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

typhoony

To have Henshaw, Bealham and Dillane back would be great, expecting the only disappointing news is Marmion/White possibly both not released. i guess whoever is released has gone back to the provinces today so any INPHO pics taken today would be tell us

connemara man

wp_rathead wrote: »

Jesus that'd be brilliant if could manage get him released - I'd assumed just be Dillane and Bealham back
Interesting that the article says most likely be at 12

Pat Lam quote after the match if true.
"I put Henshaw at 12 and Bundee at 13 but with their natural playing styles they inter changed quite a bit which meant Robbie ended up at 13 more often than not.

Bazzo

typhoony wrote: »

To have Henshaw, Bealham and Dillane back would be great, expecting the only disappointing news is Marmion/White possibly both not released. i guess whoever is released has gone back to the provinces today so any INPHO pics taken today would be tell us

I don't see why Marmion wouldn't be released unless he's second choice ahead of Reddan, great news if so but I don't think it likely.

I don't expect White to be released.

S12b

Highly unlikely White will be released.

Highly likely Dillane and Bealham will be released.

Would make an awful lot of sense if Henshaw was released and I'd be pretty confident he will be.

Re Marmion, unless he is now ahead of Reddan, and I don't see this happening, he will surely be released....no point being left in Kildare twiddling his thumbs! Noteworthy that Reddan is not with Leinster this weekend suggesting he's still the number 2 scrum-half.


Barring Nathan White, I believe the following is our strongest possible line-up and the first time we will have gotten it out all season.

15: O'Halloran
14: Poolman
13: Henshaw
12: Aki
11: Healy
10: Ronaldson
9: Marmion

1: Buckley
2: McCartney
3: Ah You
4: Dillane
5: Muldowney
6: Muldoon
7: Heenan
8: Masterson

wp_rathead

S12b wrote: »

Highly unlikely White will be released.

Highly likely Dillane and Bealham will be released.

Would make an awful lot of sense if Henshaw was released and I'd be pretty confident he will be.

Re Marmion, unless he is now ahead of Reddan, and I don't see this happening, he will surely be released....no point being left in Kildare twiddling his thumbs! Noteworthy that Reddan is not with Leinster this weekend suggesting he's still the number 2 scrum-half.

Wouldn't be as optimistic as yourself
Could be Henshaw and Bealham only 2 released

Van der Flier isn't released for Leinster tomorrow and he has little to no hope being apart of squad vs Wales

If Marshall and Roux were fit then I wouldn't be surprised if Dillane was kept in Irish Camp but due to our circumstances of only really have 2 recognised second rows (unless start with Qualter and Muldowney) then I'd assume Lam be pleading with Joe to let Ultan play this weekend (you'd assume Dillane is 4th choice SR in Irish pecking order)

Billysays no

b.gud wrote: »

Henshaw likely to be released for the Scarlets game

Bundee approves

Bundee just working out a cramp in his chest.

Iompair

Anybody heading over for the glamorous tie in Rodney Parade. Are Connacht fans congregating in any particular stand?

Robbo

Billysays no wrote: »

Bundee just working out a cramp in his chest.

"Just working the turkey through, Marge"

Winters

Iompair wrote: »

Anybody heading over for the glamorous tie in Rodney Parade. Are Connacht fans congregating in any particular stand?

Leinster are playing away to Dragons and Connacht are at home to Scarlets. Are you mixed up?

Zzippy

Winters wrote: »

Leinster are playing away to Dragons and Connacht are at home to Scarlets. Are you mixed up?

We play them over there in 2 weeks, which he could be referring to...

Iompair

Winters wrote: »

Leinster are playing away to Dragons and Connacht are at home to Scarlets. Are you mixed up?

Following week on the 11th. Only good thing about a Thursday game is I'm not working for once when Connacht are over this part of the world.

wp_rathead

Iompair wrote: »

Following week on the 11th. Only good thing about a Thursday game is I'm not working for once when Connacht are over this part of the world.

