Glasgow Warriors vs Connacht, Sat 5th May 7.30pm, Firhill. TG4

its_phil

GLASGOW WARRIORS
15 Stuart Hogg
14 Federico Aramburu (CAPTAIN)
13 Alex Dunbar
12 Graeme Morrison
11 DTH van der Merwe
10 Duncan Weir
9 Henry Pyrgos

1 Jon Welsh
2 Dougie Hall
3 Moray Low
4 Tom Ryder
5 Richie Gray
6 Rob Harley
7 Chris Fusaro
8 John Barclay

SUBSTITUTES
16 Pat MacArthur
17 Mike Cusack
18 Ryan Grant
19 Al Kellock
20 Calum Forrester
21 Chris Cusiter
22 Ruaridh Jackson
23 Colin Shaw

CONNACHT
15 Gavin Duffy (C)
14 Kyle Tonetti
13 Eoin Griffin
12 Henry Fa’afili
11 Tiernan O’Halloran
10 Miah Nikora
9 Frank Murphy

1 Denis Buckley
2 Adrian Flavin
3 Ronan Loughney
4 Michael Swift
5 Mike McCarthy
6 John Muldoon
7 Johnny O’Connor
8 George Naoupu

16 Dermot Murphy
17 Stewart Maguire
18 Rodney Ah You
19 Mick Kearney
20 Ray Ofisa
21 Paul O’Donohoe
22 Matthew Jarvis
23 James Loxton



Set up to be a cracker with Glasgow looking to cement their play off spot while also saying goodbye to Firhill and Connacht looking for their best ever finish. Connacht in good form looking for four wins in a row but Glasgow havent lost at home in the Rabo since September.

Great to see Griffin back. Also nice to have Flavin back seen as Reynecke's darts have been a bit off recently. Big chance for Ronan Loughney to put his hand up to Declan Kidney against Jon Welsh who made the Rabo Team of the Year.

Glasgow should take it with whats at stake and playing at home but a good performance is vital to finish a decent season on the pitch for Connacht

wp_rathead

sweet didn't know this was on d'telly

that's my Saturday evening planned:cool:

Tox56

Will be interested to see how Griffin gets on.

gally74

Good to see griffin back

its_phil

McCarthy and O'Halloran excellent so far

freyners

duffys catch there was sheer class

wp_rathead

Good start by Connacht, we looking the more likely to get the try..
TOH really needs to work on his kicking game -but he has made some sweet breaks already today

its_phil

Soft try for Glasgow.

wp_rathead

wprathead wrote: »

Good start by Connacht, we looking the more likely to get the try..
TOH really needs to work on his kicking game -but he has made some sweet breaks already today

..Danger here

freyners

murphy, jesus christ

f1dan

Frank Murphy is having a shocker so far

its_phil

Fitzgibbon your a joke.

freyners

this ref is ridiculously bad

wp_rathead

great choke tackle there to stop certain try by Swifty and Macca

its_phil

Need to get in to h/t without conceding.

its_phil

wprathead wrote: »

great choke tackle there to stop certain try by Swifty and Macca

And another. About the 5th one tonight

wp_rathead

PP have handicap at Connacht +16
Feel we are still in this game so gonna put few bob on that

porterbelly

Had a good 10 minute period where we could have got a couple of tries. Other than that we've been under presure a bit so 11-3 isn't bad

Ruck protection needs to be alot better

Johnny O Connor is outstanding out there. McCarthy as well

We need to get our midfield into the game and get on the ball more

connachta

any web link please?

its_phil

Gray really is class. Need to get some possesion and relax go through phases.

freyners

still dont understand why he is going to sale

one try and we are right back in this

gray again:(

irishbucsfan

freyners wrote: »

still dont understand why he is going to sale

Brian Kennedy

leeroybrown

porterbelly wrote: »

Ruck protection needs to be alot better

I'm not watching the game myself but this has been a "feature" of our game in the latter half of the season. Some games it's been fine but I've seen a lot of breaks through the middle or at the fringe of the ruck where there should always be a player. Hopefully it'll be a thing of the past next season.

wp_rathead

Gray is killing us single handidly at the lineout

wp_rathead

george why u chip it?!

its_phil

Just relax!!

