Connacht Rugby Thread - Part III - The Violence of the Lams

ClanofLams

its_phil wrote: »

Really poor stuff. Off The Ball coverage of rugby is usually good but only when it comes to Munster, Ulster and Ireland. Go outside that and it really is token novelty stuff.

Joe Molloy last night saying Connacht were given money to go sign Aki and Heenan as a means to offset the inevitable departure of Henshaw. Really poor stuff, especially considering Heenan wasn't a big name signing, just a big signing. Lam spotted him much like Nepia-Fox. Thornley was quite good though, but didn't understand Toland points on how it should be a two way road between Leinster and Connacht in terms of player traffic.

Cronin, Carr, McCarthy, Henshaw, Kearney for Carr, Cooney, Marshall, White, Roux isn't exactly screaming one way traffic. Refuse to count McSharry, Ronaldson, Healy, JHW on the basis they were all signed from elsewhere.

Toland was talking nonsense, the 'best players should go the best teams', right we better send Conor murray and Iain Henderson to the RDS so. Or send Robbie to Toulon.

S12b

ClanofLams wrote: »

Toland was talking nonsense, the 'best players should go the best teams', right we better send Conor murray and Iain Henderson to the RDS so. Or send Robbie to Toulon.

I was in the RDS for the Wasps game.....best team my arse!!

flouncer

Sorry inconsistent post

connachta

flouncer wrote: »

Sorry inconsistent post

More than usally?:D

flouncer

sorry connachta. i do admit fault when fault associated. as for your post associated with team for the weekend, my reaction is simple. delahunt is a monster. example was the niyi video as he suffered from hypothermia with all the necessary sleeves in place. delahunt went out in those freezing temperatures with just his jersey on. i take your point about jhw but he is after a long layoff and is still getting there. i love the idea of buckey, delahunt, white front row. pure monsters. and green lantern jerseys taboot. they will be scary.

other than that i based my 1 to 8 selection based on the lack of marshall, browne, nepia and mckeon. george has never in been in favour so my back row is the 'rational' choice. then i want aj at out half with one of my suggested backlines but i think that unlikely. jack seems to where its at. if we do go for aj then my dreams have been answered. and there is a really good reason for picking aj over jack. i think back to wpratheads comment about the fantastic inside pass he gave healy which lead to a toh try. i dont disagree with that perception. what i do disagree with is any statement that suggests jack DIRECTS a game. And nobody suggests that because it simply would be untrue. So my hope for AJ.

of course if aj or carty is selected then you are still stuffed with the leader thing :-). And again i say, it aint his fault, there are many folks playing out of their skin at the moment.

typhoony

must admit I'd like to see more of Delahunt, he definitely has skills more associated with one of the backs,needs to bulk up a bit as he doesnt look particularily big

Shelflife

Tolands idea of a two way street is laughable . Connacht get players who are surplus to requirements from Leinster and they get the pick of our players who are the lifeblood of our team .

Bugs the hell out me that the Indo in particular seem to think it's acceptable for the other provinces can cherry pick our best players why we should tug our forelock and be thankful for their unwanted players.

flouncer

Shelflife wrote: »

Tolands idea of a two way street is laughable . Connacht get players who are surplus to requirements from Leinster and they get the pick of our players who are the lifeblood of our team .

Bugs the hell out me that the Indo in particular seem to think it's acceptable for the other provinces can cherry pick our best players why we should tug our forelock and be thankful for their unwanted players.

Exactly who are you referring to. Last names I remember of any significance are McCarthy and Carr. And that's over the last few years. So we got Quinn roux and cooney and they are utterly useless?

Bazzo

flouncer wrote: »

Exactly who are you referring to. Last names I remember of any significance are McCarthy and Carr. And that's over the last few years. So we got Quinn roux and cooney and they are utterly useless?

Cronin, Reddan, Mick Kearney all moved from Connacht east.