I only know of 1 fan who is travelling over on his own
I think he is just gonna buy ticket on the gate
Newport on a Thursday night isn't most glamorous of away fixtures ha

b.gud

On the one hand yes to Robbie being in the team on the other I can't help but be disappointed that Craig isn't at 10

Connacht team to face Scarlets, the Sportsground, Saturday, January 30th, 3pm

15 Tiernan O’Halloran
14 Danie Poolman
13 Robbie Henshaw
12 Bundee Aki
11 Matt Healy
10 Jack Carty
9 Caolin Blade

1 Denis Buckley
2 Tom McCartney
3 Finlay Bealham
4 George Naoupu
5 Aly Muldowney
6 John Muldoon (captain)
7 Jake Heenan
8 Eoghan Masterson

Replacements:

16 Dave Heffernan
17 Ronan Loughney
18 Rodney Ah You
19 Ultan Dillane
20 James Connolly
21 Ian Porter
22 Craig Ronaldson
23 Rory Parata

Unavailable / Injured: Jason Harris-Wright, Nathan White, JP Cooney, Andrew Browne, Ben Marshall, Quinn Roux, Sean O’Brien, Eoin McKeon, Nepia Fox-Matamua, Kieran Marmion, John Cooney, Dave McSharry, Conor Finn, Niyi Adeolokun, Darragh Leader, Ciaran Gaffney.

b.gud

Also delighted to see Blade get a start

Zzippy

George at 4, presume that's because Dillane hasn't been training with the squad this week. Robbie at 13 is interesting, as apparently JS asked for players to be played in their Ireland positions this week... Marmion not released suggests he may be involved next week.
Hope Jack has worked on his kicking. Strong team, if we play like we did over in Llanelli we can definitely win this one.

b.gud

Zzippy wrote: »

George at 4, presume that's because Dillane hasn't been training with the squad this week. Robbie at 13 is interesting, as apparently JS asked for players to be played in their Ireland positions this week... Marmion not released suggests he may be involved next week.
Hope Jack has worked on his kicking. Strong team, if we play like we did over in Llanelli we can definitely win this one.

I think that was more about Payne getting a game in the centre, the change from 13 to 12 isn't as big as 15 to 13. Also the quote I read from Joe got a bit mangled by journalists to pad out a story and speculate on where people will play for Ireland based on where they play this weekend

Zzippy

b.gud wrote: »

I think that was more about Payne getting a game in the centre, the change from 13 to 12 isn't as big as 15 to 13. Also the quote I read from Joe got a bit mangled by journalists to pad out a story and speculate on where people will play for Ireland based on where they play this weekend

Payne isn't even playing this weekend

Robbo

Trying to piece together the injury list. Anyone able to fill in some of the blanks? I'll edit them in.
Player|Knack|Expected Return
Jason Harris-Wright|Concussion against Brive|Protocols to be observed
Nathan White| Ireland Squad|6 Nations schedule permitting
JP Cooney|Shoulder|4 Months from October
Andrew Browne|A/C Fracture|Mid/Late February
Ben Marshall|Arm fracture|March
Quinn Roux|Ankle|February-ish
Sean O’Brien|???|???
Eoin McKeon|Hip|Should have been this week
Nepia Fox-Matamua|ACL|Next Season
Kieran Marmion|Ireland Squad|6 Nations schedule permitting
John Cooney|Shoulder Dislocation/Tear|???
Dave McSharry|Concussion|Unknown
Conor Finn|???|???
Niyi Adeolokun|???|???
Darragh Leader|Wrist|Next Season
Ciaran Gaffney|???|???

evil_seed

Disappointed that Craig isn't starting. Carty could possibly kick the game away by the time Craig takes the field. Hope I'm proven wrong. Biggest game of the season for us

b.gud

Robbo wrote: »

Trying to piece together the injury list. Anyone able to fill in some of the blanks? I'll edit them in.

Firstly well done on the table



Marshall I think was a re-fracture of his arm in training. Should be back around March

JP Cooney suffered a shoulder injury in October and was supposed to be out for 4 months no word on him since

ClanofLams

Zzippy wrote: »

Marmion not released suggests he may be involved next week.

Hopefully but Reddan wasn't released either. Maybe Murray isn't 100%.

