Connacht Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - Part II

flouncer

fun to see video posted on twitter. lads look amazingly relaxed. God but it looks damm cold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=man_p4AMj_U&feature=youtu.be

connemara man

Is it wrong I'm genuinely worried about this match. Like I mean proper banana skin!

Well away from home ie jetlag.
Extreme weather conditions.
Hostile crowd.
Different diet.
Possible new partnerships

Dunnow why I just have an uneasy feeling

connachta

.

connemara man wrote: »

Is it wrong I'm genuinely worried about this match. Like I mean proper banana skin!

Well away from home ie jetlag.
Extreme weather conditions.
Hostile crowd.
Different diet. no for that point, in theory Connacht ordered its own menus
Possible new partnerships

Dunnow why I just have an uneasy feeling

flouncer

connemara man wrote: »

Is it wrong I'm genuinely worried about this match. Like I mean proper banana skin!

Well away from home ie jetlag.
Extreme weather conditions.
Hostile crowd.
Different diet.
Possible new partnerships

Dunnow why I just have an uneasy feeling

In the scheme of things it wouldnt be a disaster if we lost the game. Most important thing is that players get home safely and uninjured

Borders no.2

I'm glad that people are uneasy. Anyone under the illusion that this will be a relatively comfortable victory is I believe mistaken. Anyone who has seen Enesei play the Eagles in recent years knows they deserve respect. Add in the conditions over there, the fact this is their first game where they will be out to prove a point buoyed by a massive support and the fact it won't be our strongest team and its going to be a tough outing.

Having said that It looks like we have put in good ground work into preparing for this game logistically which is a major part of things. It isn't a trip completely into the unknown as we have good experience of facing them and the fact that a few experienced bodies have been brought over will help. There is a question as to why John Muldoon was brought but he was in the team for the defeats to Catania and Cavalieri in the past so having him around should help lads keep focused on the job at hand. I'd gladly rest him for Brive next weekend. Glad to see Bundee travelling, this isn't the game for a lightweight midfield.

Its hard to truly know Enesei's level but I'd take Bucharest as a reasonable barometer. They are always very competitive at home, they don't often take big scalps but are usually in the hunt coming into the final quarter when at home. This is definitely a game where we'll have to play the percentages early on, get our new combinations settled and hopefully start to pull away as the match progresses.

galwaylad14

Borders no.2 wrote: »

I'm glad that people are uneasy. Anyone under the illusion that this will be a relatively comfortable victory is I believe mistaken. Anyone who has seen Enesei play the Eagles in recent years knows they deserve respect. Add in the conditions over there, the fact this is their first game where they will be out to prove a point buoyed by a massive support and the fact it won't be our strongest team and its going to be a tough outing.

Having said that It looks like we have put in good ground work into preparing for this game logistically which is a major part of things. It isn't a trip completely into the unknown as we have good experience of facing them and the fact that a few experienced bodies have been brought over will help. There is a question as to why John Muldoon was brought but he was in the team for the defeats to Catania and Cavalieri in the past so having him around should help lads keep focused on the job at hand. I'd gladly rest him for Brive next weekend. Glad to see Bundee travelling, this isn't the game for a lightweight midfield.

Its hard to truly know Enesei's level but I'd take Bucharest as a reasonable barometer. They are always very competitive at home, they don't often take big scalps but are usually in the hunt coming into the final quarter when at home. This is definitely a game where we'll have to play the percentages early on, get our new combinations settled and hopefully start to pull away as the match progresses.

Well none of us are actually playing or even (most likely) going to the match so it doesn't really matter if we are uneasy or not.

But for God sake we'll hockey these lads, are they even professionals like? Ifthey can't beat these boys handy enough then it might be time to forget about it altogether.

errlloyd

galwaylad14 wrote: »

Well none of us are actually playing or even (most likely) going to the match so it doesn't really matter if we are uneasy or not.

But for God sake we'll hockey these lads, are they even professionals like? Ifthey can't beat these boys handy enough then it might be time to forget about it altogether.

Pretty sure there team has bigger budget than a Welsh region, and a bigger crowd than all four Welsh regions put together.

connachta

errlloyd wrote: »

Pretty sure there team has bigger budget than a Welsh region, and a bigger crowd than all four Welsh regions put together.

and the city by itself has a bigger population than Wales (almost):D

redmca2

Perhaps it has already been answered, but how do they play in those temperatures?
Does the stadium have a roof?

b.gud

redmca2 wrote: »

Perhaps it has already been answered, but how do they play in those temperatures?
Does the stadium have a roof?

Most certainly not, see below :eek:

vienne86

Interview with one of the coaching staff (I forget who) on RTE this morning all sounded very positive. Yes it's cold, but manageable apparently.

former total

errlloyd wrote: »

Pretty sure there team has bigger budget than a Welsh region, and a bigger crowd than all four Welsh regions put together.

Eh? How is that possible?

redmca2

Yr forecast for Krasnoyarsk (Russia) for Saturday --- Jeeeez !!!

