Connacht v Blues Sportsground, Fri 15 Apr 19:45 TG4

evil_seed

Connacht XV
01 Ronan Loughney
02 Sean Cronin
03 Jamie Hagan
04 Mike McCarthy
05 Bernie Upton
06 Andrew Browne
07 Johnny O’Connor ©
08 Ray Ofisa
09 Frank Murphy
10 Ian Keatley
11 Fionn Carr
12 Troy Nathan
13 Niva Ta’auso
14 Brian Tuohy
15 Gavin Duffy

16 Adrian Flavin
17 Brett Wilkinson
18 Rodney Ah You
19 Mike McComish
20 John Muldoon
21 Mark Dolan
22 Keith Matthews
23 Eoin Griffin

The side remains virtually unchanged from the team that earned a bonus point victory over Edinburgh 2 weeks ago. Connacht Academy star Mark Dolan retains his spot on the bench and is joined by Eoin Grifin who is returning after a layoff with a hamstring injury. The starting XV remains unchanged with Ronan Loughney and Jamie Hagan propping alongside Irish International hooker Sean Cronin. With Michael Swift still out with a hand injury Mike McCarthy is partnered by Bernie Upton in the second row whilst the successful backrow of Andrew Browne, captain Johnny O’Connor and Ray Ofisa complete the forwards.
Frank Murphy and Ian Keatley make the half-backs, Keatley has an impressive scoring record in the Magners League with 195 points leaving him 2nd in the accumulator league behind Dan Biggar. Troy Nathan and Niva Ta’auso are joined by Brian Tuohy and Fionn Carr on the wings. Carr became Connacht’s all-time top try scorer when he scored twice against Edinburgh; he overtook Conor McPhilips’ longstanding record of 32 trys for the Province. Gavin Duffy starts at fullback to complete the Connacht line-up.

As this is Connacht’s last home game of the season, the Sportsground will throw open it’s doors for a family fun-day with bouncy castles, facepainting, giant board-games, rugby themed games and much more.
Family tickets for the event, which starts at 6.00pm, cost €50 for 2 adults and 2 children (U12) and include entry to the marquee where there will be music, food and a chance to mingle with the players before and after the game.

evil_seed

Cardiff XV

Cardiff Blues 15 Chris Czekaj 14 Leigh Halfpenny 13 Casey Laulala 12 Jamie Roberts 11 Tom James 10 Dan Parks 9 Richie Rees

8 Xavier Rush 7 Martyn Williams 6 Maama Molitika 5 Paul Tito (c) 4 Bradley Davies 3 Taufa'ao Filise 2 Gareth Williams 1 John Yapp

16 Rhys Williams 17 Sam Hobbs 18 Scott Andrews 19 Michael Paterson 20 Deiniol Jones 21 Lloyd Williams 22 Ceri Sweeney 23 Dafydd Hewitt

Cardiff Blues travel to Galway on Friday to face an inform Connacht side who have won three of their last four games in the Magners League. The Blues know that nothing short of a win will do if they are to climb back into the Play-Off places having recorded a draw with the Ospreys at Swansea a fortnight ago.

The Blues welcome back Chris Czekaj who had to pull out at the last minute against the Ospreys due to a minor knee injury and also welcome back John Yapp to bolster the front row, with the Welsh international having recovered from a calf injury.

Cardiff Blues have secured just one victory from their last four outings: 16-11 at Edinburgh on 4 March and it won't be an easy task at the Sportsground, where Connacht have recorded five straight victories - their best ever league run. The Blues however do have a good record against the Irish province with their only loss in the last ten encounters a 18-16 defeat at the Sportsground in September 2009.

phog

That's a seriously tough side the Blues have named, Connacht wouldn't want to give away too many penalties with Parks and Halfpenny on the field. Will be great to see O'Connor and Williams scrap for the ball.

