Connacht vs Cardiff Sept 1st 17:00

theCulk wrote: Swifty, as much of a legend as he is, is just not able to go for the full 80 anymore and he shouldn't be expected to. He looked fit to drop after 65 mins.

Heretic! Crucify him!

No, seriously, you're bang on the money. If we used JOC and Swifty as impact subs we could get another 2 seasons out of them.

Playing devil's advocate here who who people drop for the next game? Barring injuries of course. Should guys like Macca, Fetu, Griffin and TOH be dropped from the squad entirely or should they be given a chance to redeem themselves?

If Poolman is ready then I'd say get him at least on the bench and see what he can do.

sea_point wrote:

connachtexile wrote: Playing devil's advocate here who who people drop for the next game? Barring injuries of course. Should guys like Macca, Fetu, Griffin and TOH be dropped from the squad entirely or should they be given a chance to redeem themselves?

If anything the team lacked cohesiveness from running out pretty much development sides in the pre-season games. I suspect Eric will keep faith with them (barring more injuries) and expect them to improve significantly against Zebre ...

I have now seen both Pre-season games and was at the sportsground on Friday, in my oppinion and it's only my oppinion I think that the starting fifteen against Exeter would have beaten that Cardiff Blues team on friday (as they were also poor).I don't see the point of putting out a develpment side pre-season and not selecting players who stepped up to the mark and played well.
Dave Moore played well against Exeter as did Brown and Grace as did a few others. But will there be changes for Zebra ??? I don't think so as most of these guys are on big bucks and money talks. (I hope I am wrong, and Eric has the wherewithal to select on performences and not reputation).

Money does talk, and if you want to keep sponsors, you pick a team to win.

Before I forget, I was chatting to a friend who knows Dave Moore, and it seems he picked up an injury a couple of weeks ago. Hamstring I think. I suspect that explains why he didn't start.

I missed the game on Saturday so I can't comment too much on that. However, in the lead up to the game I was reading one of the prediction threads here, and several people had Dan Parks down as their prediction for "flop of the season" etc. I thought most people welcomed his signing when it happened so that surprised me. Anyway, having read this thread it seems we need him to play ASAP. Anyone know when he is due to be available for selection?

For my own mind I'd drop Griffin, TOH, Fetu and Macca the last thing this club needs is untouchable's like EOS had with Ireland. We've the strength in depth now to do this a give other players chances. Guys such as McCrea who have points to prove I'd bring in. We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard this season and showing some of the first teamers there not going to walk into there places every week is the way to go IMO.

i think we need a change at hooker, 10, 12 and wing. we will also prob be forced to change 13 through injury. i think griffin needs to be rehabed properly if he is to become the player he has potential to be. that will require an extended rest period but he needs it.
Reynecke has to take responsiblity for the lineout. Some of the calls made were baffling. im not flavins biggest fan(i think hes weak defensively)but he is more consistant on lineout ball. i havent seen harris wright but he was injured so may not be considered.
Nikoras kicking game just isnt strong enough so id bench him and start jarvis if parks isnt ready. Jarvis has improved from the tee and has a serious boot on him from the hand.we need an outhalf who knows how to play the game in the opposition half and jarvis offers the best possibity of this until dan is fit. Nikora offers a clear plan b from the bench.
I thought fafita was a willing ball carrier but knocked on a lot in contact. the weather in parma should be better so that will help but if mcsharry or tonetti are available i would use them. if not then hes worth another run.
Id replace fetu purely because of his well documented inability to deal with the high ball. i dont think this can be covered by another player and he clearly has issues with the ball in the air. i dont know what the solution to this is and there may not be one. Again if tonetti and mcsharry are fit id have them in the centre and bring in poolman(if fit) or mccrea to wing.
I agree with salmson about using Jonnie off the bench on the 50-60 min mark. His energy and workrate would be a great boost at this time so id start faloon. I think swift is a different player so i think he offers more as a starter with gannon coming in with jonnie. maybe moore and nikora around this time also.
i dont know if wilko is available but id stick with buckley for this week reegardless.
My team for what its worth would be-
buckley, flavin, loughney.
macca, swift.
muldoon, faloon, naoupu.
marmion, jarvis.
toh, mcsharry+tonetti(if fit),poolman.( fafita at 12 if one unavailable)
duffy.
there are a lot of injury concerns in the 12, 13 positions so its difficult to get a read on what might happen and could impact the wing selections.

Some people seem to be very forgetful of Macca's consistency over the last couple of years, he's is the heartbeat of our team, the main man in the pack. I've spoken to a couple of players recently and they all say that he's key man in the team.

He had no pre season games, so obviously his match sharpness was going to be a bit off. Being taken off early was due to IRFU player management. He was struggling a bit which was always going to happen because he isn't match fit, and then he was asked to field every lineout. We didn't use George once, we used Muldoon once and he claimed it.

