Connacht v Saffries

Danie Gerber

Hey crash, I said TEAM, not extended (sub-international level) world cup squad...

Ireland (v Italy): Dempsey; Murphy, Trimble, D'Arcy, Hickie; O'Gara, Stringer; Horan, R Best, Hayes; O'Callaghan, O'Connell, Easterby, N Best, Leamy.

I count three Ulster players in the starting line-up, two of which are not first choices in Trimble and Neil Best. To be honest, I'd play Jerry or Frankie ahead of Rory as well.

RuggieBear

Wait for Trojan to post about Connacht...he is a product of their system.

Stev_o

One thing that Connacht has been improving with that in the long term hopefully will do them well is their youth. As it is they have some very strong club sides that for two years in a row made it to the All Ireland final [to bad they lost :P]
I know from friends who have played with Leinster Development they have actually lost to Connacht yet beaten Munster. So i wouldnt right Connacht off in the future. Hopefully they can get some great coaches to come through their system again

Crash

Danie Gerber wrote:

Hey crash, I said TEAM, not extended (sub-international level) world cup squad...

Ireland (v Italy): Dempsey; Murphy, Trimble, D'Arcy, Hickie; O'Gara, Stringer; Horan, R Best, Hayes; O'Callaghan, O'Connell, Easterby, N Best, Leamy.

I count three Ulster players in the starting line-up, two of which are not first choices in Trimble and Neil Best. To be honest, I'd play Jerry or Frankie ahead of Rory as well.

Tally comes to :

1 Leicester
3 Leinster
3 Ulster
8 Munster

I take your point that they may not be in the starting line up, but still, there's a large increase in Ulster players reaching the top level, whether starting or as strong impact subs.

thirdmantackle

many of the ulster lads still have no bottle in a tight game - evident throughout the magners league and heino cup

daveirl

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Robbo

Amazotheamazing wrote:

Season tickets are falling, see the thread on leinsterfans about it. The CB are a joke.

Quite the opposite, season ticket sales are up on last year. Considering 700 are sold, that's more sold than to my eyes would have been regularly attending the games last year.

I agree with that crank on the leinsterfans board though, the 6:30 kickoff on a Friday is a joke. Hell, I live in Galway and it's still a pain in the bollocks to get home after work, changed and back out to the Sportsground for 6:30 on a Friday.

kevmy

Amazotheamazing wrote:

Even Duffy learned his rugby in Roscrea, hardly a Connacht heartland.

Where did you get this? Duffy played for Ballina till the age of 18, signed a contract for Connacht not long after.

Anyway Connachts problem is that schools rugby is quite poor. Very few schools played it seriously up until very recently. Simply doesn't have the tradition of Leinster, Munster or Ulster schools. Therefore you have to work 10 times harder with the kids outside school

Amazotheamazing

kevmy wrote:

Where did you get this? Duffy played for Ballina till the age of 18, signed a contract for Connacht not long after.

Anyway Connachts problem is that schools rugby is quite poor. Very few schools played it seriously up until very recently. Simply doesn't have the tradition of Leinster, Munster or Ulster schools. Therefore you have to work 10 times harder with the kids outside school

Duffy went to boarding school in Roscrea, where he was one of the stars of the Leinster senior cup.

Amazotheamazing

Robbo wrote:

Quite the opposite, season ticket sales are up on last year. Considering 700 are sold, that's more sold than to my eyes would have been regularly attending the games last year.

I agree with that crank on the leinsterfans board though, the 6:30 kickoff on a Friday is a joke. Hell, I live in Galway and it's still a pain in the bollocks to get home after work, changed and back out to the Sportsground for 6:30 on a Friday.

Connacht's attendances peaked at just over 2,000 3 years ago, iirc.

The half 6 kick-off time is a joke, but let's find a way to blame the IRFU for that too will we?

johnnyboy4711

considering a lot of folk on this forum didnt give us a prayer,ay other province in Ireland would not have minded getting beaten by 15 to what was in the second half more like a starting XV for the boks!
bring on the magners league!!!!
all we need is a kicker!
I think we better put eddie the eagle into training!
john

Zzippy

johnnyboy4711 wrote:

I think we better put eddie the eagle into training!
john

LOL, that was a great catch he made! Heard the commentators on Setanta were wondering was one of the injured players wearing the suit....

kevmy

Amazotheamazing wrote:

Duffy went to boarding school in Roscrea, where he was one of the stars of the Leinster senior cup.

Ok still though did actually play for Ballina though when younger.

And managed to play midfield for a Mayo minor team that got to an AI Final

johnnyboy4711

thought of this after the fact !
anyone record this from setanta?
anyone be a pal and make me a copy on dvd.
will pay for costs or postage etc
best friends forever!!!
thanks
in advance
john

Danie Gerber

Eddie the eagle is a legend. He caught three difficult ones on the sideline!.

skelliser

whats with this consistent connaught bashing!!
its disgraceful and must of it is coming from leinister fans,typical but ask me this palers what have ye done with all your funding to date, nothing!!
at least munster have some silverware!! all leinster have is there pompous attitude


anyway back to rugby, we should be concentrating on producing 4 equally good provinces and from the display last night sooner rather then later.
Connaught have been consistently shafted and overlooked, like bernard jackman was at connaught, left last year for leinister then magically appears on the ireland squad a month ago!! **** sake!!
connaught will do well in the ML this year, the reason for the 6.30 kick-off is because greyhound racing is on afterwards on both fri and sun, other then that move the matches to sunday afternoon.

its in every irish rugby fans interest to have 4 strong provinces especially now after that farce last night against italy

SpAcEd OuT

skelliser wrote:

and must of it is coming from leinister fans,typical but ask me this palers what have ye done with all your funding to date, nothing!!

Except being responsible for developing some of the most important players in the irish set up

daveirl

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RuggieBear

Daveirl is obviously a dirty leinster fan.:rolleyes:

Irish Wolf

daveirl wrote:

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.o/

Except if they were going to lose, I'd have much rather see them lose by 31 points... in all other circumstances a Connaught win would be most acceptable..