rossie wrote:
And it seems to be based around the pack and set piece. A bit of pragmatism from Pat perhaps?

That's 100% correct and a grotesque simplification at the same time.

Clearly getting your pack right is the first priority - Munster won 2 Heineken Cups and became the most feared team in European rugby with a superlative pack and no backs at all at all (another simplification, eh?) - but the idea that our current pack-led side is somehow not what Pat wants or that he is abandoning some grand plan involving a glorified League stylee? I'm not buying that. Correct me if I'm wrong, but he was a HEC winning back row, not some pretty boy fannying about on the wing like Craig Gilroy or Donncha O'Callaghan?

My tuppenceworth on who has turned it around:

(1) McFarland - A friend who knows far more than I pointed out today the McFarland has always churned out decent packs, and now he has some decent players they're a right pain to play against.

(2) Carolan and co - we had 10 Connacht born players in the 23, and a stack more (Marmion, Kearney, et cetera) that came to us almost straight out of school.

(3) Elwood - he hadn't the first clue how to approach the interpros, his gameplan was limited, but his player recruitment was positive, 3 years of more Poolmans than O'Connors puts us in a good place. Even Muldowney's come good in a big way!

Finally:

(4) Lam - for changing the culture in a way the other 3 couldn't. One example - Buckley was put in the naughty corner last summer for not meeting professional standards. He's been one of the best performers in the last 5 matches (and that's saying something in that pack), instead of going the way of other great white hopes of days past.

We have only one obvious win in the last 5 games (Cardiff, who have nought to play for), but the fact that we can have a reasonable hope of turning over one of the other top half teams - or that we something tangible to play for in the league this late in the season - is testament to progress made.

Anyway, rant over, Pat Lam's Ma has promised me dinner....

mahick wrote: It's great to see change in tone on ambitions.. only a few matches ago we would have take climbing from the bottom rungs as ok. Now the lads seem to have the Plan, Hunger and the Skill sychronised and we're lepping up the table.. Great to be Green..

And it seems to be based around the pack and set piece. A bit of pragmatism from Pat perhaps?

It's great to see change in tone on ambitions.. only a few matches ago we would have take climbing from the bottom rungs as ok. Now the lads seem to have the Plan, Hunger and the Skill sychronised and we're lepping up the table.. Great to be Green..

swift4prez wrote: How much more €€€ will the irfu and connacht get if we end up in the Heineken rather then the amlin
Maybe prize money isn't sorted yet but I'd guess season tickets might fall.

It's just a suggestion and a bit of tongue in cheek, but we play 2 irish teams with an irfu ref.
If by chance munster and ulster did lose to us, they might move second and third spot in the table but they still will be in the semi finalnof the pro12.

Might be worth a try sending an email to the irfu to suggest match fixing for those two games

Same money for each competition afaik so have to make qtrs, semi etc of either to get more. RRW are lobbying the WRU bigtime ATM though to ensure a 12 way split between the teams rather than a 4 way split between unions. This of course will suit us but apparently irfu are supporting FIR and SRU.

Unfortunately, Connacht have only the slightest chance to pass up the Scarlets even if they manage to beat them Sunday. The remaining fixtures list highly favours the Scarlets especially if Cardiff decide there is nothing to play for. Hopefully CC is giving the Dragons too much credit when it come to the Italians otherwise it's hard to see where Connacht come up with the points just to hold onto 7th. The best they can do is continue to put in the performances and maybe with some luck they'll end up with 8 wins and 42-44 points.

swift4prez wrote: Might be worth a try sending an email to the irfu to suggest match fixing for those two games

Did you not watch the 2 Leinster matches? And the Munster away one? The IRFU are way ahead of you man, just not in the way you'd like

How much more €€€ will the irfu and connacht get if we end up in the Heineken rather then the amlin
Maybe prize money isn't sorted yet but I'd guess season tickets might fall.

It's just a suggestion and a bit of tongue in cheek, but we play 2 irish teams with an irfu ref.
If by chance munster and ulster did lose to us, they might move second and third spot in the table but they still will be in the semi finalnof the pro12.

