Leinster v Connacht Saturday 26th October 18.45

sea_point wrote: Our stats from the Leinster Game..

Heenean top tackler again made and one missed. More impressive though is Sean Henry's, given he was only on for a half he made 12 tackles and no misses....

Our possession figures don't compare with Leinsters, but they wouldn't do in any other home team/away team comparable especially one at the top of any league against one at the bottom.

O'Connor should be bigging up his defence instead of accusing us of not playing, we tried to play to a game-plan that would keep us competitive. We played a territory game, which was the tactically astute thing to do and he's talking out of his backside if he disagrees. Let's see what game-plan they employ when they head down to Castres shall we. Guarantee you it'll be Gopperth sitting in the pocket kicking Leinster into the corners just like we did to them.

Anyway the stats show that our carriers were more efficient than theirs, they only made 2.5m per carry while ours were closer to 5m. Given the possession mismatch we matched them in most phases when you do the % breakdown for each area. Only are we fell behind is winning our rucks, we weren't as efficient as them (although that could indicate that the referee was more lenient to Shane Jennings than to Heenan,)

I wouldn't worry about the 22 missed tackles so much with such a huge volume of tackles to be made, against we match Leinster when you do the % comparison, hey missed and equal % of theirs....

Comparison shows we should have won, but the Leinster of Saturday isn't a model for us, our stats are still weak to hope more regular victories...

For exemple, Munster was about 93% tackling rate to win away to Glasgow

www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/leinster-...ht-victory-1.1575363

Gerry Thornley and others also questioning referees in relation to Connacht. Referees should be held just as accountable as players for their performance.

www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/angry-sha...nster-side-1.1575085

Also the disrespect shown towards Connacht by players such as Shane Jennings in the above article claiming we "live off knock on's" etc is disgusting aswell as and their coaches bitter words despite coming out winners in a game they were behind in for 78mins. I hope the lads make them eat every one of those words when those ladyboys go west.

Its difficult to not at least question the role of the referee even though we should perhaps try to avoid blaming him for the loss. Things like the penalty against healy for not releasing while surrounded by Connacht players or no sanction for Leinster pulling the maul down on their line. Those decisions change the way a team play the game which is why Parks went for the posts rather than having another go at the lineout imo. The penalty against clarke for not rolling away was bizarre, when you watch it back you can see he blows his whistle almost in the same breath as he says roll away.

Great article on the site - thanks a lot for a well balanced (well, for a weshtie)piece.

Should have won that match. I'm still gutted. It was nice to keep the home crowd quiet for so long though. I was sat right behind some Toulouse fans who were visiting Dublin; they were very respectful of Connacht and that we will give them a proper game in December - let's hope so. Unless we go for the complete set of all senior players being injured.

Interesting article by Toland in IT

www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/by-going-...d-they-won-1.1579746

It seems a combination of inexperience (ref) and experience(Reddan)were our downfall.

At least Patterson this week has improved hugely and I would expect a good game from him.

The referee has being pillared by everyone and rightly so. We should be kicking up big time as him and the guy who refereed us against Cardiff were diabolical. The standard of refereeing has gone down hugely this season.

P.S. Did anyone see the Leinster vs Dragons game on tonight? The dragon's fans were not happy and gave the ref hell which I think ironically wasn't deserved. You can't please everyone.

The crooked feed is obviously something the ref the other night wasn't pulling up on as he had a clear view to see it happening and it was hugely frustrating viewing from a Connacht viewpoint. Reddan got away with it on the first one and it got worse from there. I think in fairness Marmion got away with a couple as well. Maybe he thought it was in the best interests of the game to let it go but you contrast this to the opening evening with Leinster away to Scarlets where the ref must have pulled up Eoin Reddan on at least 3 or 4 occasions for a crooked feed and threatened him with a yellow card. Ironically in the opening minutes of the Dragons v Leinster game this evening, a dominant Leinster scrum was pulled back for a crooked feed from John Cooney. I had to laugh.