Pro 12:Connacht v Newport Gwent Dragons; Saturday 5th January; KO 5pm; Not on TV

freyners

Connacht: R Henshaw; D Poolman, E Griffin, D McSharry, F Vainikolo; D Parks, K Marmion; D Buckley, J Harris-Wright, N White (capt), M Swift, M McCarthy, A Browne, E McKeon, G Naoupu.

Replacements: E Reynecke, B Wilkinson, R Loughney, M Kearney, E Grace, P O’Donohoe, M Jarvis, T O’Halloran.

Dragons: Hallam Amos, Tom Prydie, Adam Hughes, Andy Tuilagi, Tonderai Chavhanga, Lewis Robling, Wayne Evans; Phil Price, Sam Parry, Dan Way, Andrew Coombs, Rob Sidoli, Lewis Evans © Nic Cudd, Toby Faletau.

Replacements:
Hugh Gustafson, Owen Evans, Nathan Buck, Adam Jones, Tom Brown, Jonathan Evans, Ashley Smith, Jack Dixon

Really is a must win game after a couple of disappointing results in a row. Quins (which I'm travelling to) and Zebre in the H cup after this and although we are out, we need a result in one of them to call our tournament worthwhile
Macca and Fets return for JOC (George to 8, McKeon to 7) and Matt Healy who both picked up in injuries last week. Eoghan Grace makes a rare appearance on the bench

Dragons have most of the same team from their match v Ospreys, Hughes and Chavhanga enter in the backline, forward pack stays the same.

We got killed by our discipline earlier this season against dragons so we need to watch that, otherwise I would hope we should win this with home advantage and a strong team out.

Fishooks13

Really poor Dragons side. No excuses for Connacht here

OldRio

The lack of TV coverage of games is shocking.
Hope Galway Bay are doing radio coms.

Mal-Adjusted

It appears they all want to focus on the Munster/Cardiff match instead

decisions

Lack of tv is annoying. I'm getting quite sick of it tbh, while Connacht are not winning HCups and challenging at the top they still have a lot if intrest and support on the island.

Zzippy

I'm usually not too bothered about TV coverage for home games, but after knee surgery on Thursday I def can't get to this one, so would be nice to be able to watch on TV :mad:

Connacht to win this anyway, good strong team picked, revenge factor, and to be honest if we can't beat Dragons at home we haven't made any of the progress on the pitch we are supposed to have made. Will be very disappointed if we don't win well.

Higher

decisions wrote: »

Lack of tv is annoying. I'm getting quite sick of it tbh, while Connacht are not winning HCups and challenging at the top they still have a lot if intrest and support on the island.

Its nothing to do with whether the team is winning, tv stations couldn't care less. Its all about viewing numbers.

decisions

Higher wrote: »

Its nothing to do with whether the team is winning, tv stations couldn't care less. Its all about viewing numbers.

But a team doing well will attract higher viewing numbers. It was just a bit of a rant.

BeardySi

Higher wrote: »

Its nothing to do with whether the team is winning, tv stations couldn't care less. Its all about viewing numbers.

And here was me thinking RTE was supposedly a publicly (part-)funded public service broadcaster....

The lack of coverage at even the home games is pathetic...

Judgement Day

Anybody know what the weather is like down there this evening?

vienne86

Higher wrote: »

Its nothing to do with whether the team is winning, tv stations couldn't care less. Its all about viewing numbers.

There would be a lot of interest from all other provinces in this match. I'm a Leinster supporter, but try to watch all the provincial matches. It's an awful pity we don't have this match on TV.

freyners

Judgement Day wrote: »

Anybody know what the weather is like down there this evening?

Here now. Reckon we could see rain before the eve is out

Judgement Day

Listening on Galway Bay FM here: http://www.galwaynews.ie/galwaybayfm

C'MON CONNACHT!

gally74

3-0

gally74

6-0

freyners

Parks convinced we had.a try there.begging for tmo. Lack of tv might have cost us a try

gally74

Vak run from drop 22 to inside their 22

gally74

Mckeon such a nice player

decisions

Sounds like a fantastic game.

