Connacht Rugby Thread - Part III - The Violence of the Lams

BrokenMan

flouncer wrote: »

Anyways toh out injured in training today so it will be interesting to see how the team lines out.

Ah Feck sake. Any details on what it is?

flouncer

BrokenMan wrote: »

Ah Feck sake. Any details on what it is?

Not available this weekend. After that don't know

BrokenMan

Hopefully nothing serious

b.gud

flouncer wrote: »

Anyways toh out injured in training today so it will be interesting to see how the team lines out.

You got a source for this flouncer?

flouncer

Feic it, I did post the mils issue (purely because I did want people to know) and that was a month late. Maybe me comments are simply out of touch :-) and dated :-).

BrokenMan

So are you saying now he is available?

flouncer

BrokenMan wrote: »

So are you saying now he is available?

Unavailable still!!!. That won't change

RobbieRuns

Ouncer was always more up to date with his information !

b.gud

Head Coach Pat Lam has made 10 changes from last week as Connacht take on Newcastle Falcons in round 3 of the European Challenge Cup tomorrow at the Sportsground, kick off 7:45pm.

Jack Carty is retained at outhalf while 21-year-old Caolin Blade is handed the number 9 shirt for his first start this season, having made an appearance from the bench in Krasnoyarsk last month.

There is a new mid field partnership with Academy duo Rory Parata and Peter Robb named to start. Niyi Adeolokun is promoted to the right wing while Matt Healy, on the left, gets his first taste of European action this season.

Galway man Tiernan O’Halloran will captain the side from fullback.

In the pack, there are just two players remaining from last week – Aly Muldowney and James Connolly, who, this week, was one of three Academy players to sign a senior contract for next season.

Prop Finlay Bealham, now the only player to have been involved in every game this season, starts in a new front row with Jason Harris-Wright and Ireland international Nathan White.

Ultan Dillane returns to the second row to partner Muldowney while Galway man Sean O’Brien earns his first ever senior start coming in to a back row with Connolly and the experienced George Naoupu at Number 8.

Danny Qualter is included among the replacements while Dave Heffernan will be required to cover the back row from the bench. Shane O’Leary and Danie Poolman have both returned from injury to take their place in the match day squad.

Commenting on the team selection and the upcoming game, Pat Lam said:

“With 18 players unavailable through injury from our European squad, it was certainly a challenge to piece together a match day squad for tomorrow. We are forced to name the 23 remaining players which include three hookers in the team as Dave (Heffernan) will be required to cover the backrow. Thankfully Danie (Poolman) and Ian (Porter) passed late fitness tests this morning to take their place on the bench. While it isn’t ideal, it’s simply another test for us to meet head on.

“Newcastle will bring their own strengths and we are expecting a very physical battle. Despite all the changes, If we work together as a team and stick to our structures tomorrow night, we’ll increase our chances of getting the job done.

“We’re really looking forward to playing back at the Sportsground in front of our home crowd again after a few weeks on the road.”

Connacht team to face Newcastle Falcons

15 Tiernan O’Halloran (captain)
14 Niyi Adeolokun
13 Rory Parata
12 Peter Robb
11 Matt Healy
10 Jack Carty
9 Caolin Blade

1 Finlay Bealham
2 Jason Harris-Wright
3 Nathan White
4 Ultan Dillane
5 Aly Muldowney
6 Sean O’Brien
7 James Connolly
8 George Naoupu

Replacements:

16 Shane Delahunt
17 Conan O’Donnell
18 Rodney Ah You
19 Danny Qualter
20 Dave Heffernan
21 Ian Porter
22 Shane O’Leary
23 Danie Poolman

Unavailable through injury from European registered Squad: Tom McCartney, Denis Buckley, Ronan Loughney, Andrew Browne, Ben Marshall, Quinn Roux, Nepia Fox-Matamua (deregistered), Eoghan Masterson, John Muldoon, Eoin McKeon, John Cooney, Kieran Marmion, AJ MacGinty, Bundee Aki, Craig Ronaldson, Robbie Henshaw, Fionn Carr, Darragh Leader.

