I'll be well pissed off if Carty is dropped for Parks. Parks was woeful for the few minutes he was on - took 4 passes to hit a man, missed tackles, and ran a penalty from his 22 when he had 30 seconds left and could have kicked to halfway.

I doubt Leader will start, good as he was against Leinster he looked shaky from the sidelines against Zebre, and when I watched the full game back last night it became apparent he had a bit of a mare.

As for the pack, bringing George back in adds a carrier (McKeon carried nothing) and a jumper but means bad ball off the scrum, even if it's solid. Hobson's choice. Would it be worth having Heffernan on the bench, in his cameo against Leinster and in the half he played against them earlier in the season he carried really well?

Anyone know what the status of the assorted knocks is, hopefully none serious?

Wilko: bang to leg, limping coming off.
Henry: shoulder/arm, was receiving physio and icepacks immediately on substitution.
Kearney: shoulder.
Marmion: wrist.

Wilkinson - Henry - White
Swift - Clarke
Browne/kearney - Heenan
muldoon
Marmion - I actually dont know!
Healy - Duffy - Griffin - Carr
Henshaw

Wasnt a fan of Muldoon at 8 till this season, i actually think of form, he should start with browne or kearney in at 6!
If Parks had a good game plan and hit the corners, id go with him, is that likely. against Toulouse away, we shot ourselfs in the foot kicking the ball away without getting touch, it happened so often i think the game plan was NOT to hit touch but let toulouse attack after attack.

even saturday, Carty was kicking away and rather then hit it close to the sideline where it would narrow the angle or force a mistake, he was kicking it in the middle of the pitch, perfect for zebre to run it or a good angle to kick. again his has happened to often and think its some game plan!!

i take it Ronaldson, Poolman and McSharry are still out? Id have mcsharry and ronaldson at 12 before duffy but if there not fit.... also poolman ahead of carr!!
duffy to his credit last season when he came back, played centre and wing and managed to score 2 trys and set up 3 i think. he simply cant play fullback anymore. he has the brains for 12, stick griffin outside him and let henshaw get back to fullback.

Any word on injuries from Saturday? Kearney looked to be holding his shoulder going off?

Tickets arrived in the post this morning... :woohoo:

Right, lets get back on topic.

From the sounds coming out of the Connacht camp, there will be some changes for next week. Looks like we might try to bulk up, to match Sarries.
Also, found it a little odd, but Sean Henry seems to be our number 1 hooker now. I dont have an issue with that, sure I voted him player of the month last time around.

What 15 do you think we'll go with?

Pat Lam wrote: It will be a totally different game against Saracens. They are aggressive and in your face so some of the things we can get away with we won’t next week. There is a clear structured game plan you need to play against that team. The quality of your kicking game is important and we kicked recklessly at times today and gave ball away so we will have to spend time on that

Sounds like Parks might get a start, which I dont think he deserves, but then, I'm not a rugby coach.

To be physical, I think we'll have to start

Wilkinson - Henry - White
Swift - Clarke
Muldoon - Heenan
Nauopu
Marmion - Parks
Healy - Griffin - Henshaw - Carr
Leader

Bring McKeon, Kearney, Browne, and Rodney on early in the second half perhaps. Just thinking aloud

RonanL wrote: With that in mind, I'm thinking the artificial pitch Sarries have could work in our favour? They do have one of those right?

The one in Cardiff did us no favours in September...

Regardless of which quarter finals we would qualify for (again, a LBP last week could have been crucial), knocking Saracens (and Nigel Wray) out at the group stages would be just as big an achievement!

I've managed to convince the participants on another blog I write for/on to adopt Connacht as their second team. It's worked too - have had 7 English lads join me in supporting Connacht over the last couple of years, they've even bought the shirt and all. Spread the love of the Wesht - can only be a good thing!

I do love introducing people to supporting teams. It give s great joy at times which can overcome the losses. I love watching my 6 year old and the emotional swings.

Sol_ie wrote:

ConnachtCows wrote: Forummers call for Pat Lam to be fired

Ya fecker. Had me in stitches in work.

I had another line in there originally, about Leinster signing all our players. Thought this isnt the right thread for that. This is the thread for dreaming

COME ON CONNACHT.

Brought my two year old niece to the game on Saturday with my sister. She gave me some queer looks when i started cheering on Connacht. After about 60 minutes, she had enough, and my sister brought her out to the car. When I jumped in the car after, she was sitting in her car seat, waving her flag, and signing Connacht, Connacht, Connacht. I've never been so proud.

ConnachtCows wrote: Forummers call for Pat Lam to be fired

Ya fecker. Had me in stitches in work.

