Dragons V Connacht

johnnyboy4711

Whats our chances of pipping the dragons to that play-off spot?
Need to get 4 points over in rodney parade,then ulster at home then Glasgow away.
Why is it that we always leave ourselves with so much to do every year???
Dragons have leinster (home) and edinburgh(away) both of whom are looking to finish second.
any chance?
Muldoon is a big loss for sunday!
good news that matthews and ofisa are in though!

C'MON CONNACHT!!!!!
A Huge 4 pointer awaits!
slan
j;)

Robbo

Connacht Squad: Liam Bibo, Andrew Browne, Fionn Carr, Sean Cronin, Mel Deane, Gavin Duffy, Andy Dunne, Andrew Farley, Adrian Flavin, David Gannon, Ian Keatley, Ronan Loughney, Keith Matthews, Brian McGovern, Frank Murphy, Troy Nathan, Johnny O'Connor, Ray Ofisa, Conor O'Loughlin, Colm Rigney, Michael Swift, Niva Ta'auso, Brett Wilkinson.

Still no sign of Robbie Morris coming back and I believe it was for 3 yellow cards in the league that Muldoon is suspended. I'd imagine the backrow will be Ofisa, Johnny and Rigney with Swifty on the bench.

Robbo

May as well call uncontested scrums now. Just saw Ronan Loughney limping through town.

johnnyboy4711

if the frontrow doesnt peform we can kiss goodbye the game.
The dragons will murder us in the scrum.
hope things work out!
slan
j:eek:

thomond2006

johnnyboy4711 wrote: »

Whats our chances of pipping the dragons to that play-off spot?
Need to get 4 points over in rodney parade,then ulster at home then Glasgow away.
Why is it that we always leave ourselves with so much to do every year???
Dragons have leinster (home) and edinburgh(away) both of whom are looking to finish second.
any chance?
Muldoon is a big loss for sunday!
good news that matthews and ofisa are in though!

C'MON CONNACHT!!!!!
A Huge 4 pointer awaits!
slan
j;)

Chances of piping Dragons: none, none, ****ing none.

Why is it that we always leave ourselves with so much to do every year???:
Because at home you have no crowd to cheer and lift the team (the IRFU's fault) ,away well you just don't turn up EVER.

Muldoon is a big loss for sunday!
Yes, but at least your yellow card average will go down. :D

Edit: you may actually have a outside chance, Dragons run in is very tough.

Connacht (H)
Ospreys (A).... Postponed Ospreys EDF SF
Cardiff (A).......Postponed Cardiff EDF Final
Edinburgh (A)
Leinster (H)

Connacht's run in:

Dragons (A)
Ulster (H)
Glasgow (A)

Current Standings:
Dragons 25
Connacht 19

The Dragons will be up against it in the remaining games, but to beat them to it, Connacht will have to beat Glasgow at Firhill.

johnnyboy4711

thanks for your optimism!
Maybe if we could poach players away from munster like munster have been doing for years to us we might have a bigger support base!

I always shout for my neighbours down south so maybe you could help us out here!

Dragons run in is hard but if we do not beat them this weekend its all over for us!AGAIN!
we win we have a chance at a further 8 points(min) , we lose dragons are too far ahead at 10 points with 2 to play and a better points difference!

heres hoping!

Its very easy supporting a winning team, not so with rock bottom of the table every year sort of team!
slan
j

First off we need to win Sunday.I'm not overly optimistic given the players who are out injured but its a place we have won before and hopefully that defeat of a couple of weeks ago will be playing on the Dragons minds and with our greater match sharpness we can catch them cold.They are strong at home though.I'll settle for any sort of win.A win by 8+ would be brilliant though.

At the moment 25 plays 19.Sunday could make it 26 plays 23.From there so much would depend on the attitude of other teams.In theory Dragons should get nothing from their 3 away matches.I think they will beat Leinster as I don't think Leinster will try a leg in that match.We need to win our 3 games and possibly need a bp as well or an 8+ points win over Dragons.Ulster at home is within our compass if we can get a couple more players back.

