Connacht Rugby is delighted to confirm that a new seated, and covered, structure has been installed at the Sportsground for the 2014/15 season. The new stand, which is located to the side of the Main Stand, will seat 300 supporters and is now on sale ahead of the first big interprovincial game of the season – Connacht v Leinster on Friday September 19th.Only Adult Tickets will be available to purchase for the seated stand and tickets start at €25 for category 2 games and €30 for category 1 games. Tickets are available online from tickets.ie, from selected Centra & SuperValu stores province-wide and from the Connacht Rugby office at the Sportsground.Season Ticket Holders will have the option to upgrade to this area subject to availability on a match by match basis. The Season Ticket upgrade fee will be €5 for all games. All upgrades are granted on a first come first served basis.Season Ticket Holders can upgrade to the Seated Stand at the Connacht Rugby offices at the Sportsground during opening hours, Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm. All Season Ticket holders must present their Season Ticket Card and upgrade paper ticket to gain entry to the new stand.Tickets for Connacht v Leinster are selling fast with the Clan Stand and Main Stand now SOLD OUT. There are now tickets remaining for behind the goals in both the College Road and Bohermore Terraces. There are also tickets available in the new Seated Stand and in the Enclosed Stand.

We can't do anything about the injuries, so lets look forward to the game

Team predictions:

Buckley
Heffernan
White

Kearney
Roux

Muldoon
Faloon
McKeon

Marmion
Carty

Poolman
McSharry
Henshaw
Adeolokun
Leader

Muldowney had a very good game when he came on against Edinburgh, and I think Carr should start ahead of Niyi this week. I'd give Carty another shot at 10

When we beat them two years ago, our team was:
Buckley
Flavin
White
Swift
McCarthy
McKeon
O'Connor
Naoupu
Marmion
Parks
Vainikolo
McSharry
Griffin
O'Halloran
Henshaw

salmson wrote:

clanman wrote: i not having 3 new marquee players available for 6 or 7 games could effectively put us out of range especially if we are struggling with injuries.

It probably won't work like that. Last 4 years 11-13 matches were needed to finish 6th, 7-9 matches to finish 8th (which would at least give us knockout rugby, albeit of a not-very-glamourous kind). Even if we lose to Leinster and Glasgow, our next 2 games are home to Cardiff and away to Treviso, who are this year's marks. Worst case we'll be on 3 wins from 6 going in to the European games.

8 wins (home and away to the Italians, Dragons, and Edinburgh) would pretty much guarantee us at least 8th. Those are the big matches and the others are bonuses as we look to push on from that. So I guess last weekend's win was a pretty huge result from a final position point-of-view.

if LAM wants us to reach 6th place then 5 wins out of 6 would have been ideal, Leinster is a winnable game, so is the Cardiff game at home, we made an absolute mess of the game against them last year and even if they are better than dragons but not by much if you look at last weekends game. Treviso away is a must win and then Glasgow away is the one that we won't win. But if we keep losing players then it's not going to happen and that was point about the unavailability of the 3 big signings at the start of the season. if we only get 3 wins then we can forget about 6th place

I think they can actually win this, but as has already been stated, the kicking and just about every other facet of the game needs to be around the 100% mark in terms of accuracy.

And PhatG, if Mils made it on to the pitch some how, the lift it could potentially give to the team and to the fans would be amazing. As it's my first time getting a chance to see Connacht live this season, Mils coming on would bring out the fanboy in me. I'd probably swoon.

Realistically with the amount of jumping options Leinster can field they would always have targetted the lineout even with our best hookers available. Having said that you would expect the complexity of Connacht's lineout moves will be reduced to make it easier on Heffernan. We haven't seen many quick and/or two-three man lineouts for a while, perhaps that would be something to try.

As for Poolman its impossible to diagnose based on looks but I would hope he is given all the time necessary, even with a light concussion the last thing he needs is to risk more blows to the head.

It's probably a week too soon for Mils but what a boost that would give our backs if he could feature. It could also facilitate a move to wing for Leader who could add more physicality than Carr or TOH.

clanman wrote: i not having 3 new marquee players available for 6 or 7 games could effectively put us out of range especially if we are struggling with injuries.

