As a fan of Rodneys I am disappointed with his last few performances. He really needs to increase his fitness and reduce the number penalties that he concedes. Otherwise he should get used to playimg for the Eagles.

rossie wrote:

connachtexile wrote:

Carty was rather poor again- I know conditions were shocking but some of his errors were sloppy (don't want to pile on the Carty criticism but Ronaldson needs starts at 10 vs Treviso)

Some of his decision making was awful poor also. That said i was very impressed with Leader taking the kicks, would love to know what his stats are but I'd say they're pretty dam high.

Carty took a shockingly dirty blow to the side of the head on 15 min. There is no way of knowing from tv what way it affected him but I would give him a pass on this one due to that incident.

Fair play to the umpire and TMO for making sure it was a red, not just a yellow!

Most disappointing thing for the last few games is how far Rodney's gone backwards, in fitness terms. He looked shagged before the end of the first half. And he didn't appear capable of anything other than staggering from ruck to ruck, just standing at the side, in the second. John Hayes was more mobile! Scrum wise, he had a lot of peno's against him.

To my mind, we were defending with one man short for most of the match.

connachtexile wrote:

Carty was rather poor again- I know conditions were shocking but some of his errors were sloppy (don't want to pile on the Carty criticism but Ronaldson needs starts at 10 vs Treviso)

Some of his decision making was awful poor also. That said i was very impressed with Leader taking the kicks, would love to know what his stats are but I'd say they're pretty dam high.

Carty took a shockingly dirty blow to the side of the head on 15 min. There is no way of knowing from tv what way it affected him but I would give him a pass on this one due to that incident.

Congrats to the lads on a great win. A brave win. Good to see Mick Kearney back.
Pat has to start with Ronaldson (or even Porter) at 10 between now and the end of the season. Carty needs to be taken out of the front line to work on his kicking and his confidence. We just cannot afford to have him on the pitch any longer if we are to make a run for sixth place.

I was sitting a few rows ahead of Pat and when Carty kicked out of hand over the dead ball line just after HT, Pat freaked and got on the walkie straight away to get him off.

Good to hear this. I'm happy to have Carty getting a push but he has to be held up to a high standard as well otherwise he isn't going to improve. Thought we did well with Ronaldson at the helm.

Lads, some of ye are talking a bit negative about this. We'd have all grabbed this result with both hands after last week's shambles.

I was at the match and ye can't understand how bad the conditions were. First thing I did when I got into the stand was to take my coat and cap OFF because they were so wet from our 5 min walk to the ground. Don't know if ye could hear it on the TV in the warm bosom of the Dail bar but every step a running player took, you could hear the squelch under their feet.

I know we conceded a couple of tries that we shouldn't against 14 men but it puts us back into 6th on our own after 2 bad loses.

I will conced though that Carty had a shocker. We should have been 23-3 up at one stage but he missed those 2 pens. I was sitting a few rows ahead of Pat and when Carty kicked out of hand over the dead ball line just after HT, Pat freaked and got on the walkie straight away to get him off.

