You're welcome

Thanks for tracking those down Connachta. Think Henshaw's second might be in contention for try of the season. Might have been reckless of Porter throwing it over his head from his backside but the end result was worth the risk.

theCulk wrote:

edit: Any highlights anywhere?

If you're nice and admit the best team was too much for la Rochelle, I'd give you some :lol:

Seriously here you are

www.lerugbynistere.fr/videos/video-chall...helle-2310141745.php

Magpie wrote:

Borders no.2 wrote: Oh for f**k sake what was negative about what I wrote..

For some people the glass is half full, for others it is half empty. The 3 biggest winning margins this weekend were:

London Irish 70 - 14 Rovigo
Gloucester 55 - 0 Brive
Connacht 48 - La Rochelle 12

Try to enjoy some of the tries, good back play, and dominant pack (who were beating up bigger men) rather than focusing on the a line out that was not perfect, or a young outhalf (still learning his trade), that didn't play like ROG from days of yore.

I enjoyed many aspects of the game but while its good for confidence (and good for the heart not to be in a cliffhanger in the last few minutes ) its not a match you can take anything significant from as every other side we will play this year will be better than that side.

If you want me to put out some positives, I liked our intensity from the off, I liked the way we finished them when their number 3 got the yellow card and some of the tries there were some nice breaks and interplay, all positives.

I thought Carty did a lot right, particularly in the first half and wasn't having a pop at him more the way that we tended to lose our way in the 2nd half and carelessly gave a platform to a very poor side. That's not just down to Carty and of course the replacements disrupt things even though in fairness Lam tried to introduce them gradually to keep continuity.

If I wanted to be overly negative I could rave on about us missing touch from penalties, the difficulty we had finishing off a number of good breaks having got numbers in behind La Rochelle etc. but I'm happy with our improvement in many aspects and its great to have hope about the weeks and months ahead after the poor start to last season but there still are significant concerns which need to be addressed.

The hopes of a lot of supporters now are top 6 and a strong run in the Challenge Cup so we need to come up to that level consistently.

It's called constructive criticism. There's no point ignoring somethings that didn't work just because the scoreline is the way it is. That's called papering over the cracks



edit: Any highlights anywhere?

Borders no.2 wrote: Oh for f**k sake what was negative about what I wrote..

For some people the glass is half full, for others it is half empty. The 3 biggest winning margins this weekend were:

London Irish 70 - 14 Rovigo
Gloucester 55 - 0 Brive
Connacht 48 - La Rochelle 12

Try to enjoy some of the tries, good back play, and dominant pack (who were beating up bigger men) rather than focusing on the a line out that was not perfect, or a young outhalf (still learning his trade), that didn't play like ROG from days of yore.

Careful now Borders. There'll be none of that sense talked on here. We can only have myopic opinions at the ends of the spectrum - everything is awesome/Lam out - on here

Magpie wrote: Considering we scored seven tries, Seven, I admire your determination to find fault with the performance. Yes things got a bit sloppy, but the game was secure at this stage and La Rochelle were competing only intermittently.

They did exactly as I would have hoped, win the game early doors and allow the bench to be emptied at a time and rate convenient to us.

I hope we don't have to wait too long before we score 7 again, but just incase we do, do try to enjoy the Seven you just witnessed.

Oh for f**k sake what was negative about what I wrote. We were sloppy from after it went to 15-0 until we pushed on with the sin-binning. The 2nd half was scrappy, we kicked away a lot of ball needlessly to La Rochelle (into the wind) when with ball in hand we were picking holes in them without any difficulty.

If a team is to evolve they have to always look to improve and in my opinion there is a lot to work on. The lineout wasn't anyway near good enough as it hasn't been in recent weeks. Ok we were missing Mick Kearney and as it was JHW first game back it wasn't all going to flow smoothly but even when we tried to simplify it as much as possible they were able to read it. Same when the changes came. It wasn't costly last night but it has been previously and will continue to be until we make it a bit less easy to read.

Bottom line was it was close to our best team against the 2nd string from France. As I said first up job done but 7 tries should be the expectation against such a poor side, not a reason for celebration.

Considering we scored seven tries, Seven, I admire your determination to find fault with the performance. Yes things got a bit sloppy, but the game was secure at this stage and La Rochelle were competing only intermittently.

They did exactly as I would have hoped, win the game early doors and allow the bench to be emptied at a time and rate convenient to us.

I hope we don't have to wait too long before we score 7 again, but just incase we do, do try to enjoy the Seven you just witnessed.

Job done. We got a good advantage early with the breeze, were poor enough for 20 minutes and then took advantage of the sin bin to secure the bonus point by half time. 2nd half, La Rochelle had more of the ball, the changes made it a bit scrappier but good to see everyone get a run.

Wasn't overly convinced by us this evening but hard to argue when we did the job so comfortably.

Lineout wasn't good enough, lots of aimless kicking in the 2nd half in particular but we move on to the big one against Exeter next week.

With the performances of La Rochelle and Brive it looks like there could be as many one sided games this year as when the Spanish and Italian club sides were in it.

Interestingly Exeter trail 17-16 away to Bayonne at half time.

Oh come on death notices, missed two try's already

The West awake on tg4.

I'd have been in favour of resting a couple more but I understand Lam sticking with the core of the team who have started the season well and we'll look to get 5 points on the board going to Exeter in Round 2. Muldoon is a glaring example of a player who I wouldn't have started but with Andrew Browne on the bench and getting more gametime it may be possible to rotate a bit more as the seaon goes on. I'd expect a sub there between 50 and 60 minutes depending on how its going. Good to see Ronan Loughney and Jason Harris-Wright starting.

Carty is getting an extended run of games at 10 which is good for his confidence. I'd agree on Ronaldson and with Bundee Aki to come in you'd wonder about the make up of the side at that stage and where Ronaldson and McSharry will fit in.

With the team we've picked we have to put 5 points on the board here if we have ambitions of progressing to the knock out stages.

IMO the biggest missed opportunity is not getting Ronaldson a start at 10. Most of the others can be subbed off after 50-60 minutes if things are going to plan (though I have memories of Connacht making hard work and even losing games in this competition against sides that were probably of AIL level.) I wouldn't be surprised if Marmion and Henshaw are rested for the Ospreys game especially if Bundee is available. I'm sure Leader will take all the game time he can get while Mils is getting fit. Muldoon and Faloon ideally would be rested but probably with injuries, wanting to get this competition off to a good start and needing Muldoon's leadership I can't argue with Lam's decision. Both will get a rest in Nov and maybe sooner depending on how Browne is used and how the Osprey's game is approached.

phatguerilla wrote: A difficult decision for Lam because he needed to strike a balance between playing for the home fans (who he has consistently praised don't forget and is keen to keep on side) and resting players. There could have been a few more rested imo, Leader and Faloon in particular. Muldoon is a difficult choice, first home game in the competition requires your captain but I expect he will go off fairly early unless the game becomes a struggle (but even then it would be good to hook him around 60minutes). The real problem is the Exeter and Ospreys games that follow will be difficult away tests and we need our captain firing on all cylinders, but its hard to know if Muldoon can keep up his form for the next 3 weeks at this pace.

Yeah Muldoon Leader and Faloon are main issues : the two firstly quoted 'cause they played nearly all until now, the last one 'cause he's the most essential element after Heenan injury in my opinion.

I'd be a little more nuanced for White Henshaw and Marmion : they're in contention for International call, so I suppose it's good for them to be exposed (if Schmidt send a camera or a staff-member). And it could boost the self-confidence of our talented IQ

Connacht 1/10. Jaysus.