Aironi vs Ulster - Stadio Luigi Zaffanella Viadana 11/09/2010

[Prestwick]

Ah Viada- Aironi. I miss thee well.

Ulster lead 19 points to 12 in the 2nd half with Aironi having a man in the bin. Ulster scoring a good intercept try.

 

[Prestwick]

Aironi 15 - 19 Ulster. Pen Mercier.

Loved Stadio Zaffanella. Theres an awesome clubhouse that did great food and served London Pride which I'm sure the odd Ulster fan there are enjoying.

Absolute PIG to get to though. Viadana needs a shuttle bus from Parma or something.

EDIT: Are there any Ulster fans there...oh wait yes I can see some bright red and unrepentantly angry faces in the crowd chanting Ulster

 

[Prestwick]

Aironi 15 - 22 Ulster. Pen O'Connor.

All very polite over there in Viadana with plenty of nice applause for that Ulster penalty.

EDIT: Ulster have a man binned, Aironi kick to corner and look to drive.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Cracking game by the sound of it!

 

[Prestwick]

After some furious pick and gos which frankly catch Ulster off guard (seriously, you're gonna get a lot worse in the HEC guys) they look to have put it down...TMO time...



....held up scrum five time!

EDIT: BBC Ulster guy doing great considering he's stuck in some crappy portakabin in Italy.

Further Edit: One more minute left and Ulster just happy to collapse the scrum until they can run the clock down.

 

[SelimNiai]

Mercier. As in Ludovic Mercier? Bristol's nemesis in many a Gloucester game.

 

[Prestwick]

Ulster fail to find touch and Aironi engineer a nice break resulting in one last scrum for Aironi. Ulster still a man down by the way.

Aironi give it a damn good try but knock forward in the end.

FT Aironi 15 - 22 Ulster.

EDIT: Yeah Mercier. Done quite well so far I feel.

 

[Conal]

well that was a crap game

 

[Prestwick]

It was entertaining at best. No classic but blimey Ulster looked terrified at some points when Aironi came at them.

 

[Peat]

Really? I felt very comfortable with Ulster's defence, except for a few mauls and drives and a couple of occasions where we really went to sleep.

Made an absolute meal of that, a more clinical, composed and skillful team on the day could have walked away from that with a BP win.

Mindyou, they might be saying the same!

 

[greybeard]

Aironi 15 Ulster 22.

A dissappointing game (although I missed the last 10 mins which sounded the best!). Not much concerted attacking
play by the backs and a lot of aerial ping - pong.
Ulster rarely looked a class team except for 2 or 3 occasions when they managed to put a string of passes together. In the first half they broke thru the As defence beautifully a couple of times but
both times play was halted for a forward pass. Scrums were about even, but the As line-out was patchy.
Aironi's game at the moment seems to be one of kicking for touch and then winning the lineout, Mercier's mainly a kicking
fly-half and there was very little ball for the backs to run. One of the few times he did try and get the ball out wide
it was easily intercepted for an easy try, which at the end was the difference. Tebaldi's passing was erratic and I think
most were pleased when he was replaced early in the second half by the better, but injury prone Cannavasio.

On this showing Ulster won't be winning much this season, and Aironi's even less! Still, it's only Aironi's second game as a
team and they wil certainly improve.

Attendence: 4,400 - not bad for a town of 17,000 souls.
Agree that Viadana's a pig to get to by public transport - if anyone travels, rent a car fronm the airport!

 

[durbutter]

Aironi 15 Ulster 22.

A dissappointing game (although I missed the last 10 mins which sounded the best!). Not much concerted attacking
play by the backs and a lot of aerial ping - pong.
Ulster rarely looked a class team except for 2 or 3 occasions when they managed to put a string of passes together. In the first half they broke thru the As defence beautifully a couple of times but
both times play was halted for a forward pass. Scrums were about even, but the As line-out was patchy.
Aironi's game at the moment seems to be one of kicking for touch and then winning the lineout, Mercier's mainly a kicking
fly-half and there was very little ball for the backs to run. One of the few times he did try and get the ball out wide
it was easily intercepted for an easy try, which at the end was the difference. Tebaldi's passing was erratic and I think
most were pleased when he was replaced early in the second half by the better, but injury prone Cannavasio.

On this showing Ulster won't be winning much this season, and Aironi's even less! Still, it's only Aironi's second game as a
team and they wil certainly improve.

Attendence: 4,400 - not bad for a town of 17,000 souls.
Agree that Viadana's a pig to get to by public transport - if anyone travels, rent a car fronm the airport!

Thanks for the update greybeard.

As for your attendance, it is much better than what Glasgow get every week, and it should only grow!

 

[profitius]

Its early season yet so teams are getting up to speed. Aironi will need a little longer but they'll start winning a few at home.

 

[Peat]

Wouldn't really judge Ulster on last night's performance - missing 7 at least, arguably 8 or 9 first choice players, Henry's first game of the season and a back three entirely of rookies up against a very fired up, quite competant team. Was always going to be hard and while we did make a meal of it, we were making attacking opportunities and denying them to Aironi. Plenty of sides will walk away from that stadium with nothing but bruises.

Now got two home games and an away game to Connacht, Ulster need to go away and build and improve on this platform and build an early season head of steam... so it looks all the more impressive when we throw it away after christmas!