Ladbrokes ambassador Stephen Ferris reflects on Ulster’s massive win over Leinster at the RDS, the talk of Sam Prendergast and Billy Burns entering the Ireland squad for the Six Nations, Munster’s injury woes continuing and the unlikely rise of Benetton this season.
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Uh watching the game back again and seeing the intensity of the collisions uh was body on the line defending especially in that you I think that the third quarter of the game um where um they really were just picking themselves back up off the deck getting in defensive line making another hits and
It just felt like it was inevitable that ler were going to get over for the try when they get into that sort of five 10 yards out pick and jam and then out of absolutely nowhere Jim and Gibson Park far as 20 yard pass to Luke Marshall who
Intercepts it and that just completely suck the air out of um that lster attack and and AER held out valiantly they were um strong a lot stronger in the scrum the scrum was pretty good there were uh you know a couple of really nice launch plays especially from that first line
Out a lovely take by Henderson D dun Whi pass out to Billy Burns and next thingers a chip kick over the top and Nick Tim’s on to it like a Flash and and they’re in for a score and that just give them a lot of confidence and to to
Go through the game and hold lens out yes Donnie it wasn’t the best ler team yes it wasn’t the best ler performance but you can only play what’s in front of you and I think it’s 23 losses over the last 25 or something at the RDS so you
Know aler will take a lot out of that game and first and foremost it’s the victory away from home in the RDS yeah there’s been a lot of hype a lot of talk about penri gas just because he seems to be like the next in line at lster and of
Course if you are next in line you seem to be next in line for Ireland and Billy Burns had something to say about that at the weekend the only thing about Billy Burns is that and nobody has really touched us he doesn’t kick a goal you know um rarely kicks for olster maybe
One on every four or five games he might knock one over but you have John Cooney that takes most of the kicks then you have Nathan dokes that takes you know the kicks when he’s on so if you’re going to be an international out half
You have to be able to put the ball in the kick and te and knock it over um and you know Billy Burns hasn’t had the opportunities to do that that’s not his fault but I think he showed what is the best thing about his game and that’s how
Good he is with with his kicking game um they put in a h the coaches got together put a strategy together and you know put the ball think the ball in behind ler a couple of occasions kept loads of width not by accident and Nick timoy found
Himself out in the wider channels and was able to to get in for a try um and you know fair play at all the coaching staff they they were able to come up with a plan to negate the line speed of lster and get over for a couple of
Scores seeing some of the the media interviews of the last couple of weeks and a lot of these injuries aren’t just oh yeah he’s a bang in the head he’s out with concussion return in the next couple of weeks like these seem to be two three six month injuries that the
Lads are being lost for I know Peter mne is due back soon but like Pedro m is not going to be um he’s not going to be the guy that’s going to get monster over the winning line and the games going forward over the next number of weeks especially
In the European Cup you know they’re going to have to dig really really deep into the into the squad um and I know griam rry comes out in every pre-match interview and says I have faith in these guys you know I trust these guys this is
The group of players that you know are going to represent monster but the drop off and quality from what he has to work with from what is injured is is just huge and part of me does feel sorry for him um of course it does because I’m sure it’s not easy trying to
Manage a squad especially with the expectation Donnie of winning the URC last season and they had a major blip at the start of last year so it’s a bit of a blip now they’re going to have a couple of games where they could make a few points up um after the European Cup
And you know they’re just going to give it their all and and see how it goes but I’d be very surprised if moner were able to turn their season around quickly due to the m injuries that they currently have yeah it’s brilliant to see Benetton up there you know people are going to
Say oh well hold on a second you know over the Christmas period they’ve played zerra twice and Z have been you know really poor but they’ve also had some really good wins and they’ve also picked up you know losing bonus points when it hasn’t went their way and sitting second
In the table going into 202 four that’s absolutely fantastic I was there when they won the the rainbow cup I think it as it was called a couple of seasons ago after the whole Co and they played some fantastic rugby some Quality quality rugby the the fans were hugely engaged
In in the in the style of rby that they were trying to play and you know credit to them they’ve sort of kept that going because a lot of people could have just falling off the cliff um especially after that competition and there wasn’t that much money being pumped into
Benetton either but they’ve made a couple of shrewd signings Maliki fua in there um a couple other guys with plenty of experience so no fair play to Benetton can they hang on to it now you know can they hang on to a top four spot
How good would it be if they were able to get a a home last 16 draw in in the URC playoffs that would be brilliant for them be brilliant for the supporters i’ be brilliant for me Donnie because they get a bit of sunshine come the end of the season top up the
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