It probably won't work like that. Last 4 years 11-13 matches were needed to finish 6th, 7-9 matches to finish 8th (which would at least give us knockout rugby, albeit of a not-very-glamourous kind). Even if we lose to Leinster and Glasgow, our next 2 games are home to Cardiff and away to Treviso, who are this year's marks. Worst case we'll be on 3 wins from 6 going in to the European games.

8 wins (home and away to the Italians, Dragons, and Edinburgh) would pretty much guarantee us at least 8th. Those are the big matches and the others are bonuses as we look to push on from that. So I guess last weekend's win was a pretty huge result from a final position point-of-view.

is Poolman definitely out, i thought with light concussion they manage and monitor during the week to assess if the player is available, he was sitting up quick enough after the incident and was able to walk off the pitch albeit looking a bit dazed

when you consider that LAM is targetting a european qualifying spot then not having 3 new marquee players available for 6 or 7 games could effectively put us out of range especially if we are struggling with injuries.

Why after a good weekend is there always bad news around the corner to bring us back down to earth with a bump

Significant losses to the squad in the medium term. Heffernan has improved hugely given he converted to the position and gets through a huge amount of work throughout the field but the Connacht lineout will now become a prime target for Leinster. I can see Leo Cullen working overtime with their pack on that aspect.

Heenan's loss is going to be extremely costly. If you were to ask for one player to have been fit all season it would have been him but we have to live with it now. Its going to be a tough road for him to come back again.

Poolman missing is another blow ahead of this game.

Leinster look a lot closer to being settled than they usually do at this time of the year. Most of their big guns have got game time already.

The big decision for me is who will start out-half. Do we stick with Carty or go with Ronaldson. Also who's going to take the kicks at goal. We'll need a big performance at out half and close to a 100% success rate from kicks at goal if we are to get a return from this fixture.

phatguerilla wrote: I was rereading an interview from Lam yesterday and he explicitly said that one of the reason's they could afford the likes of McCartney and Aki was because they won't get paid until they arrive here. I assume this was at least partly because of Mils' wage bill as Connacht will obviously have to pay full wages for the other two guys in the following seasons.

Was thinking the same thing. It's not just about not having to pay their wages for a few months though, it's also that their market value is reduced by their non-availability for the full season. It makes them a less attractive prospect for a big money club that can afford to pay a bit more for someone available straightaway. So it's annoying they aren't available pre-season, but on the flip side, if they were, they mightn't be here at all.
There's a lesson in there for Southern Hemisphere players with ideas about moving north: make sure your Super Rugby contract finishes after your NPC/Currie Cup one, not before.

phatguerilla wrote:

sea_point wrote:

connachta wrote: For the moment We've Faloon, I'm not worried yet; Someone in backrow like Diack had been playing 16 games in a season, so we can hope Willie can hold until February...
Hooker is the main prob, I felt it last week, before Edinburgh; At least 2 matches without JHW, if Heff gets injured, it's a disaster

Can't understand why with Faloon on the bench Heenan was playing 70 minutes (no matter how well he is playing), especially after returning form a serious injury. It's absolute madness...

But the main worry about losing players on long term injury is that those carrying knocks are forced to play when they should be rested, and others are rushed back. Instead of a staged return we'll end up with JHW being rushed back and risking new or repeat of injury. It's the same injury cycle that did for us last season and our first year in HEC with Eric...

This brings into question Connacht signing players who are not available for full pre-season and selection from season start....
I wonder can we press for an early release for McCartney, would probably cost a fair bit extra as they are only halfway through the current Cup run....

I was rereading an interview from Lam yesterday and he explicitly said that one of the reason's they could afford the likes of McCartney and Aki was because they won't get paid until they arrive here. I assume this was at least partly because of Mils' wage bill as Connacht will obviously have to pay full wages for the other two guys in the following seasons.

I suppose we just have to be glad that we do have that injection of talent yet to come, Munster are in a similar hooker injury crisis and contracted a medical joker type - at least when McCartney arrives he's ours for the medium term. And while its not ideal to throw Dineen in at the deep end he might as well get used to it, Heffernan seemed to handle the pressure quite well last season imo.

