United Rugby Championship

[Son of Mathonwy]

Well done Scarlets sneaking that one at the end, despite the ref's reluctance to award that try .

The rest, same old. Ospreys could have won that but only if they'd not gifted Munster 2 early tries with interception passes.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Ah well, that's it for Europe. Not a disaster but a sub-par performance to lose to Gloucester. Hope Gatland saw Giles's try though - he really ought to be considered for the summer tour.

Back to the URC and a nightmare fortnight in SA for the Ospreys.

[Sandydragon]

Ah well, that's it for Europe. Not a disaster but a sub-par performance to lose to Gloucester. Hope Gatland saw Giles's try though - he really ought to be considered for the summer tour.

Back to the URC and a nightmare fortnight in SA for the Ospreys.

That was the only real bright spark in an otherwise meh evening. Very few of the welsh internationals or potential welsh internationals came out with more credit after that game.

[Numbers]

Ah well, that's it for Europe. Not a disaster but a sub-par performance to lose to Gloucester. Hope Gatland saw Giles's try though - he really ought to be considered for the summer tour.

Back to the URC and a nightmare fortnight in SA for the Ospreys.

That was the only real bright spark in an otherwise meh evening. Very few of the welsh internationals or potential welsh internationals came out with more credit after that game.

I thought the ref was poor, but the Ospreys didn't really merit a win, Deaves was good again.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Ah well, that's it for Europe. Not a disaster but a sub-par performance to lose to Gloucester. Hope Gatland saw Giles's try though - he really ought to be considered for the summer tour.

Back to the URC and a nightmare fortnight in SA for the Ospreys.

That was the only real bright spark in an otherwise meh evening. Very few of the welsh internationals or potential welsh internationals came out with more credit after that game.

I thought the ref was poor, but the Ospreys didn't really merit a win, Deaves was good again.

One very costly offside from him though. Still, the Ospreys are struggling with players at this point in the season. Ideally don't want to be playing two sevens. Good player though but probably too small for Gatland.

[Sandydragon]

Ah well, that's it for Europe. Not a disaster but a sub-par performance to lose to Gloucester. Hope Gatland saw Giles's try though - he really ought to be considered for the summer tour.

Back to the URC and a nightmare fortnight in SA for the Ospreys.

That was the only real bright spark in an otherwise meh evening. Very few of the welsh internationals or potential welsh internationals came out with more credit after that game.

I thought the ref was poor, but the Ospreys didn't really merit a win, Deaves was good again.

Yep, he does get about the park well

[Sandydragon]

That was the only real bright spark in an otherwise meh evening. Very few of the welsh internationals or potential welsh internationals came out with more credit after that game.

I thought the ref was poor, but the Ospreys didn't really merit a win, Deaves was good again.

One very costly offside from him though. Still, the Ospreys are struggling with players at this point in the season. Ideally don't want to be playing two sevens. Good player though but probably too small for Gatland.

And openside isnt a position we are struggling with - in fact we have the opposite problem there.

[Numbers]

I thought the ref was poor, but the Ospreys didn't really merit a win, Deaves was good again.

One very costly offside from him though. Still, the Ospreys are struggling with players at this point in the season. Ideally don't want to be playing two sevens. Good player though but probably too small for Gatland.

And openside isnt a position we are struggling with - in fact we have the opposite problem there.

They've been playing him at 6 since Tipuric returned from Injury, tho he does play like a seven playing at six really.

[Graigwen]

Cardiff were robbed. The ball went clearly backwards from Carre's hand.

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[Son of Mathonwy]

Wow, fair play, classic bent referee action at the end to hand the game to Ulster. Fucking disgraceful.

[Graigwen]

If the ball did not go backwards from Carre, how come it was caught on the full by the player standing behind him.

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[Son of Mathonwy]

I just looked up the TMO, in case he was Irish. He is a Scottish ref, but, get this, he was born in Ulster! Hilarious.

[Sandydragon]

The law states

11.3 A player must not intentionally knock the ball forward with hand or arm.

The ball went backwards. Totally confused on how that is a penalty. I hope Cardiff seek urgent clarification from the refereeing officials.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Footage on WOL/Twitter shows the ball coming off either Carre's hand or the Ulster shoulder - no way to know if that's forward or back from the shot - then hits Ulster hand and goes forward (from Ulster perspective). And even if it did hit Carre's hand first it looks like he was in a good position to regather it, so looks like genuine competition for the ball, not deliberate ko. Nothing clear, not enough to rub out a try . . . not unless it's the only way Ulster can win and you're the Ulster-born TMO.

[Graigwen]

It was a good win for Ospreys today. A fairly high quality game from both sides and well contested. Ospreys scrum was good.

Dragons v Benneton was much lower standard. Both sides guilty of not executing passes when in good positions, but Dragons were worst. If they can't manage no look passes then they should not try them. Dragons scrum was weak.

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[Sandydragon]

Footage on WOL/Twitter shows the ball coming off either Carre's hand or the Ulster shoulder - no way to know if that's forward or back from the shot - then hits Ulster hand and goes forward (from Ulster perspective). And even if it did hit Carre's hand first it looks like he was in a good position to regather it, so looks like genuine competition for the ball, not deliberate ko. Nothing clear, not enough to rub out a try . . . not unless it's the only way Ulster can win and you're the Ulster-born TMO.