ConnachtCows wrote: Sport is all about getting ahead of yourselves. Dreaming about what could be makes it great.
I have it all pictured in my head.
Leicester beat Ulster in round 6. We get the bonus point win. Northampton get 4 points. Cardiff only get 1.
Seeds end up as
1. Leicester
2. Toulouse
3. Toulon
4. Clermont
5. Munster
6. Leinster
7. Ulster
8. Connacht

Out of all the 1/4 finals, we have the easiest one. We all travel in April to see Connacht tame the Tigers, with Kieran Marmion getting another MOTM trophy, and Jack Carty flawless with the boot.
Semi finals, and we've gotten a home draw against the winners of Toulouse and Ulster.

Semi final fixtures:
Connacht vs Toulouse in Thomand Park
Leinster vs Clermont in the Aviva

Final

Clermont vs Connacht in Cardiff. The whole country travels to cheer on the boys in Green to a shock Heineken Cup victory. A hattrick from Robbie Henshaw, and a lineout winning, maul driving try from Craig Clarke brings the underdogs back into the game at 24-25 with minutes to go. Darragh Leader kicks the winning penalty from the half way line, with the 80 minutes up.

The stadium erupts. I burst into tears. Connacht are now Heineken Cup Champions. Forummers call for Pat Lam to be fired

Has the same feel to Greece winning the Euros!!!

Exactly, it is sport. Are the odds against us. Yes, but bloody crazy stuff happen in sport!

www.skysports.com/interactive/top_tens_s...5886_5713826,00.html

observer.theguardian.com/osm/story/0,,678170,00.html

Sport is all about getting ahead of yourselves. Dreaming about what could be makes it great.
I have it all pictured in my head.
Leicester beat Ulster in round 6. We get the bonus point win. Northampton get 4 points. Cardiff only get 1.
Seeds end up as
1. Leicester
2. Toulouse
3. Toulon
4. Clermont
5. Munster
6. Leinster
7. Ulster
8. Connacht

Out of all the 1/4 finals, we have the easiest one. We all travel in April to see Connacht tame the Tigers, with Kieran Marmion getting another MOTM trophy, and Jack Carty flawless with the boot.
Semi finals, and we've gotten a home draw against the winners of Toulouse and Ulster.

Semi final fixtures:
Connacht vs Toulouse in Thomand Park
Leinster vs Clermont in the Aviva

Final

Clermont vs Connacht in Cardiff. The whole country travels to cheer on the boys in Green to a shock Heineken Cup victory. A hattrick from Robbie Henshaw, and a lineout winning, maul driving try from Craig Clarke brings the underdogs back into the game at 24-25 with minutes to go. Darragh Leader kicks the winning penalty from the half way line, with the 80 minutes up.

The stadium erupts. I burst into tears. Connacht are now Heineken Cup Champions. Forummers call for Pat Lam to be fired

It's a pity we didn't get the bonus point on Saturday - we really should have. But that's water under the bridge.

We all know the odds of qualifying are against us, bus as swifty said, there's no harm dreaming.

With that in mind, I'm thinking the artificial pitch Sarries have could work in our favour? They do have one of those right?

That aside, it's a cliche for a reason I guess - the lads need to focus on their game plan and putting in a good performance, and then see how they're fixed with 10 or 15 minutes to go. But the priority for them should be winning the game, because Amlin qualification is not to be sniffed at. Having said that, if we're beading Sarries 21 nil with three converted tried, and we get a penalty, it's to the corner.

It's astonishing really that we're even discussing the possibility of getting into the quarter-finals of this competition. Did any of us genuinely think we'd be in with a shout going into the final weekend? Our desperate league form, while worrying, shouldn't detract from what has been an excellent European campaign, regardless of what happens in London. I really, really hope we're in it, whatever format the cup takes, next year.

The permutations are well and good, but at this stage we should be looking at what we can do on Saturday. It's going to be a big job for the lads.

Carty to start? Leader to remain at FB (thought he had an allright game on Saturday) or Gav to come in? Will Ronaldson be fit, or do we leave Dan on the bench?

If ranking remains unresolved and/or if clubs have not played each other previously in the pool stage, ranking will be determined as follows:

(i) the number of tries scored in the pool stage; or

(ii) if equal, the best aggregate points difference from the pool stage; or

(iii) if equal, the club with the fewest number of players suspended for incidents in the pool stage; or

(iv) if equal, by drawing lots.

It's a pity it's not points difference as we are better than most of the teams we would potentially be tied with, but we're worst of the five on tries scored.

Ospreys losing at home to Northampton probably put paid to our chances of qualifying in the HC. If Saints had lost we would have had a good chance of going through with "only" a win in Allianz Park.
As it stands if Northampton get a win against presumably a second string Castres team, we need a try bonus. If they get a try bonus, then we need 7 tries or something daft.