Connacht v Ospreys, Sportsground, Fri 19 November 7.00pm

Zzippy

Connacht face the Ospreys at the Sportsground this Friday, a 7pm kickoff hopefully suiting people better, although 7.30 would be better still. No TV coverage listed for this one that I've seen. RTE are showing the Leinster game, and TG4 are showing Munster on Sunday afternoon.

Ospreys should be missing pretty much a full team on international duty, with Lee Byrne, Andrew Bishop, Dan Biggar, Huw Bennett, Adam Jones, James Hook, Mike Phillips, Paul James, Ian Gough, Ryan Jones, Jonathan Thomas, Richard Hibbard and Tommy Bowe away, and Shane Williams out long term injured.

Connacht, on the other hand, are only missing Sean Cronin, while Ray Ofisa and Niva Ta'auso are injured. Gavin Duffy should get his 100th cap for Connacht if he recovers from a back injury, and I expect a big game from him. Flavin is a very capable replacement for Cronin, and Muldoon showed last week why (IMO) he should be in the Irish squad, I expect more from him this week.

Connacht team from:
Wilkinson, Flavin, Hagan, Swift, McCarthy, Muldoon, O'Connor, Taylor, Murphy, Keatley, Carr, Matthews, Griffin (hopefully), Nathan, Duffy.

We might see an appearance from new prop Rodney Ah You, and hopefully a few of the guys who did so well against Samoa last week will get a run out too, especially McKeon. With a fairly settled team and Ospreys missing so many this is one that Connacht really should win.

G'wan Connacht!

porterbelly

A must win game really for Connacht to get back up the table. It's the best time to be getting the Ospreys as well although they'll still be able to call on the likes of Jerry Collins, Marty Holah, Richard Hibbard, Duncan Jones, Ian Gough, Ian Evans, Sonny Parker, Mefin Davies, Richard Fussell and Tom Prydie. They can't be underestimated.

2 wins out of 3 from the next 3 games must be the target. Ospreys home, Edinburgh away and Aironi at home all represent winnable games. The two home games stand out, but the trip to Edinburgh is by no means a lost cause, as they'll have their own international contingent mising as Scotland play Samoa that weekend.

I'm sure we'll be pretty much at full strength. With Ofisa out I'd like to see Muldoon revert to type at no6 with Concrete at 7 and Taylor at 8. Griffin will probably come in for Ta'auso, although Wynne could as well. Flavin for Cronin is a given unless Varley forces himself into the matchday 22 for Ireland and he's released back to us. Not sure who'll start between Fanning and Nathan and even Tuohy and Monahan put their hand up the last day. It's good to have those options.

evil_seed

I'm not expecting mul and cronin to be released back to us. but i expect wilko and gav to be. I find it amazing that even with all the Welsh internatonals on the Ospreys not available to them they have half a team of top class ex/other internationals to call on. I can't wait for this game. I'm even booking off work for it. Me -> :cool:

porterbelly

Ian Gough is starting for Wales so won't be playing. I didn't think he would be because he wasn't included last week

Diom

I dunno I think we may get Muldoon back. He has Leamy, SOB and Ferris all rated higher than him in the pecking order by the Irish management.

I agree with the suggested team but in the backline I think we might see this:

Murphy, Keatley, Carr, Matthews, Duffy/Troy, Fanning, Troy/Duffy

Fanning has quickly established himself so I wouldn't be surprised to see this. Alternative would be


Murphy, Keatley, Carr, Matthews, Griffen, Fanning, Duffy

But I cannot see Troy being dropped for this one.

thomond2006

http://www.rugby365.com/all_news/nbc/wales/news/2663221.htm

Ospreys are missing their Bennett, Hibbard, James, Adam Jones, Gough, Ryan Jones, Jonathan Thomas, Phillips, Biggar, Hook, Bishop and Byrne. Shane Williams and a few of their squad players are injured as well. Their squad is pretty much decimated. Although they did thrash Leicester last week in the LV Cup.

Ospreys:
Prydie; K Phillips, Parker, Beck, Fussell; Morgan, Webb;
D Jones, M Davies, Mitchell, McInerney, Goode, King, Tipuric, Lloyd.

That was their lineup last week, should be something similar this weekend.

Connacht will be missing Cronin at the very least. I'd expect Muldoon to be released tbh.

porterbelly

Muldoon will have to be released. It's very doubtful he'll be in the mix with the Irish squad with Ferris, Heaslip, SOB, Wallace and Leamy all ahead of him in the pecking order. Mul deserves more though. He showed last summer when he got his chance against the Baa Baas what he can bring to the table. He's a better all round player than Leamy and would offer an alternative option at 6, substance over the style of Ferris. Anyway, Ireland's loss is our gain.

