Connacht Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - Part II

b.gud

Breakdown of players by province/club

Connacht 8
Leinster 6
Munster 6
Ulster 6
London Irish 1

Have Connacht ever had a higher representation than the other provinces in an emerging/wolfhounds squad before now?

ouncer

Zzippy wrote: »

Buckley to tear up trees and give Joe a real headache come August...

Will be interesting to see who from the Connacht set of emerging ireland players will get a callup to the summer series panel. If any do they won't be getting much of a break this year but I doubt they'll mind

ouncer

Robbo wrote: »

A good Connacht representation in the Emerging Ireland squad heading to Georgia next month.

Buckley, Bealham, John Cooney, Healy, Heffernan, Masterson, McKeown and O'Halloran all travelling.

Very deserved, if I was being particular I would say for buckley, healy and Masterson in particular. All have had outstanding seasons.

essgee268

I was at my first game in about 18 months I know the conditions were better but the game seemed a lot faster than last game and masterson is a cracking player a real find

wp_rathead

Aly can count himself unlucky to be excluded (guessing age Is against him)
Gotta be form lock on the island

Chief87

Hows Griffin being going with London Irish?

b.gud

wp_rathead wrote: »

Aly can count himself unlucky to be excluded (guessing age Is against him)
Gotta be form lock on the island

Is it possible that he is going to be included in the wider training squad for the senior team?

freyners

wp_rathead wrote:

Aly can count himself unlucky to be excluded (guessing age Is against him) Gotta be form lock on the island

Judging by the amount of ice on his ankles in the photo with swifty mul and browney i reckon aly is playing through the pain barrier and might need a summer off

b.gud

Cool video from the Connacht Clan, (found it on Reddit so not sure exactly who in the CC deserves credit for it), with some highlights of the season

Redo91

wp_rathead wrote: »

Aly can count himself unlucky to be excluded (guessing age Is against him)
Gotta be form lock on the island

I think he was ruled out with injury. That's what I heard anyhow.

oneofakind32

Has anyone heard any news on the squad, who's in and who's out? Will Ronaldson be available? Connacht have been fairly quite on Social media this week and this thread is very quite today. You wouldn't know that Connacht have arguably the biggest game in their history on Sunday.

franglan

Totally agree, thought the build up for the Ospreys game was too low key as well. Are much fans coming over for the game?

Robbo

oneofakind32 wrote: »

Has anyone heard any news on the squad, who's in and who's out? Will Ronaldson be available? Connacht have been fairly quite on Social media this week and this thread is very quite today. You wouldn't know that Connacht have arguably the biggest game in their history on Sunday.

Team announced at noon. I'd say they were keeping it quiet for a reason. I believe that Marmion was the only concern arising from last weekend but no idea on Ronaldson, Poolman or the rest who've been out recently.

As has been pointed out by others, Matt Kvesic is banned for this and he did quite a bit of damage to us in the quarter final.

b.gud

Connacht team to face Gloucester

15. Tiernan O’Halloran
14. Fionn Carr
13. Robbie Henshaw
12. Bundee Aki
11. Matt Healy
10. Jack Carty
9. John Cooney

1. Denis Buckley
2. Tom McCartney
3. Rodney Ah You
4. George Naoupu
5. Aly Muldowney
6. John Muldoon (captain)
7. Eoghan Masterson
8. Eoin McKeon

Replacements:

16. Dave Heffernan
17. JP Cooney
18. Finlay Bealham
19. Andrew Browne
20. James Connolly
21. Ian Porter
22. Miah Nikora
23. Shane O’Leary

Marmion out for 4 weeks

b.gud

Here's the Gloucester team

https://twitter.com/gloucesterrugby/status/601703815998377984

wp_rathead

George in the Second Row rarely equals a solid scrum
Is Dillane injured?

Marmion out is a blow but thank feck Cooney eligible to play, was half worried he wouldn't due to his loan conditions

ouncer

i'm a bit surprised that conor mckeon is not on the bench. i thought he did well last time out

freyners

wp_rathead wrote: »

George in the Second Row rarely equals a solid scrum
Is Dillane injured?

Marmion out is a blow but thank feck Cooney eligible to play, was half worried he wouldn't due to his loan conditions

AFAIK Cooneys loan is up now and he is solely a Connacht player

George I can understand, he has a bit more bulk than browney and our scrum has been instable recently. We have a real shot at their scrum so beefing it up makes sense

wp_rathead

Not just about bulk though Frey, not sure how good his technique is in second row
Hopefully I'm proved wrong and we able hold our own- but I vaguely remembering our scrum being under pressure when he has played there in the past

pmasterson95

freyners wrote: »

AFAIK Cooneys loan is up now and he is solely a Connacht player

George I can understand, he has a bit more bulk than browney and our scrum has been instable recently. We have a real shot at their scrum so beefing it up makes sense

Dont think that contract kicked in until this season (and therefore his loan) had ended?

freyners

wp_rathead wrote: »

Not just about bulk though Frey, not sure how good his technique is in second row
Hopefully I'm proved wrong and we able hold our own- but I vaguely remembering our scrum being under pressure when he has played there in the past

True, saying that technique can be worked on and I doubt Dan would put him in there (AFAIK Dillane is ok) if he wasnt sure.

