Pro12: Connacht -v- Zebre : Saturday September 6th (KO 5pm)

Robbo

| Connacht| Zebre
15| Robbie Henshaw| Dion BERRYMAN
14|Fionn Carr|Giovanbattista VENDITTI
13|Danie Poolman|Kameli RATUVOU
12|Eoin Griffin|Gonzalo GARCIA
11|Matt Healy|Giulio TONIOLATTI
10|Dan Parks|Luciano ORQUERA
9|Kieran Marmion|Brendon LEONARD
|
1|Brett Wilkinson|Matias AGUERO
2|Jason Harris-Wright|Davide GIAZZON
3|Nathan White|Dario CHISTOLINI
4|Michael Swift (captain)|Quintin GELDENHUYS
5|Andrew Browne|Marco BORTOLAMI (captain)
6|John Muldoon|Mauro BERGAMASCO
7|Willie Faloon|Andries VAN SCHALKWYK
8|George Naoupu|Samuela VUNISA
|Replacements:
16|Sean Henry|Andrea MANICI
17|Rodney Ah You|Luca REDOLFINI
18|Ronan Loughney|Salvatore PERUGINI
19|Aly Muldowney|George BIAGI
20|Jake Heenan|Filippo FERRARINI
21|Frank Murphy|Alberto CHILLON
22|Craig Ronaldson|Tommaso IANNONE
23|Tiernan O’Halloran|Matteo PRATICHETTI


Although Zebre have lost some key players during the summer (Sinoti, Halengahu, Tebaldi), they've recruited some capable replacements. In particular Brendan Leonard is one that comes with high expectations.

The Connacht starting XV features just one of the summer's recruits (Fionn Carr) but I really hope that Muldowney and Heenan in particular get some good gametime. The backrow will be a serious area of competition.

There won't be any TV but Galway Bay FM are there as usual (available on the TuneIn Radio app) and text updates on the twitter.

thomond2006

Is Craig Clarke injured?

.ak

thomond2006 wrote: »

Is Craig Clarke injured?

Picked up a calf strain I think.

Robbo

Unavailable / Injured: Denis Buckley, Craig Clarke, Gavin Duffy, Eoin McKeon, Dave McSharry, Miah Nikora, and Kyle Tonetti

I should have put up the injury list.

I believe McSharry is very close to being back, Tonetti will be a little longer. Denis Buckley, it appears, is still being punished for indiscretions.

Winters

thomond2006 wrote: »

Is Craig Clarke injured?

Well if you claim he's suffering from jet lag you get a punch in the arm..

http://youtu.be/Us_frYwZlxk

Robbo

Paddy Power Finally have the odds for this.

Outright: Connacht 1/5, Draw 20/1, Zebre 7/2

Handicap = 9 Points

It would almost be rude not to have something on Fionn Carr as an anytime tryscorer at 13/8. He's also 11/1 for first try.

Swiwi.

Now that Craig Clarke is playing for Connacht, will we see any Mooloo bells at the games?

porterbelly

Robbo wrote: »

Paddy Power Finally have the odds for this.

Outright: Connacht 1/5, Draw 20/1, Zebre 7/2

Handicap = 9 Points

It would almost be rude not to have something on Fionn Carr as an anytime tryscorer at 13/8. He's also 11/1 for first try.

Think Zebre +9 Evens is a good price. They've alot of experience all over the park and their backline could threaten us, and our pre season wasn't exactly perfect. Add in that Henshaw and Swifty didn't play a minute of pre season. Zebre have 2 extra pre season games under their belt.

This really is a potential banana skin

Robbo

Judging by the weather (cold, rainy and probably a bit of a breeze up there) this is either going to be tight or we'll do some damage early on and build a nice lead.

I have visions of a loose ball in the first half, scooped up by Carr to run in a 60 meter try. Believe.

phog

Robbo wrote: »

Judging by the weather (cold, rainy and probably a bit of a breeze up there) this is either going to be tight or we'll do some damage early on and build a nice lead.

I have visions of a loose ball in the first half, scooped up by Carr to run in a 60 meter try. Believe.

About to head to Cork for our game, hope ye get the rain :-) knowing Musgrave Park, we'll get similar.

Anyway Best of Luck this evening.

New Season, New Hopes. Hope ye have a good one.

blackhound

Can't wait for the game now, really hope Carr can pick up where he left off try scoring. I think the weather will definitely play a part this evening but we really need to be winning this game with a healthy margin.

.ak

Mad that this isn't being televised, doesn't really clash with anything for RTE or TG4?

blackhound

Yeah I'm kinda surprised Tg4 don't have it but absolutely no surprise RTE haven't bothered.

OldRio

Only one home game (pro12) to be televised for the remainder of the year.
:mad:

decisions

OldRio wrote: »

Only one home game (pro12) to be televised for the remainder of the year.
:mad:

That's crazy, with BBC NI covering Ulster I don't see why RTE and TG4 can't cover all 3 provinces between them.

who_me

Yeah, though Setanta annoyed me, at least they did cover almost all Irish provincial games (unless my memory fails me).

iamjenko

Parks seems to be having a bit of a mare with the boot so far, two missed penalties according to the Rabo website

iamjenko

iamjenko wrote: »

Parks seems to be having a bit of a mare with the boot so far, two missed penalties according to the Rabo website

And a conversion

eyeball kid

What's the score? Thanks.

iamjenko

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchdaylive/?mobile=0

12-3 now, Healy try and Parks conv

Buer

Hopefully that penalty just before HT knocks the stuffing out of Zebre and Connacht can secure a BP in the second half. Connacht top of the league would be a nice sight.

Buer

18-9 moving into last 15 minutes. Another score needed to put this to bed.

galait

decisions wrote: »

That's crazy, with BBC NI covering Ulster I don't see why RTE and TG4 can't cover all 3 provinces between them.

Simple , There is no interest in the wider Galway Public , The Country as a whole has no interest whatsover, Get over it and move own

OldRio

25-16 win.

porterbelly

Brutal for 60 minutes. Brutal. The worst I've ever seen. No life in us, making mistakes etc

Jake Heenan came on and sparked us into life. Was excellent over the ball and has great hands. Henshaw had a few massive breaks. Lineout was solid. We had some great off the top ball which the backs coughed up at least 4 times off first phase. Unforgiveable.

Want to see Henshaw at 12 next week, with Griffin at 13. TOH to full back. We had way more balance and threat when we lined up like this in the last 20. Griffin needs to be at 13. Henshaw can crash it up when needed.