Connacht v Edinburgh Saturday 1st December 17.00

23-24 gunners
not good going into HEC!

Absolutely fucking disgusted with this game. Another game for the taking and we messed up. No leadership and the decision making left a lot to be desired

Considering our colossal injury list I'm not actually too disheartened with tonight. We were very good at times and were only a whisker away from winning with that drop goal attempt at the death. 2 of the tries we conceded were disgracefully soft but we bounced back admirably each time. Thought Browne was outstanding again. Kearney did very well too. Poolman made yards every time and Fetu'u looked so dangerous it's a shame we couldn't get him more ball. Lots of positives to take but still worrying how we switch off at times and gift scores. I really fucking hate losing to Bradley...

menacethedenis wrote: Considering our colossal injury list I'm not actually too disheartened with tonight. We were very good at times and were only a whisker away from winning with that drop goal attempt at the death. 2 of the tries we conceded were disgracefully soft but we bounced back admirably each time. Thought Browne was outstanding again. Kearney did very well too. Poolman made yards every time and Fetu'u looked so dangerous it's a shame we couldn't get him more ball. Lots of positives to take but still worrying how we switch off at times and gift scores. I really fucking hate losing to Bradley...

i hate losing to anybody especially at home and thats the attitude that this club needs if its to progress to the next level. we have now lost to the teams immediately around us in the last two games. these were games that we identified as must win and we have lost them. the losing of both seems to have been down to our peerformance as opposed top the performance of the opposition and thats unacceptable. the team on the field was strong enoughh to win this game and didnt. yes there were injuries but every team has them and thatwas a decent team we put on the pitch.

losing is accepted too readily with this team and its about time the fans demanded more from this group of players. we are talking about central contracts and attracting sean cronin back for christs sake..

That was a shambles, tactics crap use of the bench crap, defence crap. Certain players crap and other players carrying them as usual. How many times on this site has our lack of ability at the restart being talked about we see it why can't the players and coaches see it. Something needs to be done by EE as he staring at 11th place in his last year.

My take -

criticisms of tactics and use of the bench is nonsense (unused bench: Flav, Miah, Qualter), bar the fact that JOC was wrecked about 10 minutes before he went off. Maybe Parks almost conceded a try with a drop that wasn't really on but we used to scream at them to try one last year.

Kicking game was fantastic, Henshaw and Parks were magnificent in this area, and Poolman provides a useful left-footef option.

Lineout was great, huge number of them, we had one stolen and one overthrow (which we caught anyway). On theirs we had then under pressure whenever we tried to compete, and when we didn't we stopped their maul dead.

The first 2 tries came from individual errors - Parks' bad pass for the first and a knockon in midfield for the second.

This was lost because the pack was too light: we were murdered in the scrum (loughs poor, locks too light), the disparity in size between the 2 backrows was frightening; some individuals had bad games - I stopped counting when Faloon got to 4 missed tackles in the first 25 minutes (and I'm not including Visser's try, he hadn't a hope of stopping him); they turned us over with ease - including in the leadup to the matchwinning try; and the lack of forward support led to the backline forcing things.

Positive spin: With a pack of Buckley H-W White Swift Macca Browne ? George in front of that backline we should beat Biarritz.

Negative spin: We have home games aginst Zebre X2 and Dragons which we'l win, but it's hard to see wheere we're going to get any other wins this season. Which (even if we beat Biarritz) leaves us stuck on 8 wins from 28 and no improvement on last season.

couldnt make game due to work commitments.
how did jp cooney and danny qualter do on their debuts? do they have anything to offer at this level?

this is a good video from last night, made by @connachtAbu (twitter)

you can see edinburgh try from the lineout at 3.00.

from 7.47 you can see how off side edinburgh was most of the game

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8gV4n9r2rgM

I'm another in the not too disheartend camp. It's all very well to say 'losing at home to the likes of Edinburgh is never acceptable', but it doesn't mean very much. I don't think it is acceptable either, but on the whole, that was about as acceptable as a one point defeat in a relegation six-pointer can get.

