Had expected a fairly long one to be honest with the history etc. Interesting to see the player being injured explicitly mentioned as an aggravating factor, cant say I recall seeing that before. Darcy Swain comes to mind from a couple of weeks back.
....
Murray Kinsella says Aki's ban could be for 7 weeks.
Good chance for Hawkshaw to get back in the saddle, same for McNulty.
Sorry that we won't see Murray or Boyle, but thought Dowling made an impact when he came on last week so hopefully he can do the business.
Probably and he will likely get 80 minutes (assuming a start and sub) between the other two games against pumas/cheetahs but I think it’s pretty obvious he would be far better off starting against the Bulls against Munster next week.
Hopefully he’s available for Leinster game, assuming he doesn’t start last tour game.
Presume this is more to do with him not being in camp with the Irish squad in the build up to the tour, same for prendergast and illo
One of the few positives of last weekend, Dylan Tierney-Martin not available and not in the 23 for Emerging Ireland.
Team named https://www.connachtrugby.ie/seven-changes-for-bkt-urc-meeting-with-vodacom-bulls/
6-2 split on bench
Jack still not fully available for selection.
Stewart and Booth could make their debuts off the bench
CONNACHT RUGBY MATCHDAY SQUAD VS VODACOM BULLS
Friday 30th September 2022, 17:30 Irish time / 18:30 South Africa time @ Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Number/Name/Caps ( * denotes uncapped)
15. Oran McNulty (10)
14. John Porch (61)
13. Tom Farrell (81)
12. Tom Daly (62)
11. Mack Hansen (15)
10. David Hawkshaw (2)
9. Kieran Marmion (211)
1. Denis Buckley (210)
2. Dave Heffernan (167)
3. Finlay Bealham (175)
4. Leva Fifita (16)
5. Oisín Dowling (26)
6. Josh Murphy (2)
7. Conor Oliver(42)
8. Jarrad Butler (96) (C)
16. Grant Stewart *
17. Peter Dooley (2)
18. Jack Aungier (33)
19. Gavin Thornbury (64)
20. Shamus Hurley-Langton (2)
21. Colm Reilly (9)
22. Byron Ralston (2)
23. Ciarán Booth *
I think Daly and Farrell need to be given an extended run together to see if they gel.
Taking Bundee out of the equation I think they are the strongest option. Forde getting squad time once he returns.
Bundee is still out best option but we will unfortunately be seeing less of him this season and going forward.
What is the depth chart looking like at centre now? Bundee likely out for 8-12 weeks. Bolton out til December if I can remember correctly. Leaves:
12 : Daly, Forde , Hawkshaw (more a 10?)
13 :Farrell, Ralston, Jennings
Hopefully Forde comes back from the emerging squad tour with a bit of confidence and good form.
Problem is that he doesn't really have much good conduct on his side.
3 career reds, a citing, (all for high tackles) 5 career yellows and a citing commissioners warning for dissent in January 2022.
I think Connacht could do with the hearing being done with and the ban announced so they can figure out how long they need to plan without Aki.
Presume it's tomorrow. Not sure why but URC don't announce hearings until after they're finished, and only then if the accused is actually found guilty.
Surely Aki has no choice but to plead guilty and go hard on the "good conduct, nice suit" approach.
Any word when Aki's disciplinary hearing is?
I saw Henning (head of referees for the URC) speaking to the papers yesterday basically calling for an extended suspension for dissent and making it a general policy for referees to crack down on dissent.
Team for the weekend?
Dooley Heffernan Bealham Fifita Thornbury Murphy Oliver SHL
Marmion Carty Porch Daly Farrell Ralston Hansen
Stewart Buckley Auinger Murray Butler Reilly Hawkshaw Boyle
With bundees suspension and how rough a game mcnulty had I think an 8-2 split could be used this week
You mean your post above?
Not the sort of thing I'd wonder about Stephen.
I find dealing with reality taxing enough without introducing the ravings of the deluded.
I’m wondering if Aki attacked someone with an axe on the pitch. Would we see people come along and say he’s only being criticized out of racism. I’m guessing we probably would to be honest.
There's plenty of stuff calling him a thug and a disgrace that you would not see if his name was Sean O'brien or if his skin was just a little lighter.
He had a genuine point about the red: the jackler is in an illegal position that the ref is not going to penalise and he has basically 0 space to affect the clear out, unless you want him to crocodile roll him? That said he should not have spoken to the ref the way he did and the clear out is a red and he will get a ban for it. Not disputing any of that.
Incidentally I saw Steve Borthwick enter the field to abuse an official and refuse to leave the pitch against Connacht last year.....not one word in the press about it after.....odd that.
And abusing the ref? Nothing racist about it. He's put a guy out of action for 4-6 months with illegal play then had a go at the ref and wouldn't leave the field.
Has Bundee even publicly apologised? Haven’t seen any Tweets or anything but might have missed it
Nope Darcy Swain recently only got a 6 week ban for a dangerous clearout that ruptured Quinn Tupaea’s medial cruciate ligament in his left knee and will have him out of action for at least 3 months https://www.the42.ie/darcy-swain-ban-5873033-Sep2022/
While I agree this should be the case there are countless examples of repeat offenders getting time off their ban for remorse etc. Thomas Lavinini, aka the most carded man in rugby history, got 2 weeks off for “expression of remorse, his conduct at the hearing, and the fact that he has been taking active steps to ensure that his on-field aggression was appropriately controlled, the committee reduced the sanction by two weeks.” in December for a hit on Cian Healy during the AIs, this was his 3rd red card in international rugby
A lot of the Bundee stuff on social media and in the press has a real whiff of racism about it.
Guilty of a bad clear out and of playing whilst Polynesian.
I do sympathise with Bundee myself, no one else does but do. It's not as though he is the only one who tackles like that.
the reaction after was done out of his frustration.
He’ll pull it, they’ll let it play. Can’t think of any incidence where they didn’t take it in to account. No matter how hollow it was.
Post match remorse? Maybe that’s okay the last time or two. Don’t think he’ll get to pull that card again
My bet is six weeks for the offence, two weeks for the abuse of the ref, two weeks reduction for his post-match remorse = net ban 6 weeks.
This is great for Forde, he's exactly the sort of player who should benefit from this experience. It's early days but my belief is that we will finish in the bottom half of the URC table and there will be no return to HEC. If that is correct then this season is best used to develop the recent Academy graduates, Chay Mullins, etc.
I wonder if the search for a TH continues, or did the re-signing of DRMC take that off the table?
Bundee's last suspension was for four weeks, my guess is he'll get eight this time. In such instances is the sanction consdiered to start from the day of the infringement or that of the citing committee decision?
Farrell and coaches dont see 1 ireland A game occassionally as good enough. We dont have them regularly enough.
Farrell isn't even going on the tour and it's on the IRFU that we don't have more regular A games. I'd say with a tiny bit of planning we could have midweek A games during the Autumn and Summer internationals
I know they were in the process of hiring someone a few months back. I was expecting the social media content to improve drastically but it looks like Wilkins is in charge of that too.......
Don't forget their big announcement about the October interpro ticket special...... Get a ticket for the College rd. terrace for both the Munster and Leinster matches for just €62! That's a saving of a whopping........ (checks notes)........ TWO EURO!
Shooting ourselves in the foot has leached off the pitch to the wider organisation.
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