Other squad unavailability: JP Cooney, Jake Heenan, Conor Finn

b.gud

Team made from injured players

Buckley
McCartney
Loughney
Marshall
Roux
Muldoon
Fox-Matamua
Masterson
Marmion
MacGinty
Carr
Ronaldson
Aki
Leader
Henshaw

Cooney (JP)
??
??
Browne
McKeon
Cooney (John)
Heenan (Just to fit him in the team somewhere )
Finn

For any non Connacht fans wondering how strong that injured team is:
2 of our 1st choice front row and the third a player who was capped for Ireland against New Zealand*.
A 2nd row that has 1 first choice player and another who you would be happy to see in a big match
Easily a first choice back row
First choice scrum half, with 2nd choice on the bench
Outhalf who would def push for 1st choice
First choice centre pairing
Decent enough wings
Robbie f***ing Henshaw

*Granted it was as an ambiprop sub but still

Robbo

Not the worst team, especially given the injury crisis.

Newcastle have a short turnaround from getting at home to Saracens on Sunday. 15 changes for them and a fair few inexperienced lads.

wp_rathead

Hopefully Poolman and Porter weren't rushed back
In ideal scenario Muldowney would be rested but we don't have that luxury
It's a team that should beat Newcastle

Zzippy

Heff covering backrow! We really are stretched...
Decent team in the circumstances, would warm the cockles of your heart seeing the depth we have now in the squad, even in an injury crisis like this. Looking forward to seeing how that centre partnership fares, two great prospects for the future. Serious pace on the wings too, hopefully we can work some space for them.

connachta

wp_rathead wrote: »

Hopefully Poolman and Porter weren't rushed back
In ideal scenario Muldowney would be rested but we don't have that luxury
It's a team that should beat Newcastle

Zzippy wrote: »

Heff covering backrow! We really are stretched...
Decent team in the circumstances, would warm the cockles of your heart seeing the depth we have now in the squad, even in an injury crisis like this. Looking forward to seeing how that centre partnership fares, two great prospects for the future. Serious pace on the wings too, hopefully we can work some space for them.

Very good team indeed Very happy to see Bealham "ambipropstery" preserved, he will be useful to let O'Donnell growing up Can't wait to see Robb/Parata pairing Think we MUST have Qualter starting and Muldowney rested next week. But One Question : where's Dave McSharry? Back for a few weeks now, I've the feeling he isn't highly rated by Lam...

b.gud

If you had told me a couple of years ago that Connacht would be missing a close to 1st choice 15 and could still field a fairly strong team I would have laughed, great to see the depth that we are starting to develop.

What's the story with McSharry thought he was fit again?

S12b

17 out of the 23 players 25 years old or younger!!

I know nothing about Newcastle....is the expectation that if we go out and put in a decent performance, solid scrum and lineout we should get the win?

wp_rathead

I'm guessing we'll see McSharry on Saturday vs Dragons A and then he'll get a run against Newcastle Away

b.gud

Just realised we have only 1 NIQ player in the match day 23 anyone know when the last time that happened?

wp_rathead

S12b wrote: »

17 out of the 23 players 25 years old or younger!!

I know nothing about Newcastle....is the expectation that if we go out and put in a decent performance, solid scrum and lineout we should get the win?

Vs Enisei
A Tait (C Willis, 63), Z Kibirige, T Penny, C Harris (A Powell, 63), M Watson, T Catterick, M Young (R Tipuna, 57); R Vickers (A Rogers, 55), G McGuigan (S Lawson, 55), J Welsh (T Vea, 55), C Green, S Robinson (W Witty, 55), W Welch (captain, R Mayhew, 68), D Temm, M Wilson.

Vs Sale
Tait, Venditti, Powell, Socino, Watson, Delany, Young, Vickers, McGuigan, Welsh, Green, Robinson, Wilson, Welch, Latu
Replacements Lawson, Rogers, Vea, Botha, Hogg, Tipuna, Catterick, Harris

Vs Saracens
Tait, Agulla, Powell, Socino, Watson, Catterick, Young, Vickers, McGuigan, Welsh, Robinson, Green, Wilson, Welch, Latu
Replacements Lawson, Rogers, Vea, Botha, Hogg, Takulua, Willis, Harris

Vs Connacht
15 Simon Hammersley, 14. Dan Marshall, 13. Tom Penny, 12. Chris Harris, 11. Zach Kibirige, 10. Criag Willis, 9. Sonatane Takulua; 1. Alex Rogers, 2. Scott Lawson, 3. Taione Vea, 4. Will Witty, 5. Mouritz Botha, 6. Richard Mayhew (c), 7. Daniel Temm, 8. Ally Hogg.
16 Rob Hawkins, 17. Ben Harris, 18. Andrew Foster, 19. Calum Green, 20. Callum Chick, 21. Ruaridh Dawson, 22. Juan Pablo Socino, 23. Marcus Watson

It's basically their A Team (that said, they'll look at our team and think the same)
Number 4 Will Witty is meant be a very promising second row and Marcus Watson on the bench has serious pace.

typhoony

BrokenMan wrote: »

Ah Feck sake. Any details on what it is?

