Connacht V Scarlets Sat 10th Sept @3.15pm TG4

seanin4711

Preview: Connacht v Scarlets
The last four matches between the two sides have all been won by the home side on the day, whilst the Scarlets have not been victorious at the Sportsground since January 2009.
Connacht beat Benetton Treviso 11-9 in Italy last weekend in the opening round of the RaboDirect PRO12 but have not won their opening two fixtures in the competition since 2005/06. Connacht's 12-26 defeat at the Sportsground in their last home game ended a six game home winning run.

Scarlets also beat Italian opposition in round one, overcoming Aironi 32-9 at Parc y Scarlets. The Welshmen have won their last three matches in the tournament but are winless in their last seven encounters against opponents from Ireland.

Referee: Marius Mitrea (FIR, 1st competition game)
Assistant Referees: Leo Colgan, Peter Roche (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: John Cole (IFRU)
TMO: Dermot Moloney (IRFU)
Live on TG4
http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/10965.php

Nice win away last week lets build some momentum and get as many as possible up the sportsground for the 1st home game of the season.
Cannot wait for this!
no teams as of this post!only extended squad.

Extended Connacht squad to face the Scarlets – Saturday 10th September, The Sportsground, Galway ko 15.15

Forwards:

Rodney Ah You, TJ Anderson, Denis Buckley, Adrian Flavin, Ronan Loughney, Stewart Maguire, Mike McCarthy, John Muldoon, George Naoupu, Johnny O’Connor, Ray Ofisa, Dylan Rogers, Ethienne Reynecke, Michael Swift, Brett Wilkinson

Backs:

Gavin Duffy, Henry Fa’afili, Eoin Griffin, Matthew Jarvis, James Loxton, Mark McCrea, Frank Murphy, Niall O’Connor, Paul O’Donohoe, Tiernan O’Halloran, Brian Tuohy

Robbo

I'd imagine the only change from last week will be Wilko coming in, probably on the bench to get some minutes under his belt. I'd like to get a look at Maguire as well but I'm not sure how much Elwood wants to upset the front row which seemed to do well against Treviso.

Robbo

Connacht Team

1.Ronan Loughney
2.Adrian Flavin
3.Rodney Ah You
4.Michael Swift
5.Mike McCarthy
6.John Muldoon
7.Ray Ofisa
8.George Naoupu
9.Frank Murphy
10.Matthew Jarvis
11.Tiernan O'Halloran
12.Henry Fa'afili
13.Eoin Griffin
14.Mark McCrea
15.Gavin Duffy (C)

16.Ethienne Reynecke
17.Brett Wilkinson
18. Stewart Maguire
19.TJ Anderson
20.Johnny O'Connor
21.Paul O'Donohoe
22.Niall O'Connor
23.Brian Tuohy

As expected really except I didn't think Maguire would be ready just yet.

irishbucsfan

Strong Connacht team. Nice to see Jarvis making that spot his own these days.


If Ray Ofisa starts to play like he did in the past, I think he'll claim that 7 spot and put huge pressure on the rest of the back row. Great unit that Connacht have there. Let's hope the rest of the pack can match them.

thomond2006

Who's covering lock in that 23? Anderson?

Panda Moanium

Looking forward to seeing George back again at number 8. Not a bad looking back-row there.

Panda Moanium

Panda Moanium wrote: »

Looking forward to seeing George back again at number 8. Not a bad looking back-row there.

not bad at all. And then JOC arguably one of the most underrated players in the country on the bench!

If Jarvis is consistent, Connacht will tick this year. Almost tempted to drive west for this tomorrow...

Zzippy

thomond2006 wrote: »

Who's covering lock in that 23? Anderson?

I'd say George would go to lock and TJ into the backrow, George is certainly tall enough to play there.

Some competition for backrow places this year, Mul, JOC, George, Ray and TJ, with Eoghan Grace, Eoin McKeon ready to step up too, not to mention Conneely in the academy.

Looking forward to getting a first look at the new players tomorrow, and the cheer when George goes on his first rampaging run!

