Connacht V Portugal

Dave Joyce

I know this might not have been the most attractive fixture, particularly with the weather conditions but the turnout was pretty abysmal, except for the Portugese contingent:).

Although Connacht won, they made some very poor mistakes during the game and gave away some God awful penalties. Not sure why the team was short so many regulars, I know Swifty and John Muldoon are injured (seen the two of them hobbling about during the week:() but there was a lot of others missing and couldn't all be injured. It was good to see Mike McCarthy come back and play so well, along with Tim Donnelly who made a great tackle to save a certain try. Aiden Wynne and Ray Ofisa had good performances too. However, I thought John O'Brien was extremely naive at fullback, and lucky not to give away a couple of tries. He made some great runs out of defence, only to die with the ball and end up letting the Portugese turnover.

Also took the chance to have a look at the newly unveiled gym and it looks great well equipped and good variety of equipment.

Zzippy

Thanks for the report Dave. I would have been there but had to work (fcukin hate working weekends!). Read in the paper last week that Bradley was going to be having a look at a few young players and fringe squad members, thats probably why there were so many missing.

Maccers55

I was at the match as well. I thought Connacht should have won by a lot more and they would have if the forwards weren't out in the backline all day and actually did a bit of rucking. there were way too many turnovers.

As for the performances i think O'Brien who is only 19 remember had a great game considering it was his debut. He didn't put a foot wrong in the first half and took his try really well. He got caught in possession maybe twice or three times in the second half and only once was penalised for holding on. The wind was far too strong in the second half to kick and on all occasions he was in the middle of the field near the 10 metre line and to say there was a risk of conceding a try on any of those occassions is an exaggeration to say the least.

Good to see O'Loughlin back from injury as well - did very well to set up the last try.

Diom

I thought it was a very good performance given the conditions and the fact that there were so many non-regulars starting. It was quite encouraging actually. O'Brien had a very good game, and I wouldn't blame him for getting get out without support...it should have been there.
The rucking once again was non-existent at times. Really frustrating to watch them get into a good position and have it ruined because no one is committing to getting the ball back out.

Dave Joyce

I thought Connacht should have won by a lot more and they would have if the forwards weren't out in the backline all day and actually did a bit of rucking.

Totally agree, at one stage we had 3/4 of our pack rucking against the practically full Portugese pack and there was the rest of the Connacht forwards in the back line.

As for the performances i think O'Brien who is only 19 remember had a great game considering it was his debut. He didn't put a foot wrong in the first half and took his try really well. He got caught in possession maybe twice or three times in the second half and only once was penalised for holding on. The wind was far too strong in the second half to kick and on all occasions he was in the middle of the field near the 10 metre line and to say there was a risk of conceding a try on any of those occassions is an exaggeration to say the least.

Just said he was naive trying to run the ball out of defence, ESPECIALLY for a new 19yr old. Never said he should have kicked but on two occasions he had support right beside him and didn't bother to unload. However, he was very sound under high balls. Felt we could/should have done better overall in the match.