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

hogandrew

Amazing result. Well done. Bundee Aki must be on form the best player in Ireland this season!

errlloyd

Buckley is a great speaker. Answers his questions well.

Buer

errlloyd wrote: »

Buckley is a great speaker. Answers his questions well.

Really comfortable with the mic. How long did he spend in Blackrock?! Very south Dublin accent!

Neil3030

Nice way to end a four game losing streak! Abú!

connemara man

Scarlets stay top of the table on games won so

Bazzo

Buer wrote: »

Really comfortable with the mic. How long did he spend in Blackrock?! Very south Dublin accent!

He was boarding there for 6 years so not too surprising really!

Buer

Bazzo wrote: »

He was boardng there for 6 years so not too surprising really!

Ah, I had been under impression he just boarded there for 5th and 6th year or something but the accent made me wonder. Ta.

Cosmo Kramer

Great win, good to be on the right side of the ref for a change. The TMO was leaving him in no doubt as to who was infringing at scrum time either (yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow).

Also good to see Heenan looking back in excellent shape, while NFM and Connolly have done well at 7 Heenan can make a massive difference if he can stay fit for the season.

The tactics in closing out the game were wrong again and need to be looked at but it was very satisfying to take all five points and send them home with nothing.

thomond2006

Huge result. A loss here and I think Connacht wouldn't make 6th. Now it's back on!

freyners

First bit of cute handlign of a ref ive seen from mul asking for the time to speak to the players. Now actually speak to them next time John:cool:

connemara man

Delighted with the win. Set piece and pack were great. Back line quiet enough would have like to have seen a bit more from them.
23 missed tackles is a lot Pats defence points won't be flying out after that

Bazzo

Have to give a mention to George Naoupu who I thought did really well today playing in the row, certainly seemed to add enough power to the scrum anyway and made some decent carries.

connachta

Remember 13-10 48th minute. Were we favourite at that moment??
It is a full-house today !!! BP for us, not for the Welsh, everyone put a good shift and we kept composure in the end!! Bealham is our future for TH I don't worry much anymore. Heenan was missed, he's now back. Blade and Masterson are talents in the making. Aki/Henshaw will destroy any big-fish European midfield next year. TOH and Poolman are sure bet. Hope Healy is ok but Parata did well.
And a rest week
Perfect!

freyners

Bazzo wrote:

Have to give a mention to George Naoupu who I thought did really well today playing in the row, certainly seemed to add enough power to the scrum anyway and made some decent carries.

Very true. Excellent game. Masterson mckeon hard to fault being ahead but certainly still a good player

aimee1

connachta wrote: »

Aki/Henshaw will destroy any big-fish European midfield next year.

Is Aki going to Leinster too

Bazzo

aimee1 wrote: »

Is Aki going to Leinster too

You're in bother when Zzippy sobers up in the morning :pac:

connachta

Agree with both Bazoo!
About George he did very well indeed, but I still think Roux back in a month will be a huge boost for the pack

wp_rathead

its_phil wrote: »

Someone get a GIF ready of that Buckley out the backdoor pass.

Wprathead I'm looking at you

Iv gotten onto Murray Kinsella
I usually just steal his :pac:

b.gud

Delighted with the win, nearly crashed the car on the M50 when listening to the end :pac:

Can't wait to watch it when I get back on Tuesday

Bazzo

Cardiff did us a favour to close out a scrappy 10-3 win over Edinburgh.

