Connacht Vs Zebre Jan 11 15.40

Borders no.2 wrote:

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

I guarantee you that The Eagles played against their Second string/Development in the earlier games, Championship sides do not put out their First XV in B&I until there's a chance of winning silverware. Rotherham had a chance of qualifying for last eight and have no championship fixture for over two weeks so their team today was basically their 1st XV Squad with only a couple of exceptions.

Allied to our lengthy and protracted injury list, the reason so many young lads are involved in our HCUP demands, expecting anything other than the occasional win is pretty overambitious to be fair. Most of their squad today played last weekend against Cornish Pirates

Rotherham Titans wrote: Titans V Connacht - 11/01/11:

15 Sean Scanlon, 14 Jamie Broadley, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Jack Roberts, 11 Curtis Wilson, 10 Dallan Murphy, 9 Dan White,

1 Toby Williams, 2 Ben Sowrey, 3 Mark Tampin, 4 Ben Thomas, 5 Dan Sanderson (Capt.), 6 Alfie To’oala, 7 Ali Birch, 8 Laurence Pearce.

Replacements: 16 Tom Cruse, 17 Mike Dias, 18 Rikki Stout, 19 Alex Rieder, 20 Jack Preece, 21 Juan Pablo Socino, 22 Ben Rath.

Titans v Cornish Pirates - 04/01/11:

: 15 Sean Scanlon, 14 Michael Keating, 13 Jack Roberts, 12 Juan Pablo Socino, 11 Curtis Wilson, 10 Dallan Murphy, 9 Dan White,

1 Robin Hislop, 2 Ben Sowrey, 3 Colin Quigley, 4 Barney Maddison (Capt.), 5 Ben Thomas, 6 Alex Rieder, 7 Jack Preece, 8 Ed Williamson.

Replacements: 16 Tom Cruse, 17 Toby Williams, 18 Mark Tampin, 19 Dan Sanderson, 20 Laurence Pearce, 21 Joel Gill, 22 Jamie Broadley.

connachtcl wrote: 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?

What Myth, have you ever actually played in the pack before or specifically at eight? You're measuring Georges performance on 15mins and one unstable scrum which made the channel ball rubbish for him.

He's three three inches taller and two stone heavier than McKeon, so with best will in the world (and everything else being equal) there is no way that he is worse at locking the scrum than Eoin or taking ball on and we know what he offers at lineout time.

A lot is expected of George and to in all honesty this evening he certainly was no worse than McKeown who was pretty anonymous despite us dominating much of the game possession wise...

Borders no.2 wrote: Just as a by the way on this. The Rotherham team that started v Cornish Pirates below contained 9 of the starting side, 3 of the replacements and 17 of the 23 who lined out against Connacht back in October in Galway so it wasn't too weakened.

Point is really that the Eagles is a scratch side especially this year even despite the extra games from the B&I, if the core of the players used were playing competitive games together week in week out like their opponents they would be much more competitive home and away. Very hard to build cohesion, understanding and consistency just on the training field.

theCulk wrote: We paid particular attention to Eoin at 8 today. While he made his tackles he offered nothing in attack. Too often he was hanging out in the backs, hands on hips watching the forwards. Watch Robbies try again. He could have been penalised twice at the maul, maybe the only time he was hitting maul/ruck

Most worrying thing is that of the starters Jake carried for over three times as many metres as the next best forward [White], in fact Jake carried for nearly the same as all the other starting forwards (including Swifty) which probably explains why we never created more during the game nor dominated the way most of us believe we should have...

Can't. Disagree with much here to be honest. I thought Matt had a great game, he was unlucky not to get the tries, very marginal things. I think we're gonna regret not coming away with the BP.

Carty had a grand game, but his first and second kicks probably should have been called for time. Hopefully just nerves, he seemed to pick up the pace afterwards.

Heard from more than one person that Pat Lam tore strips out of the lads afterwards. Good to see that he just doesn't accept the win and move on.

Gonna have to bring a bigger game to next week otherwise it's going to be an embarrassment.

Finished 21-11 to Toulouse, no LBP for Saracens so next week win or bust

We are definitely missing McCarthy and the George of old as go to ball carriers. Jason carries well but tends to get isolated a lot. Hard to see where we will find the players to fix this.