Macca is a key player and leader for us and I'm shocked to see calls for him to be dropped. Now Fetu'u is another matter.

I have a feeling Eric could wield the axe a little for next week to keep everyone on their toes. We now have a squad, we might as well use it. I could see Wilkinson and White come in in the front row, no slight on Loughney's and Buckley's performances, but it's all about building match fitness and commpetition and these lads won't weaken the side, they may even strengthen it.

My team v Zebre (if all fit)

1. Wilkinson
2. Reyneke
3. White
4. Swift
5. McCarthy
6. Muldoon
7. O'Connor
8. Naoupu
9. Moore
10.Parks
11.O Halloran
12. Tonetti
13. Griffin
14. Poolman
15. Duffy

theCulk wrote: Why go for that penalty kick at the end of the 1st half when they should have taken a quick tap.

Ref told them them he would blow up apparently.

A few other things irked me. When Griffin went down, he was hobbling around after and clearly in no shape to continue. Why was this let happen.

Griffin and the physios were talking and the physios signaled from the pitch to Tim Allnut that Griffin would be ok in two minutes. It looked like Eoin thought the knee was total gone initially, but then figured it wasn't too bad after all. The lads on the line can really only work with what they are being told by the player and physio so wouldn't fault them on that.

Regarding next week, I think the pack did enough to earn a recall on-masse. Just get them to sort out the line out this week. Backs, barring Gav there is a case for changing every one of them and seeing what form the alternatives are in.

Porterbelly wrote: Macca is a key player and leader for us and I'm shocked to see calls for him to be dropped. Now Fetu'u is another matter.

Couldn't agree more re Macca.

I wasn't at the game, but I can't imagine a display that would justify some of the knee jerk reactions some of the posters on this thread are advocating. It was the first proper game of the season - disappointing that we didn't do better obviously, but I'd be more inclined to make incremental change than try and change a load of things in one go.

ummm, wrote: Money does talk, and if you want to keep sponsors, you pick a team to win.

We didn't win !!!

I'm not going to claim to be a rugby guru by any means but to be fair some of the comments on here are very harsh to put it mildly.
The team fielded had a few creases that need ironing out, that doesn't excuse the amount of silly knock ons but the weather was a major factor from what I could see. The arguement could be made that they train in that most days and I'd agree.

The major factor was the amount of big names on the stand especially the four new greats!

IMO the guys did excellently to keep Cardiff pinned back to their own half. Yes there was a clear and open chance for at least one great try in the second half but to be fair Blues only scored from the four chances they got ok they used them unlike our own crew but it could have been a bigger margin.

Had Nikora taken the 6 points from both penalties before half time then we'd likely have won and they'd all be deemed legends!!!

Plus there were a number of questionable decisions by the matchingly dressed ref (jersey plus hair).

micktreacy wrote: I'm not going to claim to be a rugby guru by any means but to be fair some of the comments on here are very harsh to put it mildly.
The team fielded had a few creases that need ironing out, that doesn't excuse the amount of silly knock ons but the weather was a major factor from what I could see. The arguement could be made that they train in that most days and I'd agree.

The major factor was the amount of big names on the stand especially the four new greats!

IMO the guys did excellently to keep Cardiff pinned back to their own half. Yes there was a clear and open chance for at least one great try in the second half but to be fair Blues only scored from the four chances they got ok they used them unlike our own crew but it could have been a bigger margin.

Had Nikora taken the 6 points from both penalties before half time then we'd likely have won and they'd all be deemed legends!!!

Plus there were a number of questionable decisions by the matchingly dressed ref (jersey plus hair).

mick im not sure if you went to the game or not but none of these comments are to harsh.
we are talking here about a second choice cardiff team not new zealand, we cant be making exuses on the first day, that should be gone if we have any hope and most people did hope we would kick on and win these tight games. we were muck.
our game plan didnt change till the last 10mins. some people were saying we have to get used to the kicking game since parks is here, well at least when he will do it he'll do it right.
kick the ball away and not chase it.(apart from buckley).
i didnt think TOH was that bad apart from the lack of ball he got.
i was sickened listening to 'supporters' shouting at fetu when he came of. yes connacht supporters. although standing next to them it felt like i was in a pub the shit they were going on about. sadly after a year ill have to move from my spot, tunnel area bothermore side.
as pointed out we are like the irish team, not giving chance to players who do well when given the chance.

no point dropping the whole team as thats stupid but now give the lads who have improved a chance. gannon and browne are not much behind swift and mccarty. i only seen dave moore play a few times, mostly coming on so id stick with KM.afew here saying bring back murphy and POD. it was a long summer but i wont forget how bad they are. at leat young lad can learn.

my team and as injury stand now
buckley flavin locks
brown macca
muldoon faloon george
KM nikora
mccrea jarvis fifita toh
duffy...

subs
17 wilko 16 ER 18rodney
19 swift 20 joc
21 moore 22 griffan 23 henshaw