Like that team, as others said would like Ronaldson to get a run at ten but have to trust Lam.

Bazzo

Ronaldson riding the pine while we have no real kicker on the field and Jack starting is maddening. Jack is a decent player and still young but the amount of games that have been lost with kickable penalties means leaving him as the only place kicker on the field is an incredible risk for one of our biggest games of the season.

b.gud

One really interesting thing that I overlooked is the fact that Bealham is starting ahead of Rodney despite having spent all week in camp. Not sure if this is Pat investing in the future now that Rodney has made his intentions to leave. Or if Uncle Joe has a hand in it, though I'm normally quite sceptical about how much that actually happens

ClanofLams

Bazzo wrote: »

Ronaldson riding the pine while we have no real kicker on the field and Jack starting is maddening. Jack is a decent player and still young but the amount of games that have been lost with kickable penalties means leaving him as the only place kicker on the field is an incredible risk for one of our biggest games of the season.

To be fair Ronaldson has had some off days with the boot too and Carty has had some very good days, neither have been a model of consistency albeit agree that Ronaldson has been better overall.

Bazzo

ClanofLams wrote: »

To be fair Ronaldson has had some off days with the boot too and Carty has had some very good days, neither have been a model of consistency albeit agree that Ronaldson has been better overall.

I've said the same thing about Jack before when it came up, I think it's all a mental thing because he can have some cracking days from the tee, but overall his kicking is a lot worse than Craig's. I'd have had no problem with him starting if Porter was starting 9 but with Ronaldson and Porter both on the bench in what promises to be a tight affair I just think it's a disaster waiting to happen.

S12b

ClanofLams wrote: »

To be fair Ronaldson has had some off days with the boot too and Carty has had some very good days, neither have been a model of consistency albeit agree that Ronaldson has been better overall.

+1 on this big time....Carty's kicking was poor last season but it's come on a lot since and yet people don't seem to want to recognise this, instead preferring to throw out the same generic comments. Now I'm not saying it's brilliant but these claims that his kicking has lost us games this season is simply not true.

We have lost 5 games in the league this season. Can you actually say his kicking lost us any of those games?

Ulster and Leinster - no, we were simply out-played
Cardiff - no, injuries beat us
Glasgow - no, an appaling first 40 minutes cost us
Scarlets - no, a now all too common moment of idiocy from a senior player cost us....he actually nailed a long kick which should have won us the game.

Obviously the miss against Brive away was criminal.

There is no denying a top class 10 who kicks at 80+% all of the time would take Connacht to the next level.....I just don't agree with the claims Carty has cost us games.

Muldoon & co failing to deal with two vitally important restarts....now that cost us games!!

Zzippy

S12b wrote: »

+1 on this big time....Carty's kicking was poor last season but it's come on a lot since and yet people don't seem to want to recognise this, instead preferring to throw out the same generic comments. Now I'm not saying it's brilliant but these claims that his kicking has lost us games this season is simply not true.

We have lost 5 games in the league this season. Can you actually say his kicking lost us any of those games?

Ulster and Leinster - no, we were simply out-played
Cardiff - no, injuries beat us
Glasgow - no, an appaling first 40 minutes cost us
Scarlets - no, a now all too common moment of idiocy from a senior player cost us....he actually nailed a long kick which should have won us the game.

Obviously the miss against Brive away was criminal.

There is no denying a top class 10 who kicks at 80+% all of the time would take Connacht to the next level.....I just don't agree with the claims Carty has cost us games.

Muldoon & co failing to deal with two vitally important restarts....now that cost us games!!

It's not just Carty, McGinty's place kicking lately has been awful too. Carty's territorial kicking has come on hugely, he's been very goos at that lately, but you cannot say his place kicking has come on a lot since last season. It might not have cost us games (which is debatable, but I can't recall the stats from individual games) but it certainly doesn't help in tight games when you absolutely need to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

Bazzo

S12b wrote: »

+1 on this big time....Carty's kicking was poor last season but it's come on a lot since and yet people don't seem to want to recognise this, instead preferring to throw out the same generic comments. Now I'm not saying it's brilliant but these claims that his kicking has lost us games this season is simply not true.

