Glasgow but his presence wasn’t enough to get them past the Scotstoun side. Ulster lost their replacement fly half Jake Flannery before kick off. He was replaced by Nathan Doak, not a bad replacement, but then their starting 10 Billy Burns had to go off injured after only 20 minutes. It may not have changed the outcome but they were 14-0 up when Burns was subbed and then didn’t score another try in the rest of the match.

Their season so far is almost identical to Edinburgh’s with only the fact they have scored one more try than us meaning they are 4th while we are 5th.

Ulster have apparently used 46 players in the opening 6 fixtures of this years league. This is the most of any side and they continued to ring the changes this week mostly due to injury. The likes of Ian Henderson and Luke Marshall as well as the aforementioned Flannery joined an already lengthy injury list following knocks sustained against Glasgow.

It means that Nathan Doak continues to cover the 10 spot from the bench whilst Billy Burns is again fit to start alongside that man Cooney who has caused us so much trouble in the past.

Kitshoff gets his first start and at eight 20 year old James McNabney, who was impressive even in defeat to Glasgow retains his place. Ulster’s joint top scorers, Hooker Tom Stewart and winger Jacob Stockdale who are tied on 5 apiece are also set to start.

For Edinburgh Ewan Ashman retains his spot at hooker following the injury to Cherry with McBurney coming onto the bench for the return to his old stomping ground. Contrary this Ultimate Rugby Graphic he is the hooker replacement and it’s actually Tim Swiel that starts at 15.

Gilco gets a rest and the young team of Hodgson and Sykes occupy the second row and Big Bill resumes his residency at 8.

This week it’s Vellacott getting the start at 9 whilst Ben Healy (when does he get a rest?) starts his 7th game in a row at 10. Duhan apparently is out with a concussion which he must have got when he did the rugby equivalent of walking into a door (the posts v Benetton) so Harry Paterson gets a shot on the right wing with Goosen switching across.

For all the talk of a decent start to the season and an upturn in our fortunes the bald fact is that only a win against Ulster will mean that we are in a better position points wise than we were after 7 games last year. Lose and it’s played 7, won 4, lost 3 which is identical to last year at the same point. In terms of league position we are currently fifth with 18 points. Benetton, Connacht, Munster and Ulster are at the same mark. again, a win might see us climb a place but a loss and we will undoubtedly slip down the log (sounds painful). Last year after 7 games we were fifth.

Small margins in a very tight league.