Dragons 1 point favourites where I looked too.

Connacht 7/4 at -3.5 if anyone feels confident. Best pick I've seen

Evil_g wrote:

Accidentally Onside wrote: We're one point favourites at the bookies.....going to be a tight one :ohmy: :dry:

Paddy Power have Dragons as 2 point favourites.

Mine was on skyBet....where Dragons are one point favourites now..........probably just read it wrong this morning :pinch:

Accidentally Onside wrote: We're one point favourites at the bookies.....going to be a tight one :ohmy: :dry:

Paddy Power have Dragons as 2 point favourites.

We're one point favourites at the bookies.....going to be a tight one :ohmy: :dry:

Just back from Rodney parade.
Anyone who watched there last home game (vs Leinster) would see that the pitch was awful. Nearly unplayable.
They've worked hard on it and credit to the groundmen. Pitch looks great. Odd piece of clay on side of dressing room but we have no excuses tonight.
No wind. No rain. And underfeet is good for our style.
I'm looking forward to being in the terrace of there old stand. On tv the home support come across passionate and very loud.
The stadium they have is lovely. We really need to do something about the sportsground.

I've posted two pictures on Twitter of the ground

I'd be confident that Craig will be kicking tonight. He's done it a lot when starting at 12, and has a good record this season away from home.
The Sportsground is not a good stadium for kickers. Playing away from home should help him from the tee

Our last couple of meetings have been high-scoring, close games so I'm expecting the same tonight. I hope AJ and Craig brought their kicking boots as I think that'll be the difference between the teams. We haven't lost to them in years though so I'm quietly confident. We'll need a win to keep pace at the top as Leinster should beat Zebre comfortably and Ulster play a Glasgow side shorn of their internationals and with a terrible away record this season.

Fully agree ConnachtCows. We must win this. Talk of coming away with a losing bonus point only is totally defeatist. If we're a top 6 team we win this.

Nice sunny day here in Newport. Blue sky, no sign of rain. Pity the game can't be played in Sun light.
If I've time later, I'll pop into Rodney parade and see what the pitch is like, did it recover at all in last two weeks.

This is a game we simply need to win. We're going for top4 spot, why lower ourselves to 6 when we've a good chance

Dragons are third bottom, and we have a pretty strong team available to us. We should be targeting a win at minimum, and expecting a bonus point. It's games like this, that if we lose, will be the difference between getting top 6 and missing out again.

If we can get the win here, and against Zebre and Treviso, picking up a minimum of 13 points, then 1 more win, and a couple of losing bonus points over the remainder of the season should be enough

Come on Connacht. Think I'll throw on the headphones tonight, and walk the prom listening to the game.

CountFurlo wrote: Rob's going over. Alan with the pace notes

Apparently it's on Radio Wales Sport also: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06zv1gn
Handy to have a backup in case Rob gets bumped by a priority death notice.

Happy with that team. Would have gone with Ronaldson at 10 personally but see the logic in this selection. The bench should give us good impetus as the games wears on. The big thing I see in the Dragons team is that Hallam Amos isn't in the 23. However, Pretorius is starting and he gave us plenty of problems at the Sportsground and Tovey is a good 10.

At home in the Pro12 they have only beaten weak Leinster and Munster sides along with the Italians. We have to be ambitious and aim for a win here.
Leinster were like kids playing with their food last week and still could have won but fecked it away.

Evil_g wrote: Connacht team to face Dragons, Rodney Parade, Thursday, February 11th, 7:30pm:

15 Tiernan O’Halloran
14 Danie Poolman
13 Bundee Aki
12 Craig Ronaldson
11 Matt Healy
10 AJ MacGinty
9 Caolin Blade

1 Denis Buckley
2 Tom McCartney
3 Rodney Ah You
4 George Naoupu
5 Aly Muldowney
6 John Muldoon (captain)
7 Jake Heenan
8 Eoghan Masterson

Replacements:

16 Dave Heffernan
17 Ronan Loughney
18 Finlay Bealham
19 Ultan Dillane
20 Eoin McKeon
21 Kieran Marmion
22 Peter Robb
23 Rory Parata

Unavailable / Injured: Shane Delahunt, Nathan White, Andrew Browne, Ben Marshall, Quinn Roux, Nepia Fox-Matamua, John Cooney, Jack Carty, Shane O’Leary, Robbie Henshaw, Dave McSharry, Conor Finn, Darragh Leader, Ciaran Gaffney.

Not surprisingly a strong side and bench named. George did a solid enough job last time out and maybe you don't want to change a pack that was so dominate but I would have gone with Dillane to start. Also with Carty out I'm not sure I would have my two remaining outhalves out there together from the off. Would have gone with Ronaldson to start, MacGinty on the bench and either Parata or Robb in the centre. Still minor quibbles aside I like Connacht's chances.

pinky wrote:

wp_rathead wrote: Guess Marmion not on bench in Paris then? Shame

Strange one - he didn't get a chance to do anything against Wales to get himself dropped!

Yes, was disappointed he didn't get on. I guess with the game so close Joe wasn't prepared to gamble on him or he was always only going to come on if Murray got injured. Either way it's a shame, Ireland's loss is Connacht's gain. Hopefully Joe will see the wisdom in getting him gametime and as Benji said he will be used against Scotland and Italy.

Hopefully Marmion can see gametime against Scotland and Italy. He deserves it and I'd say given a chance he will do well.