Very worrying news is that Adrian Flavin is out for the next 2-3 weeks. That means the very inexperienced Dermot Murphy is Connachts only fit hooker. Its a huge blow for the two games ahead. Likely to be three props on the bench.

seanin4711

shazbot!
wtf are we going to do?
this guy better be a fast learner!
slan
s

Zzippy

All of a sudden I'm wishing Deccie Kidney would take a shine to Damien Varley! I wonder is Wilko any good at lineout throwing... :eek:

irishbucsfan

Zzippy wrote: »

All of a sudden I'm wishing Deccie Kidney would take a shine to Damien Varley! I wonder is Wilko any good at lineout throwing... :eek:

Kidney never uses Cronin off the bench either.

I'd be much happier to have Varley sitting on the bench for Ireland for the 80 minutes if it meant Connacht could have Cronin.

Zzippy

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Kidney never uses Cronin off the bench either.

I'd be much happier to have Varley sitting on the bench for Ireland for the 80 minutes if it meant Connacht could have Cronin.

True, no matter how badly Best plays (if he starts) he won't be taken off :rolleyes:

Robbo

Team to face the Ospreys.

As expected, Griffin starts and there's no replacement hooker. What's the official line on this say if Murphy were to go off, would one of the props have to step in at hooker for a scrum?

A fairly combative backrow in McCarthy, O'Connor and Muldoon with Ezra to keep up the intensity in the second half.

3 props on the bench and no sub hooker? Ugh, what can they do?

Still think this is Connacht's game though. Hope they can keep the tempo up since the Samoa game

I've been informed that

16*** Ronan Loughney

Has played hooker at underage levels!

thomond2006

Ospreys:
15 Gareth Owen, 14 Kristian Phillips, 13 Sonny Parker, 12 Ashley Beck, 11 Richard Fussell, 10 Matthew Morgan, 9 Rhys Webb,
8 Jerry Collins (captain), 7 Marty Holah, 6 Justin Tipuric, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Conor McInerney, 3 Craig Mitchell, 2 Mefin Davies, 1 Duncan Jones.

Replacements: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Joe Rees, 18 Cai Griffiths, 19 James Goode, 20 James King, 21 Jamie Nutbrown, 22 Matthew Jarvis, 23 Barry Davies.

http://www.rugby365.com/news/2664101.htm

thomond2006

thomond2006 wrote: »

Ospreys:
15 Gareth Owen, 14 Kristian Phillips, 13 Sonny Parker, 12 Ashley Beck, 11 Richard Fussell, 10 Matthew Morgan, 9 Rhys Webb,
8 Jerry Collins (captain), 7 Marty Holah, 6 Justin Tipuric, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Conor McInerney, 3 Craig Mitchell, 2 Mefin Davies, 1 Duncan Jones.

Replacements 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Joe Rees, 18 Cai Griffiths, 19 James Goode, 20 James King, 21 Jamie Nutbrown, 22 Matthew Jarvis, 23 Barry Davies.

http://www.rugby365.com/news/2664101.htm

A good oul Dublin man! Glad to see he's back from injury. Was on J.Sexton's Senior Cup team

Diom

Looks a decent team. Surprised that Nikora is starting but I cannot say that it is not well deserved. Obviously EE is looking to play a quick paced game.

evil_seed

The bookies have us as 2 pt favourites :cool:. I think we will do this.

C'mon Connacht!!!! Bringing 4 newbies with me too

Digifriendly

Deleted User wrote: »

A good oul Dublin man! Glad to see he's back from injury. Was on J.Sexton's Senior Cup team

Played very well in victory over a second string Leicester in LV Cup at weekend as did Matthew Morgan at outhalf.

whysomoody

Deleted User wrote: »

A good oul Dublin man! Glad to see he's back from injury. Was on J.Sexton's Senior Cup team

yeah great to see him get a run.

gally74

Conn 9 -0 osp

thomond2006

Good to hear.

its_phil

9-3 with carr just held up...on fire tonight apprently!

ARE YOU WATCHING?
ARE YOU WATCHING?
ARE YOU WATCHING DECLAN KIDNEY?:p

There's no TMO, tonight according to Rob.

RogerThis

9-6 Connacht have had a lot of possession and territory. But they have given away a few silly penalties.

Cosmo Kramer

its_phil wrote: »

ARE YOU WATCHING DECLAN KIDNEY?:p

Doubt he'd bother even if it was televised sadly.

its_phil wrote: »

There's no TMO, tonight according to Rob.

There really should be one at every ML game for consistency, I presume the game is being recorded for highlights packages etc?

