Connacht v Dragons 5th Jan 17.00 No TV Coverage

Back to basics this weekend. Dragons at home. This will be Dragons 3rd game since St. Stephens Day and we will have had 2 extra days recovery as they played Ospreys on Monday. They have been awful this season but a win here will put them ahead of us into 10th.

You'd hope we'd have enough to win but wouldn't be surprised if we were to lose. Hopefully we'll get a performance at least ahead of a daunting trip to Harlequins on Saturday week.

Apparently Falateu is on his way to Bath next season. You gotta think that morale there is pretty low. A win here is vital.

Dragons chairman rubbished this at the weekend:

He's contracted til the end of next season.
Dragons have an option to extend his contract until 2015 and will do so.
Bath offered 100,000 to get him released early from his contract, which is buttons when you consider that if he makes the lions squad Dragons get 50K for releasing him.

Of course if they get relegated to development status this could all change

As a thank you for all your loyal support in 2012, Connacht Rugby is opening the doors of our hospitality suite to our season ticket holders prior to the Dragons game this Saturday.

There will be full bar facilities, complimentary finger food, live music along with player and management interviews pre and post-match.

Just come along to the hospitality suite at 3:30pm which is located at the Sportsground via the Clubhouse gate and show your season ticket at the door.

now thats how you look after your fans, ill be there from 3.30.

The Connacht Rugby team to face Newport Gwent Dragons in Saturday’s RaboDirect PRO12 clash at the Sportsground (KO: 5pm) has been named.

Head Coach, Eric Elwood, has made two personnel and two positional changes to the team that played Leinster last Saturday.

The province has been boosted by the return from injury of Fetu’u Vainikolo. The Tongan winger is the only change to the backline and is named alongside Robbie Henshaw and Danie Poolman in a young back three.

The front row trio of Denis Buckley, Jason Harris-Wright and Nathan White (captain) remains while Mike McCarthy comes into the second row to partner Michael Swift.

Meanwhile, in the back row, versatile forward George Naoupu returns to his regular Number 8 position and Eoin McKeon is moved to Openside flanker.

The first game of the New Year sees Connacht take on the team immediately below them in the league table. Kick off at the Sportsground this Saturday is at 5pm. The game is not televised and tickets are still available from the Connacht Rugby branch and ticketmaster.ie



Connacht XV v Dragons

15. Robbie Henshaw
14. Danie Poolman
13. Eoin Griffin
12. Dave McSharry
11. Fetu’u Vainikolo
10. Dan Parks
9. Kieran Marmion

1. Denis Buckley
2. Jason Harris-Wright
3. Nathan White (captain)
4. Michael Swift
5. Mike McCarthy
6. Andrew Browne
7. Eoin McKeon
8. George Naoupu

Replacements (from):

16. Ethienne Reynecke
17. Brett Wilkinson
18. Ronan Loughney
19. Mick Kearney
20. Eoghan Grace
21. Paul O’Donohoe
22. Matthew Jarvis
23. Tiernan O’Halloran

Connacht Rugby v Newport Gwent Dragons
At Sportsground, 5pm
Referee: Andrew MacMenemy (SRU, 18th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Mark Patton, Kevin Beggs (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: John Cole (IRFU)

swift4prez wrote:
Connacht XV v Dragons

15. Robbie Henshaw
14. Danie Poolman
13. Eoin Griffin
12. Dave McSharry
11. Fetu’u Vainikolo
10. Dan Parks
9. Kieran Marmion

1. Denis Buckley
2. Jason Harris-Wright
3. Nathan White (captain)
4. Michael Swift
5. Mike McCarthy
6. Andrew Browne
7. Eoin McKeon
8. George Naoupu

Other than the pair of injured oon's missing from the backrow that's probably our strongest side. Good stuff.

pinky wrote:

swift4prez wrote:

As a thank you for all your loyal support in 2012, Connacht Rugby is opening the doors of our hospitality suite to our season ticket holders prior to the Dragons game this Saturday.

There will be full bar facilities, complimentary finger food, live music along with player and management interviews pre and post-match.

Just come along to the hospitality suite at 3:30pm which is located at the Sportsground via the Clubhouse gate and show your season ticket at the door.

now thats how you look after your fans, ill be there from 3.30.

It's only for the first 150 who show up, which is less than 5% of STHs. Surely there'll be more than that who want free food from our Michelin Star Chef. I'll be there at 9am to make sure.

thanks for the heads up. i checked facebook, twitter and connacht website, no word on the first 150, which is very very important. you'd think they would remember to say that, anyways im fasting now, i wont miss out on tomorrow

Happy with that Connacht team. Close enough to our best 15 allowing for injuries. Chance to gain some ground on those around us tomorrow so lets hope for a big performance.

Borders no.2 wrote: Happy with that Connacht team. Close enough to our best 15 allowing for injuries. Chance to gain some ground on those around us tomorrow so lets hope for a big performance.

Big time. Bizarre twist means that every other team in the bottom half plays a team from the top half and they've all lost so far. With Cardiff at Munster it could be that the only bottom half side to win will be at the Sportsground .

Easy to empathise with Zebre being pipped by a point at the Ospreys.

Creedence wrote:

Borders no.2 wrote: Happy with that Connacht team. Close enough to our best 15 allowing for injuries. Chance to gain some ground on those around us tomorrow so lets hope for a big performance.

Big time. Bizarre twist means that every other team in the bottom half plays a team from the top half and they've all lost so far. With Cardiff at Munster it could be that the only bottom half side to win will be at the Sportsground .

Easy to empathise with Zebre being pipped by a point at the Ospreys.

Odds on, a draw!

Christ Dragons are awful. Pure septic. We played some very good rugby. McShaz was on fire. Pity about the late try, it would have been nice to hold them tryless

what i found disapointing was the lack of urgency and hunger to get the 4th try and bp.

when they kicked the free kick into touch inside their own half with 5min to play summed that up for md.

still a good win with some very solid individual performances.

rossie wrote: what i found disapointing was the lack of urgency and hunger to get the 4th try and bp.

when they kicked the free kick into touch inside their own half with 5min to play summed that up for md.

still a good win with some very solid individual performances.

Would agree Rossie. We needed to be more ruthless. If there's a chance of a place in the Amlin via a BP v Zebre, what will we do?

Same happened at home to Ulster last year. 3rd try before 50 minutes and then just stopped playing

Thought McKeon again was excellent. He's a real gem of a player, massive future. McCarthy, Harris Wright, McSharry and Poolman all stood out for me. Poolman's best game for us, ran some great support lines and was rewarded with a try.

George is ok afaik, just a stinger.

Interesting tonight to see Robin Copeland play so well tonight at 8 for Cardiff. Have mentioned him a few times on here. Can play 4/5/6/8. Hope we have an eye on him, although he could be on a 2 year deal

Put me in the "they're never satisfied" camp. Seemed to be a change the moment George went off, reverted to their typical kicking game because they had run out of ideas. Only a missed conversion separated the teams from the time George was stretched off and that was a woeful Dragons team. Agree with Rossie, really didn't seem to be any urgency to claim the 4th try and the number of penalties conceded while in possession of the ball was unacceptable. I probably should be happy with a win and 3 tries considering how things went against Munster and Leinster, but conservatively they let 8 points go begging in the first half of the season so now they need to claim every one on offer.