Saturday, 14/11/2015 Time Forecast Temp. Precipitation Wind 01:00–07:00 -19° 0 mm Light breeze, 2 m/s from north-northeast 07:00–13:00 -16° 0 mm Light air, 1 m/s from east-northeast 13:00–19:00 -13° 0 mm Light air, 1 m/s from east 19:00–01:00 -20° 0 mm Light breeze, 3 m/s from east

wp_rathead

former total wrote: »

Eh? How is that possible?

Yenisei-STM budget in 2014 estimated at $9m
A large amount of this is spent on logistics as Russia is fecking huge so alot of travelling

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Training pic....

errlloyd

former total wrote: »

Eh? How is that possible?

They've been a fully professional franchise for 20 years, in a city of 1mn people where Rugby is the primary sport. At the moment they play 18 fully professional league games + play offs a year as well as the various cup qualifiers.

As others have said logistics cost a lot, but this team have been able to afford to tour, and their budgets are big enough that while a lot of Georgian players (for example) have ended up in Europe, almost no Russian players have. Nothing wrong with the structures in place in Russia, the standard simply isn't very high (whether that's because they don't start young enough, or they don't have regular high quality games or whatever I don't know).

In many ways that is the untapped potential of Russia Rugby.

vienne86

Pity we can't get to see the match. I hope there's a decent twitter feed.

typhoony

vienne86 wrote: »

Pity we can't get to see the match. I hope there's a decent twitter feed.

allegedly there's a link to a russian media stream

b.gud

vienne86 wrote: »

Pity we can't get to see the match. I hope there's a decent twitter feed.

typhoony wrote: »

allegedly there's a link to a russian media stream

This is a stream tweeted by Russian rugby, AFAIK it's not geo locked and is the official stream

http://news.sportbox.ru/Vidy_sporta/regbi/spbvideo_NI568924_Jenisej_STM__Konnaht_Kubok_Vyzova

duckysauce

is this on 8am Irish time ?

b.gud

duckysauce wrote: »

is this on 8am Irish time ?

yes

flouncer

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Training pic....

Grim looking background. Training ground doesn't look like it has underground heating so likely frozen solid. Can't think the lads will be doing anything too intensive on a surface like that.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

flouncer wrote: »

Grim looking background. Training ground doesn't look like it has underground heating so likely frozen solid. Can't think the lads will be doing anything too intensive on a surface like that.

I can't even tell if that's proper training pitches they're on or a soccer pitch in the middle of town?

Zzippy

Brrr!

https://twitter.com/connachtrugby/status/664753535310016513

wp_rathead

Connacht ‘A’ Team that played Enisei STM on Saturday April the 7th 2012. Players in bold in European Squad 15/16

15: Shane Layden
14: Conor Finn
13: Finn Gormley
12: Dave McSharry
11: James Loxton
10: Jack Carty
9: Paul O’Donoughue
8: Brian Moylett
7: Eoghan Grace
6: Aaron Conneely
5: Danny Qualter
4: Conor Kindregan
3: Rodney Ah You
2: Kevin O’Byrne
1: Finaly Bealham

Replacements:
16: Stevie Collins
17: Denis Buckley
18: Dylan Rogers
19: James Connolly
20: Luke Satchwell
21: Kieran Marmion
22: Michael O’Flynn
23: Conor Fitzgibbon

Enisei STM team that played Connacht ‘A’ in 2012
Country name in brackets represents full internationals- players in bold in their European Squad 15/16
15: Igor Kurashov
14: Stanislav Bondarev
13: Dmitry Gerasimov (Russia)
12: Yaroslav Rechnev
11: Pavel Novikov
10: Ryan Bambry
9 :Jurijs Baranovs (Latvia)
8:Anton Rudoy
7: Vitali Orlov(Ukraine)
6: Andrey Temnov(Russia)
5: Uldis Saulite(Latvia)
4: Viktor Arhip(Moldova)
3: Dmitri Arhip(Moldova)
2: Valeriy Tsnobiladze(Russia)
1: Sergey Novoselov

Ensei hammered Connacht A in that game 35-5
Ensei STM then beat Connacht Eagles 39-24 in April 2013
Connacht Eagles beat Ensei 54-21 back in April 2014

All the games in Sportsground

flouncer

lads being protected by russian army. Fly a few hours. Welcome to a different world. Suspect team selection based on ability to keep warm, hence the amount of bearded players on this trip :-)

Crimsonforce

Any idea if it's going to be on any live tv Inc the russian channels...

freyners

Have a gawk of rugby Russia twitter page.

Not quite sure if the stream link is allowed to be posted here under the charter but I'm told it's legit

Crimsonforce

freyners wrote: »

Have a gawk of rugby Russia twitter page not quite sure if the stream link is allowed to be posted her here under the charter but I'm told it's legit

Cool ill have a look. I have a motorised sat dish so I can switch to a different satellite if its being broadcast in Russian.

freyners

Crimsonforce wrote:

Cool ill have a look. I have a motorised sat dish so I can switch to a different satellite if its being broadcast in Russian.

I'm not familiar with those but AFAIK it's an Internet stream only but it is probably broadcast out there