a decent enough performace, nice little cameo from Heenan when he came on, forced 2 turnovers, stole a lineout and the offload was sublime. needs to bulk up though as he looks on the light side. not sure swift has more than 40 mins in him these days although he did take a knock.

I only made it to the sportsground in time for the second half. Very mixed bag, but the main positive I took that hasn't really been mentioned here is the desire to offload, and obvious effort to get on the ball carriers shoulder. At times, it looked like they tried to force the offload a bit too much, but considering it was a wet evening, I'm hopeful of seeing some great tries from our lads this season. Great to see Fionn back in green too, and on the scoreboard.

galway_gas wrote: Would like to see changes at 4,5,6,12 for Cardiff

I guess you mean
Clarke for Swift
Muldowney for Browne
Fafita for Muldoon
Finn/Murphy/Henshaw for Griffin
And maybe Cooney for Ah You on the bench?

Most importantly it's a win under the belt for Pat.
Having said that it was a point lost. I saw Zebre play 3 times against us last year and saw the highlight of the other game i can say that this was by far their poorest performance - in all areas of the game - Brendan Leonard being their only positive light.

The positives for us: A win, no injuries or cards, good individual displays by several players (starting front row, George, Faloon, back3, POD and Heenan.)
Heenan was the Brucie Bonus. Wasn't expecting much of him in first year. Showed well defensively at wasps but we saw more elements of his game today - turnover, beautiful back-handed offload in midfield an even stole a lineout.
Would like to see changes at 4,5,6,12 for Cardiff

it's a point dropped for me. Zebre were very poor, would have preferred to have conceded a try at the end if we had the 5 points in the bag by then.
Thought Connacht played ok with some people standing out.

Robbie Henshaw has really bulked up since last year and bar one missed catch he really looked great.
Willie Faloon had a great match as did Marmion until he was replaced by Paul O'Donoghue who had a great impact, he played better than I think I have ever seen him play.
Jake Heenan looks like an absolute class act, am looking forward to seeing him play again.
Swifty and Muldoon did well, some good interventions. Other than the missed kicks I still like Parks' influence on the pitch, I think he is good for Marmion and Henshaw.
Reasonable first showing, will need to improve though, I think this Zebre team is going to cough up a lot of five-pointers this season.

Happy to start the season with a win but the BP was definitely there for the taking. Zebre were awful. Their half-backs were good but the rest of team were extremely poor. I bet they'll be bottom of the league again this year. We were good for the first 20 minutes and the last 10, the lead up to Fionn's try was particularly good, but the rest was very average and we rarely ventured into their 22. Henshaw, Faloon and Carr were the standouts for me. The first thing Heenan did was steal a lineout, he could be very good but wasn't on long enough to judge really. No huge difference in the general playing style from last season that I could see anyway. Conceding a try at the end left a sour taste. Good start but improvements needed if we're going to kick on from last year.

Good start, but lots to work on. Felt like a warm up game for long parts. Could have been well over at half time but we missed some kickable points.We made alot of subs too very early which made it feel more like a warm up. I was surprised to hear the attendance was over 4000 too, didnt feel like it was that much.anyway good start ill take that..

Darragh507 wrote: seems there were a good few substitutions....any views on these? i guess we all want a sub to make a positive contribution?

so loughney? rodney? etc.?

Loughs did fine

Ah You, 1 scrum 1 pen conceded. Showed good hands in midfield at one stage in fairness.

Overall the bench made a very positive impression imo, particularly Heenan imo. That's a real positive for me. POD and TOH did really well too. Last season we would have been looking to the bench with trepidation. And this with alot of lads still to come back in. Happy with that.

seems there were a good few substitutions....any views on these? i guess we all want a sub to make a positive contribution?

so loughney? rodney? etc.?

Mixed bag. I'd see it as one point dropped really even though the 3rd try came late enough. Zebre look to have gone a bit back from the games we played them last year. Still I'm pleased we are up and running with a win and nothing is ever going to click fully on the opening evening. Plenty to work on but this result gives us something to build on for the weeks ahead.

Our discipline was poor in the first half in particular, a lot of unforced handling errors in the first 25 minutes or so and we were guilty of trying to force the pass on a few occasions.

The first try was one of those things, Zebre screwed up the quick lineout and we got there. Nathan White couldn't have run much further though or he'd have been out of steam! The 2nd try we eventually worked it across and Matt Healy finished well even if the tackling was sub-standard. Dan missed a few kicks which would have made things easier. 1 miss in particular from a penalty was very poor. He kicked a vital one in the 2nd half but left 11 points out there.

In the 2nd half, we didn't really get going for a good while. Zebre edged it back to 6 at one stage before we eventually killed them off.

Positives:
A win which is all we asked for during the week
Henshaw was sharp all evening
Healy and Carr had their moments and O'Halloran looked hungry on his introduction.
I thought the scrum for long stages did very well, drove them off a couple of their own scrums, faded a bit in the 2nd half.
Willie Faloon did well at 7
The usual suspects Swift, Muldoon and George put in good shifts.
Andrew Browne continues to look a good player at this level.
Marmion was buzzing around the fringes and had a good game in general I thought.
Heenan and Muldowney will be pushing for places in the near future.
Lineout bar one or two was solid and gave us good ball.

Negatives:
Failure to kill the game off. We let them back to 6 late on which is always a dangerous lead
Indiscipline in the first half in particular.
Lack of support play when we got in behind them (again).
Poor handling and trying to force the pass too much in the first half.
As porterbelly said 12/13 didn't work, Poolman and Griffin are both fine players but we need a nailed on 12.
Parks kicking at goal. (you can't miss 11 pts and get away with it against better sides)

Brutal for first 60 minutes. Terrible. Mistakes off first phase time and time again. Not good enough. Better teams would have punished us. We had so much good off the top lineout ball (credit to JHW and George) that we spurned over and over.

We lack ball carriers in the pack, nothing new, which is why I think Mata Fifita could have a big impact this year.

The 12/13 combination didn't work. Henshaw is worth a look at 12 next week, with Griff outside him. He played well, some great breaks and needs to be closer to the action because he has massive power. Has really bulked up.

Heenan was excellent when he came, looks a great signing. Must start next week. Scrum was very solid.

Didn't get to see the game so this is more preseason optimism than in season realism, but that's a good result, I was expecting a two point margin. A number of players to come back yet and perhaps a Lam gameplay to get settled, so a winning start to the season is appreciated.

sea_point wrote:

Fourdogs wrote: Nice to have the win but was this a lost PB ??

It is a good win, BP or no. Zebre are a team that will cause problems for a good few sides. Good days work with lots of players getting decent run outs. More disappointed to concede late try more than not acquiring the BP.

Not being critical, had to follow on twitter as still at home from hip opp. More a question than comment. Was the desire there to get the BP or did the foot come off the gas because it was the 1st game.

From the sounds of it on the radio, a lot of good work, looking promising, but some bad stuff thrown into the mix. Same as last season, get a try- let them right back into it with a pen. Not happy with conceding the late try, it takes the gloss off the scoreline, but the lads on the radio said zebre were good for it

Fourdogs wrote: Nice to have the win but was this a lost PB ??

It is a good win, BP or no. Zebre are a team that will cause problems for a good few sides. Good days work with lots of players getting decent run outs. More disappointed to concede late try more than not acquiring the BP.

Nice to have the win but was this a lost PB ??