other stats
twitter.com/RugbyAnalyser54/with_replies

Pos T/A Pts K/P/R MR CB DB OL TO Tack LO Pen Y/R
FB Leader 0/0 8 6/2/11 104 1 1 0 3 1/0 0/0 0 0/0
W Poolman 0/0 0 0/0/3 19 0 2 0 0 4/0 0/0 0 0/0
C McSharry 0/0 0 1/0/7 22 0 2 0 0 10/1 0/0 0 0/0
C Ronaldson 1/0 5 8/3/5 3 1 5 0 1 7/0 0/0 0 0/0
W Healy 0/0 0 3/1/3 7 0 0 0 0 1/2 0/0 0 0/0
FH Carty 0/1 7 10/4/1 0 0 0 0 2 0/0 0/0 0 0/0
SH J Cooney 0/0 0 8/61/8 37 1 1 0 3 5/1 0/0 0 0/0
P Buckley 0/0 0 0/0/2 0 0 0 0 0 9/0 0/0 1 0/0
H McCartney 0/0 0 0/1/8 11 0 1 0 0 9/0 0/0 0 0/0
P Ah You 0/0 0 0/2/2 5 0 0 0 0 11/0 0/0 1 0/0
L Roux 0/0 0 0/1/0 0 0 0 0 1 5/0 3/2 0 0/0
L Muldowney 0/0 0 0/1/13 30 0 2 0 1 10/1 4/0 2 0/0
F Muldoon 0/0 0 0/3/6 16 0 1 0 1 15/0 3/0 2 0/0
F Heenan 0/0 0 0/1/10 24 0 0 0 0 16/0 0/0 1 0/0
N8 Masterson 1/0 5 0/2/8 32 1 3 0 0 9/1 1/1 0 0/0
(R) Delahunt 0/0 0 0/0/0 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 0/0 0 0/0
(R) J Cooney 0/0 0 0/0/0 0 0 0 0 0 1/0 0/0 1 0/0
(R) Bealham 0/0 0 0/0/1 3 0 0 0 1 6/1 0/0 1 0/0
(R) Kearney 1/0 5 0/0/0 0 0 0 0 0 7/1 0/0 1 0/0
(R) Naoupu 0/0 0 0/0/2 12 0 1 0 0 2/0 0/0 0 0/0
(R) Porter 0/0 0 0/3/0 0 0 0 0 0 2/0 0/0 0 0/0
(R) Adeolokun 0/0 0 0/0/0 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 0/0 0 0/0
(R) O'Halloran 0/0 0 1/0/3 32 0 1 0 1 1/0 0/0 0 0/0

Key: T/A Tries / Try Assists Pts Points scored
K/P/R Kick / Pass / Run MR Metres Run with ball
CB Clean Breaks DB Defenders Beaten OL OffLoads TO TurnOvers
Tack Tackles made / missed LO LineOuts won on throw / stolen on opp throw
Pen Penalties conceded Y/R Yellow / Red cards

connachtexile wrote:

Carty was rather poor again- I know conditions were shocking but some of his errors were sloppy (don't want to pile on the Carty criticism but Ronaldson needs starts at 10 vs Treviso)

Some of his decision making was awful poor also. That said i was very impressed with Leader taking the kicks, would love to know what his stats are but I'd say they're pretty dam high.

Pos T/A Pts K/P/R MR CB DB OL TO Tack LO Pen Y/R
FB Leader 0/0 8 6/2/11 104 1 1 0 3 1/0 0/0 0 0/0

Carty was rather poor again- I know conditions were shocking but some of his errors were sloppy (don't want to pile on the Carty criticism but Ronaldson needs starts at 10 vs Treviso)

Some of his decision making was awful poor also. That said i was very impressed with Leader taking the kicks, would love to know what his stats are but I'd say they're pretty dam high.

positives:
Masterson brought his solid form from the Eagles into the Senior set up. Criminal he isn't in the European squad tbh
Poolman on the wing is different animal- looked class out there.
Heenan looked much better than last week
Mick Kearney back with a bang!
My MotM was between Tom McCartney and Aly Muldowney, both players put in a massive shift
The win, the win, the win.. Four points- moves us back up to 6th.

Negatives:
Carty was rather poor again- I know conditions were shocking but some of his errors were sloppy (don't want to pile on the Carty criticism but Ronaldson needs starts at 10 vs Treviso)
Not getting the TBP and letting Dragons back into it was rather inexcusable. We were on top of them when they had 15 players- let them into it when they got red card.
Our mau, often a strong part of our game, was rather poor this evening when you would think conditions would suit it

Highlights

And Muldoon was right to take the 3 points anytime, no Cardiff scenario again despite our weak defense

Was saying constantly Masterson should start after his Eagles performances, today prooved it! G'wan Connacht.

N.B Cooney was good today, Porter good last week, Blade good in Challenge Cup. Nice to see Marmion can be capped without much damage

Strange that I can be unimpressed with an away win, shows how far this Connacht team have come.

But from a position with being up 3-17 against 14 men we really made it hard on ourselves. Dragons didn't really have the wherewithal to take us on properly except in fits and starts, otherwise they could have won that game regardless of our man advantage.

We need a full 80 minute performance from Connacht, but at least this was a huge improvement on the 0 minute performance against the Scarlets last week.

Roll on Treviso, we need to roll over them. I know you shouldn't go into a match thinking about 5 pointers but I really think that's what we will need for next week.