Originally Posted by flouncer
Anyways toh out injured in training today so it will be interesting to see how the team lines out.
Ah Feck sake. Any details on what it is? ?

well that came from a reliable source!!!

did flouncer delete his originaL POST?

b.gud

typhoony wrote: »

well that came from a reliable source!!!

did flouncer delete his originaL POST?

Nope still there. The confusion may come from the fact that it's a line at the end of a longer post and not just a post solely about an injury to TOH.

Also slightly in his defence just because he's named in the team doesn't mean he didn't receive a knock. Players have been named in teams while carrying knocks before and then get pulled at the last minute. Obviously I hope that this isn't one of those cases but until he takes the field tomorrow night I won't be telling flouncer he was wrong

b.gud

Ronaldson wins player of the month with over 50% of the vote

http://www.connachtrugby.ie/ronaldson-voted-player-of-the-month/#ConnachtNews

Bazzo

b.gud wrote: »

Ronaldson wins player of the month with over 50% of the vote

http://www.connachtrugby.ie/ronaldson-voted-player-of-the-month/#ConnachtNews

Well deserved. The fact that he's as effective at 12 as he is at 10 speaks to his quality. I think he's often underrated by a lot of people outside Connacht.

S12b

Bazzo wrote: »

Well deserved. The fact that he's as effective at 12 as he is at 10 speaks to his quality. I think he's often underrated by a lot of people outside Connacht.

Ya I've been particularly impressed by his physical ability. We often think of 10's moving out to 12 as just distributors and another kicking option but Craig has made as many line breaks as any of the other backs this season plus his speed is very impressive.....think it was against Brive a kick was put through into the Brive 22 and all the Connacht backs went after it and Ronaldson was leading the way....I remember being shocked at his speed.

Anyways a quality player. I'd love to see him at 10 with Aki, Henshaw in midfield before the season is out....they essentially bet Munster on their own last New Years.

freyners

S12b wrote:

Anyways a quality player. I'd love to see him at 10 with Aki, Henshaw in midfield before the season is out....they essentially bet Munster on their own last New Years.

Bit harsh on the pack who were excellent that day. Particularly aly

They were on another level that day before craig nutted himself for that try

S12b

freyners wrote: »

Bit harsh on the pack who were excellent that day. Particularly aly

They were on another level that day before craig nutted himself for that try

Pack held there own against an excellent Munster pack containing O'Connell, O'Mahoney, O'Donnell and Stander, I'm not taking anything away from them.....they laid the foundation for us to win the game. But it was a few moments of magic from Ronaldson with the little chip and Aki and Henshaw continually breaking through the Munster midfield and offloading that actually won us that game.

For me, it perfectly encapsulated the progress Connacht have made....a few years back they would have been dogged and gave it their all but ultimately the lack of star quality would have probably cost them and Munster would have ground out the win. Instead, two world class centres made the difference and turned a 3 point loss into an 8 point win. That's what I mean when I say they won it on their own....I probably didn't word it great!

freyners

S12b wrote:

.I probably didn't word it great!

Ah im a front row player so any time I see the divas out wide getting credit I always point out the forwards do the real work so never mind my moaning.

flouncer

Am I correct in saying that the Newcastle pitch is an artificial one. If so I worry that our injury list is not going to get shorter when we travel next week. And since we do have ulster and Leinster to follow who will we have left for these games. I would say we have never had the level of depth we have today in the past. However it would seem that having the equivalent of 3 teams is still not enough. The attrition rate is incredible

S12b

freyners wrote: »

Ah im a front row player so any time I see the divas out wide getting credit I always point out the forwards do the real work so never mind my moaning.

"real work" = walk 4 yards to ruck, flop into said ruck, slowly drag oneself to feet and repeat....

freyners

S12b wrote: »

"real work" = walk 4 yards to ruck, flop into said ruck, slowly drag oneself to feet and repeat....

