Connacht v Ospreys 28th September 2013 K/O 17:00

Rabo Direct Pro 12 Round 4
Connacht v Ospreys
Saturday 28th September Kick Off 17:00

Connacht and Ospreys meet in the round 4 of the Rabo Direct Pro 12 on Saturday. In contrast to the home side Ospreys have made a strong start to the season picking up 11 points from their opening 3 games leaving them in 2nd place just one adrift of the early pacesetters Glasgow. Ospreys will be eager to reach the end of season play offs of the league they last won so dramatically in 2011/12 and will expect a routine win against a Connacht side who have yet to impress under new coach Pat Lam. Below are some stats on the Ospreys

Ospreys Stats
Founded: 2003
Ground: Liberty Stadium
Capacity: 20,750
Captain: Alun-Wyn Jones
Coach: Steve Tandy

Rabo Direct Pro12 League Position 2012/13: 5th Points:62
Heineken Cup: 3rd in Pool 2 Points: 12
Anglo Welsh Cup: 3rd in Pool 4 Points:6
ERC European Ranking 17th (10 pts)

Previous Results
Treviso 19-24 Ospreys
Leinster 29-29 Ospreys
Ospreys 44-10 Edinburgh

Next League Fixture:
Friday 4th October 2013 19.05 Ospreys v Ulster @ Liberty Stadium

Heineken Cup (Pool 1)
Castres
Leinster
Northampton
Ospreys

Achievements
Celtic League/Magners League/Pro12: Winners: 2004–05, 2006–07, 2009–10, 2011–12

Anglo-Welsh Cup Winners:2007–08

Players in 2013–2014
Tyler Ardron from Ontario Blues
Jeff Hassler from Prairie Wolf Pack
Tito Tebaldi from Zebre
Matthew Dwyer from Bridgend Ravens
Jamie Murphy from Bridgend Ravens
Sam Williams from Aberavon
Aisea Natoga from Nadroga
Phil Mack from British Columbia Bears

Players out 2013–2014
Kahn Fotuali'i to England Northampton
Campbell Johnstone to Russia Krasny Yar
George Stowers to New Zealand Tasman
Jonathan Thomas to England Worcester
James Goode released
Ian Gough retired

Previous Meetings

Friday 15th February 2013 Rabo Direct Pro 12 Connacht 22-10 Ospreys

www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/12341.php

Friday 27th October 2012 Rabo Direct Pro 12 Ospeys 26-9 Connacht

www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/2326.php

Saturday 26th November 2011 Rabo Direct Pro 12 Connacht 6-17 Ospreys

www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/2370.php

Friday 30th September 2011 Rabo Direct Pro 12 Ospreys 26-21 Connacht

www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/2421.php

Squad Update ahead of Ospreys game

The Connacht squad stepped up their preparations early this week ahead of Saturday’s RaboDirect PRO12 clash against Ospreys at the Sportsground, KO: 5pm.

There were some significant injuries arising from last weekend’s physical encounter and disappointing loss to Ulster and it has been confirmed that flanker Willie Faloon, who left the pitch with a foot injury on Saturday, will require surgery. The 27-year-old is expected to be out of action for up to five months.

Hooker Jason Harris-Wright also left the pitch with an injury in the opening half of last weekend’s game. A scan yesterday revealed that the 25-year-old tore his bicep and is looking at 4 – 6 weeks on the side-lines.

Meanwhile, Dave McSharry and Denis Buckley have stepped up their rehabilitation in recent days and have re-joined training, but remain unavailable for selection just yet.

Craig Clarke, who made his debut for Connacht last time out, trained this week and is in the frame for selection.

Irish international Robbie Henshaw was involved in a two-day Ireland training camp in Kildare in the early part of the week and will return to Connacht training tomorrow ahead of the game on Saturday.

The team to face Ospreys is set to be announced at noon on Friday.

The round 4 fixture will not be televised so the only way to get in on the action is to get down to the Sportsground. Tickets for Connacht v Ospreys are available online from tickets.ie, from the Connacht Rugby office, and from Centra and SuperValu stores province-wide.

Connacht v Ospreys
Saturday, 28th September
At Sportsground, 5pm.
Referee: Andrew McMenemy (SRU,23rd competition game)
Assistant Referees: Leo Colgan, David O’Flynn (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: John West (IRFU)

if your looking forward to the game on saturday, leave it like that and dont read the first 3 paragraphs in the galway advertiser.

having see afew games this year of the kid and all of roscrea's run to the semi final, it's good seeing Pat name drop Rory Maloney. would be unreal seeing him on the bench come saturday, worringly, no talk of Mata, who would be considered backup to Heenan now. (although id have hm in the centre).

