How'd Blade manage that?! :)
Munster lost to this rabble. How
Because different teams, with different game plans, perform differently from week to week in different matches.
Some great rugby from Connacht. As a Munster fan I do wish we could play that open and freely
“Freezin their balls off” :P
That was impressive. Liked it much. 9 to 15 was fun to watch
Very impressive given the conditions, trusted the new gameplan and it was good to see. Some offloads didn't work but that's the risk you take.
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
Hope Niall Murray is ok after failing his HIA. Thought Oliver had another good game (what an offload to Wooton!).
We've certainly landed on our feet with Mack Hansen, but the performances from Bolton and McNulty were very encouraging.
Any news on the Thornbird's injury?
No worry about red card, Samoa game cancelled
I don't think Friday night could really have gone much better. Apart from all the obvious things to be happy about the performance, I was particularly pleased for Peter Robb who I thought came on and did really well. If he can keep fit, his carrying could be a real asset for us.
Anyone else feeling unnervingly positive about our chances at the weekend away to Leinster?
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.
Agree with all of this. Andy Friend mentioned in the post game press conference that Niall Murray was fine so that's good. He'll obviously have to go through the return to play protocols, so I suppose we'll see when they announce the selection on Thursday.
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
Where did you see that Connachta ? Can only find his name on team sheets.
It’s on the Master of none podcast twitter page
Is Roydon Swift IQ?
I think it's premature to talk about departures. Especially seeing as we've no idea how Buckley's recovery is going nor how robust he will be on return.
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.
Still think we can't allow to have 4 TH for 18 games
this year McGrath covered both sides in theory becauce of Buckley injury
but next it will be 6 or 7 props max IMO
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)
Aki out for the Leinster match with a knee injury
Quality investigative work :)
Mack Hansen currently has the most tries scored, clean breaks, defenders beaten, and metres made in the league, as well as the third most turnovers conceded.
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
Frank Murphy confused at Connacht training yesterday as he trys to figure out which Connacht scrums he should give the penalty against 😀
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
That was due to how bad the weather was and that there was space in the main terrace because of the weather. thats unlikely to be the way for the stade game. you will still be able to meet up with your mate at half time etc during the game be it at bars etc
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)
Huge show of faith in Oran McNulty, he must be very highly rated. Not a fan of that backrow at all, the least physical combination we could possibly pick.
Not a fan of that back row or centre combination. Need to be feeding the back three.
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