Glasgow away is a game we usually see as winnable also and although they are generally strong at home they have lost to Dragons and Ulster there and its likely their final game won't matter too much to them.

So many permutations in there.The main thing for Connacht is to win at least 2 games to give a better reflection of their efforts on the table in terms of points.

We have been waiting a long time for hc rugby.Points have been thrown away since Christmas but performances have been good in general.There are signs things are coming right down here.If we can strenghten the squad during the summer we can build something from there.A fresh coaching team to be put in place and 7 or 8 players who can push for starting positions to come in and some real 1st team regular quality at wing and prop in particular and we can push on into the future.

With a rake of squad players leaving during the summer it'll tell all about where we are going with the players who come in.

Diabhal Beag

Is it on Setanta or S4C or whatever that Welsh channel is?

thomond2006

S4C, KO 17:05.

Diabhal Beag

COME ON CONNACHT!

bigeasyeah

Does anyone know if it will be broadcast on the ol wireless?

thomond2006

I don't know any Connacht fans personally but to see them cheering on their team in Heineken Cup rugby next season against the likes of Toulouse, Leicester and Stade would make my year.

Diabhal Beag

thomond2006 wrote: »

I don't know any Connacht fans personally but to see them cheering on their team in Heineken Cup rugby next season against the likes of Toulouse, Leicester and Stade would make my year.

Seeing the most average players getting killed by the likes of Flutey or Delon Armitage is a scary thought

chupacabra

if this game is anything like the last meeting of these 2, it should be a comfortable win for Connacht.

Webbs

Little Shyte wrote: »

Seeing the most average players getting killed by the likes of Flutey or Delon Armitage is a scary thought

maybe away from home, but at home not so sure, I would say that Conn would be better than the Italian contingent in the HC and they can produce decent performances at home.
Conn seem to be able to lift their game for the big occasion its just frustrating that they have no consistency from game to game and even half to half (thinking particularly of 2 games this year at home with 14 point leads at HT that they managed to balls up!)

Robbo

Connacht team: G Duffy (C); F Carr, N Ta'auso, K Matthews, L Bibo; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, B McGovern; M Swift, A Farley; A Browne, J O'Connor, R Ofisa.

Replacements: A Flavin, R Loughney, D Gannon, C Rigney, C O'Loughlin, A Dunne, T Nathan.

A bit surprised to see Browne get the nod in the back row.

Diom

Yeah rob, thought it was going to be Browne second row, Swift on the bench and Rigs on the back row.

johnnyboy4711

Hate to say it but a weak link,pitty we dont have any cover there!
heres to hoping!
slan
j:)

sock puppet

thomond2006 wrote: »

Chances of piping Dragons: none, none, ****ing none.

Why is it that we always leave ourselves with so much to do every year???:
Because at home you have no crowd to cheer and lift the team (the IRFU's fault) ,away well you just don't turn up EVER.

Muldoon is a big loss for sunday!
Yes, but at least your yellow card average will go down. :D

Edit: you may actually have a outside chance, Dragons run in is very tough.

Connacht (H)
Ospreys (A).... Postponed Ospreys EDF SF
Cardiff (A).......Postponed Cardiff EDF Final
Edinburgh (A)
Leinster (H)

Connacht's run in:

Dragons (A)
Ulster (H)
Glasgow (A)

Current Standings:
Dragons 25
Connacht 19

The Dragons will be up against it in the remaining games, but to beat them to it, Connacht will have to beat Glasgow at Firhill.

Not sure Connacht can do it. I'd fancy Dragons to win maybe one of those Welsh derbies. I presume the games will be midweek? I think they'll also take Leinster at home depending on the team put out. Still heres hoping that Connacht do it. Beating Dragons would set them up well. Glasgow don't play all that well at home either.

thomond2006

HT
10 - 0 to Dragons. Connacht were robbed with Dragons try, clear pass forward in the maul, but as always

THE ML REFS ARE ****ING SH1TE!!!!!!!!!!