That said I think as it stands now players more or less play where they want to play. I think the days of Connacht being viewed as a feeder province are drawing to an end.

flouncer

Its back to the same argument that finally people are understanding. Our team wasn't much good so if you were a decent player you left. It had nothing to do with policy. It was personal choice. As it was cooneys choice to come to Connacht to develop his game as he knew he had no chance at Leinster. So things are reversing these days and now we get all this mutterings. The players make their own choices. If you were Cronin or Kearney and got a chance to play for Leinster at that time what would you choose.

So pat has turned things around and now all in Connacht is good. But nothing has changed. People can still stay, come and leave as they so choose and that is good.

its_phil

flouncer wrote: »

second row supplies loads of options without weakening the impact. back row, well we are blessed with loads of talent. one scrum half over another (ie. cooney, marmion) quality players.

flouncer wrote: »

I think cooney deserves huge credit for games without marmion and I think darragh punishes teams with his distance kicking.

Funny, you didn't think Cooney was crap a few weeks ago. Taken from Part II Connacht Thread

flouncer

its_phil wrote: »

Funny, you didn't think Cooney was crap a few weeks ago. Taken from Part II Connacht Thread

What??? Where did that come out of? I said that cooney came to Connacht to develop his game. I did in no way anywhere imply he was crap. He was just behind a bunch of recognized players so he made a smart choice. John cooney is an excellent player!!!!

flouncer

And just to give my final words on whether Robbie goes or Robbie stays. For as long as I have supported Connacht we have been the victims of the other provinces and the irfu. I have always felt this way myself until 'former_legend' set me straight. The players make their own choices. So you are a good player at an ordinary club then you move to a better club. If you are a good player at a really strong club and are not getting game time you might take a chance on game time with a weaker club to progress yourself. What marmion did this week absolutely backs up my argument. If the irfu said you go here and you go there then marmion was gone to Leinster. They need him and they are the power team in Ireland. The fact that he remains at Connacht proves it is, and has been, player choice. So let Connacht no longer do this victim stuff. It is not true. If Robbie goes its because Robbie wants to go.

CatFromHue

flouncer wrote: »

Its back to the same argument that finally people are understanding. Our team wasn't much good so if you were a decent player you left. It had nothing to do with policy. It was personal choice. As it was cooneys choice to come to Connacht to develop his game as he knew he had no chance at Leinster. So things are reversing these days and now we get all this mutterings. The players make their own choices. If you were Cronin or Kearney and got a chance to play for Leinster at that time what would you choose.

So pat has turned things around and now all in Connacht is good. But nothing has changed. People can still stay, come and leave as they so choose and that is good.

It really is players choice. The season before Cronin announced he was going to Leinster Conn had finished bottom of the Pro12 for the third season in a row. In the season he left they finished 9th and 21pts off 6th.

b.gud

Looks like Connolly will be playing 7 tomorrow

Pat Lam, Source

Jake Heenan and Nepia Fox-Matamua are unavailable but James Connolly comes in at openside this week having had some good experience in the Challenge Cup and training with us all season.

connachta

b.gud wrote: »

Looks like Connolly will be playing 7 tomorrow

Pat Lam, Source

Yeah saw that earlier this morning. Pity for my Naoupu/Masterson pairing

Henry Ford III

Shelflife wrote: »

...Bugs the hell out me that the Indo in particular seem to think it's acceptable for the other provinces can cherry pick our best players why we should tug our forelock and be thankful for their unwanted players.

That's understandable but until such time as Connacht are CC regulars (under their own steam), produce a sufficient number of international players, and produce sufficicent gate receipts you'll always be viewed as the poor relation by the media and others.

freyners

b.gud wrote: »

Looks like Connolly will be playing 7 tomorrow

Pat Lam, Source

Happy with that. Connolly has been quite impressive every time hes played with the senior squad, especially in last years qf

MarinersBlues

Connacht team to face Munster

15 Robbie Henshaw
14 Tiernan O’Halloran
13 Bundee Aki
12 Craig Ronaldson
11 Matt Healy
10 AJ MacGinty
9 Kieran Marmion

1 Denis Buckley
2 Shane Delahunt
3 Nathan White
4 Ultan Dillane
5 Aly Muldowney
6 John Muldoon (captain)
7 James Connolly
8 Eoghan Masterson

Replacements:

16 Dave Heffernan
17 Ronan Loughney
18 Finlay Bealham
19 George Naoupu
20 Sean O’Brien
21 Ian Porter
22 Jack Carty
23 Darragh Leader

connemara man

Looks like a get your best players in the pitch scenario to me. Even though I'd like to see Aki Henshaw in the centre

errlloyd

AJ starting, fabulous!

