Connacht vs Ospreys, Sept 10th 7.35 pm on TG4 and S4C

flogthebog

Ok, after the disappointment of the game last weekend its time to move on. Yes you could see the loss of Aly, AJ and Robbie. But after getting over the disappointment there were positives to be taken from the game. The Connacht passing game was intact and the Niyi try showed that ability is still there. Yes there were some poor performances, yes we lost the game by a significant amount, but if you look closely the game was there to be taken on many occasions. I put this down to a pre-season that fell apart.

As Pat said after the game the video evidence would be interesting . And I think it was interesting. Its strange having lost a game by such a margin I still feel confident about Connacht this season.

So to my team for the weekend I would suggest
Toh
Niyi
Griffin
Bundee
Healy
O’Leary
Marmion
Loughney
Tom
Finlay
Ultan
Qualter
McKeon
Connolly
Muldoon

Subs
Carey
Delahunt
JP Cooney
Stevenson
Kerins
Carty
Kelleher

Many would say Poolman should be involved but he is a secondary centre option while kelleher covers centre, wing and fullback. That said Kelleher reminded me of Rob Kearney last weekend and thats not a positive. I hope TOH can impart a few skills to him on how to move ball rather than take contact all the time.

I was impressed with Kerins during the U-20s and think he deserves a chance. I think Shane is the most consistent penalty taker we have at the moment.

Loughney deserves the start. With Denis absent we beat Glasgow twice and Leinster in the Pro12 final and Ronan was a huge part of all this. I prefer Shane over Dave as Shane is a beast of a man. I remember him in short sleeves in Russia at -28 degrees. Now thats a man to me.

Utopia Parkway

It's the Ospreys.

flogthebog

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

It's the Ospreys.

goddammit, can mod please change title. thanks

flogthebog

bright side is that weather for saturday seems good. for those not attending S4C has now a free to air channel S4C HD. So you get to witness the game in high definition if you use a satellite dish. So now you can see all our failures (more likely our brillance) in high definition. Expect a win. Simply do.

WallyGUFC

Big improvement needed but hard to see a positive result with all the injuries.

wp_rathead

15 Tiernan O’Halloran
14 Niyi Adeolokun
13 Eoin Griffin
12 Bundee Aki
11 Matt Healy
10 Jack Carty
9 Kieran Marmion

1 Ronan Loughney
2 Tom McCartney
3 Finlay Bealham
4 Ultan Dillane
5 Danny Qualter
6 Eoin McKeon
7 James Connolly
8 John Muldoon (captain)

Replacements:

16 Dave Heffernan
17 Dominic Robertson-McCoy
18 JP Cooney
19 Lewis Stevenson
20 Rory Moloney
21 Caolin Blade
22 Shane O’Leary
23 Danie Poolman

Injured/Unavailable: Denis Buckley, Nathan White, Quinn Roux, Andrew Browne, Ben Marshall, Nepia Fox-Matamua, Jake Heenan, Sean O’Brien, Eoghan Masterson, John Cooney, Stephen Kerins, Conor Lowndes, Craig Ronaldson, Marnitz Boshoff, Rory Parata, Peter Robb, Darragh Leader, Cian Kelleher, Ciaran Gaffney.

ClanofLams

TOH and Marmion start. Loughney in at loose head and Connolly at 7. Robertson McCoy & Rory Maloney on bench.

MarinersBlues

Strong team, hopefully they are up to speed.

ClanofLams

Ashley Beck out for Ospreys, big loss for them

Marto10

Ospreys team named:

15 Dan Evans
14 Jeff Hassler
13 Ben John
12 Josh Matavesi
11 Eli Walker
10 Sam Davies
9 Rhys Webb (Capt)


1 Nicky Smith
2 Sam Parry
3 Dmitri Arhip
4 Bradley Davies
5 Rory Thornton
6 Olly Cracknell
7 Justin Tipuric
8 Tyler Ardron

REPLACEMENTS

16 Scott Baldwin
17 Paul James
18 Ma’afu Fia
19 Lloyd Ashley
20 James King
21 Dan Baker
22 Tom Habberfield
23 Dafydd Howells

Walker, Webb and Tipuric show plenty of strength. As ClanofLams said, Beck out is a massive loss.
Going to be a tough game and conditions ain't going to be pretty!

wp_rathead

Matavesi vs Aki gonna be tasty

TimHorton

Just saw the Connacht 9/10 and another loss on the way

connachta

TimHorton wrote: »

Just saw the Connacht 9/10 and another loss on the way

No, half-backs are ok. Qualter/loughney are the main worrinesses

flogthebog

Connacht odds on favourites to win the game. Whats all this negativity about.

FACECUTTR

TimHorton wrote: »

Just saw the Connacht 9/10 and another loss on the way

What's wrong with Marmion?

ClanofLams

Ignore Tim, he just posts nonsense on a wind up. He hasn't had a chance in a while what with Connacht winning the Pro12 so just let the poor misfortunate ramble on.

Zzippy

TimHorton wrote: »

Just saw the Connacht 9/10 and another loss on the way

You've been in trouble before for this kind of thing. Post more constructively or don't post in this thread again. Drive by posts like this are unacceptable. There won't be another warning.

flogthebog

have to say I am really positive about this game. Think Tiernan is brillant at managing the backline (how could Cian simply walk in there and do that), think Kieran is the fastest scrum-half in irish rugby at the moment. Think we have a great pack. Now Jack, go use it. You are the player that ties it together.

connachta

McCoy, Loughney, Qualter, Moloney, Blade, are 5 big Question Marks.
The rest are sure bets
Let's hope the opposition is weaker than Warriors

flogthebog

Game day. Looking for and expecting a big response after last week. Weather holding up at the moment. Hopefully a cracker of a game. Two teams not afraid to fling it about

MayoForSam

Very breezy here in Salthill, will definitely affect the kickers. Cannonball first, then it's game on.

flogthebog

looking forward to seeing the toh/matt/niyi combo again

flogthebog

connacht rock bottom of the table. only way is up. go the lads. i'm convinced we will win

The Rape of Lucretia

flogthebog wrote: »

connacht rock bottom of the table. only way is up. go the lads. i'm convinced we will win

The only way is up, but I dont think it will be far up. The level of player and depth is just not there. Cant see them getting into the shake out for the playoffs this year but mid table is within their capability. Which is not to take anything from their fully deserved win last season. Sometimes these things happen. The stars align. Positive vibe and belief. Leicester type event. But theses type of things rarely if ever repeat.

Tigerandahalf

This is on S4CHD and if you press the audio button on your remote you can get English commentary.

A2LUE42

Just changed language setting on channel to Welsh to get the English commentary.

Utopia Parkway

Can somebody sort out that bloody car alarm?

mansize

A2LUE42 wrote: »

Just changed language setting on channel to Welsh to get the English commentary.

Yeah it's backwards lol

vienne86

Crucial turnover there - defence seemed to be all over the place.

The Rape of Lucretia

mansize wrote: »

Yeah it's backwards lol

It always is.

flogthebog

jack, oh jack