Diabhal Beag

I'm watching in Welsh. We are fairly poor today but the try was not fair :mad:

johnnyboy4711

10 zip dragons,we are still in it,Just about!
need to get forward momentum!
Keatley decision making not the best so far!
fingers crossed!
slan
j

danthefan

What the hell kind of sin binning was that? Connacht getting hammered by the ref.

johnnyboy4711

did u see that ref decision on duffy!
madness!
Typical crap referee decisions that could cost us the game!
like the refs in the magners league are still doing a FAS course and let loose on the pitch!
They are worse than shoite!
slan
j
PS The sneaky long arm of the IRFU reaches into wales obviously!

johnnyboy4711

ref is having a howler like keatley!
bring on andy dunne now!!!
slan
j

kensutz

Good try by Connacht

danthefan

Fionn Carr is a try machine. Lovely finish.

johnnyboy4711

if we dont win this it will be 6 years of bottom of the heap with that man at the helm.
I will never go to a home game unless there are changes at the top!
slan
j:mad:

Nukem

That ref should crack out the saddles and put them on the back of every Connacht player, cause he is riding them.

Now a lot of it is down to organization, and planning and for that maybe the management need a change. Still rate Bradley as a coach but as the post above mentions above - seems the relationship is stale.

thomond2006

I repeat:

the ML referees are absolutely ****ing sh1te

johnnyboy4711

Even a team with NO coach can finish bottom every year!
We have no excuse since the borders have wound up!
Seriously,Bradley and co. have done feck all!
How long did it take for him to make a change?
The token empty the bench with 5 mins to go! I mean come feckin on!!!
The game was slipping away from connacht around the 60 min mark.
a blind man could see that!
I will not be spending my hard earned cash on a non-starter of a team unless bradley goes ASAP!
slan
j:mad:

thomond2006

Michael Bradley and about 22 players need to go. That's a ****ing disgrace, sh1te ref or not.

Would the IRFU ever fund the bloody province or get rid of them altogether because at the moment they are doing **** all and will always do **** all.

Zzippy

Quite apart from our display, poor attitude, no hunger for the ball, seemingly no desire to win the game, I have to say that was the worst display of refereeing I've ever seen. Sweet jesus!

Zzippy

thomond2006 wrote: »

Michael Bradley and about 22 players need to go. That's a ****ing disgrace, sh1te ref or not.

Would the IRFU ever fund the bloody province or get rid of them altogether because at the moment they are doing **** all and will always do **** all.

Bradley and about 10 players need to go. But thanks for trotting out the old reliable "get rid of Connacht, they're sh1te" condescending quote. December 28th must be a distant memory...

Robbo

Zzippy wrote: »

Bradley and about 10 players need to go. But thanks for trotting out the old reliable "get rid of Connacht, they're sh1te" condescending quote. December 28th must be a distant memory...

There's going to be a large player exodus during the summer anyway. It's a shame Bradley's unsackable for political reasons.

Fionn Carr has now scored as many tries as Doug Howlett this season.

thomond2006

Zzippy wrote: »

Bradley and about 10 players need to go. But thanks for trotting out the old reliable "get rid of Connacht, they're sh1te" condescending quote. December 28th must be a distant memory...

No it's not. That's the reason I'm so p11sed off tbh. I know what Connacht are capable of doing but if they can't be consistent and are not funded (supported) by the union, then what can be done.

leeroybrown

Unfortunately, regardless of how poor the ref was, we just weren't up to winning the game. Another tactically inept performance where we were unwilling (or unable) to kick and play the match in the right part of the pitch. If we spent more of the game pinning them inside their 10m line we'd likely have forced some kick-able penalties and another yellow card. Aside from that we displayed yet again the difficulty we have maintaining a good defensive line.

There appeared to be a lack of focus and effort at times which is hard to take given that this was a game that we had to win.

Zzippy

thomond2006 wrote: »

No it's not. That's the reason I'm so p11sed off tbh. I know what Connacht are capable of doing but if they can't be consistent and are not funded (supported) by the union, then what can be done.