Still haven't seen Griffin with the ball

Rodney really is a disaster at scrum time

its_phil

Fitzgibbon is a joke of a ref

wp_rathead

daft by POD? Yes
Yellow Card? No

freyners

this guy is worse than philips

wp_rathead

Ray summed up how we all feel about this ref there

seanin4711

squib watched first half we were shocking aimlessly kicking garryowens and basicaly all over the shop.
back to making up the numbers yet again!
frank the plank!
this is what we have for HEC next season,sweet jaysus!
badly badly need scrum-half and a hooker BIGTIME!!!!
poor fayre!

I mean one feckin penalty!!! making them look like toulouse!

budgie001

We cant blame the ref for muck I'm watching, sloppy and unconvincing

tiger_cub

wprathead wrote: »

Ray summed up how we all feel about this ref there

ref is having an absolute shocker of a game, and we're not getting any breaks.

still that's no excuse for the serious lack of discipline the lads are showing tonight. as a professional sports team they need to hold themselves better no matter how bad the calls are from the ref.

Swifty played a blinder, really is an institution in connacht rugby.

i'll pay Elwood myself at this stage to release Murphy from his contract.

wp_rathead

ref is not the reason we lost this game

we need a scrum half with a brain

seanin4711

its like its a job for life playing for connacht in certain positions.
if your not up to standard cut them loose Eric plz!
Some of the signings made over the last few years are questionable to say the least!
DOnt perform, there's the door!!!
thats the way it should be!
but alas tie that man down to another two year contract or frank do you want three years???

Zzippy

its_phil wrote: »

Fitzgibbon is a joke of a ref

He's always been a joke, I thought this year he had improved but now I realise that was a cruel joke too. The yellow card for POD was one of the most ridiculous decisions I've ever seen.

Not blaming the ref for the defeat, Connacht were v poor, but how the hell, in this professional age, with referee reviews and workshops, etc, does Peter Fitzgibbon still get to referee anything above under-14 level?

.ak

FT score?

tiger_cub

.ak wrote: »

FT score?

24-3

its_phil

Ref was bad for both sides to be fair. Very poor ref.

There was far too much of this offloading s****, that we clearly weren't capable of doing. Tried forcing it far too much. Glasgow took advantage of that and then Richie Gray went up two gears. He is phenomenal. Without a doubt a future Lion. You can see why they are in the play-offs. They aren't spectacular but they're effective.

People shouldn't underestimate how tough a place Glasgow is to go, they are unbeaten there since September in the league. But our performance had to be better. Muldoon had one of his worst game for Connacht. McCarthy was excellent in the first half, but when Gray took it up two levels in the second half he couldn't keep with him. They should have started aiming the ball at 4 or 6 when Gray began winning it. Murphy was poor tonight but the quality of ball he's receiving from the forwards wasn't good. Our ruck clearing has to be better than it was next year.

It was a poor performance but the rumblings of some people on here calling for heads to roll after a loss to a team in the play offs is exaggeration at it's finest.

Still best ever finish in 8th place, so that's one thing worth being positive about.

irishbucsfan

Wow hard to imagine Connacht could go on an 14 game losing streak and still manage their best ever finish.

Things will be better next season. A good squad forming there.

Shelflife

Watched the last 20mins, game as a contest was really over at that stage.
I kept a eye on futzgibbon, he really had no appreciation for the game at all. Pod was stupid but it was never a yellow, in fact Fitz should have penalised Glasgow for not making the ball available. Cynical play like this leads to the pod reaction.
For the ofisa incident Fitz penalises Glasgow, conn want to go quick -- twice and he stops them twice just so that he can have a chat. So he basically rewards Glasgow on the double for cynical play play.
For the Glasgow yellow card again Connachts best chance of a try is a quick tap, again he stops the game to give a card and at the same time gives Glasgow a chance to reset their defense.
All he had to do was allow Connacht to score their try and then yellow card the Glasgow player.
It made no diff to the outcome of the match but this is the type of reffing that infuriates players and supporters.
Let the attacking team play quick ball, then go back and sort out the paperwork.