Connacht will have a tough time trying to win this one.

freyners

Gavin Duffy 15 Chris Czekaj
Brain Touhy 14 Leigh Halfpenny
Niva Ta'auso 13 Casey Laulala
Troy Nathan 12 Jamie Roberts
Fionn Carr 11 Tom James
Ian Keatley 10 Dan Parks
Frank Murphy 9 Richie Rees
Ray Ofisa 8 Xavier Rushe
Johnny O'Connor (c) 7 Martyn Williams
Andrew Browne 6 Maama Molitika
Bernie Upton 5 Paul Tito (c)
Mike McCarthy 4 Bradley Davies
Jamie Hagan 3 Taufa'ao Filise
Sean Cronin 2 Gareth Williams
Ronan Loughney 1 John Yapp

Adrian Flavin 16 Rhys Williams
Brett Wilkinson 17 Sam Hobbs
Rodney Ah You 18 Scott Andrews
Mike McComish 19 Michael Patterson
John Muldoon 20 Deiniol Jones
Mark Dolan 21 Lloyd Williams
Keith Matthews 22 Ceri Sweeney
Eoin Griffin 23 Dafydd Hewitt


head to head from the connacht blog is anyone wants to see how the teams shape up

last home game of the season and possbily the time we'll ever see the likes of keatley/hagan/cronin/carr at the sportsground in the green jersey. Hopefully they will put in a performance to give the send off they deserve

thomond2006

Minus Warburton and Blair that's the strongest side Cardiff can put out.

It's a big ask for the Westies.

evil_seed

That's a very strong Blues side alright. It's a test to see if we have advanced much this season from last. Hopefully with it being the last home game of the season, the guys leaving will be up for it and show that they do care about the jersey. With a big game from these guys and the rest of course, with the addition of a hungry Mul off the bench, and with a good loud 16th man I think we can sneak this by 3-5 points.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Its a big ask for Connacht to pull off any result. That said a win be a great for Connacht and it would give Leinster and Ulster a bit of a cushion when it comes to reaching the semis, cardiff could spoil the party.

Zzippy

That's a bloody good Cardiff team, will be some result if we can take them, even at home. Can't give away any penalties in our own half, discipline will be crucial.
Gutted I'm missing this one, why did my mate have to choose this weekend to get married! :mad: Ah well, at least I'll get to Thomond for the last game.

thomond2006 wrote: »

Minus Warburton and Blair that's the strongest side Cardiff can put out.

It's a big ask for the Westies.

Please stop calling Connacht the Westies. Seriously.

Former Coach

Keith Mathews picked up ankle injury in team run today and misses the match.

Diom

Great... less depth in center. Just what we need against Roberts and Lualala

GerM

Former Coach wrote: »

Keith Mathews picked up ankle injury in team run today and misses the match.

Heard it's potentially a nasty one too and he could be out until next season if anyone can confirm?

Really looking forward to getting a good look at Connacht tonight. They've a bit of impact to come off the bench so if they're thereabouts after 50 minutes hopefully they can kill it off. Will need to take every available point though and stop the Blues back row getting into a rhythm. Big match up for JOC and Ofisa against Rush and Williams.

PhatPiggins

Is Ben Blair going to play rugby again? Player I really rate and if he hadn't been born in the same era as Cullen/McDonald/Mils he would have had 40 All Black caps.

freyners

matthews confirmed out...o'halloran to take his place


good chance for tiernan if hes brought on..

pollypigwash

hmmmm... the bench is interesting. Serious meat up front but slightly exciting/worrying and a bit of everything in between with the backline cover given Eoin Griffin is the oldest of the three and is still 20! :eek:
With Guys like Roberts our backline could take a good pounding and that is a big jump up for guys of thier age.


On a side note how bout we play this for a misty eyed goodbye to the our adopted young things who flee the nest tonight.

Everybody loves a cheesy bit of KC and the sunshine band anyway....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-l5FyA3pgo

[Jackass]

Really rooting for Connacht in this one.

I think they can do it, home crowd and form can get them there.

Blues side looks very strong though and they need to win all their remaining games to make the play-offs, so this is cup final stuff to them.

It's a tall order, but Connacht can do it.

suppafly

anyone have a link for english radio commentary?

ongarite

Ref gave a penalty to Connacht for swearing by a Blues player.