RogerThis

At least we have www.galwaybayfm.ie

its_phil

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

There really should be one at every ML game for consistency, I presume the game is being recorded for highlights packages etc?

Its a farce in the professional era,don't really know who to blame Connacht, Celtic Rugby? Wouldn't happen at any other team in the ML

Juwwi

any update lads ?
thanks

RogerThis

9-9

Advantage to the Ospreys

Cosmo Kramer

15-9 now for Connacht. 5 minutes to go.

its_phil

15-9 to connacht under 5 left i think

Cosmo Kramer

Deleted User wrote: »

I've been informed that

16*** Ronan Loughney

Has played hooker at underage levels!

And he's now throwing lineouts for Connacht.

Ospreys pen. 3 to go. Ospreys gone in to the corner.


And they're in under the posts.

thomond2006

C'mon lads, hold on.

RogerThis

try ospreys

its_phil

PENALTY CONNACHT!

Cosmo Kramer

Kickable (but tough) penalty to Connacht. Last kick. Nikora.

Drops short - Ospreys by 1.

its_phil

Short.

Game Over.

Loss by 1.

thomond2006

Ah feck it anyway.

wixfjord

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Kickable (but tough) penalty to Connacht. Last kick. Nikora.

Drops short - Ospreys by 1.

Tough break.

phog

Really disappointed with this result, it was great opportunity for Connacht with so many of the Ospreys on International duties, tough to lose wit a try being scored so late in the game, hard to comeback from that.

porterbelly

Hate to sound like a broken record, but the ref was a disgrace again tonight. The breakdown was a shambles, Collins was infringeing like a tinker when we were bombarding the Ospreys line in the 1st half but no penalties were forthcoming. 3/4 blatant knock ons missed by the ref and touch judges. Bernie Upton's yellow card? Can anyone fill me in on that one. Seemed like the only one in the ground that saw it was the touch judge. Bemusing.

That being said we were poor in the 2nd half. Though Elwood rang the changes a bit early. Hagan off after 50 and Muldoon off after 60 were strange calls as was taking off Carr towards the end . Ezra Taylor contributed nothing when he came on except missed a few tackles. What I'd give to get Georgie Naoupu back. We need to sign a hooker short term, felt sorry for Loughney when he came on. Like Bergamasco playing 9 for Italy v England a few years ago, he was like a fish up a tree, couldn't find his man.

The sting has well and truly come out of our season now. We need a win in Edinburgh next week to get back on the horse or else it looks like we'll be fighting it out with Aironi to avoid the wooden spoon.

porterbelly

porterbelly wrote: »

Hate to sound like a broken record, but the ref was a disgrace again tonight. The breakdown was a shambles, Collins was infringeing like a tinker when we were bombarding the Ospreys line in the 1st half but no penalties were forthcoming. 3/4 blatant knock ons missed by the ref and touch judges. Bernie Upton's yellow card? Can anyone fill me in on that one. Seemed like the only one in the ground that saw it was the touch judge. Bemusing.

That being said we were poor in the 2nd half. Though Elwood rang the changes a bit early. Hagan off after 50 and Muldoon off after 60 were strange calls as was taking off Carr towards the end . Ezra Taylor contributed nothing when he came on except missed a few tackles. What I'd give to get Georgie Naoupu back. We need to sign a hooker short term, felt sorry for Loughney when he came on. Like Bergamasco playing 9 for Italy v England a few years ago, he was like a fish up a tree, couldn't find his man.

The sting has well and truly come out of our season now. We need a win in Edinburgh next week to get back on the horse or else it looks like we'll be fighting it out with Aironi to avoid the wooden spoon.

Agree, really though much as we all like to give out about the ref and that pathetic linesman (who couldn't even signal for a lineout in the first half yet made two costly intervetions only he saw during the 2nd half), we only have ourselves to blame, we showed absolutely no composure in their 22 in the first half, we really looked clueless and invariably took the wrong options. 9-6 was no lead to take into half time considering the dominance we had. We were under the cosh for most of the 2nd half but I thought we'd done enough when knocking over the two penalties but to give away such a soft try under the sticks was unforgivable. Nikora had no real chance with the last pen with the wind against him. He hit some nice ones earlier but missed a handy one at 9-6, he had a decent outing all in all along with Swifty and Griffin.

Really after such a bright start the season looks like its fading away yet again for us and our major screw up against the Italian pub team has meant we don't even have Europe to fall back in this year. We're going to be in a league of our own in 11th, too far behind the rest and too far ahead of Aironi. There are a lot of hard games to come and tbh if we can't beat that Ospreys side we have little chance in too many other games, Aironi should bring a win but there won't be much else to shout about in the next few months going by the performances of Connacht in recent weeks.

