Connacht Vs Zebre Jan 11 15.40

Watching the last 35 minutes of this half has been really painful. So bloody sloppy.

piss poor performance overall.

Subs who came on had nightmares and actually disimproved matters. Marginally better in the first 20 of the second half.

Execution of the basics was just terrible at times and we'll be mullered next week without a serious improvement

I can only agree with you. I can't remember how many times I've seen us drop the ball or miss a pass. Our backs today were desperate. Even our second try was a piece of skill by Henshaw rather than a proper move. For me POD coming on and throwing a crooked feed costing us a scrum in a good place and then doing it AGAIN only two minutes later was pretty much the whole match in a nutshell. We were dire and didn't deserve a bonus point on that performance.

connachtexile wrote: I can only agree with you. I can't remember how many times I've seen us drop the ball or miss a pass. Our backs today were desperate. Even our second try was a piece of skill by Henshaw rather than a proper move. For me POD coming on and throwing a crooked feed costing us a scrum in a good place and then doing it AGAIN only two minutes later was pretty much the whole match in a nutshell. We were dire and didn't deserve a bonus point on that performance.

We just don't have enough beef up front. We're too lightweight in terms of carriers in the pack. We badly need a couple of pure power athletes in the backrow especially but the second row as well. As a result we struggle to hold onto the ball. Of course when you're dropping it all the time it makes things hard as well

Henshaw's try was the only bit of class in the whole 80 mins.

Agree with most comments pretty unprofessional display and unintelligent decisions, missed clarke badly.
Why would you take off marmion one of our most dangerous players in a match were we needed a bonus point.
Naoupu making a mess of a certain try at the back of the scrum. Healy "oohhh and he dropped it, you absolute muppet" .
Forwards getting bullied and driven back by a weak side .
Its a win but saracens will punish you if you allow them front foot ball

Not a great performance. Slopiness cost us the bonus point. Zebre really are dire. It says it all about how poor our season has been that Zebre are ahead of us in the league.

The A result today also makes for bad reading. An average of over 60 conceded in the 3 away games is awful. Considering we won our two homes games so far its hugely dissapointing to perform so poorly on the road.

If there's such a thing as a bad win then today was it.

We showed them no respect from the off and were not clued in for most of the game. Our back play was shocking at times. Passing for the sake of passing. No commiting the Zebre defence. We were passing when 10 yards off the opposition. That will not win you any games at ANY level.

Best performers today were White, Mul, Heenan, Henshaw and Healy.

Great to see the Clan sportingly clap off the ref today, that is more like the respect the men in the middle deserve for a thankless job.

Agree with everything posted,like tho see our forwards do what they were born to do run straight and hard. Should have been playing penalty advantage for George knockon and where are the support players, Heenan made a great break looked for supporting player but no-one there.need tho get players running off the ball carriers shoulder

sea_point wrote:

Borders no.2 wrote: Not a great performance. Slopiness cost us the bonus point. Zebre really are dire. It says it all about how poor our season has been that Zebre are ahead of us in the league.

The A result today also makes for bad reading. An average of over 60 conceded in the 3 away games is awful. Considering we won our two homes games so far its hugely dissapointing to perform so poorly on the road.

Not too concerned by the Eagles result, Rotherham are on a break from Championship fixtures for a couple of weeks so it was our A/Development versus their Senior side. Flip it and we'd muller their seconds as the Sportsground...

If it was a one off I wouldn't be worried but we beat Rotherham with a weaker side than started today at home, same against Bedford, beat them at home and then concede 50 away from home. At least Rotherham are up near the top of the championship but its still a poor effort. 6 tries conceded before half time is very poor. That Connacht side had enough experience to expect a bit better than that.

9 of those lads had played competitively for the senior team at some stage this season and the likes of Layden, Finn and Sean O'Brien are all expected to come through. Its a bit of a men v boys scenario with some of these lads but in other cases, an injury or two or some poor performances could see a number of these players elevated to the senior team.

Connacht Eagles’ lineup v Rotherham Titans

15 Tiernan O’Halloran
14 Shane Layden
13 Conor Finn
12 Brian Murphy
11 David Panter
10 Tadhg Leader
9 Frank Murphy (captain)

1 Ronan Loughney
2 Dave Heffernan
3 JP Cooney
4 Sean O’Brien
5 Danny Qualter
6 Mata Fifita
7 Rory Moloney
8 Eoghan Masterson

Dare I ask how the A game finished?

It finished Titans 59-3 Connacht....

59-3. 9 tries to nil. Connacht now 3 points adrift at the bottom of the group. Only the Scottish no-hopers and Aberavon have a worse scoring difference in the competition.

Rotherham Titans 18
Llanelli 13
Bedford 11
Connacht 8

Can't understand this myth that George offers more better ball carrying and helps the scrum. McKeon is a much better ball carrier and controls the ball better at the base of the scrum. You only have to look at today as an example, George cost us dear in the second half, by not controlling the ball properly in the scrum. Love what he has done for Connacht but I'm afraid he's past it now and doesn't even warrant a place on the bench!

Very unhappy with today. Zebre are really awful and we didn't put the m to the sword at all. So many missed opportunities that we may end up regretting after next week. Am I right in saying that if Sarries get a losing BP tomorrow we have to beat them by more than 7 points to come second next week?