Very poor standard of reffing for the 20 mins that I saw.

.ak

Anytime he ref's he's a joke. I thought he might improve this year but honestly think he's going downhill. I wonder if he'll be dropped?

CatFromHue

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Wow hard to imagine Connacht could go on an 14 game losing streak and still manage their best ever finish.

Things will be better next season. A good squad forming there.

03/04 was their best finish

P22 W8 D2 L12 TB5 LB3

its_phil

CatFromHue wrote: »

03/04 was their best finish

P22 W8 D2 L12 TB5 LB3

League position was 8th this year, compared to 9th that year

CIARAN_BOYLE

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/table.php?includeref=2272&season=2001-2002
Isn't this their best finish

its_phil

its_phil wrote: »

It was a poor performance but the rumblings of some people on here calling for heads to roll after a loss to a team in the play offs is exaggeration at it's finest.

The only rumblings are for certain member(s) of the squad who have been going through the motions for the majority of the season. We are never going to get the most talented players in the world to Connacht but if you're not prepared to put in the effort there should be consequences.

Misguided loyalty in certain positions will cause these same problems to come back and haunt us next season.

porterbelly

Rodney and Maguire's effort at that scrum was appalling

If it wasn't the last game of the season I'd imagine Mcfarland would have them pounding scrum machines monday morning

wp_rathead

its_phil wrote: »

It was a poor performance but the rumblings of some people on here calling for heads to roll after a loss to a team in the play offs is exaggeration at it's finest.

This wasn't a once of though Phil- Frank and POD have been awful all season for us..

its_phil

wprathead wrote: »

This wasn't a once of though Phil- Frank and POD have been awful all season for us..

I'm know they have been bad, I just feel one poster generalises the entire squad with a couple of bad apples and does it on a consistent basis. Completley overreacts everytime we lose a game.

Murphy was shocking like I said, but I have do have sympathy for the quality of ball he gets from rucks which is very bad.

seanin4711

its_phil wrote: »

I'm know they have been bad, I just feel one poster generalises the entire squad with a couple of bad apples and does it on a consistent basis. Completley overreacts everytime we lose a game.

Murphy was shocking like I said, but I have do have sympathy for the quality of ball he gets from rucks which is very bad.

my opinion. as I am entitled, just think with the players we have that we can play better than that abomination in firhill,all the talk about going out in a high and then to see that display infuriated me.
maybe that's acceptable to you but not me.
that team played like they didn't want to be there.
that's attitude, lacking and that's down to coaching and professionalism.
I call a spade a spade.
no apologies

its_phil

its_phil wrote: »

Murphy was shocking like I said, but I have do have sympathy for the quality of ball he gets from rucks which is very bad.

I would agree to an extent, our protection of the ball at ruck time and the number of bodies we commit/fail to commit/arrive too late at ruck time has for me been an ongoing problem this season. It appears Eric and Dan want this to be the case as it hasn't been addressed. They obviously want to take the risk of turning the ball over and hope to profit from numbers out the pitch. Don't understand it personally but there you go.

However, mine is a more basic point, I can take players having bad days and making poor mistakes but what I can't take is individuals who are not committed to the cause.

For all Paul O'Donohue's failings, he puts his heart and soul into it and it means a lot for him to be playing professional rugby, however the same can't be said about others imo.

Unless these issues are addressed next season will be filled with more frustration. I'm sure certain individuals contracts expiring will help in generating a couple of big performances in the Heineken Cup games but its the attitudes and ability to put their body on the line in the non-glamorous Rabo games that worries me.