Zzippy

Connacht have 5m scrum on Dragons line

Zzippy

Scrum reset, Connacht penalty, take the scrum again, PENALTY TRY!

decisions

Penalty Try!!!

Zzippy

13-0

gally74

Zzippy wrote: »

Connacht have 5m scrum on Dragons line

13-0

thomond2006

C'mon Connacht, keep it up!

gally74

18-0 beautiful run by mcsharry

Zzippy

Line break McSharry, offloads to Naoupu, TRY!

gally74

20-0

Zzippy

Naoupu stretchered off

Zzippy

Grace on for Naoupu, McKeon goes to 8 and Grace now openside flanker

Zzippy

Penalty Dragons, 20-3. Naoupu's injury has definitely changed the game, momentum swung to Dragons a bit.

HT

Zzippy

Connacht Clan just tweeted that George is up and on his feet, so hopefully nothing too serious and he won't be out for long..

Zzippy

Scrappy start to second half, second Dragons penalty, 20-6.

Poolman in the corner, TRY CONNACHT!

Zzippy

27-6

thomond2006

Plenty of time left to get the bonus point.

ammg

Come on Connacht

Zzippy

Parks drop goal, 30-6

14 mins left

Hagz

Zzippy wrote: »

Parks drop goal, 30-6

14 mins left

...who goes for a drop goal when you need 1 more try for a bonus point?

Zzippy

Hagz wrote: »

...who goes for a drop goal when you need 1 more try for a bonus point?

I'm not at the game, only listening on radio, but sometimes a move breaks down and a DG is the best option...

Fireball07

Hagz wrote: »

...who goes for a drop goal when you need 1 more try for a bonus point?

Parks has always done that kind of thing.

Zzippy

Fireball07 wrote: »

Parks has always done that kind of thing.

He's gone off now if that makes you happy...

Hagz

Zzippy wrote: »

I'm not at the game, only listening on radio, but sometimes a move breaks down and a DG is the best option...

If you're in range of a drop-goal on 3 tries, with the opposition out of reach, the drop goal should be the last thing on the mind. If moves are breaking down, hail mary it. The 3 points he's got from that drop goal are worthless.

Neither of us have seen it of course. Things could have got very messy and he might have just struck out of panic, but it's pretty ridiculous all the same.

Fireball07

Zzippy wrote: »

He's gone off now if that makes you happy...

Not really. He's Connacht's best out-half by a long way.

Zzippy

Try Dragons in injury time, 30-11 FT. Disappointing not to get the bonus point, but good to get back on the winning trail. Worries about George and Marmion for next week...

Snodser

Just one question, I don't come here often so I hope I'm not being annoying.
Why are Connacht not available on streaming?
I presume this means they are not televised? Yes or No....

I just find it strange or is it a decision by the IRFU?

Mal-Adjusted

Snodser wrote: »

Just one question, I don't come here often so I hope I'm not being annoying.
Why are Connacht not available on streaming?
I presume this means they are not televised? Yes or No....

I just find it strange or is it a decision by the IRFU?

out of their hands. it's up to the broadcaster, RTE (and whoever it is in Wales) on weather or not they want to air a match, and they both want to air the Munster-Cardiff one. personally i think it's disgraceful but they're going by historic viewing figures (I assume)

still, i don't think the IRFU decided not to air it.

gally74

No camera s there no t m o, attendant 4900 impressive given recent form and sat after Christmas .

thomond2006

Good result for Connacht, shame about no BP.

Cosmo Kramer

Would have to query the drop goal decision at 27-6 also, the decision making in professional rugby at times regarding drop goals, particularly in the northern hemisphere, continues to baffle me.

Utopia Parkway

Good win but Connacht will be disappointed not to get a BP. They had plenty of time left to get a 4th try.

its_phil

For the drop goal, it was after a long period of phases. I reckon the thinking behind it was to take the last wind out of dragons sails and say goodbye to any chances of a BP.

I'd be more critical of Henshaw for a chip through with a 4 on 2 outside dragons 22 that went dead.

Can't really comment on the first 55 minutes as I only got in from work then to the game. McSharry, Henshaw and Grace were impressive from what I did see