Connacht v. Harlequins

accensi0n

Sounds like Keatley had a very good game.

Some impact from Frank Murphy as well, "superb break from scrumhalf Frank Murphy".

Wish this had been televised.

http://www.connachtrugby.ie/content/view/81598/7/

Anyone see the match? What did ya think?


EDIT:

I think Harlequins were missing a bunch of players who were taking part in a sevens tourny btw.

Please Edit thread title, There is a sticky asking not to have scorelines in thread titles.

Thank you

Amazotheamazing

It's very rare to see any preseason friendly televised, so it's not too surprising this one wasn't. (Last years game against SA was an exception)

Great result for Connacht, they have to break away from the bottom of the league this year.

Stev_o

All of Quins best players were at the Middlesex 7's comp but still doesnt take away from a great win for Connacht.

Amazotheamazing

Stev_o wrote: »

All of Quins best players were at the Middlesex 7's comp...

Not really though, Quins team.
Harlequins: T Williams; C Amesbury, D W Barry, J Turner-Hall, S Stegman; N Evans, D Care; C Jones, T Fuga, J Brooks; J Percival, J Evans; P Davies, N McMillan, C York.

Replacements: O Kohn for Percival, half time; S O’Connor for Evans, half time; A Croall for Brooks, half time; M Lambert for Jones, half time; G Williams for Turner-Hall, 57 mins; G Lowe for Care, 57 mins; S Smith for Evans, 70 mins; T Sargeant for McMillan, 78 mins.

There's a fair few first team players there, and of course, Nick Evans would be fairly highly rated outhalf, even if he couldn't get ahead of Carter for NZ.

Also interesting to see Shane O'Connor, of Cork Con and Munster to come on so early for Quins. Hope he can make a go of a pro career.

Zzippy

Good win. I've had mates visiting the last 2 weekends so haven't got to one of the games yet, but will be picking up my season ticket this week so looking forward to getting back to the Sportsground. Hopefully this season we can pick up a few more points and qualify for the HEC.
Oh, was out last night and a few of the Quins players were in the pub - those guys are freakin huge!

Stev_o

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Not really though, Quins team.
Harlequins: T Williams; C Amesbury, D W Barry, J Turner-Hall, S Stegman; N Evans, D Care; C Jones, T Fuga, J Brooks; J Percival, J Evans; P Davies, N McMillan, C York.

Replacements: O Kohn for Percival, half time; S O’Connor for Evans, half time; A Croall for Brooks, half time; M Lambert for Jones, half time; G Williams for Turner-Hall, 57 mins; G Lowe for Care, 57 mins; S Smith for Evans, 70 mins; T Sargeant for McMillan, 78 mins.

1. Epi Taione (Tongan International)
2. Tom Guest (England Saxons & England 7's)
3. Chris Robshaw (England Saxons)
4. Nick Easter (England International)
5. Lamont Bryan
6. Gonzalo Tiesi ( Argentina International Argentina 7's)
7. Rhys Howells (Wales U16/U18)
8. Mike Brown (England International & England 7's)
9. Ollie Lindsay-Hague (England U16's )
10. Waisea Luveniyali (Fiji International & Fiji 7's)
11. Dave Strettle ( England International & England 7's)
12. Darren Edwards (Wales 7's)

The one's in bold are the frontline players for Quinns for the Connacht match their only senior players were Jones and Funga and Care, Barry has been useless for them and is a journeyman.

*Tiessi would be starting for them anyway

Amazotheamazing

Stev_o wrote: »

1. Epi Taione (Tongan International)
2. Tom Guest (England Saxons & England 7's)
3. Chris Robshaw (England Saxons)
4. Nick Easter (England International)
5. Lamont Bryan
6. Gonzalo Tiesi ( Argentina International Argentina 7's)
7. Rhys Howells (Wales U16/U18)
8. Mike Brown (England International & England 7's)
9. Ollie Lindsay-Hague (England U16's )
10. Waisea Luveniyali (Fiji International & Fiji 7's)
11. Dave Strettle ( England International & England 7's)
12. Darren Edwards (Wales 7's)

The one's in bold are the frontline players for Quinns for the Connacht match their only senior players were Jones and Funga and Care, Barry has been useless for them and is a journeyman.

*Tiessi would be starting for them anyway

All you're after showing is Quins split their squad with some front line players going to the 7's and some going to Connacht. Typical pre-season stuff. Btw, Taione has just joined Quins, I'd rate a player like Williams as ahead of him currently, but we're entering serious hair splitting here. And guys like Guest are hardly more first choice than Percival, ffs.

Stev_o

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

All you're after showing is Quins split their squad with some front line players going to the 7's and some going to Connacht. Typical pre-season stuff.

Giving the 7's squad their best back row (Skinner is probably injured by the look of things) and their star backs. All im saying its hardly a full strength Quinns side but meh

Stev_o

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

All you're after showing is Quins split their squad with some front line players going to the 7's and some going to Connacht. Typical pre-season stuff. Btw, Taione has just joined Quins, I'd rate a player like Williams as ahead of him currently, but we're entering serious hair splitting here. And guys like Guest are hardly more first choice than Percival, ffs.

Guest is the best 8 they have at the club he played more games their then Easter this year and has been a huge stand out player alongside Robshaw.

Amazotheamazing

Stev_o wrote: »

Giving the 7's squad their best back row (Skinner is probably injured by the look of things) and their star backs. All im saying its hardly a full strength Quinns side but meh

But that's who your 7's squad will be anyhow. It's hardly as though "all" the best Quins players were left out of the Connacht game, as you said they were. Looks to me like it was two fairly even squads.

It's a minor point, but there's no need to run down the Connacht result just for the hell of it.

Diom

Was at the game.

It was a very disappointing first half. Going down 8-3 at half time, I thought it was business as usual. Fair play to the Connacht men though, they hammered them in the second half.
Murphy was excellent after a dodgy start, and Keatley kicked very well in the conditions. Tackling however was a worry, with Connacht seeming far too leaky for their own good. Connacht managed to work the ball wide though which was encouraging.

As for the strength of quins...they were missing some of their better players, but they were still a very competitive team, and Connacht weren't exactly playing it safe. There were many substitutions from Connacht, as well as a lot of debuts and newer players, so personally I think it was a great result.

accensi0n

Diom wrote: »

Was at the game.

It was a very disappointing first half. Going down 8-3 at half time, I thought it was business as usual. Fair play to the Connacht men though, they hammered them in the second half.
Murphy was excellent after a dodgy start, and Keatley kicked very well in the conditions. Tackling however was a worry, with Connacht seeming far too leaky for their own good. Connacht managed to work the ball wide though which was encouraging.

As for the strength of quins...they were missing some of their better players, but they were still a very competitive team, and Connacht weren't exactly playing it safe. There were many substitutions from Connacht, as well as a lot of debuts and newer players, so personally I think it was a great result.

Cheers for the report Diom.

Looking forward to seeing Connacht improve on last year.

Goodluck2me

anyone knw why fionn carr wasn't involved? rotation or injury?

It seemed quite a different team from last weeks match though, amirite?

Robbo

goodluck2me wrote: »

anyone knw why fionn carr wasn't involved? rotation or injury?

It seemed quite a different team from last weeks match though, amirite?

Carr took a couple of knocks against Leeds, he looks likely to start on Friday.