G'wan Connacht!!

CIARAN_BOYLE

thomond2006 wrote: »

Who's covering lock in that 23? Anderson?

Muldoon, Anderson and George are all 6"3 or 6"4 all three could fill in at lock if needed. Given that Connacht are thin at lock I wouldn't be surprised if Connacht experiment with one of them at lock.

porterbelly

thomond2006 wrote: »

Who's covering lock in that 23? Anderson?

Swift and McCarthy are supermen. We don't need cover

cloonton

Zzippy wrote: »

Looking forward to getting a first look at the new players tomorrow, and the cheer when George goes on his first rampaging run!

Can't wait to see how the squad fits together tomorrow. Feeling more confident now after last weekends result!

Lets get ready to rumble!

thomond2006

Muldoon has given away two penalties in the first 7 minutes.

Swift had a right to be annoyed there I think...

Woah, poor refereeing. 5feet from a clear Tip Tackle. Gives the penalty, calls it dangerous but keeps the hand out of the pocket.

thomond2006

Nice break from O'Halloran, Connacht unlucky not to score.

CIARAN_BOYLE

In fairness to Jarvis he isn't a great placekicker. If he is in his own half he shouldn't go for the post but kick down the line.

Super break from O'Halloran. Griffin needed to straighten there, killed the space for Duffy.

CIARAN_BOYLE

thats the second time a connacht ball carrier was stopped two meters short and lost the ball on a risky off load

thomond2006

Very frustrating, Connacht could have two tries on the board.

Good pressure from Connacht in the maul.

Should be 6-6 at half time. Connacht taking time to get into the game, but doing well now.

Windy day out there, some kicks taking strange routes towards the posts.

Connacht 3 - 6 Scarlets at HT

wingnut

try scarlets

wingnut

converted 3 - 11 now. Not looking great.

CIARAN_BOYLE

McCusker and Swift in the bin 14 a side now

Taco Corp

Try Connacht. McCrea. Converted.

wingnut

Penalty Connacht 13-11

wingnut

Connacht pressing the line

theboss80

So I see the fans just settled on

Cooonnnnnnacht
Cooonnnnnnacht
Cooonnnnnnacht in the end?

CIARAN_BOYLE

theboss80 wrote: »

So I see the fans just settled on

Cooonnnnnnacht
Cooonnnnnnacht
Cooonnnnnnacht in the end?

yep

wingnut

Connacht win! Good win for Connacht, kept their cool.

Get in!

theboss80

Well done Connacht , savage start to the season and big win today

thomond2006

Another win on the board, well done Connacht!

Oisinjm

great win, thought the defence was quite good from what I saw

Taco Corp

great start to the season for Connacht. Delighted to them get 2 from 2. Hope they can keep it up

seanin4711

Gritty win from the boys from the west!
As for the officiating,these guys weren't bad they were brutal!
Had everybody scratching their heads!
It was decending into farce at times.
PLEASE RABODIRECT make sure this is Marius' 1st and last game
Referee: Marius Mitrea (FIR, 1st competition game)
HE had a stinker!

durkadurka

Great to see 4 wins for the Irish provinces. Not often it happens.

CIARAN_BOYLE

durkadurka wrote: »

Great to see 4 wins for the Irish provinces. Not often it happens.

Too true

ambid

Awesome Connacht! Improving year on year - not many in the Pro12 can say that!

Zzippy

Delighted with the win, good to see the new players, some of them did quite well, and even more happy that there is a lot to improve on. Too many knock-ons today, coughed up possession far too easily at times, which would be punished by better teams, but defence was excellent for most of the game, and once we got a bit more ball in the second half we started using it better.
Georgie was great in the seond half, some typical rampaging runs, as well as Rodney's great break, think it took 4 men to bring him down.

As for the ref, I know we have to have Italian refs, and they have to have a first game sometime, so let's hope he improves rapidly with a bit of feedback from the assessors. At least he didn't cost us the game, we nearly did that ourselves at time...