Ahem

http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/community/threads/the-light-hearted-history-of-rugby.10772/

flouncer

freyners wrote: »

Ahem

http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/community/threads/the-light-hearted-history-of-rugby.10772/

Very funny article. Started smiling from the first sentence and then it got better. Now I understand rugby better :-)

flouncer

S12b wrote: »

Ya I've been particularly impressed by his physical ability. We often think of 10's moving out to 12 as just distributors and another kicking option but Craig has made as many line breaks as any of the other backs this season plus his speed is very impressive.....think it was against Brive a kick was put through into the Brive 22 and all the Connacht backs went after it and Ronaldson was leading the way....I remember being shocked at his speed.

Anyways a quality player. I'd love to see him at 10 with Aki, Henshaw in midfield before the season is out....they essentially bet Munster on their own last New Years.

Agreed

freyners

Is this in tv?

connachta

freyners wrote: »

Is this in tv?

L.O.L. It's Connacht . tv channels prefer poor Agen or London Irish

wp_rathead

freyners wrote: »

Is this in tv?

Nope
Might be on Periscope
Galway Bay will surely have it though
I think Newstalk are covering it aswell

b.gud

Nigel Carolan has managed to pull together an Eagles team

Connacht Eagles team to face Jersey RFC

15 Ciarán Gaffney
14 Adam Leavy
13 Cormac Brennan
12 Api Pewhairangi
11 Ed O’Keeffe
10 Conor McKeon (captain)
9 Conor Lowndes

1 Jacob Walshe
2 Jack Dinneen
3 Saba Meunargia
4 Peter Claffey
5 Cillian Gallagher
6 Marc Kelly
7 Rory Moloney
8 Stephen McVeigh

REPLACEMENTS

16 Juan Anaya Lazaro
17 Conor Kenny
18 Cian Romaine
19 Matthew Cosgrove
20 Stephen Kerins
21 Aidan Moynihan
22 Jack Keegan

Good to see Api back from injury. No sign of McSharry so I assume he's 24th man for tonight

connachta

API's back, GREAT to see we have now 4 centre pairing

1) Henshaw/Aki
2) Ronaldson/Parata
3) McSharry/Finn
4) Robb/Api

happy times !:)

connachta

16 Juan Anaya Lazaro
We have a future Ledesma/Creevy here? EDIT : except that he is a Spanish international

Robbo

connachta wrote: »

16 Juan Anaya Lazaro
We have a future Ledesma/Creevy here? EDIT : except that he is a Spanish international

Anyone got any further info on him?

former total

connachta wrote: »

API's back, GREAT to see we have now 4 centre pairing

Is he not more or less just here as squad filler? Is he any use?

b.gud

former total wrote: »

Is he not more or less just here as squad filler? Is he any use?

Since he got injured in, I think, his 1st match and he's a league convert it's probably a bit early to say if he has potential or will be squad filler. But with our current injury list I will happily run down the street naked in celebration of every senior player, even if they are only squad fillers, that gets back to fitness :P

wp_rathead

He was brought in to cover Henshaw's absence in the centre - his injury forced Parata to be given bigger role start of season which he grasped

Bazzo

Oops, thought ye were discussing the Spanish hooker and was very confused for a moment. From what I heard more than saw(lack of TV coverage...) at the start of the season Api looked like a decent prospect before he got injured, didn't he?

S12b

Robbo wrote: »

Anyone got any further info on him?

I know he's been playing with Wegians all season so someone in the know there would be able to fill you in

S12b

connachta wrote: »

API's back, GREAT to see we have now 4 centre pairing

1) Henshaw/Aki
2) Ronaldson/Parata
3) McSharry/Finn
4) Robb/Api

happy times !:)

former total wrote: »

Is he not more or less just here as squad filler? Is he any use?

To be honest, he played a few mins of a warm up game and then got injured so it's too early to say anything.....he was obviously signed as backup though.

connachta

S12b wrote: »

To be honest, he played a few mins of a warm up game and then got injured so it's too early to say anything.....he was obviously signed as backup though.

I may be the only one having seen him as I was at the game against Castres, but I didn't spot anything particular, good or bad, TBF. it's faulty, I know; Darragh was the standout player of this day

BrokenMan

TOH out. Healy to FB. Poolman on wing and mcsharry on the bench.

wp_rathead

BrokenMan wrote: »

TOH out. Healy to FB. Poolman on wing and mcsharry on the bench.

FLOUNCER WAS RIGHT

Larbre34

Is this on the telly box?

flouncer

wp_rathead wrote: »

FLOUNCER WAS RIGHT

I get you. Its not often :-)