Wouldn't see that in a soccer game!

CIARAN_BOYLE

ongarite wrote: »

Wouldn't see that in a soccer game!

You mightn't see a penalty but you may see a 2 match ban depending on how much attention the media gives the story

durkadurka

That's swearing at the camera but slightly ot.

burkomadlad

connacht need a serious change in gameplay , we need to be alot more conservative and keep kicking behind hence pinning them back in their own half.

GerM

This left to right stuff is killing them. They've a man in the bin. Stick it into the corner for God's sake. Some of the loopy deep passing is atrocious. Try hitting the gain line lads. Hoping they can pull this out of the fire....

GerM

Trying to play way too much rugby in their own half and finding themselves in difficulty especially with forwards turning up in the back line. Keatley not having a great day in terms of directing the game. When he has kicked for touch he has had great success but he keeps looking to put width on the ball from well inside his own half. Just not playing intelligent rugby.

balls

ongarite

Blues have this game now and looking likely for a BP too.

thomond2006

They'll hardly get two tries with 5 minutes left.

durkadurka

I'd give that

referee succumbed to pressure from players very easily in the 20mins I've been watching. Really hate seeing players appealing for penalties and cards. That's the ref's job.

Should've given the try though!

O'Halloran looked dangerous every time he got on the ball.

Unfortunately the only real positive I saw over the last quarter

Kilo

That was pretty awful stuff tbh. Connacht were so deep in attack that the Pinks were gaining huge yards with each phase. Not only were they deep but they were also static. I always thought that you went deep to come onto the ball at speed, but Connacht seemed to think that the idea was to take the ball and run backwards or sideways.

Keatley's crab into touch at the end was really all that needed to be said about the game.

PhatPiggins

Kilo wrote: »

That was pretty awful stuff tbh. Connacht were so deep in attack that the Pinks were gaining huge yards with each phase. Not only were they deep but they were also static. I always thought that you went deep to come onto the ball at speed, but Connacht seemed to think that the idea was to take the ball and run backwards or sideways.

Keatley's crab into touch at the end was really all that needed to be said about the game.

I've watched that last play 4 times and I still don't know what he was trying to do. Had to options to pass it to two players coming in on the angle.

porterbelly

Very poor tonight, a major off night. Never got going an went out with a whimper.

Kilo

PhatPiggins wrote: »

[/B]

I've watched that last play 4 times and I still don't know what he was trying to do. Had to options to pass it to two players coming in on the angle.

Me too, super slo-mo and all

Duffy was screaming for it and there was a nice gaping hole in the defence that Keatley completely ignored in his mad dash for the touchline. Perhaps he was disorientated and thought it was the try line?

An awful game to watch and quite honestly Connacht really were dreadful in attack. What's wrong with their backs? And Frank Murphy was throwing out some of the most awful passes. Granted, he had to throw them a long way at times, but a lot of his and other's passing was atrocious.

durkadurka

I think he was trying to do a drico a la vs Italy a few years ago but totally failed

evil_seed

Last nights performance was disappointing with it being the last home game of the season. Cardiff were the far better team in fairness. It was a good test to see how far we've come this year and to be fair, realistically we've a lot of improving done but there's players there that are playing above their level. Fair play to Keats for acknowledging the supporters at the end. Any word on Rays injury yet?

porterbelly

evil_seed wrote: »

Last nights performance was disappointing with it being the last home game of the season. Cardiff were the far better team in fairness. It was a good test to see how far we've come this year and to be fair, realistically we've a lot of improving done but there's players there that are playing above their level. Fair play to Keats for acknowledging the supporters at the end. Any word on Rays injury yet?

And fair play to the supporters for giving him a good send off. When he turned to the crowd to applaud a few minutes after the end he got a standing ovation. The same applies to Hagan and Cronin when they went off on the terrace side, and Hagan has been getting that kind of reception week in week out when he makes way for Ah You. It would be easy to be bitter and not acknowledge them as they're leaving. It's a testament to the supporters to respond in such a fashion and I am proud to call myself a Connacht supporter when I see things like this.