MarinersBlues

Plenty of talking points.

I'm feeling a little more confident now than I was after the injuries against Brive.

MacGinty! - That should be interesting.
The backs look positively mouth watering.
We really are spoilt at the moment.

wp_rathead

AJ in is big enough call - he has looked impressive but I thought Carty was playing well

Delahunt over Heffernan is another little surprise

Other than that it is what I expected

ClanofLams

Considering our injuries I like that team a lot. Big vote of confidence in McGinty. We really are down to bare bones in the 2nd row tho in terms of cover.

b.gud

wp_rathead wrote: »

AJ in is big enough call - he has looked impressive but I thought Carty was playing well

Yeah for me this selection kinda came outa nowhere, but I'm happy enough with it, he seems like a very solid player

wp_rathead wrote: »

Delahunt over Heffernan is another little surprise

Other than that it is what I expected

From what I can tell Pat seems to like Heffernan on the bench as he adds an extra back row option. Kinda surprised JHW wasn't selected as he's not on the unavailable list. Managing his workload on return from long term injury maybe?

b.gud

ClanofLams wrote: »

Considering our injuries I like that team a lot. Big vote of confidence in McGinty. We really are down to bare bones in the 2nd row tho in terms of cover.

Here's the injury list
Tom McCartney, Rodney Ah You, JP Cooney, Quinn Roux, Ben Marshall, Andrew Browne, Nepia Fox-Matamua, Jake Heenan, Eoin McKeon, John Cooney, Fionn Carr, Danie Poolman, Dave McSharry, Api Pewhairangi, Conor Finn.

And here's a pretty good team* made out of it (*bar full back )

JP Cooney
McCartney
Ah You
Roux
Marshall
McKeon
Fox-Matamua
Heenan
John Cooney
McSharry
Carr
Finn
Pewhairangi
Poolman
Browne (gets it by default)

S12b

typhoony wrote: »

must admit I'd like to see more of Delahunt, he definitely has skills more associated with one of the backs,needs to bulk up a bit as he doesnt look particularily big

Listed at 6ft 2 in and 111kgs....biggest hooker in the squad.

flouncer

Think the McGinty call will be a real concern for Munster. They would have expected jack. As such they would have expected very little positional kicking and mostly across the line stuff. As such they don't need to guard the pockets as closely and can advance men into the line. With McGinty they won't know what to expect but indicators are that he is happy to play positional rugby. So, as I see it, this is all positive and should keep manners on the Munster backs. Now let's hope the weather behaves itself for a few hours. It would be such a shame to have high winds and rain but it seems that's what the forecast is

connachta

MarinersBlues wrote: »

Connacht team to face Munster

15 Robbie Henshaw
14 Tiernan O’Halloran
13 Bundee Aki
12 Craig Ronaldson
11 Matt Healy
10 AJ MacGinty
9 Kieran Marmion

1 Denis Buckley
2 Shane Delahunt
3 Nathan White
4 Ultan Dillane
5 Aly Muldowney
6 John Muldoon (captain)
7 James Connolly
8 Eoghan Masterson

Replacements:

16 Dave Heffernan
17 Ronan Loughney
18 Finlay Bealham
19 George Naoupu
20 Sean O’Brien
21 Ian Porter
22 Jack Carty
23 Darragh Leader

Gosh Flouncer was 90% right (except Darragh ahead of Parata/Niyi (both rested). The Flounce is Lam's assistant coach?

typhoony

S12b wrote: »

Listed at 6ft 2 in and 111kgs....biggest hooker in the squad.

wow that really suprises me, will be interesting to see how he goes against the munster front row