Billysays no

Will connachta's predictions turn out to be true. Connacht win Leinster lose and Edinburgh lose. All looking good. Disappointed with caolin. Buckley how does Joe not see your potential. Jake Heenan, you are simply immense. Jack your kicking stats sucked but your positional play was really good. John mull, your a joker. You were told to advise your team and you didn't say a word to them. George had the best game I have witnessed him having. Hope Healy OK. Toh, the usual quality performance. He just keeps doing it for connacht. What a professional! And Edinburgh lost. Fantastic

Bazzo

I thought Blade was decent actually. A couple of errors that I think were just naivete, he'll grow out of that. The pack were guilty of leaving him a bit exposed at times, the same thing has happened with Marmion this season and it's probably something that needs to be looked at.

irishbucsfan

Bazzo wrote: »

I thought Blade was decent actually. A couple of errors that I think were just naivete, he'll grow out of that. The pack were guilty of leaving him a bit exposed at times, the same thing has happened with Marmion this season and it's probably something that needs to be looked at.

I agree, was quite impressed by him (haven't seen much of him before apart from the heroics)

Billysays no

Bazzo wrote: »

I thought Blade was decent actually. A couple of errors that I think were just naivete, he'll grow out of that. The pack were guilty of leaving him a bit exposed at times, the same thing has happened with Marmion this season and it's probably something that needs to be looked at.

You obviously missed the tackles he missed☺

Bazzo

Billysays no wrote: »

You obviously missed the tackles he missed☺

There were a huge number of missed tackles, probably every player on the team missed at least one.

freyners

Off the top of my head he missed two. One was poor but the second was well the ball squirter out of the side and he was off balance trying to tackle a front row

Henshaw break he made a balls of but he was solid I thought

connachta

Yes BillysayOuncer, my predictions were right, and I'm really really happy with the BP. I'm apeased by Naoupu, Bealham and to a lesser extent Blade level. They won't let us down during 6 nation window. And Browne, then Roux, Marshall and Cooney all coming back soon.
My last area of worriness is FB. Leader out for the season. Henshaw won't be released even for the Leinster game in April. If TOH gets a knock (fingers crossed 100 times), we have a problem...

connachta

Bazoo Muldoon and Henshaw made respectively 10 and 8 tackles with no miss. Carty was worse than Blade in that area though

Billysays no

freyners wrote: »

Off the top of my head he missed two. One was poor but the second was well the ball squirter out of the side and he was off balance trying to tackle a front row

Henshaw break he made a balls of but he was solid I thought

Now most people know henshaw wrecks my head. He did his usual rob Kearney stuff (I don't release a ball no matter what). And then in the space of one movement he offloaded twice. And that was connacht and fantastic.

I know I give out loads but it was nice to see Robbie play connacht rugby rather than Irish rugby.

connachta

For Fb, I've just been thinking we may well ended with good old Fionn Carr. Could be worse. Our squad is okay!! amazing!

connachta

*end
sorry I can't edit

aimee1

connachts next 4 games are winnable, with minimal 6n disruption they should be collecting a few wins and a few LBP at least

Zzippy

its_phil wrote: »

Have to say Whitehouse is using his assistants briliantly. Big ego on the man but at least he listens.

His assistant should have spotted the obvious truck and trailer maul before Scarlets second try. The ball carrier and one other forward were 3 metres behind a second pod for several seconds before the ball went wide. We were standing directly behind the AR in line with where it happened, everyone around us could see it clearly. Ref was good alright, although we had a good laugh at him running down the pitch to the big screen every time he consulted the TMO. We could see it clearly from the far end. I reckon he must have a 90" screen in his living room!

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

10 points conceded in first 5 minutes of 2nd half. Scarlets probably favourites now with the wind.

The wind wasn't that strong. In previous years I would have thought the same, but this season the team aren't going to put the heads down like that, they'll fight to the end.

Bazzo

connachta wrote: »

Bazoo Muldoon and Henshaw made respectively 10 and 8 tackles with no miss. Carty was worse than Blade in that area though

Fair enough but the point I was making is that so many players missed tackles it's hardly fair to single out blade for it. He made a bit of a balls of one of Henshaw's breaks but like I said that before I put that down to youth and inexperience, still think he was decent overall.

Funk It

Heenan and Aki are really class acts, so good to have them firing for us. That smash by Bundee, wow, and you could see how happy he was with it as well!

Hope Heenan decides to stay (has any contract extension been announced?).

