Bayern wrote: ...or a player Leinster were happy to give to you in Quinn Roux is as good as Mike McCarthy.

Not saying Roux is necessarily the equal of Macca, but personally feel Mike peaked his next to last season at Connacht (his last was disrupted by the signing IMO) and has only occasionally shown glimpses of that form since moving to Leinster. Admittedly do not see every Leinster game so I could stand to be corrected. This is a position where if Roux fights above his weight he could edge the battle.

The IMF wrote: PP have us as +7 for this game so based on last week when we were +6, I reckon this one is in the bag!

We only won by a point last week, so by the seven point formula, tomorrow is a draw.
20-1. Fill your boots.

Can see this one getting ugly quick, but Connacht have some history of keeping it tight and sneaking the odd victory. It will take a massive improvement over the past two games and probably two quick scores for them to have a realistic chance. Considering the number of internationals in the Leinster squad there's no surprise they win the paper battle position by position but the gap isn't as wide as it's been in the past on the occasions they have fielded a full squad. Connacht need to tackle their socks off and have 3-4 players punch above their weight. Hoping winning, ugly or not, is becoming a habit for the lads.

Can we all just agree that we're going to hammer them.
Thanks



Lets see if our scrum can perform like last week. Would love to see Buckley dominate them

The Leinster team we hammered 34-6 a couple of years ago was as follows:

Kearney
McFadden
Macken
D'Arcy
Carr
Madigan
Cooney

van der Merwe
Sexton
Hagan
Denton
Roux
Marshall
Jennings
Auva'a

They also brough Cronin, Healy, Ross, Toner, Jordi Murphy, Luke McGrath, Noel Reid and Isa Nacewa off the bench, and had Uncle Joe in charge

The IMF wrote:
connachta one day you'll understand all Leinster fans are omnipotent (some seemingly more so than others), we're just lucky they're so willing and ready to enlighten us!

PP have us as +7 for this game so based on last week when we were +6, I reckon this one is in the bag!

that chip on your shoulder is almost munster like.. sorry if I don't agree that a player Niyi isn't as good as Fergus McFadden or a player Leinster were happy to give to you in Quinn Roux is as good as Mike McCarthy or a player who is a key member if winning the 6 nations last year is at the same level as Aly Muldowney.

[quote="connachta
thats some high level delusion and bias.[/quote]

You've no bias, you're perfectly neutral, I suppose...[/quote]

connachta one day you'll understand all Leinster fans are omnipotent (some seemingly more so than others), we're just lucky they're so willing and ready to enlighten us!

PP have us as +7 for this game so based on last week when we were +6, I reckon this one is in the bag!

connachta wrote:

Bayern wrote:

connachta wrote: I knew some would have been angry

Bayern wrote: Buckley ahead of Jack McGrath? What? YES, turnover machine and I haven't seen him penalised at scrumtime in my memories
White ahead of Ross? why not? I think Joe Schmidt will rate him and Ah You highly now they are both IQ
Quinn Roux the same as Mike McCarthy? hahaha.
Muldowney the same as Toner? Yeah I bet on these surprises, wait and see Macca is getting older, and not a big fan of Toner, light in contact
Delahunt who couldn't even make the Leinster or Connacht academy and is a novice at hooker the same as Byran Byrne? They both have NO professional experience, nothing can easily be predicted
Naoupu the same as Jennings? Better if he's on a good day
And finally Niyi as good as McFadden? Know that, but it's 1 lonely isolated match, and McFadd just came back from injury, Niyi is a revelation

thats some high level delusion and bias.

You've no bias, you're perfectly neutral, I suppose...

Not that biased. But carry on, it's understandable that your all excited about this "new era" of connacht rugby.

connachta wrote:

phatguerilla wrote: The day before a game is the time for bullish predictions and over exuberant proclamations about the state of one's squad depth and strength, not wishy washy sentiments like 'I hope we can get a losing bonus point' or 'I hope we can hold them to a decent score'. Well argued Connachta, more of that I say!

Personally I believe we will see a brace of tries from Henshaw in the lead up to a famous victory, but I'm willing to be realistic and say we will narrowly miss out on the 4 try bonus point/only win by more than 12 but less than 20 points.