Even the WRU are suggesting Cardiff were robbed. For a match defining decision, the time taken when footage wasn’t entirely clear was very short.

[Son of Mathonwy]

It was a good win for Ospreys today. A fairly high quality game from both sides and well contested. Ospreys scrum was good.

Dragons v Benneton was much lower standard. Both sides guilty of not executing passes when in good positions, but Dragons were worst. If they can't manage no look passes then they should not try them. Dragons scrum was weak.

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Excellent performance and totally unexpected result from the Ospreys. I had written that match off in my head at kick off. Great performances throughout the team, particularly good and well disciplined (till the last 30 seconds) defence which won it for us.

The Bulls will be on red alert for next week

[Numbers]

Great win for the Ospreys, nice to see them and Cardiff showing some real signs of improvement, has anyone noticed that the standard of play increased significantly after the 6 Nations, makes you wonder about fitness levels etc.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Great win for the Ospreys, nice to see them and Cardiff showing some real signs of improvement, has anyone noticed that the standard of play increased significantly after the 6 Nations, makes you wonder about fitness levels etc.

I think the Ospreys were playing pretty well before the 6N too (okay, not quite as well as Saturday ). Regional fitness will remain an issue till someone gets a grip of it (Gatland hasn't been able to in all his time at Wales).

[Puja]

The law states

11.3 A player must not intentionally knock the ball forward with hand or arm.

The ball went backwards. Totally confused on how that is a penalty. I hope Cardiff seek urgent clarification from the refereeing officials.

Looks backwards to me. Baffling decision.

Puja

[Numbers]

The law states

11.3 A player must not intentionally knock the ball forward with hand or arm.

The ball went backwards. Totally confused on how that is a penalty. I hope Cardiff seek urgent clarification from the refereeing officials.

Looks backwards to me. Baffling decision.

Puja

If you watch it carefully it seems Carre knocks it on into the Ulster player who then knocks on but it could be argued that it's simultaneous, not clear enough to chalk off the try by any means.

[paddy no 11]

Just saw they had another try disallowed when ulster defender kicked a ball out of Cardiff players hand.

Not enough evidence against carre either its not conclusive he touches it imo

[Sandydragon]

Just saw they had another try disallowed when ulster defender kicked a ball out of Cardiff players hand.

Not enough evidence against carre either its not conclusive he touches it imo

At such a pivotal moment in the match, essentially handing Ulster a win, its a huge call to make on limited footage.

The RugbyPaper basically claims that both decisions were correct. Theres nothing to suggest that the kick out of hand was deliberate, but equally theres enough of a suggestion that Carre touched the ball to confirm that it was a deliberate knock on. Apparently.

Since pro players are now routinely penalised for their feet hitting things they shouldn't, its not a stretch to suggest that the Young try should have stood, or been a penalty try.

And of course theres the knock on at a lineout prior to an Ulster try that the TMO didnt review at all. Its not a good look for impartial refereeing and I havent read anything that suggests the URC have called the WRU out for their comments that Cardiff were robbed, when they would usually be firm about any public criticism of a ref.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Embarrassing scoreline for the Ospreys. Mind you I thought that would happen last week too, so can't complain too much about this South African trip. It was a bit Scarlets-like to ship so many points though. What happened to the defence?? Okay I can understand things getting messy at the end when we just didn't care about the result, only the fourth try, but we let far too much through early on.

I was surprised Booth took scrum half Luke Davies off so soon - he was having a good game. Nagy had a good game - was unlucky to get sent off for a deliberate ko - he was trying to catch that, probably would have if le Roux hadn't run into him. Some rubbish kicking to touch from Walsh and Williams. Nice to see Lake surviving a match but a quiet game from him. Great try from Giles at the end (although it would have been a penalty try if he hadn't grounded it - he was tackled in the air). To be honest all three Ospreys tries were excellent in their own way, shame there were only three ).

[Sandydragon]

Embarrassing scoreline for the Ospreys. Mind you I thought that would happen last week too, so can't complain too much about this South African trip. It was a bit Scarlets-like to ship so many points though. What happened to the defence?? Okay I can understand things getting messy at the end when we just didn't care about the result, only the fourth try, but we let far too much through early on.

I was surprised Booth took scrum half Luke Davies off so soon - he was having a good game. Nagy had a good game - was unlucky to get sent off for a deliberate ko - he was trying to catch that, probably would have if le Roux hadn't run into him. Some rubbish kicking to touch from Walsh and Williams. Nice to see Lake surviving a match but a quiet game from him. Great try from Giles at the end (although it would have been a penalty try if he hadn't grounded it - he was tackled in the air). To be honest all three Ospreys tries were excellent in their own way, shame there were only three ).

Yeah, a real pity after last weekend. On the positive side, that’s a good clutch of points from their mini tour and more than they were expected to get. I think most fans would have been happy with a couple of bonus points. And great to see Lake back. Hopefully not too affected long term by his injury.