Joyce out with illness. A big loss for the beef in the pack.
And Connacht concede a try after less than 2 minutes.
would have preferred Jennings at fullback and Mack in his natural position. Mack is wasted at 15
At the match against Saracens, Connacht provided the empty area for some short kickking in front of own gall line at least twice, Sarasens easily tried. Maybe Ulster will aim such an atack..How Hansen and other players will deffend it. It will be one of the key factors. (maybe Connacht assume it.) Hansen may it a chance for counter atack. I think that Connacht back rows better (strong) than Ulsters' one especially in break down time.. There will be some chance to see a good game for Conncht. Please.please NO CARD.
Boyle had an eye injury after the game last week I believe and killgallen has a hamstring injury. Both were seeing specialist I think according to the update earlier in the week. So hopefully layoffs wont be for too long
Might have been 'helped' by Paul Boyle having to go off for a HIA against Saracens - he may be going through RTP protocols. That's speculation on my part, as i haven't seen an injury update this week, but I'm happy to see O'Brien get more opportunities.
Strong team, will be interesting in the set piece. Great to see Mack back.
Notable Omissions: Forde, Niall Murray, Kilgallen, DTM, would expect to see some of them against Munster.
Very happy for O'Brien. Quality player.
CONNACHT RUGBY MATCHDAY 23 VS ULSTER
19:35, Friday 22nd December 2023 @ Kingspan Stadium
15. Mack Hansen (30)
14. Shayne Bolton (6)
13. Tom Farrell (104)
12. Bundee Aki (129)
11. Byron Ralston (24)
10. Jack Carty (200) (C)
9. Caolin Blade (179)
1. Denis Buckley (236)
2. Tadgh McElroy (7)
3. Finlay Bealham (194)
4. Darragh Murray (16)
5. Joe Joyce (8)
6. Cian Prendergast (55)
7. Shamus Hurley-Langton (27)
8. Sean O'Brien (4)
16. Dave Heffernan (186)
17. Peter Dooley (25)
18. Jack Aungier (57)
19. Gavin Thornbury (72)
20. Conor Oliver (71)
21. Michael McDonald (2)
22. JJ Hanrahan (8)
23. Shane Jennings (5)
He hasn’t had much game time at senior level but looks pretty exciting. There was a try towards the end of last season that he pretty much made out of nothing other then hard work.
Worked hard to get back into his 22, booted the ball down the field. Got up into the oppositions 22 and put pressure on to cause a turn over. A really impressive moment.
How good is Shane Jennings?
Some very impressive showings from Prendergast and Forde
There will be tough competition between Baird, Prendergast and McCann. Could McCann be used as an open side as I think he played in that position for Ulster.
OptaJonny on Twitter is doing a series of tweets covering questions asked by followers related to rugby over the past year. 3 or the responses that have Connacht related answers are:
Bundee Aki is the statistically the best 12 over the past year with Cathal Forde in 3rd
Cian Prendergast has the best effectiveness rate (93%) of the 89 players who have hit more than 300 attacking rucks
Connacht have the 2nd lowest number (36) of players used in the 23/24 URC. Lions are lowest with 30 and Leinster are top with 47
This weekend I’d like to see a second row of Joyce and Thornbury start this weekend. Would also like to see Jansen and SHL in the back row.
In the backs I’d rest Blade and have McDonald start with Devine on the bench. Keep Carty at 10. Forde and Farrell in centre with Bundee rested. Keep Bolton in the back three too please, and bring Mack in for Ralston.
I agree with every point you’ve made there.
Munster are in the same boat, and so are Ulster. Leinster have first pick on most professional players in Ireland, I’d hazard a guess that there are at least as many elite (I mean capable of turning pro) players in Leinster as there are in the other provinces combined. Add in the financial resources and supporter base and it’s clear why the representation for Central Contracts won’t be split like 9-3-3-3 which might better reflect the player base but will be more like 12-3-2-1 and looks like it will be like that for at least another couple of seasons. It remains to be seen whether or not the other provinces can get back to their expected level of about 3 or more regulars in the Irish 23.
There should always be a bit of flux in the 23 so that’s why I’d say 18 out of 23 would be a fair allocation of Central Contracts in my opinion. 3 Props, 1 hooker, 3 Locks, 3 Back Rows, two Half-backs, 3 Centres, and 3 Back 3’s.
There should be a constant battle for the bench spot at Hooker, Loosehead Prop, Back Row, half-backs and outside backs, particularly with injuries.
I'm not saying we should have a raft of centrally contracted player, more that I'm not sure the system is fit for purpose anymore. I don't really have a more equitable system but the current one allows Leinster to stockpile players as they will almost always be bulk suppliers to the national team, and I think that's by design.
