Connacht vs Munster, Sat 19 April 6:15pm; RTE 2

thomond2006

Connacht line-up v Munster

15. Darragh Leader
14. Danie Poolman
13. Robbie Henshaw
12. Eoin Griffin
11. Matt Healy
10. Miah Nikora
9. Kieran Marmion

1. Ronan Loughney
2. Jason Harris-Wright
3. Rodney Ah You
4. Mick Kearney
5. Andrew Browne
6. John Muldoon (captain)
7. Willie Faloon
8. Eoin McKeon

Replacements:

16. Jack Dinneen
17. Denis Buckley
18. Finlay Bealham
19. Aly Muldowney
20. Conor Gilsenan
21. Frank Murphy
22. Dan Parks
23. Dave McSharry

Unavailable/Injured: Nathan White, Brett Wilkinson, Sean Henry, Dave Heffernan, James Rael, Craig Clarke, Jake Heenan, Tiernan O’Halloran, Craig Ronaldson, Paul O’Donohoe and Kyle Tonetti.

That's a very strong looking starting XV for Connacht!


Munster:
Denis Hurley; Gerhard van den Heever, Johne Murphy, James Downey, Andrew Conway; Ian Keatley, Duncan Williams;
Dave Kilcoyne, Damien Varley, John Ryan; Donncha O'Callaghan, Paul O'Connell; CJ Stander, Sean Dougall, Paddy Butler.

Replacements: Quentin MacDonald, Alan Cotter, BJ Botha, Billy Holland, Tommy O'Donnell, Gerry Hurley, Conor Murray, Ronan O'Mahony.

Update on JJ:

JJ Hanrahan who was ruled out earlier in the week met with the specialist and it was confirmed he sustained a moderate groin tear. The plan going forward is for JJ to progress with rehab and continue to be monitored by the medical staff on a daily basis.

Mix and match team! Like Toulon starters are Kilcoyne, Varley, POC, Stander, Keatley and Downey.

Conor Murray is fly-half cover as confirmed by Penney during the week. Murphy moved to 13 with Earls presumably rested. He had a shocker at 13 in a match at Cork earlier this year. I would have preferred to see him on the wing instead of Conway and bring in Bohane or Dineen at 13. I'd be concerned about that centre partnership up against Griffin and Henshaw, with McSharry to come off the bench as well.

Is MacDonald ahead of Casey now for Toulon? Strange to not see Casey on the bench.

With the respective lineups and Connacht's recent form Munster would be doing well to win this match.

Buer

thomond2006 wrote: »

With the respective lineups and Connacht's recent form Munster would be doing well to win this match.

I assume we're ignoring their most recent form?!

Thought Munster would have selected a slightly stronger side given their position in the league.

Ospreys Connacht at home and Dragons/Zebre away as their final games. They're not out of the play off situation yet.

Lose this and Munster are facing Ulster on the last day possibly needing a win to make the semi finals.

Strong looking Connacht side given the extensive injury list. Conor Gilsenan set for his debut from the bench.

phog

Both teams with a wagon load of changes and both hurting from last week.

No Earls, Jones or Earls for Munster, serious loss of speed. Great to see Murphy back he's been in super firm but back at 13, surprised at that as I'd have thought GvdH might be worth a punt there.
I won two tickets so heading up, my first time since the ground was developed, looking forward to it.

G'wan Munster, we need to win this one.

wp_rathead

Munster

Surprised to see Griffin given nod over McShaz at 12..

Loughney over Buckley is also a puzzlier

Glad to see Poolman back, honestly think he has the attributes to be a Trimble like winger

Also Faloon at 7 - been ages since we have had a recognised openside start!

That is a strong looking Munster pack but bar Keatley not the most fearful looking backline..

That said, worse looking Munster sides have come to the Sportsground and won - gutted I'm going to miss this game..

Tomtom364

wprathead wrote: »

That is a strong looking Munster pack but bar Keatley not the most fearful looking backline..

G VdH at 14 is a serious threat. Very strong and stupidly fast. Very good player.

b.gud

Lots of reshuffling in both teams it'll be interesting to see what happens. Looking forward to the game and hoping for good weather and a free flowing game

Fireball07

Munster really cannot afford to lose this one, but they'll be up against it.


Backline doesn't look great at all... no awful players or anything like that, but no one really standout either and it may lack cohesiveness. Conway and VdH have loads of pace but Conway has struggled to make an impact for most of the season, VdH does look good- but if he doesn't get the ball, he may struggle. Downey is Downey, average enough, and Murphy really isn't a 13- would have preferred Bohane/Dineen there really. Hurley is a solid 15.

At half-back, Williams isn't great but he would've been better than Murray last week and has generally been decent this season. Keatley is good, but may struggle to make things happen in that backline. Murray looked wrecked the last day but we'll have to see him get at least 15 mins at 10 really.


And so we'll be relying on our pack. POC back will be a huge boost, we are unlikely to concede the breakdown this week. A solid backrow, but we need Butler to make an impact. Hoping for at least parity in the scrum. Bit surprised Casey's not involved, but I still think he's in pole position to bench in France. Still praying for Cronin to come back to fitness.



