Jackson and Cave can't make the forwards stop leaking penalties or start getting scrum penalties again (I don't get why Herbst and Black were on so long when we had Warwick and Fitzpatrick waiting to replace them). That's where it went wrong, the backs didn't impress in getting out of those situations, but it's always hard and they didn't really get the team into those situations. The pack is definitely where I'm placing the blame, the backs were victims of that and Paul Marshall going completely mad.
Honestly, Ulster could win a trophy, but the best chance for a wee while passed a couple of seasons back with a fit Fez, a fit Muller, an interested Afoa and so on. Last season was spent learning that, this season is repairing the damage. There's too many weaknesses to be dreaming real big, I think Ulster are stuck treading water a little until guys like Jackson, Henderson, Olding and so on become talismans in their own right... and that could be five years easy, it's almost unfair to expect otherwise. That and we need to get more top quality forwards. Not saying it couldn't happen, just it'll take an indecent amount of luck for everything to fall right - but then Ulster have been through an indecent amount of bad luck, so it'd be only fair.
