Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Munster lost to this rabble. How

Some great rugby from Connacht. As a Munster fan I do wish we could play that open and freely

That was impressive. Liked it much. 9 to 15 was fun to watch

None of our ilian international carriers (Aki, Papa, Fifita'a) and still finding an impressive gamestyle under these conditions.

We shouldn't get overoptimistic against big teams nonetheless, Leicester will make us struggle, we show signs of "pure strenght" deficiencies at scrum, defence or attack (around the 76h min mark when Ospreys tightened up their defence)

I hope Tuimauga fit in before Dec 19th, Aki comes back 100% fit, and one of Papa/Fifita'a is able to push for starting

In the backline though we didn't even noticed, none of our theorical impressive combination Aki/Daly/Farrell/Healy/Porch/TOH/BOD played in yesterday showing

Huge depth from 11 to 15

No worry about red card, Samoa game cancelled

Cautiously optimistic I would say! Would have preferred a Leinster win at the weekend but sure what can you do.

With Europe starting following week expect it will be a first choice XV pretty much.

Very impressive on Friday. The youth of the team really offers hope, nobody above the age of 30 in the 23.

Recruitment looks to have been excellent again. Mack Hansen obviously the standout but Shayne Bolton looks a right prospect too. Even with Sam Arnold leaving, look set in the centre for a long time with Cathal Forde & Shane Jennings hopefully coming through.

Oran McNulty was really impressive. Depth from 11-15 is so good, when you can be missing four key players in Aki, Daly, Farrell, Porch and not be overly concerned it seems weird!

Second row starting to look light though, hopefully Niall Murray isn’t out too long.

Kieran Marmion is playing some excellent rugby, having him & Blade is a real luxury, they’re the two best 9s Connacht have had since game went professional. Edit: John Cooney an obvious contender too but think his best form quite clearly came in Ulster.

Leinster will try to dominate up front and at the breakdown I expect, if Connacht can reach the tall order of matching them there would be very interesting.

Roydon Swift joining Connacht Academy next season from South Africa (highly rated as was Bolton).

Doubt Illo won't be kept, it's either McCoy or McGrath released it looks like

It’s on the Master of none podcast twitter page

Agreed. Also as far as I gather this lad is still in school, barring him being one of the very rare exceptions, it’s highly unlikely he will appear for Connacht senior team before 2024 at least, hard to imagine an academy arrival will have any impact on senior team departures.

This is far from medical evidence but for what it's worth I saw Dennis Buckely walking around in Dublin a couple of weeks back. No obvious limp or brace/crutches from what I could see. Fingers crossed (mine, not his)

Quality investigative work :)

Robb and Farrell not on trainning pics, Forde is

Bolton will be 13 if we've Robb, and 12 if Farrell is the only available

Butler played good last week, but I would still introduced Prendergast 6, keep the backrow unchanged, with Oliver on the bench (harsh but will be a perfect impact player)

Blade and Fifita'a to start to bring a physical threat vs Leinster

O'Donnell relative experience (or TOH) rather than McNulty

Question on tickets for stade game on sunday week. I go to a few games ever year and always go for main terrace, now one of my mates wants to go to stade game and all that is left is college road or bohermore tickets.

I seen at last match that a lot of fans especially from bohermore terrace side could go into main terrace area during game, was that just cause of how bad the weather was on friday or does this happen a lot?

Just wondering will I be able meet up with my mate at halftime or whenever during game?

Or even better if anyone has a spare main terrace ticket for match be great. 😀

Thanks

Team named

CONNACHT RUGBY MATCHDAY 23 VS LEINSTER RUGBY

Friday 3rd December, RDS Arena @ 19:45

Number/Name/Caps

15. Oran McNulty (3)

14. Alex Wootton (23)

13. Sammy Arnold (21)

12. Peter Robb (48)

11. Mack Hansen (6)

10. Jack Carty (165) (C)

9. Kieran Marmion (192)

1. Matthew Burke (29)

2. Dave Heffernan (150)

3. Finlay Bealham (165)

4. Oisín Dowling (12)

5. Ultan Dillane (120)

6. Eoghan Masterson (114)

7. Conor Oliver (26)

8. Jarrad Butler (79)

16. Shane Delahunt (106)

17. Jordan Duggan (18)

18. Jack Aungier (19)

19. Leva Fifita (2)

20. Cian Prendergast (14)

21. Caolin Blade (136)

22. Conor Fitzgerald (40)

23. Tom Farrell (65)

Not a fan of that back row or centre combination. Need to be feeding the back three.