Consistency (or lack of) is the most frustrating thing this season, tbh we have shown much greater promise this year but then throw easily winnable games away. Its a lot more frustrating for us than it is for you though, at least we were consistent enough to beat Leinster for ye!
But its not fair to throw the old cheap shot about getting rid of Connacht, how about rowing in behind us when we ask for more support from IRFU? Its far better for rugby in Ireland to have 4 viable teams playing pro rugby - if it wasn't for Connacht the likes of Flannery, Jackman and others might never have had a shot at top level rugby, similarly Warwick might still be plying his trade down under instead of anchoring the back line at Munster.
Its better for Irish rugby to have more Irish players playing at ML level - who knows which of them might go on to play for Ireland? A smaller playing pool would not help with young players who can't get game time for the top teams, they would never get a chance to shine.

johnnyboy4711

I am not sure he was "targeting" this one!

thomond2006

Zzippy wrote: »

Consistency (or lack of) is the most frustrating thing this season, tbh we have shown much greater promise this year but then throw easily winnable games away. Its a lot more frustrating for us than it is for you though, at least we were consistent enough to beat Leinster for ye!
But its not fair to throw the old cheap shot about getting rid of Connacht, how about rowing in behind us when we ask for more support from IRFU? Its far better for rugby in Ireland to have 4 viable teams playing pro rugby - if it wasn't for Connacht the likes of Flannery, Jackman and others might never have had a shot at top level rugby, similarly Warwick might still be plying his trade down under instead of anchoring the back line at Munster.
Its better for Irish rugby to have more Irish players playing at ML level - who knows which of them might go on to play for Ireland? A smaller playing pool would not help with young players who can't get game time for the top teams, they would never get a chance to shine.

+1.

Dave Joyce

Gotta agree with you Zzippy, we didn't play well overall although a couple of decent attempts at play. But once again that gob****e of a ref (if he was fit to be called a referee) didn't help the situation, and even gave some shi-te decisions against Dragons. Really can't see the point in going to the Ulster game at home now and to be honest I don't even want to watch the Warriors game:(.

il gatto

I'm losing interest very quickly. I'm sick of this sh1te and I'm sick of Bradley. Even with f all resources, how is it possible to win matches by "targeting" them and then lose to Dragons. Here's a plan Michael, "TARGET EVERY MATCH". Nowadays when Welsh and English people ask where I'm from, there's a good chance of a slagging. Before "professionalism" in Connacht they had no idea, but now the province is associated with crapness. How did we slip from being so strong at the start of professional rugby, to this? We went from being able to go to England and France and win, long before Munster or Leinster could. And look at things now. Disgraceful.

bigeasyeah

I dont ever want to see Connacht go,it would be a disgrace and detrimental to the devolpment of the game nationally.
The ref was the worst I ve ever seen but Connacht are lacking something and I think that something is pride.
Ill still go watch them though

leeroybrown

Well that's the season over. Given our -213 point difference I think that 'theoretically mathematically possible' doesn't quite sum up how unlikely we are to avoid finishing bottom again.

We can only hope that the management and team can sort themselves out in time for Friday week and put in a proper showing against Ulster in two weeks time. Hopefully it won't be a wet week as if it is I'm not sure how easy it will be to get the kind of crowd you'd expect out.

TBH, it would sum the entire season up if we pull out another good win against Ulster to make it three home wins in the inter-pro games.

il gatto

il gatto wrote: »

I'm losing interest very quickly. I'm sick of this sh1te and I'm sick of Bradley. Even with f all resources, how is it possible to win matches by "targeting" them and then lose to Dragons. Here's a plan Michael, "TARGET EVERY MATCH". Nowadays when Welsh and English people ask where I'm from, there's a good chance of a slagging. Before "professionalism" in Connacht they had no idea, but now the province is associated with crapness. How did we slip from being so strong at the start of professional rugby, to this? We went from being able to go to England and France and win, long before Munster or Leinster could. And look at things now. Disgraceful.