I remember hearing once how there was a poll on a radio station in the UK for the best and worst song of all time, and Bohemian Rhapsody won both. Dan Parks was a bit like that last night. 100% from the tee on a grand still evening. His range and accuracy of passes out the backline was fantastic. And he made one try saving tackle. But here's the rub. He had to make the tackle after making a balls of a kick and handing Embra possession. Some of his kicking from hand was awful. At least twice he gifted them possession and 5 seconds later we were scrambling around our tryline. (Although, in fairness maybe the question that needs asking is how they managed to make that much progress through our line everytime they made a break) Shame the drop goal at the end didn't go over.

But it would have been robbery. Edinburgh were the better side. Visser is very classy. I think the ref was nice to us, even if he didn't give us everything. They had two tries on a plate that they somehow managed not to score (if that happened us we'ed be wondering how that sort of thing only happens us!). We went to sleep for most of the first half, and seemed to be content that it was an even game.

Overall, contrary to expectations, the pack performed very well. More than broke even in the lineout, the scrum was solid enough from what I saw and Brett in particular seemed to me to have a great game. The backs were beaten. Every side that keeps a high line against us does well it seems. McSharry was quiet. Poolman, despite the try didn't set the world alight either. The one shining light was Robbie Henshaw. I've been pretty lukewarm on his performances to date, but last night he was super. Two days ago I said I'd yet to see him play as well as Gav last season, well now I have.

the pro12 deadsite has the attendance at 4903. is that an accurate figure then thats a great croed for a fixture like that.

And how many will come back after we gifted Edinburgh their scores?

Sorry, but that result last night is absolutely not good enough, injuries or no. That was exactly the type of game this new Connacht is supposed to win, instead we are worse off this year compared to the last.

Our defence is porous, the number of tries, not to mention silly tries, is ridiculous when compared to how hard it was for teams to score against us last year. We've improved our scoring, which would have us winning games but for the fact that we're doing our best to keep the opposition in the game by dropping our defensive standards to a level that would have been unacceptable last year and should still be seen as unacceptable this year.

The net result is just as many losses as last year, and not even getting within LBP territory in matches we at least got a point out of last year. Not good enough, not good enough at all.

Henshaw was the best player on the park imo.

The other positives for me were Browne and Kearney in the 2nd row. If there's life after Macca then things won't fall to pot, Browne in particular showed up very well physcically and in the lineout and looks like a leader.

Next week injuries permitting

1. Buckley
2. Reyneke
3. White
4. Swift
5. McCarthy
6. Browne
7. Faloon/JOC
8. Naoupu
9. Marmion
10. Parks
11. Vainikolo
12. McSharry
13. Poolman
14. TOH (needs to pull up his socks a bit)
15. Henshaw


Henshaw and Fets are electric when in space. There was a few times yesterday when Fets had a 1 on 1 in space on the blindside but POD went open. We need to isolate these situations and take them when they're on.

Up front, we've been saying it in a good few games but our pack is too light. We need to get a couple of big men on board next year. In this case, when Macca and Swifty are fit we need Browne at 6, or else if 1 are out, Browne at lock and Kearney at 6. That back row was just too light yesterday. McKeon is only about 105 kg and he was the heaviest of the 3.

Salmson its not nonsense to critise the tactics, they weren't right. Its all well and good kicking up and unders every five minutes but it is no good if we have a team that never follows them up. Yes once or twice we did especially Robbie Henshaw who had a good game again, also Box kicking from our 22 does not work it never has and probably never will. I don't mind to much on the five metre line but near the 22 metre line is stupid why hand the ball straight back for them to strike, at least kick for touch.

Our backs are young but some of their defensive positional play was bad, no fullback at home when Dan went for the first drop goal; attempt, no scrumhalf sweeping behind the defence line for De Luca's first try and that move was right from the video cutting room. Defending on our 22 when we got the ball with 5 to go Edinburgh moved right and de-committed from the ruck leaving a huge gap right down to the Edinburgh line for POD and what does he do ignores it and passes back for Dan to kick.