2 from 2, great start to the season, roll on Bradley next Friday, would be great to get a win over there too.

thomond2006

Rodney's a ****ing tank, looks like a really good buy.

CIARAN_BOYLE

thomond2006 wrote: »

Rodney's a ****ing tank, looks like a really good buy.

He's a man that could prop for Ireland imo

porterbelly

Super start, great to get 8 points on the board.

Ref, touch judge on the clan terrace side and the wind to a degree ruined the game. We still looked like a new team, but we improved alot in the 2nd half and in the end the more determined and grizzled pack won out.

George had a super 2nd half, some great carrying and tackling, Rodney played very well as did McCrea, Fa'afili was at the heart of most of our best breaks, looks a shrewd signing. O'Halloran and Griffin looked sharp.

Looks like we've signed Dave Gannon, he was on the bench today. Glad we've got some 2nd row cover on board.

We still have the likes of O'Connor, Browne, Matthews and Grace to come back in so things are looking good.

Finally, great crowd, great atmosphere, great buzz. Felt like the start of something special. A win was a must today to keep that going. There' alot of hard work to do on the field yet but we look like we're going places on and off the pitch. CONNACHT ABU

seanin4711

porterbelly wrote: »

Super start, great to get 8 points on the board.

Ref, touch judge on the clan terrace side and the wind to a degree ruined the game. We still looked like a new team, but we improved alot in the 2nd half and in the end the more determined and grizzled pack won out.

George had a super 2nd half, some great carrying and tackling, Rodney played very well as did McCrea, Fa'afili was at the heart of most of our best breaks, looks a shrewd signing. O'Halloran and Griffin looked sharp.

Looks like we've signed Dave Gannon, he was on the bench today. Glad we've got some 2nd row cover on board.

We still have the likes of O'Connor, Browne, Matthews and Grace to come back in so things are looking good.

Finally, great crowd, great atmosphere, great buzz. Felt like the start of something special. A win was a must today to keep that going. There' alot of hard work to do on the field yet but we look like we're going places on and off the pitch. CONNACHT ABU

+1

Robbo

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

In fairness to Jarvis he isn't a great placekicker. If he is in his own half he shouldn't go for the post but kick down the line.

I was well happy with him taking a shot from that distance. In the past when we had Mark McHugh and his spudgun of a boot, it allowed us to punish teams even when we weren't making headway into the final third. Jarvis has the range, it was the wind that took it awry.

Besides, the wind was wild and that's what I'm blaming for me missing in the half time kicking competition...

Some great performances out there today; all of the new heads were settling in nicely and George was back to his imperious ball carrying best in the second half. I noticed that Loughney had the look of a man suffering with the flu about him, he looked rough and was coughing the whole time but it was good to be able to ease Wilko back in for 20.

thomond2006

Thought Leinster had Gannon on their books?

vinny chase

thomond2006 wrote: »

Thought Leinster had Gannon on their books?

I thought so too!

He was definitely there as far as I know earlier in the pre-season! He came off the bench against the Melbourne Rebels.

Must have let him go.

porterbelly

thomond2006 wrote: »

Thought Leinster had Gannon on their books?

He came on for them v Melbourne Rebels.

Connacht were onto him before that match to see would he come back with Nolan and Browne injured and Macca away with Ireland.

I think he trained with the lads during the week and obviously he's signed now, good to get 2nd row cover on board

CIARAN_BOYLE

vinny chase wrote: »

I thought so too!

He was definitely there as far as I know earlier in the pre-season! He came off the bench against the Melbourne Rebels.

Must have let him go.

I think he was given a trial or something.

jacothelad

McCrea is a fine player. He didn't get a break at Ulster from Matt Williams and then got injured. Most of us were very sorry to see him go.

Robbo

jacothelad wrote: »

McCrea is a fine player. He didn't get a break at Ulster from Matt Williams and then got injured. Most of us were very sorry to see him go.

What did ye make of TJ Anderson? From a quick read around of Ulster boards, his appearance on the teamsheet would send a lot of people off on one. From the reports of the pre-season games, Treviso and the bit he was on for, he seems solid enough.