Might be worth a try sending an email to the irfu to suggest match fixing for those two games

So just a little update after the latest round of matches:


If the season ended now, we'd have the following teams representing the Pro12 in the HC:

Leinster 64points
Ospreys 62 points
Ulster 59 points
Ospreys 51 points
Glasgow 47 points
Scarlets 36 points (5 games remaining)
Treviso 20 points

After Scarlets we have
Connacht 32 points (5 games remaining)
Edinburgh 29 points (7 games remaining)
Dragons 28 points (6 games remaining)

We're 4 points behind the Scarlets at the moment. We also have Edinburgh and the Dragons close behind us

Scarlets remaining fixtures:
Glasgow (A) - March 22nd 0 points - RESULT
Connacht (H) - March 30th 0
Zebre (H) - May 12th 5
Cardiff (A) - April 20th 1
Dragons (H) - May 3rd 4
Cardiff (H) - May 10th 4

Dragons remaining fixtures:
Connacht (H) - March 23rd 0 points - RESULT
Zebre (A) - March 29th 5
Treviso (A) - April 12th 4
Edinburgh (H) - Apr 3rd 4
Ospreys (H) - Apr 20th 0
Scarlets (A) - May 3rd 1
Treviso (H) - May 10th 4

Edinburgh remaining fixtures:
Ulster (H) - Mar 21st 1 point - RESULT
Treviso (A) - Mar 29th 1
Dragons (A) - Apr 3rd 1
Cardiff (H) - Apr 11th 4
Zebre (A) - Apr 19th 4
Glasgow (A) - Apr 26th 0
Munster (H) - May 3rd 0
Leinster (A) - May 10th 0

Connacht remaining fixtures:
Dragons (A) - Mar 23rd 5 points - RESULT
Scarlets (A) - Mar 30th 4
Ulster (A) - April 11th 1
Munster (H) - April 19 5
Cardiff (H) - May 3rd 5
Ospreys (A) - May 10th 4

I'm giving the Scarlets 14 more points, so we need 19 to pass them out
I'm giving the Dragons 18 more points, so we need 15 points to stay ahead of them
I'm giving Edinburgh 10 more points, so we need 8 points to stay ahead of them


So....Where are we getting the 19 points from?
Beat Scarlets without a bonus point
Losing bonus point against Ulster
Winning bonus points at home against Munster and Cardiff
Beat Ospreys away without the bp

It didn't look overly important at the time but that home defeat to a weakened Scarlets team might be the one we're left cursing. Either way barring a miracle we've left ourselves too much to do for top 6 but we are on to 32 points with our recent run so if we can get to 40 what looked like a disaster could turn into a good season with it being our best since Rabo went to 22 games along with our best Heineken Cup season.

Either way the Challenge Cup will be competitive next season. There won't be more than a couple of weak sides in the competition.

We're already 1 point ahead of the above schedule.
You're such a pessimist Cows, I can't believe you only had this down as a four pointer!

Such a brutal fixture list, its a real shame we have so many away games in a row. Scarlets is going to be tough but if the forwards show up like they did today again and if everyone keeps their heads we can be in with a shout.

Sol_ie wrote: Going to be an interesting few weeks now!!

Very well done to the team for today bonus point win.

Hugely important game next Sunday against Scarlets. A win will put us in 6th place with two inter pro’s to follow, and with both Ulster and Munster involved in the HCup QF’s (and hopefully SF’s) there might be a surprise or two on the cards.

Going to be an interesting few weeks now!!

Ospreys destroyed Blues tonight. I know it was an ospreys home game but it was also a derby. Connacht should really stick it to blues in the sportsground in a few weeks.

Fourdogs wrote: CC.

As far as I think, next years (14/15) playoff will only involve the 7th place teams in the English and French leagues.(The 4 team play off will not come into force until 15/16) so unless we can finish in 6th this year we will have to look to elsewhere for our European Rugby.

Its this seasons playoff that's between 7th in English and French leagues. Next season has two rounds. Rd 1 between 7th in top14 and sviva and 8th and 9th in pro12.

and people called me crazy when i suggested we'd beat saracens and make the quarters. this is threads i dream of, if sports fans cant dream then there is no fun.

out of the 6 games this weekend, i think other teams will do us a favour but we'll have it hard to win.
Ospreys v Cardiff Blues = ospreys up 7-0 after 12 mins
leinster v zebre = leinster
edinburgh v ulster = ulster
glasgow v scarlets = glasgow
munster v treviso = munster
dragons v connacht = tricky, we can do it 50/50