It does hint at a gamble though, With Poite as ref and our scrum being on top last time out we have obviously looked at that as a way to get ahead.

ouncer

If I were using an opposition team strategy jack is going to get nailed very quickly. This is good and bad. So if you accept that your out half is going to get crushed by opposition being in your face then there is lots of space in behind. So I look forward to seeing cooney playing a kicking game. To try and simply gain metres would be a mistake and put us under awful pressure.

its_phil

ouncer wrote: »

If I were using an opposition team strategy jack is going to get nailed very quickly. This is good and bad. So if you accept that your out half is going to get crushed by opposition being in your face then there is lots of space in behind. So I look forward to seeing cooney playing a kicking game. To try and simply gain metres would be a mistake and put us under awful pressure.

I'm not going to accept that because it's an outdated theory of targeting the 10. Every time teams said target ROG and Ireland's scrum, you'll win. Rarely the difference in winning. Rush defence against Connacht has worked all season but by the time any D is up the ball has been shifted onwards from a 10 already. Gloucesters rush D was excellent last time.

You can't beat a rush D with box kicking, you can beat it with quick ruck ball (no Kvesic should help here) or chip but that's so dangerous if not done correctly and can only be done once/twice before being quickly figured out by a sweeper.

Also kicking to Sharples and May, two of the best counter-attackers in Europe is an awful strategy unless your chase is good and ours is very average.

b.gud

its_phil wrote: »

Also kicking to Sharples and May, two of the best counter-attackers in Europe is an awful strategy unless your chase is good and ours is very average.

Do you reckon that's down more to the fact that our scrum halfs kicking isn't as on point some other teams, certainly the Irish ones

its_phil

b.gud wrote: »

Do you reckon that's down more to the fact that our scrum halfs kicking isn't as on point some other teams, certainly the Irish ones

I think it's a combination of both. The Sportsground is an awful place to perfect that box kicking skill and execute well. But when I watch our rush it's not much better. Although I will say our rush using garryowens from full back is good. TOH was very unlucky last week against Ospreys with one, about a yard short for it no Ospreys player under it and if there was an Ospreys player would have been smashed and turned over. Instead ball bounced 10-15m on to Rhys Webb I think and had space to beat a man.

On another note, one of my favourite moments in the Clan stand this year was Rhys Webb catching a high poorly chased kick and the crowd started going "OHHHHH". Webb caught ball and after doing so within half a second has the time to face Clan stand stick out his tongue and a cheeky face to say "Bring it on" to the supporters. It was brilliant and many in the stand, myself included, roared laughing and applauded him. It was a quality moment and I'm a big Webb fan now

ouncer

its_phil wrote: »

I'm not going to accept that because it's an outdated theory of targeting the 10. Every time teams said target ROG and Ireland's scrum, you'll win. Rarely the difference in winning. Rush defence against Connacht has worked all season but by the time any D is up the ball has been shifted onwards from a 10 already. Gloucesters rush D was excellent last time.

You can't beat a rush D with box kicking, you can beat it with quick ruck ball (no Kvesic should help here) or chip but that's so dangerous if not done correctly and can only be done once/twice before being quickly figured out by a sweeper.

Also kicking to Sharples and May, two of the best counter-attackers in Europe is an awful strategy unless your chase is good and ours is very average.

Happy to go with that. At least it wasn't a ballistic missile attack on my opinion :-)

connemara man

its_phil wrote: »

I think it's a combination of both. The Sportsground is an awful place to perfect that box kicking skill and execute well. But when I watch our rush it's not much better. Although I will say our rush using garryowens from full back is good. TOH was very unlucky last week against Ospreys with one, about a yard short for it no Ospreys player under it and if there was an Ospreys player would have been smashed and turned over. Instead ball bounced 10-15m on to Rhys Webb I think and had space to beat a man.