“We have got some young guys who have not played at the next level coming through. Everything is a possibility, but dollars pending, so we have Jake [Heenan] who is a seven first or foremost, Aaron Conneely, Rory Maloney, who is straight out of school.''

According to thread on babbling brook (no source mentioned) Ospreys team as follows:
15. Fussell
11. Hassler
12. Ben John
13. Ashley Beck
14. Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9. Tito Tebaldi
1. Duncan Jones
2. Scott Baldwin
3. Adam Jones
4. Alun-Wyn Jones
5. Ian Evans,
6. Joe Bearman
7. Justin Tipuric
8. Morgan Allen

bench

bevington,hibbard,jarvis,king,ardon,habberfield,morgan,spratt.

That's their strongest team from what I see. We are doomed

With the way we tire after 60 minutes of almost constant defending I'm really worried this will be a try bonus for Ospreys. They won't have seen anything in their video sessions that will worry them.

Can't see us getting anything from this. Coming out with no injuries is probably the best we can hope for unfortunately.

15. Gavin Duffy
14. Danie Poolman
13. Robbie Henshaw
12. Eoin Griffin
11. Matt Healy
10. Craig Ronaldson
9. Kieran Marmion

1. Brett Wilkinson
2. Sean Henry
3. Nathan White
4. Michael Swift (captain)
5. Craig Clarke
6. Andrew Browne
7. Jake Heenan
8. John Muldoon

Replacements:

16. James Rael
17. Rodney Ah You
18. Ronan Loughney
19. Aly Muldowney
20. George Naoupu
21. Paul O’Donohoe
22. Dan Parks
23. Fionn Carr


Big call to put Ronaldson, hope he takes his chance.

That really is defeatist sh*t lads. Roll out the white flags!

Mind you I thought we'd get hammered by Leinster this time last year and look what happened there!

Happy to see poolman and ronaldson start, Muldoon at 8 again though. We have a new coach so he's not picking muldoon there out of sentiment, does Lam see something we don't? If George is partially on the naughty step (but kept in the squad due to lack of 8 cover) then I think I'd like to see some academy lads given a chance soon off the bench at least.
Also given the height and ability of the ospreys second row I half-expected to see muldowney start, I hope giving swift the captaincy does not preclude him coming off around 45 minutes to see muldowney come in and hopefully win some line outs.

mary hinge wrote: That really is defeatist sh*t lads. Roll out the white flags!

Call it what you like, but we rolled over and got our bellies tickled by a poor Ulster team and now we welcome an undefeated Ospreys with their returning Lions. We've seen nothing from Connacht that suggests they are close to gelling with each other and with Lam's game plan yet.

galway_gas wrote: According to thread on babbling brook (no source mentioned) Ospreys team as follows:
15. Fussell
11. Hassler
12. Ben John
13. Ashley Beck
14. Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9. Tito Tebaldi
1. Duncan Jones
2. Scott Baldwin
3. Adam Jones
4. Alun-Wyn Jones
5. Ian Evans,
6. Joe Bearman
7. Justin Tipuric
8. Morgan Allen

bench

bevington,hibbard,jarvis,king,ardon,habberfield,morgan,spratt.

one change from above Joe Bearman/ James King swap places at 6/bench

cant see why the 6th highest try scorer n the league ever is sitting on the bench. crazy.

glad to see george on the bench, has been useless all season, when he came on vs ulster he was sent back on his ass. not sure if he is running to sraight or if he runs straight into defenders rather then trying a step. muldoon is not the answer but he's better then george. if only SOB was fit!
i guess that its the IRFU playing henshaw at 13 rather then swappin with gavin.

im nearly sure about this but maybe someone can set me straight, when a prop is on the bench, the team sheet has loosehead and tighthead by there name. can the TH prop sub come on for the LH prop???

for exampe locks is sub TH, if brett (LH) gets subbed at 60mins, can locks come on for him, and if white (TH) gets subbed at 70mins, could locks move to TH and rodney comes on at LH

mary hinge wrote: That really is defeatist sh*t lads. Roll out the white flags!

It's called being realistic

i think the culk and menacthedenis should be banned by moderator for their attitude



roll out yer white flags ye yellowbellies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mary hinge im with ya on this