We have lost 5 games in the league this season. Can you actually say his kicking lost us any of those games?

Ulster and Leinster - no, we were simply out-played
Cardiff - no, injuries beat us
Glasgow - no, an appaling first 40 minutes cost us
Scarlets - no, a now all too common moment of idiocy from a senior player cost us....he actually nailed a long kick which should have won us the game.

Obviously the miss against Brive away was criminal.

There is no denying a top class 10 who kicks at 80+% all of the time would take Connacht to the next level.....I just don't agree with the claims Carty has cost us games.

Muldoon & co failing to deal with two vitally important restarts....now that cost us games!!

If you're talking about me I'm not throwing out "generic comments". I'm always hesitant to be critical of Carty but his place kicking is absolutely a fair point to criticise him on. He's scored 28/42 of his kicks this season(penalties and conversions). Some days he has missed basically everything inlcuding sitters and other days he's nailed almost every kick including tough ones. That averages to 66.67%. You'd want your kicker to be getting at least 70-75% really.

Ronaldson and MacGinty have been far from great too by the way. But overall Ronaldson's stats will average out to a much better percentage than Jack's.

MarinersBlues

I'm just looking through the betting for the fixtures this weekend, and it could be a series of good results for Connacht:

Dragons v Leinster - Dragons are 2 pt favourites - A Dragons win would be great for us.
Zebre v Munster - Munster are 8 pt favs - A Zebre win, while unlikely, not as unlikely as you would expect.
Connacht v Scarlets - Connacht 2-3pt favs - A Connacht win is good for Connacht, hopefully deny them the bonus.
Treviso v Ulster - Ulster 12 pt favs - I think I'll back Ulster here, that should be good for one Connacht fans wallet.
Cardiff v Edinburgh - Cardiff 1pt favs - A Cardiff win would be GREAT for Connacht.
Ospreys v Glasgow - Ospreys 1 pt favs - A draw would be savage. A low scoring game would be right up our street here.

Basically get Leinster, Edinbrugh and Scarlets bet, which is achievable, and we've had a good weekend. If any of the other long shots come off that would be super as well.

MarinersBlues

I'm just looking through the betting for the fixtures this weekend, and it could be a series of good results for Connacht:

Dragons v Leinster - Dragons are 2 pt favourites - A Dragons win would be great for us.
Zebre v Munster - Munster are 8 pt favs - A Zebre win, while unlikely, not as unlikely as you would expect.
Connacht v Scarlets - Connacht 2-3pt favs - A Connacht win is good for Connacht, hopefully deny them the bonus.
Treviso v Ulster - Ulster 12 pt favs - I think I'll back Ulster here, that should be good for one Connacht fans wallet.
Cardiff v Edinburgh - Cardiff 1pt favs - A Cardiff win would be GREAT for Connacht.
Ospreys v Glasgow - Ospreys 1 pt favs - A draw would be savage. A low scoring game would be right up our street here.

Basically get Leinster, Edinbrugh and Scarlets bet, which is achievable, and we've had a good weekend. If any of the other long shots come off that would be super as well.

wp_rathead

Book your flights folks :

Grenoble v Connacht - Sat 9th April - 21.05 local kick off - Live BT Sport / BeiN / FR4

b.gud

AJ MacGinty not part of the USA squad for the Americas Rugby Championship http://usarugby.org/news/item/clever-youth-highlight-americas-rugby-championship-roster

Robbo

Twas mentioned on the Craggy Island podcast this week and it bears repeating. If there's an issue with kickers, why not utilise Eric Elwood to do some one-on-one mentoring? At the moment it's like having a load of Imperial Troopers line up for target practice.

S12b

I'm not for one second saying Carty's kicking should not be criticised. Of course it's not good enough at the moment and needs to get better.....66% isn't going to cut it, needs to be 75+% at the very least.

My issue is people saying Carty's kicking has lost us games this season. Leaving the Brive kick aside, I went through our 5 losses in the league this season....none of those 5 losses could be pinned at Carty's door. If you actually think Ronaldson could be blamed for losing us the Ulster game.....missed 2 very kickable penalties in the first half of a very tight game.