I really hope we can turn this around but I just think after the initial improvements that were bound to come with new coaches coming in we've really reverted to type and are easy enough for teams to defend against.

wixfjord

Interesting, more giving out about referees after a Connacht loss!

Zzippy

wixfjord wrote: »

Interesting, more giving out about referees after a Connacht loss!

That's an unnecessary and snide comment tbh.

Were you there? Did you see it? Clearly you weren't, so why some on here and moan about people giving out about the refereeing. If you saw it and can dispute their comments and back it up with your own observations, then by all means do so. The 2 lads above are only voicing the frustrations felt by the entire crowd, I don't need to add to their comments. I was there by the way, so I can judge for myself.

wixfjord

Zzippy wrote: »

That's an unnecessary and snide comment tbh.

Were you there? Did you see it? Clearly you weren't, so why some on here and moan about people giving out about the refereeing. If you saw it and can dispute their comments and back it up with your own observations, then by all means do so. The 2 lads above are only voicing the frustrations felt by the entire crowd, I don't need to add to their comments. I was there by the way, so I can judge for myself.

Fair enough, was just stirring. Apologies.

However I did get/have got very sick of Connacht fans giving out. But that may not be the case tonight.

basillarkin

porterbelly wrote: »

Hate to sound like a broken record, but the ref was a disgrace again tonight. The breakdown was a shambles, Collins was infringeing like a tinker when we were bombarding the Ospreys line in the 1st half but no penalties were forthcoming. 3/4 blatant knock ons missed by the ref and touch judges. Bernie Upton's yellow card? Can anyone fill me in on that one. Seemed like the only one in the ground that saw it was the touch judge. Bemusing.

That being said we were poor in the 2nd half. Though Elwood rang the changes a bit early. Hagan off after 50 and Muldoon off after 60 were strange calls as was taking off Carr towards the end . Ezra Taylor contributed nothing when he came on except missed a few tackles. What I'd give to get Georgie Naoupu back. We need to sign a hooker short term, felt sorry for Loughney when he came on. Like Bergamasco playing 9 for Italy v England a few years ago, he was like a fish up a tree, couldn't find his man.

The sting has well and truly come out of our season now. We need a win in Edinburgh next week to get back on the horse or else it looks like we'll be fighting it out with Aironi to avoid the wooden spoon.

I was there again tonight and it was a terrible feeling leaving the ground. Our best chance to beat the Ospreys with so many internationals out and we couldn’t grasp it again. Nikora did well with most of his penalties on the night but missed a relative easy penalty at the start of the second half. No one could blame Nikora for his miss when time was up; it was a kick from distance and also into a breeze. I could not see why the yellow card was issued. Jerry Collins got a couple of soft penalties awarded to him and the referee was very inconsistent, freezing cold up there again tonight, I wonder how much more of this I can take.

wixfjord

wixfjord wrote: »

Fair enough, was just stirring. Apologies.

However I did get/have got very sick of Connacht fans giving out. But that may not be the case tonight.

Ah come on you can't compare a few minor complaints about the ref to the pages and pages of provincial stiring that goes on between a small proportion of Munster and Leinster fans on these boards.

If you read the posts the ref is only getting a fleeting mention, I think every Connacht Supporter accepts that we only have ourselves to blame, we were poor on the night but still should have won. That we didn't was 100% our own fault. The ref wasn't responsible for some of our dire play when in possession on the night.

It was a poor defeat and the players will know in their hearts that massive improvements are needed in attack in particular if we are to be competitive for the rest of the season.

gally74

Was at the game , ref was woe ful , he claimed the conn 6 threw a pinch, umpires were poor too

Podge_irl

Damn it all to hell. I keep losing ground in the prediction league by backing Connacht!

PhatPiggins

Borders no.2 wrote: »

Ah come on you can't compare a few minor complaints about the ref to the pages and pages of provincial stiring that goes on between a small proportion of Munster and Leinster fans on these boards.

If you read the posts the ref is only getting a fleeting mention, I think every Connacht Supporter accepts that we only have ourselves to blame, we were poor on the night but still should have won. That we didn't was 100% our own fault. The ref wasn't responsible for some of our dire play when in possession on the night.

It was a poor defeat and the players will know in their hearts that massive improvements are needed in attack in particular if we are to be competitive for the rest of the season.

Without wanting to pour petrol on the flames I do think Connachts reputation for accumulating pointless yellow cards precedes them and does prejudice with some ML refs. You're not a dirty team by any stretch but I've lost count of the number of daft yellow cards they've collected the past 3 seasons.

Didn't see any of tonight's games but did a lot of the 50/50 calls go against Connacht as they often seem to do