Connacht -v- Dragons : Friday Sept 23rd 19:30KO

Robbo

Connacht Matchday 23

15 Gavin Duffy (C)
14 Brian Tuohy
13 Eoin Griffin
12 Henry Fa'afili
11 Tiernan O'Halloran
10 Niall O'Connor
9 Frank Murphy
1 Brett Wilkinson
2 Ethienne Reynecke
3 Rodney Ah You
4 Dave Gannon
5 Mike McCarthy
6 John Muldoon
7 Johnny O'Connor
8 Ray Ofisa

16 Adrian Flavin
17 Ronan Loughney
18 Dylan Rogers
19 Mick Kearney
20 TJ Anderson
21 Paul O'Donohoe
22 Mathew Jarvis
23 James Loxton

Dragons 26 Man Squad:

Backs: Wayne Evans, Joe Bedford, Jon Evans, Jason Tovey, Matthew Jones, Ashley Smith, Geraint O’Driscoll*, Pat Leach, Tom Riley, Mathew Pewtner, Martyn Thomas.

Forwards: Phill Price, Nathan Williams, Dan Way, Nathan Buck, Tom Willis, Rhys Buckley, Adam Jones, Rob Sidoli, Andrew Coombs, Gavin Thomas, Jevon Groves, Lewis Evans, Darren Waters, Sam Parry, Hugo Ellis.

George is out for 4 weeks plus, Swifty is sick and I think McCrea took a knock in Scotland last week. Other than that, the switch at outhalf is to spice things up. For those of us who didn't see the pre-season games, it's a possible first look at Mick Kearney and James Loxton.

This match isn't on TV; coverage on Galway Bay FM, Knockon.ie and the Connacht Facebook for those who can't make it.

Current odds with Paddy Power: Connacht 4/11, Dragons 2/1, Draw 20/1.

Zzippy

Good to see Rodney recovered so quickly. Was wondering about McCrea alright, he's been playing well so far. At least he seems to be happy to make changes and give everyone a crack, will be interesting to see if NOC can nail down a place. Jarvis has been decent so far but placekicking a bit ordinary...

Connacht are 4/11 with the bookies, hopefully they have it called right!

Rickwellwood

Linley Mc Kenzie in today's Advertiser saying George's injury is knee ligament and will see him out for 4 weeks and maybe up to 4 months:eek:

Hope thats a mis print.

In the second half vs Scarlets in our 1st home match he was on fire and caused havoc in attacking Scarlets midfield and they found it hard to cope. Was drawing 2-3 defenders just to contain him. Great to see.

Our backrow for tomorrow still very strong.

Hopefully with Ray at 8 he can cause just as much havoc vs Dragons, as well as everyone else.

Hopefully Swifty illness not too serious.

Connacht Abu

Tim_Murphy

Great to see Point Blank Gym sponsored James Loxton get on the bench.

</shamelessplug> :pac:

Looking forward to the match, great chance for Connacht to get anther win on the board.

thomond2006

Connacht should be looking to get a comfortable win here.

wp_rathead

looking forward to this game, Friday evening atmosphere in sportsground is usually nice and loud

have good record against the Dragons at home, hopefully we'll keep that going
shame about George being out for awhile

durkadurka

thomond2006 wrote: »

Connacht should be looking to get a comfortable win here.

Dunno about that - they're not great but they can offer stubborn resistance for a good long time.

fatguy2k1

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0923/1224304576428.html

Robbo

Dragons Team:

15 Martyn Thomas, 14 Matthew Pewtner, 13 Pat Leach, 12 Ashley Smith, 11 Geraint O’Driscoll, 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Joe Bedford, 1 Nathan Williams, 2 Tom Willis (c), 3 Dan Way, 4 Adam Jones, 5 Rob Sidoli, 6 Lewis Evans, 7 Gavin Thomas, 8 Andrew Coombs

Replacements

16 Rhys Buckley, 17 Phil Price, 18 Nathan Buck, 19 Darren Waters, 20 Jevon Groves, 21 Wayne Evans, 22 Tom Riley, 23 Matthew Jones

O'Driscoll is making his first start, making the step up from club rugby.

RogerThis

3-13 HT to Dragons

thomond2006

RogerThis wrote: »

3-13 HT to Dragons

ouch

seanin4711

WTF????
wait a minute griffin scores in the corner converted by jarvis GAME ON!
20 minutes to go!
Connact 10-Dragons 13
GWAN CONNACHT!!
I take back everything i said!
We are giving away way way way too many penalties!!!

eyeball kid

Any update on the score here?

RogerThis

10-13

RogerThis

Try - Duffy plus conversion
17-13

crisco10

score?
thanks

eyeball kid

Come on Connacht!

seanin4711

DUFFMAN in jarvis converted!
17 -13 gwan connacht we need the next score!!!!