Hope Healy is ok. Was saying it earlier that he must be one of the form players in the league this year, certainly up there with Stander anyway.

Billysays no

Funk It wrote: »

Heenan and Aki are really class acts, so good to have them firing for us. That smash by Bundee, wow, and you could see how happy he was with it as well!

Hope Heenan decides to stay (has any contract extension been announced?).

Hope Healy is ok. Was saying it earlier that he must be one of the form players in the league this year, certainly up there with Stander anyway.

Kudos to pat. Signing jake, tom and bundee. With pat staying I think the lads will stay also. Read the bundee article earlier. Jeepers his family living the other side of the world. That I can't understand. Why would bundee do that to himself?

Billysays no

Watching the replay on tg4. Why did henshaw not give that ball to parata. Now I remember Robbie doesn't pass the ball :-)

Zzippy

Billysays no wrote: »

Watching the replay on tg4. Why did henshaw not give that ball to parata. Now I remember Robbie doesn't pass the ball :-)

There were 4/5 Scarlets players converging on Henshaw and covering any pass. If he could be criticised it's for maybe not spotting that a chip ahead was the better option, but passing was never going to go to hand there.

Billysays no

Zzippy wrote: »

There were 4/5 Scarlets players converging on Henshaw and covering any pass. If he could be criticised it's for maybe not spotting that a chip ahead was the better option, but passing was never going to go to hand there.

Fair point. Just doing my henshaw thing.

wp_rathead

I want to see what feck happened at the ruck in run up to Scarlets try

Zzippy

wp_rathead wrote: »

I want to see what feck happened at the ruck in run up to Scarlets try

We didn't protect our own ball

Zzippy

I think Carty was concussed for the second half. He started nailing his kicks...

Billysays no

Was very happy for Rodney. Nice bloke. Will be missed by supermacs

wp_rathead

PHWOAARR that was brilliant by Rodney
Wish we had seen it more consistently though his time here though

Muldoon lucky he wasn't given a yellow even after Scarlets try (which was forward)

wp_rathead

Was looking forward to watching that Bundee tackle again

Billysays no

wp_rathead wrote: »

PHWOAARR that was brilliant by Rodney
Wish we had seen it more consistently though his time here though

Muldoon lucky he wasn't given a yellow even after Scarlets try (which was forward)

Muldoon would deffo got a yellow if try hadn't been scored.

connemara man

wp_rathead wrote: »

PHWOAARR that was brilliant by Rodney
Wish we had seen it more consistently though his time here though

Muldoon lucky he wasn't given a yellow even after Scarlets try (which was forward)

Sure the world's worst truck and trailer was before that so shouldn't have been a try.

The only thing Whitehouse missed in a generally well reffed communicated match.

Billysays no

And that's it for a couple of weeks. Joe, you're in my sights for next week :-)

thomond2006

Dragons and Zebre away next for Connacht during the Six Nations. These are must wins.

Since the Italian teams were introduced: 57, 55, 54, 56 and 60 points have been the six placed finish. Wins against Dragons and Zebre would put Connacht half-way to a European spot with seven games. The run-in is pretty rough and includes three interpros with no European distraction. However there is also Treviso away which should be a banker win.

b.gud

thomond2006 wrote: »

Dragons and Zebre away next for Connacht during the Six Nations. These are must wins.

Since the Italian teams were introduced: 57, 55, 54, 56 and 60 points have been the six placed finish. Wins against Dragons and Zebre would put Connacht half-way to a European spot with seven games. The run-in is pretty rough and includes three interpros with no European distraction. However there is also Treviso away which should be a banker win.

I've said it before and I'll say it again we shouldn't be going for top 6 we should be going for top 4. If any of the other provinces were joint top at this stage they wouldn't be talking about how many points they need to make top 6, so neither should we.

We've shown this season that we can hold our own and have improved our consistency, there's still a lot to work on but absolutely no reason not to push for top 4