Agree completely you can only be angry for so long before you say to hell with the lot of them.No matter what any of us think and no matter how strong our opinions it won't make a difference the connacht branch have no respect for the supporters and never will until change happens.This comes from IRFU down with Gerry Kelly and Bradley and these fellas towing the IRFU line.Too afraid to speak out and not having the dignity to step down.

Everyone knows regardless of what you think of Bradley as a coach he's been here 4 years too long.He has no interest in the job and while Eric Elwood has had success at underage I think he hasn't made the necessary impact as part of the coaching team and is too connected to the whole setup at Connacht.I don't doubt his passion and he was a top quality player and leader for us don't get me wrong but I feel the whole Connacht professional rugby scene needs a fresh start.

There are no real goals being set at Connacht and no consequences for nothing being achieving so is it any wonder we are cut adrift at the bottom.

If the IRFU showed ambition for us and offered someone like Padraig O' Ceidigh the CEO job and appointed an experienced coach and gave them a more resources to work with they could make Connacht Rugby a success.It has the potential to be a success its just crying out for some real direction.

Totally disillusioned at the moment but every Connacht rugby supporter had that feeling quite regularly.

Roll on September or maybe not!!!!:o

Aidric

I watched about twenty mins of this game on S4C this evening, I switched off such was the hapless inept fare on display. It looked like a heartless disjointed performance. Connacht are a bad stain on an otherwise thriving Irish rugby scene, harsh as that sounds it's true.
I think everyone accepts that Connacht don't have plentiful resources but they don't appear to have a basic structure to their game, the blame for that has to come down to the coaching set up. As defeats continue to mount up confidence will continue to get shot and development will be stalled indefinately.

bigeasyeah

Aidric wrote: »

I watched about twenty mins of this game on S4C this evening, I switched off such was the hapless inept fare on display. It looked like a heartless disjointed performance. Connacht are a bad stain on an otherwise thriving Irish rugby scene, harsh as that sounds it's true.
I think everyone accepts that Connacht don't have plentiful resources but they don't appear to have a basic structure to their game, the blame for that has to come down to the coaching set up. As defeats continue to mount up confidence will continue to get shot and development will be stalled indefinately.

I dont think that they are a stain!
All I would like to see is some direction.Thats all.

chupacabra

IRFU funding or not, any decent coach should be able to bring a level of cohesion, consistency and organization to a team. Bradley is at fault here, but so are the IRFU for not getting rid of him in the first place. But now more than ever Connacht needs its supporters to get behind them so please dont turn your back on your province.

Fishtits

It would help if the IRFU would state their intention to support Connaght Rugby, they seem to be happy enough with Munster top of the pile, Leinster being bridesmaids and Ulster playing second fiddle...

This year we're dominating European rugby, given that we have ~ 110 professional players, surely more can be done?

leeroybrown

One of main things that has been winding me up for most of the season is the defensive line. There have been so many games (particularly away) where we seem to be giving easy wins to other teams because we can't maintain a consistent defensive line. In some games it's rock solid but quite often we're watching gaps, players breaking the line, poor wing defence, etc. Due to finances our back-room staff is probably less than two thirds the size of the next smallest one in the league and I'd suggest that not having a specialist full-time defensive coach in a league where every other team has one is hurting us a lot. The tiny number of losing bonus points we've picked up an our ridiculous negative point difference really do highlight this.

Podge_irl

chupacabra wrote: »

IRFU funding or not, any decent coach should be able to bring a level of cohesion, consistency and organization to a team. Bradley is at fault here, but so are the IRFU for not getting rid of him in the first place. But now more than ever Connacht needs its supporters to get behind them so please dont turn your back on your province.

I dont understand how Bradley manages to keep his job, relatives in the IRFU or otherwise. He has achieved precisely nothing with Connacht. Even with their relatively meagre resources they should be finishing ahead of the Dragons! Too many potentially excellent players have gone there only to seemingly fall into an abyss. Bradley is not a bad coach per se, he did well with Ireland over the summer, but its clear he shouldn't be in Connacht any longer. Considering they now have a somewhat decent set of players heading over their way they really need to start succeeding to some degree or players will stop considering Connacht as an option.