I'm not insane neither, a win is stiil hard to reach, just say on the paper, it's far closer than most of the Leinster fan seem to believe

I don't think you're insane although the gap between the two packs is probably greater than you've suggested. However a lot of that depends on the ref at the scrum and of course how many set pieces there are in the first place. Of all the provincial derbies this is for whatever reason the most winnable and even if Connacht aren't a bogey team per se, I'm sure Leinster will be weary. As someone said in the Edinburgh thread Lam seems to hold his best cards back the week before a big game and I'm hopeful that he has something planned that can rattle Leinster.

Bayern wrote:

connachta wrote: I knew some would have been angry

Bayern wrote: Buckley ahead of Jack McGrath? What? YES, turnover machine and I haven't seen him penalised at scrumtime in my memories
White ahead of Ross? why not? I think Joe Schmidt will rate him and Ah You highly now they are both IQ
Quinn Roux the same as Mike McCarthy? hahaha.
Muldowney the same as Toner? Yeah I bet on these surprises, wait and see Macca is getting older, and not a big fan of Toner, light in contact
Delahunt who couldn't even make the Leinster or Connacht academy and is a novice at hooker the same as Byran Byrne? They both have NO professional experience, nothing can easily be predicted
Naoupu the same as Jennings? Better if he's on a good day
And finally Niyi as good as McFadden? Know that, but it's 1 lonely isolated match, and McFadd just came back from injury, Niyi is a revelation

thats some high level delusion and bias.

You've no bias, you're perfectly neutral, I suppose...

phatguerilla wrote: The day before a game is the time for bullish predictions and over exuberant proclamations about the state of one's squad depth and strength, not wishy washy sentiments like 'I hope we can get a losing bonus point' or 'I hope we can hold them to a decent score'. Well argued Connachta, more of that I say!

Personally I believe we will see a brace of tries from Henshaw in the lead up to a famous victory, but I'm willing to be realistic and say we will narrowly miss out on the 4 try bonus point/only win by more than 12 but less than 20 points.

I'm not insane neither, a win is stiil hard to reach, just say on the paper, it's far closer than most of the Leinster fans seem to believe

connachta wrote: I knew some would have been angry

Bayern wrote: Buckley ahead of Jack McGrath? What? YES, turnover machine and I haven't seen him penalised at scrumtime in my memories
White ahead of Ross? why not? I think Joe Schmidt will rate him and Ah You highly now they are both IQ
Quinn Roux the same as Mike McCarthy? hahaha.
Muldowney the same as Toner? Yeah I bet on these surprises, wait and see Macca is getting older, and not a big fan of Toner, light in contact
Delahunt who couldn't even make the Leinster or Connacht academy and is a novice at hooker the same as Byran Byrne? They both have NO professional experience, nothing can easily be predicted
Naoupu the same as Jennings? Better if he's on a good day
And finally Niyi as good as McFadden? Know that, but it's 1 lonely isolated match, and McFadd just came back from injury, Niyi is a revelation

thats some high level delusion and bias.

I'm expecting Leinster to win by 14+ points in this one.

It's all well and good having won our 1st 2 games but realistically we're not near the level of Leinster, as much as I hate to admit it. Leinster have a serious pack for this and with both Gopperth and Madigan they have 2 game changers in the backs that have good distribution.

I'd love a repeat of us beating them out the gate but I think it'll be a reverse of that this time around

phatguerilla wrote: Personally I believe we will see a brace of tries from Henshaw in the lead up to a famous victory, but I'm willing to be realistic and say we will narrowly miss out on the 4 try bonus point/only win by more than 12 but less than 20 points.

I'll have whatever he's having...

The day before a game is the time for bullish predictions and over exuberant proclamations about the state of one's squad depth and strength, not wishy washy sentiments like 'I hope we can get a losing bonus point' or 'I hope we can hold them to a decent score'. Well argued Connachta, more of that I say!

Personally I believe we will see a brace of tries from Henshaw in the lead up to a famous victory, but I'm willing to be realistic and say we will narrowly miss out on the 4 try bonus point/only win by more than 12 but less than 20 points.

wp_rathead wrote: Loving your optimism Connachta but for me it is more realistically it :

I Explained myself about the "optimistic part"

For the "pessimistic" I've always be a fan of D.Ryan for the small bit I saw of him, I think it could draw Faloon