Pienaar can't return quickly enough for Ulster

Difficult first night out for Ulster’s half-backs as they are downed by the Men of Gwent, writes Manus McMichael…

As Ulster started the season this weekend they had a poor outing more reminiscent of the Ravenhill men from four or five years ago. Knock-ons, poor restarts, poor decision making and goal-kicking completely off the radar.

The lineout collapsed, almost a complete liability, turning over the ball more often than not. Complete domination in the scrum and maul were not used to the full benefit, and the back row was absolutely outplayed as the carrying, tackling and rucking had little effect throughout. Having said that, Roger Wilson's score was a very patient and calculated effort. Also his control at the back of the scrum was exceptional, The “Sarge” was missed last year in the tight games.

Paul Marshall had a disastrous outing, being charged down, caught in possession and passing repeatedly behind the first receiver or above their head. Jackson admittedly had a very good game in the 10 shirt, as an outhalf. With a somewhat inexperienced centre partnership and left winger. Taking the ball to the gainline, fast fizzing passes and great accuracy considering the service he had been getting. Kicking for goal from the young man though was once again inexcusably bad. Nothing really else to say here, as it has already been said by the masses of “experts” on Twitter. A real long hard look at the way the he kicks the balls is going to need to be taken. He was not this bad of a kicker a few years ago, and he has not lost any confidence by the way the rest of his game looks, so something is up with his technique. And even though it is not required for an outhalf to kick for goal in rugby per se, this is Irish Rugby, and in Irish Rugby outhalves live and die by their goal kicking. There is no other way to describe how our coaches and selectors approach the number ten position. To ensure that he stays within the plans of the IRFU, he must address the problem to progress as a player.

Ian Porter was a welcome replacement at half-back. His pass was considerably better and his decision-making is somewhat more conservative, if not maybe too conservative at times. He had a nice break down the right flank, some classy hands shown on the way. At the end of the game Ulster where pushing and punishing the Dragons on their tryline, basically all the Welsh forwards where drawn in to the collision area, and the Ulster backs were clearly screaming for the ball as a try was certain down the left, yet Porter stood back and let the likes of non-penetrative carriers such as Declan Fitzpatrick take the ball on first-up crashes and pick and goes – all the way from one side of the pitch to the other, perhaps this is where the ever mercurial Paul Marshall becomes a hero as he so often does. It is my opinion that Porter should start next week and that Marshall should be brought on as the “Super-Sub”. That is where his strength is, top end speed and a carnivorously attack focussed mind that is detrimental to his team against defences that are not tired, yet against the same teams after sixty plus minutes – he's dynamite. With a little more experience Porter might learn that in the same situation again he needs to pull the trigger, with 50 times capped Andrew Trimble and the gunslinger Jared Payne on the three quarter line there will be results.

James McKinney did not really have enough time or ball to change the game, two decent kicks to touch from generous positions and a good pass that Fitzpatrick ignored are the only things that stick out. It should be noted that McKinney is a good goal-kicker and did not get any chances to show this, but from what has been seen, not the first-five that Paddy Jackson is. I am not saying that if Jackson kicked all his goals the Irish side would have won, because in that situation Tovey would have to also have kicked all his goals, and he missed a fair few himself. The lesson here is that with Pienaar on the pitch the Northern-most province are a much better team, the goals will be kicked and the cool-headedness on show almost always sees them home. They would not have been in the position to lose this game with 20 minutes to go.

The performance as a whole was chaotic with little invention and that must be addressed, no amount of top-class kickers can change that.

Manus McMichael (@The_Dange) : One-time Irish exile living on the border.

Decisions, decisions…

The Crusaders & Bulls were punished for poor game management, writes new HoR2 contributor Manus McMichael

I suppose we've all seen it before. The main playmakers of a fantastic team with a glorious record boasting hundreds of caps, falter at the decision making side of a huge game. This weekends Super Rugby semi-finals were a glaring example of players failing to make the correct red-zone calls and being punished with extreme prejudice by their opponents.

As Morne Steyn turned down his opportunities to kick for goal and then backtracked on this decision with a failed drop kick, Dan Carter probably watched with his head in his hands, as it was somewhat similar for him in the corresponding fixture. In the first Semi-final, The Crusaders had the bit between their teeth, marching up the field for a crucial lineout in Chiefs territory. Any form of score would do - but the decision to have a drop at goal off the first phase of clean lineout ball has got to be criticised for its downright hastiness. Carter (arguably the best outhalf of his generation and many to come) did not realise right away that this had been a blunder of epic proportions, after all the Crusaders would get the ball back from the restart and could have another pop. Wrong.

The Chiefs punished the Crusaders for this mistake, as you must at the top level, as the Christchurch side should have to their Hamilton based opponents when Cruden kicked his restart out on the full and missed his shot at goal.

The Brumbies have already come out and said that the Bulls decisions helped them stay in, and ultimately, win the second Semi-final. Steyn turned down two run-of-the-mill shots that would have stretched the South African's lead and in all likelihood strangled the Australian Conference winners, restricting them to hoping for a try and eliminating the threat of Leali'ifano's boot in the middle of the park, which would have been a lot easier to defend. But, alas, it was not to be as the Brumbies scored a cracking try at the death.

If last Friday you were to pick two teams to make those painfully obvious mistakes out of the semi-finals, such experienced teams as the Crusaders and the Bulls would probably be your last choice, especially them both together. It's not often we see Steyn, Carter, Potgeiter and Read come up short in any department, and in fairness to the two captains, Potgeiter has accepted the burden of the criticism and Read was visibly disgusted with himself in the post-match interview.

As much as games come down to skill, preparation and executing a gameplan, it is hard to prepare for situations where the correct decision needs to be made within a split second or everyone goes home. The best players in the world fall short at this hurdle when the crunch is on very often. It's to do with a mindset that players need to be engrossed in, for example Craig Clarke for the Chiefs, who was wonderfully underhand in some of his play but he could not be faulted by anyone. It is these moments at the top level that win and lose championships, make heroes and villains of honest players.

Any campaign in professional rugby will only have one or two teams with this engrained in them, if even that. It is easily lost - as the beaten semi-finalists can attest to and it is very hard to gain. We'll only see about 10 great teams in our life time, such is the way. The Brumbies were so criminally let off I believe they have already taken a step above their station. One of those great teams though is the 2012/2013 Chiefs, and it is fully expected that they will beat their opponents in the final comfortably in the Waikato.

Manus McMichael (@The_Dange) : One-time Irish exile living on the border.