Not Connacht's strongest lineup either, so hopefully we can recover from last week's blip.

siltirocker

Tomtom364 wrote: »

G VdH at 14 is a serious threat. Very strong and stupidly fast. Very good player.

True, but Keatley is the only name in that back line that you'd immediately associated with the term 'game changer'.

Stick Henshaw at 15 and McShaz at 12 and that's Connacht's best back line. (Which I imagine will happen after 60 mins).

vienne86

Strange looking team for Munster, but needs must. I would bet on Munster winning, but it's hard to know how this match will go. There will be guys not used to playing together, so it could be error strewn. Could be fascinating.

CatFromHue

That's a strong pack from Munster. Certainly in the tight 5 only Ryan would be inexperienced and in the back row Dougal is well able to play well at this level.

phog

Len Dineen's (Live95fm) grandson Jack is on the bench for Connacht tonight, expect his normal Munster bias to swing towards Connacht's front row once Jack takes the field

He was No8 last year for Crescent college but Connacht seem to want to convert him to a prop.

The Lost Sheep

phog wrote: »

Len Dineen's (Live95fm) grandson Jack is on the bench for Connacht tonight, expect his normal Munster bias to swing towards Connacht's front row once Jack takes the field

He was No8 last year for Crescent college but Connacht seem to want to convert him to a prop.

Dineen is being converted into a hooker not a prop.

Zzippy

Beautiful day here in Galway, very light breeze so good day for kickers and running rugby. Heading in shortly, hopefully we can play a bit better than last week!

Connacht Abu!

Robbo

Slightly confused by the Connacht sub props in that Bealham is more of a loosehead, no? Also, any excuse to show the magnificence of his former haircut...


It's notable that Mitrea is reffing this. He's really come a long way since he made his debut at the Sportsground. He also owes Henshaw a try from Toulouse...

Great conditions so here's hoping for some good running rugby and a bona fide full house, which will be nice for the travelling Munster crowd to experience.

Also, for shame not having the bogey poll option of Paul Warwick.

eyeball kid

Hopefully we have a decent game, can't be any worse than last week against Ulster. Not confident of beating Munster though, we never seem to beat them no matter what team they send out and today it's strong enough.

Mahatma Geansai

Very, very, long advantage there for Connacht there.

Anatidaephobia

We're playing some nice rugby here.

ThisRegard

He can't pull that hair cut off at all.

razorblunt

First time watching Munster in the Rabo this season without changing from Scots Gaelic or Welsh, in a way I miss it!

Mahatma Geansai

And Connacht go 3-0 despite Munster having all the possession and territory.

awec

Defending reminiscent of last week for Connacht there.

Molester Stallone

Yeah, that was too easy, buy nice try all the same

budhabob

Was about to say Conway had been looking sharp and he gets a decent try. Woeful defending.

Anatidaephobia

Lovely stuff.

eyeball kid

Mahatma Geansai wrote: »

And Connacht go 3-0 despite Munster having all the possession and territory.

And then fumble the restart

Mahatma Geansai

Extremely easy try there for Conway. Simple set-piece move.

Neil3030

Great gas.

Awful haircut.

awec

Is the ball made of soap?

Swan Curry

Falloon still hasn't learned to tackle since his time at Ulster.

Mahatma Geansai

Should be Munster's ball from that scrum. Connacht went straight to ground.

awec

Wow. Try Connacht.

Munster's turn to forget how to defend.

neilmulvey

criminal for guys to drop kick offs under no pressure these days

Tox56

That was actually a lovely try, dodgy defending but the pass was inch perfect

Anatidaephobia

This is a bit mad.

Molester Stallone

Well worked try there, we have a bit of a game on our hands now

awec

Two tries have both come from failures to collect restarts.

Mahatma Geansai

And try Connacht. Both Murphy and VdH did poorly there.

Tox56

Henshaw with some lovely passing so far

Mahatma Geansai

If that's a knock-on for ripping the ball, Munster's try should have stood earlier after Harris-Wright knocked the ball from Murphy's control. Annoying inconsistencies.

Tomtom364

Murphys defence at 13 is woeful.

awec

That ball was out of the scrum surely?

Losty Dublin

Tox56 wrote: »

Henshaw with some lovely passing so far

He makes a a good few extra yards of ground when passing and receiving; this is causing Munster problems this early on.

budhabob

If that's in twas a great finish

Edit, how did the tj miss that?

Losty Dublin

No try. Pity; it was great foresight though.

awec

Why do you need a TMO for that? The assistants should be making that call - it was obvious.

Spudmonkey

Munster defense non existent yet again.

thomond2006

Wilkinson staring at it can't make a decision.

Molester Stallone

Crap camera angles there, touch judge needs to grow a pair & make the call

Quint2010

I see Travis Bickle is on the wing for Munster...

Grimebox

Touch judge should have really called that

Molester Stallone

If Munster cut out the brainfarts they win this easily enough, if not, it could be bloody close