Regardless of anything, I think we can all agree our 3 10's all need to improve their kicking stats quite a bit if we're going to qualify for the Champions Cup.

Billysays no

wind to be up tomorrow. so likely jack won't improve his kicking stats much. great backline. love blade starting. playing the league leaders. tomorrow will certainly say if our backline is as good as we think it is

vienne86

MarinersBlues wrote: »

I'm just looking through the betting for the fixtures this weekend, and it could be a series of good results for Connacht:

Dragons v Leinster - Dragons are 2 pt favourites - A Dragons win would be great for us.
Zebre v Munster - Munster are 8 pt favs - A Zebre win, while unlikely, not as unlikely as you would expect.
Connacht v Scarlets - Connacht 2-3pt favs - A Connacht win is good for Connacht, hopefully deny them the bonus.
Treviso v Ulster - Ulster 12 pt favs - I think I'll back Ulster here, that should be good for one Connacht fans wallet.
Cardiff v Edinburgh - Cardiff 1pt favs - A Cardiff win would be GREAT for Connacht.
Ospreys v Glasgow - Ospreys 1 pt favs - A draw would be savage. A low scoring game would be right up our street here.

Basically get Leinster, Edinbrugh and Scarlets bet, which is achievable, and we've had a good weekend. If any of the other long shots come off that would be super as well.

Leinster fan here - we've done what you were hoping, by stupidly losing against the Dragons. Now can you do us a favour and beat Scarlets tomorrow please?

Zzippy

Just so we're clear - we beat them tomorrow and ye send the A team to Galway in March, that's how it works, right?

aimee1

Zzippy wrote: »

Just so we're clear - we beat them tomorrow and ye send the A team to Galway in March, that's how it works, right?

the same A team that took care of Bath, ok ?

Zzippy

aimee1 wrote: »

the same A team that took care of Bath, ok ?

The team ye sent to Rodney Parade will do nicely. Cheers.

Billysays no

vienne86 wrote: »

Leinster fan here - we've done what you were hoping, by stupidly losing against the Dragons. Now can you do us a favour and beat Scarlets tomorrow please?

now you have me feeling guilty hoping leinster would lose :-)

Zzippy

Just to emphasise the importance of tomorrow's game, I just realised Munster and Ulster (3 points behind) both have a game in hand on us, while Glasgow (8 points behind) have 2 games in hand. We really need to start winning again.

Billysays no

Yep its crucial. But more importantly it does indicate how good we truly are. If we are to believe ourselves our back line will rip scarlets apart

vienne86

Billysays no wrote: »

now you have me feeling guilty hoping leinster would lose :-)

Redeem yourself by getting a win tomorrow.

gally74

White House reffin

freyners

Might as start with a 7 point handicap so with the traditional penalty try

In all seriousness. He's a decent ref I think. No complaints

Zzippy

Snowing at the moment. Gonna be a cold one! Must remember the hip flask...

b.gud

Zzippy wrote: »

Snowing at the moment. Gonna be a cold one! Must remember the hip flask...

I hope it's Connacht branded http://www.elverys.ie/mobile/product/connacht-hip-flask/223978/0000000061?&

S12b

freyners wrote: »

Might as start with a 7 point handicap so with the traditional penalty try

In all seriousness. He's a decent ref I think. No complaints

Yup, leaving his massive ego aside....I like him as a ref!!

wp_rathead

S12b wrote: »

Yup, leaving his massive ego aside....I like him as a ref!!

Ya I like Ben, himself and Mitera are probably my two favourite refs in the Pro12..

freyners

S12b wrote:

Yup, leaving his massive ego aside....I like him as a ref!!

He is very eager to let players know who's in charge on the field and can come off slightly silly while doing it but I prefer to see a confident ref that one who is easily influenced by the rep/name of the players

He communicates very well and oversees the scrum well with no major inconsistencies in application of laws based on the limited games I've seen him ref. Himself and mitrea have impressed me this season