My go at the bench is based on its lack of use, Loughs was desparate in the scrum but we wouldn't take him off until he was hobbling around on one leg, Wilko was having a good game and he was pulled before Loughs and wilko was not knackered. I can see people saying he was struggling in the scrum, but again it was not his side that caused the scrum issues it was on the tighthead . Qualter was used he replaced JOC with 10 to go, but Flav should have been used and he was wasn't I would have taken TOH off and brought on Nikora and moved Poolman to the wing.

Defeats are hard to take, especially when we are our own worst enemy like we were last night, I cannot see us beating Zebre or the Dragons at this rate even with some big guns to return.

the kick chase has been an issue for the season and a half that ive been following the team and probably longer. i and others have been complaining about the lack of one for that long.
its an indictment on eric who had a successful career as a kicking 10 that his team are so consistantly poor in this regard when he clearly instructs his 10 to kick the ball.
there are basic minimum standards that every team should have. its not a skill deficit but an application and work ethic issue when the chase is poor ant the fact that its ongoing for so long implies an acceptance of stadards below the required level.

this can have a roll on effect on all aspects of the game and can manifest itself in defensive mistakes, missefd tackeles, lazy decision making etc.

its for this reason that imo none of the current setup should be considered for the top job. in addition tje incoming coach should have a free hand to make whatever changes he deems necessary.

ummm, wrote: And how many will come back after we gifted Edinburgh their scores?

Sorry, but that result last night is absolutely not good enough, injuries or no. That was exactly the type of game this new Connacht is supposed to win, instead we are worse off this year compared to the last.

Our defence is porous, the number of tries, not to mention silly tries, is ridiculous when compared to how hard it was for teams to score against us last year. We've improved our scoring, which would have us winning games but for the fact that we're doing our best to keep the opposition in the game by dropping our defensive standards to a level that would have been unacceptable last year and should still be seen as unacceptable this year.

The net result is just as many losses as last year, and not even getting within LBP territory in matches we at least got a point out of last year. Not good enough, not good enough at all.

i couldnt agree more. last night was a game we never wanted to win, a game we could of won and a game we easily could of lost by 15+ points.

we were awful, 2/3 times we were in there 22, one mistake there on our line or scored. awful.
not going to bore people repeating whats said already but mickey mouse stuff.

fetu, henshaw and browne were great. JHW was good with the lineouts, by far the best i seen from our hookers this year.
bad points, duffy injured, dont think he'd make the team next week anyways.
TOH really needs to cop on or be dropped, mark mccrea is not injured, for god sake give him another go, eric has given rodney loads of chances to prove himself, why not mark. that wing cant get any worse.

some people might like this but, remember that thread named ''eric out''.
alot of people were questioning him before he said he's quitting, me included and then we all fell in love with him after seeing 'the wests awake''.
what has he done since. thrashed leinster and bet an awful zebre team in the heineken.
the deadline for the cv's for the headcoach close one of these days, get the best coach there, if thats eddie then tell him to go into work first week in january.

aimless kicking does not work, what happened to parks and how we played vs leinster. that game we kicked nothing. was that parks plan and now eric told him to kick like nikora/jarvis and NOC were told last season.
last night was perfect for rugby, no rain, wasnt to cold and no rain.

swift4prez wrote: this is a good video from last night, made by @connachtAbu (twitter)

you can see edinburgh try from the lineout at 3.00.

from 7.47 you can see how off side edinburgh was most of the game

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8gV4n9r2rgM

Thanks Swift4prez,
Think it was 3am before I got the video on twitter between stitching all of them together & uploading to YouTube so didn't get a chance to log in here until now! Wouldn't mind but wasn't even drinking other than 2 hot ones in the Sportsground!!



Don't know if it's a reflection on the gameplay & result or an Edinburgh fan but I've gotten a dislike a video for the 1st time!