On another note, one of my favourite moments in the Clan stand this year was Rhys Webb catching a high poorly chased kick and the crowd started going "OHHHHH". Webb caught ball and after doing so within half a second has the time to face Clan stand stick out his tongue and a cheeky face to say "Bring it on" to the supporters. It was brilliant and many in the stand, myself included, roared laughing and applauded him. It was a quality moment and I'm a big Webb fan now

I wish it was caught on camera it was brilliant. It's stuff like that I love seeing.

freyners

its_phil wrote: »

I think it's a combination of both. The Sportsground is an awful place to perfect that box kicking skill and execute well. But when I watch our rush it's not much better. Although I will say our rush using garryowens from full back is good. TOH was very unlucky last week against Ospreys with one, about a yard short for it no Ospreys player under it and if there was an Ospreys player would have been smashed and turned over. Instead ball bounced 10-15m on to Rhys Webb I think and had space to beat a man.

On another note, one of my favourite moments in the Clan stand this year was Rhys Webb catching a high poorly chased kick and the crowd started going "OHHHHH". Webb caught ball and after doing so within half a second has the time to face Clan stand stick out his tongue and a cheeky face to say "Bring it on" to the supporters. It was brilliant and many in the stand, myself included, roared laughing and applauded him. It was a quality moment and I'm a big Webb fan now

Was level with him for that moment. some week for him as well with the baby. Comes across as likable enuf unlike the whinger outside him

ouncer

its_phil wrote: »

I'm not going to accept that because it's an outdated theory of targeting the 10. Every time teams said target ROG and Ireland's scrum, you'll win. Rarely the difference in winning. Rush defence against Connacht has worked all season but by the time any D is up the ball has been shifted onwards from a 10 already. Gloucesters rush D was excellent last time.

You can't beat a rush D with box kicking, you can beat it with quick ruck ball (no Kvesic should help here) or chip but that's so dangerous if not done correctly and can only be done once/twice before being quickly figured out by a sweeper.

Also kicking to Sharples and May, two of the best counter-attackers in Europe is an awful strategy unless your chase is good and ours is very average.

Now that I read that response again and having watched Jonny may in action I do take your point. Do think there has to be a balance. Gloucester play a wide attacking game normally. So how to play them. I do say that jack will get stuffed, that's a given. He doesn't have the physical presence for anything else to happen. So you accept that and then what's the answer.

Will we beat Gloucester with a fast running game, will we beat Gloucester with a forwards only game. I think we make the yards, take the lineouts and see what happens.

If you look at the ospreys game , and I don't want to sound boring, the first 10 points were handed away. Then a poor missed tackle by tom. So rather than anything interesting maybe we just solve the mistakes. If we try and play anything than what we are it probably would be a mistake

Euphoriasean

Is the game on tv? Ultimate rugby says it's on bt sports but it's not on the listing. Northampton sarries is listed.

wp_rathead

That moment with Webb was brilliant- got great round of applause from Clan Stand
Easily my favorite Welsh player (not that there is a long list to choose from)

Stan27

What the story with paddy butler.
Leaving Munster would be a grat addition to the connacht back row

ouncer

Home advantage has been huge this weekend so far. We have our work cut out. Game on BT sports 2 hd

testtech05

Stan27 wrote: »

What the story with paddy butler.
Leaving Munster would be a grat addition to the connacht back row

He has signed for Pau from next season I think!

testtech05

Looks like the winner of tomorrows game will be playing bordeaux-begles next weekend. Lionel Beauxis missed a penalty from 22 meters straight in front of goal in stoppage time at the end of the game which would have meant Oyonnaux would be waiting next weekend if he had slotted it!
Dont know much about either team but was there a preferred option? Just glad its not racing myself IF we can manage to get through??

its_phil

testtech05 wrote: »

He has signed for Pau from next season I think!

Didn't the deal fall through?

testtech05

its_phil wrote: »

Didn't the deal fall through?

Perhaps, i dont know but the sky commentators mentioned the move a couple of times during the match today.

duckysauce

Euphoriasean wrote: »

Is the game on tv? Ultimate rugby says it's on bt sports but it's not on the listing. Northampton sarries is listed.

that sarries game was on today

ouncer

Have to say we are bound to struggle to win game tomorrow. Would agree with its-phil that Gloucester back line is simply very fast. As such has to be yard by yard, what we do normally

wp_rathead

hon connacht

ouncer

Toh and matt look well up for it

This on TV?

b.gud

[Deleted User] wrote: »

This on TV?

BT sport 2

d-gal

where's the best place to go get a link for this game?

Diabhal Beag

Ah bollocks

Utopia Parkway

Shot ourselves in the foot again. Try conceded after a minute.

Last thing you want as well is to be chasing a game with Carty playing need an extra few kicks for him to match a good 10 in general.

Prove this post wrong please Jack.

its_phil

Matt Healy is quickly becoming a Connacht legend

Diabhal Beag

Hot flipping dang what a run

Diabhal Beag

Healy is some man