Saracens V Connacht 18th January 13.35

Oh, and good to meet WP_rathead, GalwayGas, Diom and the rest yesterday. Nice to put faces to names, lads, the green trews are no longer sacred.

Thing most sour in my mouth was neither the performance nor the result - it was the fact the team didn't acknowledge the massive away attendence of the Connacht fans..

Poor form imo

But yes was great day- good meet few members havnt met before and again thanks to galway_gas for the free ticket.. my plan to head Phil's that evening didn't turn out to well as my hour nap turned into a 6 hour snooze and woke at 1am - beer for breakfast prob wasnt best idea..

Not acknowledging the fans.... Come off it.

After getting hammered the way they did, they were embarrassed and humiliated. Do you honestly think that was one of the things going through their minds

Well, That was some hammering. I'd a feeling that we would lose well but not by that margin.
Saracens were just too good on the day and we werent at the races at all.
Clarke a pro who has great experience. He didnt show it or wasnt let. White who is experienced enough from his days with Leinster. We were in the frying pan before his card but it was an awful effort on his part. His damn lucky it wasnt a red. What would the score be if it was a red.
Parks, I wasnt happy with his selection as his a liability. We nearly lost in Toulouse with his poor kicking game. He was taking the ball too deep and we went deeper with passes behind the pod after that. So Sarries were getting to tackle us 15 metres behind the gainline. I'd be quite happy not to see Parks line out with Connacht again.
Sarries, I hate them as a club. Their side is built all around muscle. They are bully's.
Rugby is a simple game. Make your tackles and it will take a good side to beat you. We fell off too many tackles. Granted they were physically bigger but our heads werent up for it. Most of those tackles could have been made but werent.
I'd say its the end of the line for Duffy, Swift and Parks.
This beating were common place for us 5 years ago. I dont think that we are as bad as Saturdays result or a good as the away Toulouse result.
For example look at the beating Leinster gave Northampton away. Some time you dont get the bounce and the opposition are on form. Sarries passes and the bounce favoured them.
We could well have beaten Saracens at home with better ref decisions.

We are always the underdogs in 80% of our matches. The resources that most sides have are greater.
There was a massive difference at the weekend. We dont have the players or the mental strength to play like the away Toulouse game every week.

So, As Supporters lets suck it up. As Connacht supporters we must stand behind the team who will be suffering more than us after the weekend.
Of course we can question their attitude and willingness to make that tackle at the weekend and demand more. So Sarries with their bigger and faster players got the run on us and destroyed us. Ìt happens and they couldnt compete. What I want from this Connacht side is to truly focus on the battles that it can win, Be it home games or the weaker Rabo sides.
Thats where we should be measuring ourselves. Thats where we are coming up short.
As somebody else said they would swap the Toulouse win for a few Rabo wins and so would I.

Sarries will beat better sides than us by similar score lines this year.

Well said Benji

That game was disgraceful. talking to fans there after, they felt the same.
realistic we were never going to win this. i thought we would put in a good battle, sarries to pull away with 20mins to go and win by 20 etc. alot of players there simply not good enough.

ive said it before, we heed to sign bigger players. if i had to choice size over quaility i would, for this i mean backs. we need heavy battering centres!

as someone said, eric stepped aside, prob thinking he cant go any further with this team. it was the right move but he was better then what we have now. he might not be the answer but i dont think lam is either.

i was surprised seeing parks and duffy starting, i thought we'd have so new game plan that nobody ever seen before, sadly not. it was a case of hope for the best.

i agree with wp_rathead, not coming over to us was not on. it was as if we werent there. there was at least 400 in that corner. okay they didnt deserve our applause for that shit but we deserved an applause for staying in our seat for the 80 mins. this is the 7 or so game THIS SEASON we've gone 50mins + without scoring in a game.
i hope they felt embarresed about that result and that they just didnt feel sorry for themself.
anyone see them around after the game? how were they? hammered?

I cant understand the reason for going so long without scoring. Wtf it doesnt matter the opposition. It more of a mental thing really.
Yes, I would have expected them to go to the support also but I guess they were as sick as parrots.
On the were they hammered question. ? I'd be letting them have a few after that with a break next week.
Lam, Like most coaches it takes time to get things up to speed and his not helped by the lack of coaching expertise.
I didnt go to the game but I was like a bear for the afternoon and then I was fine, The team took an awful kick in the nads. Tougher for them

I spoke to Nathan White about an hour after the game had ended - he was taking a walk around the ground. I went to say 'hard luck' to him, but ended up just saying that was tough to watch - he was really embarrassed and annoyed at what happened. I left it at that, didn't want to poke the bear any more.

I would have liked them (the team) to come out after the match and acknowledge the sizable crowd at the end of what may be our last H Cup campaign for a while, but to be honest I can also completely understand the players wanting to get off the pitch after that.

White cited for stamping and marmion for punching. Hearings set for Thursday

_nobody_ wrote: White cited for stamping and marmion for punching. Hearings set for Thursday

According to the stats Connacht bad 45% possession but missed 30 tackles and only won 58% of their lineouts.

sea_point wrote:

Fourdogs wrote:

micktreacy wrote: I doubt this is the vision that Eric had for his beloved Connacht this time last year when he decided it was time to step aside! I'm a long time supporter and I can tell you it's getting harder and harder to justify taking time off work and doing a 200km round trip to watch this crap!!

Actually make that 260km round trip!!

Totally agree and for me it is a 475km round trip for a home game

MIck I'm sure Eric probably had the stress of the 14 game losing streak in mind when he decided to step down.

But some ill-informed supporters have been putting far too much store in the result in Toulouse, like they did after we thrashed Leinster in Galway two seasons back. It was not a breakthrough result, it was another one off.

Anybody distressed by the scoreline on Saturday needs to bear in mind Leicester's near 50 point tonking by Sarries at the same venue less than a month previously... - www.espn.co.uk/premiership.../rugby/match/188799.html , the put thirty odd on Bath, forty odd put on Gloucester & Newcastle, 50 odd on Scarlets, 60 odd on Zebre all packed with International rugby players - www.saracens.com/fixtures/ in the last couple of months. Yet we're judging Connacht as equals? Really?

Sarries are a top outfit, probably top six in Europe currently and they just got everything right on the day and like good sides they were merciless as our confidence drained away. And they have proved all season long to far, far stronger teams than us, that they will annihilate any that get a couple of things wrong on the day at their home ground.

Teams resourced like Connacht will always pull off the occasional great win and the occasional horrendous loss. It is the nature of sport unfortunately, the Have's and Have-not's but it won't stop us fighting, and never will hopefully!!!

My one hope is that the lads take the scoreline personally and react accordingly in the Pro 12 for the remainder of the season