Maybe we might give a chance to Shane Delahunt, he wasn't bad against Clermont, and his international U20 exp could be worthwhile to cope with pressure (even if he didn't play hooker at that time.. :huh: ) Huge work to do for the forward coach this week anyway, with one or both Dineen or/and him

Can't understand why with Faloon on the bench Heenan was playing 70 minutes (no matter how well he is playing), especially after returning form a serious injury. It's absolute madness...

But the main worry about losing players on long term injury is that those carrying knocks are forced to play when they should be rested, and others are rushed back. Instead of a staged return we'll end up with JHW being rushed back and risking new or repeat of injury. It's the same injury cycle that did for us last season and our first year in HEC with Eric...

This brings into question Connacht signing players who are not available for full pre-season and selection from season start....
I wonder can we press for an early release for McCartney, would probably cost a fair bit extra as they are only halfway through the current Cup run....[/quote]

open to correction, but Faloon was on the bench to cover for muldoon who was always coming off around the 50min mark due to his tight hamstring, only person on the bench at the 70min mark was belham who did actually replace him in the end.

galway_gas wrote: Peter Fitzgibbon confirmed as ref for friday night.

Why oh why do they pick irish refs, it might say a few euro but irish ref and irish players know each other too well
I've seen it before, irish refs wantin to be best friends with irish internationals.

Fitzgibbon might have a soft spot for us since he was the man in the middle for the season ticket match

sea_point wrote:

connachta wrote: For the moment We've Faloon, I'm not worried yet; Someone in backrow like Diack had been playing 16 games in a season, so we can hope Willie can hold until February...
Hooker is the main prob, I felt it last week, before Edinburgh; At least 2 matches without JHW, if Heff gets injured, it's a disaster

Can't understand why with Faloon on the bench Heenan was playing 70 minutes (no matter how well he is playing), especially after returning form a serious injury. It's absolute madness...

But the main worry about losing players on long term injury is that those carrying knocks are forced to play when they should be rested, and others are rushed back. Instead of a staged return we'll end up with JHW being rushed back and risking new or repeat of injury. It's the same injury cycle that did for us last season and our first year in HEC with Eric...

This brings into question Connacht signing players who are not available for full pre-season and selection from season start....
I wonder can we press for an early release for McCartney, would probably cost a fair bit extra as they are only halfway through the current Cup run....

I was rereading an interview from Lam yesterday and he explicitly said that one of the reason's they could afford the likes of McCartney and Aki was because they won't get paid until they arrive here. I assume this was at least partly because of Mils' wage bill as Connacht will obviously have to pay full wages for the other two guys in the following seasons.

I suppose we just have to be glad that we do have that injection of talent yet to come, Munster are in a similar hooker injury crisis and contracted a medical joker type - at least when McCartney arrives he's ours for the medium term. And while its not ideal to throw Dineen in at the deep end he might as well get used to it, Heffernan seemed to handle the pressure quite well last season imo.

Peter Fitzgibbon confirmed as ref for friday night.

connachta wrote: For the moment We've Faloon, I'm not worried yet; Someone in backrow like Diack had been playing 16 games in a season, so we can hope Willie can hold until February...
Hooker is the main prob, I felt it last week, before Edinburgh; At least 2 matches without JHW, if Heff gets injured, it's a disaster

Can't understand why with Faloon on the bench Heenan was playing 70 minutes (no matter how well he is playing), especially after returning form a serious injury. It's absolute madness...

But the main worry about losing players on long term injury is that those carrying knocks are forced to play when they should be rested, and others are rushed back. Instead of a staged return we'll end up with JHW being rushed back and risking new or repeat of injury. It's the same injury cycle that did for us last season and our first year in HEC with Eric...

This brings into question Connacht signing players who are not available for full pre-season and selection from season start....
I wonder can we press for an early release for McCartney, would probably cost a fair bit extra as they are only halfway through the current Cup run....

I'd better bring my shorts just in case.............