CIARAN_BOYLE

crisco10 wrote: »

score?
thanks

Connacht 17 dragons 13

Come on Connacht

theboss80

time left?

seanin4711

http://tunein.com/search/?query=galway+bay+fm
11 mins left!

theboss80

Squeaky bum time

RogerThis

3760 at the match. Great crowd for such as rainy night

CIARAN_BOYLE

73rd minute now

seanin4711

17-13

thomond2006

C'mon Connukt!

seanin4711

4 mins left!!!

seanin4711

cmon!up the field!!!

CIARAN_BOYLE

Jarvis after going down the field for a lineout twice rather than kicking kickable penalties

Commentator after saying that the turning point was Jarvis and Flavin coming on from the bench

CIARAN_BOYLE

camped on the Dragons line but the decision was to kick it dead apparently there was an infringement. Back for a penalty

freyners

thank god....2nd in the table

eyeball kid

Great turnaround in front of a decent crowd. Delighted with that result!

seanin4711

by jaysus the made us sweat for it!!!!

evil_seed

Great come back. Pissed off I missed it!

GerM

freyners wrote: »

thank god....2nd in the table

Things you never thought you would say #743:

God, I wish Leinster could be more like Connacht right now.

theboss80

GerM wrote: »

Things you never thought you would say #743:
.

#744 Sportsground slowly becoming a fortress

thomond2006

Fair play, great start to the season for Connacht.

freyners

#745 attendance of 3706 in the SG for the dragons match!!!:D

seanin4711

freyners wrote: »

#745 attendance of 3706 in the SG for the dragons match!!!:D

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/fixtures_list.php?includeref=2270&season=2010-2011

1371 according to the stats,
2335 not a bad increase over one year!

theboss80

Jeez if it keeps up like this Connacht might earn Leinster a 4th qualifying spot in the HEC next season.

seanin4711

theboss80 wrote: »

Jeez if it keeps up like this Connacht might earn Leinster a 4th qualifying spot in the HEC next season.

SHHHHHHH dont tell the IRFU!

I like where your heads at!

thomond2006

freyners wrote: »

#745 attendance of 3706 in the SG for the dragons match!!!:D

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/6172.php

Compared with 1,371 at the same game last season.

Edit: Damn you Seanin!

seanin4711

sorry Tho!

seanin4711

[HTML]http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/tables/4777185.stm[/HTML]
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:

phog

Great win, as I switched off from RTE2 after the Cardiff Munster game they gave a latest score and I thought Connacht were being hockeyed, great win.

freyners

2335????
now thats progress


2 difficult games next in ospreys away and leinster away.... still...we shouldnt fear either side..with the right frame of mind we can steal a win in one of them

gally74

New stand is great, home dry for a change, Jarvis kicked 2 fantastic conversions into the wind from the edge of the field, tier an o Hal Oran and Eoin g did really well, think o no Lagan has Irish potential

ambid

How is the fly half battle working out? Does Jarvis or O'Connor look the better bet, or is it too early to tell?

Utopia Parkway

ambid wrote: »

How is the fly half battle working out? Does Jarvis or O'Connor look the better bet, or is it too early to tell?

Hard to say this early. Didn't think NOC did much to be honest. Kicked a good pen alright from near halfway in the first half but otherwise didn't seem to get Connacht going forward. Jarvis kicked two magnificent conversions from right out on the wing but then missed one from the middle of the field. No doubt Connacht played better when he was on but how much this had to do with him was hard to tell. Thing is between his time at Ulster and now at Connacht everyone has seen what NOC can do. I'm not sure he's going to get any better at this stage. Jarvis at least has the potential to get substantially better IMO.

By the way a crowd of 3,700 for a game against the Dragons is absolutely fantastic.

porterbelly

Vainikolo and McCrea to come back into the backline so they'll add spark. Browne, Swifty, Naoupu to return to the pack.

We were cat for the 1st 50, deservedly 10 points in arrears. Substitutions were key. Loughney, Rogers and Flavin put us on the front foot in the scrum, and Paul O'Donoghue added pace around the ruck. Jarvis looked lively and kicked 2 unbelievable conversions. NOC was very very poor. So pedestrian, no invention everything was telegraphed and he failed miserably to get the backs moving

Great performances from Mul and Concrete in the pack, put themsleves about and drove us on. O'Halloran is a class class player, dare I say it, too good to be playing in that muck tonight We're playing poorly, but we're 3 from 4 and have some good players to return.

Great crowd in the Sportsground, over 3700 and super atmosphere.

profitius

How is Griffen playing lately?