I'm sure Leinster fans will counter with "develop your own players" which fails to take into account the inherent advantages they already have, which is only exacerbated by this system that further rewards the strongest team from central funds.
Flip side is the central contracts system has done an excellent job keeping Irish talent in ireland....so all in all it's complicated lol!
Connacht lost against Saracens by the marginn 19 points. just 17 ponts of the margin was at the time at Prendergast ' SB (itwas nfair judgement for me). Anyway, So Connacht must not receive any card They have won 2 times back to back this year against Ulster. Now Ulster are much stronger (they seem to think that they are stronger than Saracens), but Connacht are not weaker than Ulster people and many bookies perdict. Hansen, Thonebury, Jansen, Forde, Jennings (if possible) all come back now.Jennings has already become the starter for 7's Ireland who aims some silverware in Paris. I don't know wheter Ulster players may read the situation that Mr Nusifora won't hope his injury. Connacht shuld try it. Anyway at first make best selection. (Individually I hope BIg FW pack as possible)
I realise your post was in jest, however, Bealham, Hansen and Aki are all copper-fastened members of the Irish 23 for the last couple of seasons, they should each be on contracts that reflect that IMHO.
Cian Prendergast has to be in the running to replace O’Mahony for the Six Nations, and if he can beat out the competition from Baird, McCann and Ahern then he will deserve a contract to reflect that.
Conor Forde is another player that looks good enough to step up to the Irish team.
Can’t really see anyone else becoming a regular in Irish squads let alone worthy of a Central Contract.
I'm enjoying all the talk of needing to more equitably spreading the central contracts, obviously this has only just become an issue now that it's a problem for Munster!
Wasn't a problem when we went 20 years without one but if this outrage leads to some change we might get a few more scraps from the table.
Mod: Personal Abuse.
It's funny but going into this season I really thought things were going to be different. All aspects of our game seemed to be improved. And here is the thing that bothers me the most is Finlay. Now over the years Finlay has been our outstanding performer. For Ireland he has been immense. But since his return this year something is different. It's like he is going through the motions. And if he is going through the motions it's a first time ever as far as I'm concerned. And something is causing that.
Having watched the Connacht and Munster games last weekend. Munster blew it in the end but for 60 minutes they were excellent. There was nothing excellent about the Connacht performance.
I think there is some disconnect going on at Connacht these days.
Ulster v Connacht
Kingspan Stadium, Belfast – KO 19.35 IRE & UK / 20.35 ITA / 21.35 SA
Referee: Eoghan Cross (IRFU, 12th league game)
AR 1: Frank Murphy (IRFU) AR 2: Joy Neville (IRFU)
TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)
Live on: BBC NI, TG4, Viaplay, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & URC.tv
was at the match, great entertaining match, unfortunately didn't go the way would have hoped, side note,the Stone x stadium is one of the best I've been in. was in top section of 1876 stand. their supporters were bang on too 👍
Shane Jennings pictured training with the squad today. 7s have a month off now, would like to see him given a run at 15 considering the injuries in the back three.
I think the break around six nations time will be huge for the coaching team. While a lot of the new coaches are light on experience, there is a lot of potential. There has been some great defensive sets so far this season under Fardy and some of the transition attack under Sexton has been class.
At the minute they’re going game to game each week, so won’t have too much time to fine tune the game plan. Unfortunately a lot of the issues this season are just continuation from previous years. I hope the new coaches can do something with this issues.
Our scrum is excellent, occasionally beaten by better scrums but more.than holds its own.
There were good early signs of ball protection at ruck this season and I'm not entirely unhappy with that.
Line out defense is good if not excellent, lineout attack particularly in the opposition 22 is a shambles alright.
We are a good squad, not particularly well coached and not settled on selections but I have faith it will come right. Hopefully Friday night.
It's obvious to me what's missing and that's the nuts and bolts of the game, I think we've got this tag now of being a team that can play off the cuff and score from anywhere to get a result, that seems to be at the cost of doing the basics well which includes set pieces, defending mauls and protecting the ball and the player, basically we're just not fronting up.
In truth I much rathered the Munster game to the Connacht game. Now I did leave with 25 minutes to go to do the shopping but in the other 55 minutes they were superb. It was fast, it was entertaining. I really like how things have gone at Munster. Credit to them.
On the opposite side we are slow, our lineout is in question, our scrum is in question (should we play secondary players first or really does it matter). Our bench did nothing.
So WHAT IS the problem. Many good players. And you can feic around with whoever in what position. But there is something fundamental missing. I can't put my finger on it but........
The idea is that although they traveled, they couldn't be arsed about winning, because home record is the absolute priority for a lot of French teams.
Why did they not play away from home in previous years?
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