Winning ugly is still winning ..........................................and feels a lot better than losing playing beautiful rugby !!!

I see Rob is hoping to have em up on iTunes shortly. I know reviewing, rating and subscribing help them rise up the visibility rankings. It's a great podcast (secretarial rambling excluded)!

The Podcasts are great. Can we do anything to help promote them even further?

Can't add more to what was said here!

But if you want to hear three grown men (Rob, Furlo and Decadence) talk intelligently about the match, and one lad over use the words 'explosive backline' (um, me) do feel free to listen to


/plug

EX-ACT-LY!

Yes, last year the team definitely worked on maintaining possession and ruck presentation, but sometimes at the expense of metres gained. This season it seems like we are making metres and still keeping possession and presenting well.

I agree with eezipc as well, yes the passing was horrendous at times but we at least know that Connacht are capable of far better in that department. Every team has days like that, and in another game where Henshaw's pass to Kearney stuck for instance, we'd be talking about a second row wonder try on the wings. Fanciful perhaps but at least there is a higher level to be reached, whereas Edinburgh to me at least seemed to be playing pretty much as well as can be expected this season.

One positive point that I dont think has been discussed so far this season, is our ability to retain possession in rucks.
We've been very prone to runners getting isolated, and then being turned over.
There was once or twice against Edinburgh when one of our runners was tackled, and I feared we would lose the ball, but the forwards were there quickly, and cleaned out the ruck, allowing us to retain possession (or, came in from the side, and gave away a penalty)

Anyway, I think it's another positive we can take from the first two games

#Lamout :evil:

Can't agree more

Bit late adding to this but I think alot of people are being very harsh on Connacht.
Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the game.
At the end of the first half I was screaming at the tv for them to keep Edinburgh out.
Psychologically speaking, keeping hold of the lead going into half time would be huge.
The cursing coming out of Corrandulla would have been audible in Murrayfield when Du Preez scored that try.
However, for Connacht to come out after half time and keep Edinburgh scoreless really says alot about their mental state at the moment.
Well done Connacht. I believe it will be looked back on as a huge result come the end of the season.

galway_gas wrote: The question is are we allowed play these guys in challenge cup? If we do they will be cup tied on their return to Leinster.

Cooney is here for the full season so he'll definitely be registered. As for Roux, I'd imagine he'll be registered too - otherwise what's the point in taking him? I suspect the reason we took him for half a season initially is that we weren't sure about him.

One note on European registration - under l'ancien regime playing in one cup tied you for both; this was important where some HEC teams crossed competitions in the knockouts, but was also in place before that was introduced. Mid-season transfers between Northern hemisphere teams are rare as hens teeth. I would strongly suspect the rules will be the same this year, if only because the new world order amounts to one bloke flying a desk in Geneva while the competitions are still run from Dublin by the old ERC staff.

galway_gas wrote:

NewGuy wrote: will Quinn Roux and cooney be able to play against leinster ??? :ohmy:

I'm sure Roux will. Cooney won't be selected. The question is are we allowed play these guys in challenge cup? If we do they will be cup tied on their return to Leinster.

Not sure cup tying applies to two separate European competitions

Would be interseting to see head-to-heads of "betrayal"

Roux vs McCarthy and
Fanning vs Healy

And why not Cooney vs Reddan and JHW vs Cronin for the return (or maybe on the bench? who knows, JHW was due to be back in late September after all)

NewGuy wrote: will Quinn Roux and cooney be able to play against leinster ??? :ohmy:

I'm sure Roux will. Cooney won't be selected. The question is are we allowed play these guys in challenge cup? If we do they will be cup tied on their return to Leinster.

will Quinn Roux and cooney be able to play against leinster ??? :ohmy:

Had a look at the game again last night. Now Edinburgh fans know what we’ve felt like for years. If anything our performance looked better the second time around. Handling errors from our centres were disappointing as was Carty’s kicking from hand. The Leader kicking experiment has failed. Time to move to Carty/Ronaldson. Defensively we were more organised. Unlike others I though Niyi played reasonably well. He’s still learning but protected the ball well when tackled unlike last year when we were giving away penalties. He made two tackles at full speed - I was surprised the opposing players got up. Nuff said about Buckley. Wolhounds squad this season. Kearney is physically bigger but more importantly is mentally more abrasive.Looked more of a leader than Mul on the night. I like this second row pairing and they’re both young enough to play well in to second half. Heffernans throwing wasn’t that bad. In fact I’ve seen worse from some international players but his inability to hook nearly lost us 2 scrums. Again he’s fit enough to last 90 minutes which we’ll need until McCartney arrives or Jay is ready. Delahunt played against Clermont but I think Dinneen was on the pitch in possible versus probable match so hopefully he's fit. Its difficult not to compare Willie to Jake but yellow card apart he played a stormer.

Nice that Leinster got that display out of their system :S

we've played loads worst too... the tackling stats are very encouraging, as well as the tries conceded, 2 in two matches! after 2 friendlies, we had conceded 10! I'd have signed with both hands, if anyone promised me this improvement in defense!