They talk about motivation and newspaper articles on the wall moments in the press

But Wasps are having their Christmas party in Galway sat night. I'd say the lads will want to put a dampener on that!

Its the sportsground, Wasps wont like it put up to them and it will be . Beale and Wade wont have the room they need. I'd like a bit of a nice Galway wind which I'd have confidence in Carty being able to handle to get us around the pitch.
I wont be there but I'd say the place will be hopping.
Its a Connacht team at the end of the day even with all the injuries. Im expecting a massive game from Muldoon tomorrow.
Sew it into them early.

If we need a third substitute back it'll most likely be Dawai, he has extensive 7s experience and has on occasion been used as an emergency back in the Mitre 10 cup.

I think with 8 (Bealham, Dillane, Roux, Muldoon, Marmion, Healy, Adeolokun, O'Halloran) in the team and 1 more on the bench (Dawai) this is the most internationals we've ever named in starting XV or a matchday squad. For the PRO 12 final we started 7 (Loughney, Bealham, Dillane, Mudoon, Marmion, McGinty, Henshaw) and had 1 on the bench (Ah You).

Of the 23 -
12 homegrown (6 Connacht "natives" & 6 other academy graduates)
7 signed from abroad (4 NZ, 2 England, 1 SA)
2 signed from AIL
2 signed from other provinces

15 Tiernan O’Halloran (112)
14 Niyi Adeolokun (43)
13 Rory Parata (20)
12 Bundee Aki (52)
11 Matt Healy (78)
10 Jack Carty (66)
9 Kieran Marmion (110)

1 Denis Buckley (102)
2 Tom McCartney (50)
3 Finlay Bealham (66)
4 Ultan Dillane (35)
5 Quinn Roux (41)
6 Eoin McKeon (97)
7 Nepia Fox-Matamua (12)
8 John Muldoon (captain) (287)

Replacements:

16 Dave Heffernan (69)
17 JP Cooney (39)
18 Conor Carey (9)
19 Lewis Stevenson (7)
20 Sean O’Brien (25)
21 Caolin Blade (32)
22 Danie Poolman (74)
23 Naulia Dawai (0)

Cormac Brennan must be out also.
Could see Fox at centre maybe..

Conn Not 65 wrote: Hi Dobby unlike yourself I have lost more than I have won But hey I can be a total prat when it comes to these matters am with you when it comes to abstaining ... Always ! But you know what .... It's Christmas !! In movie terms it's like you are the Grinch who stole Christmas and I am Miracle on 34th Street ! Time for Eggnog.... Hic

go you conn not 65. absolutely right. i have jack top of my christmas tree. kids will be most disappointed if he does'n't turn out to be the christmas angel of times present

Hi Dobby unlike yourself I have lost more than I have won But hey I can be a total prat when it comes to these matters am with you when it comes to abstaining ... Always ! But you know what .... It's Christmas !! In movie terms it's like you are the Grinch who stole Christmas and I am Miracle on 34th Street ! Time for Eggnog.... Hic

Conn Not 65 wrote: Paddy Power have us at +5 to beat Wasps That's nothing ! They seem to be a lot more positive about us than some of the sentiment that is out there ... and they are bookies ! they don't care who wins. One thousand of us got behind our team last weekend and created a better athmosphere than ten thousand of them . Lets turn the Sportsground into a fortress and hockeye them . Connacht abu !

I am not unknown to place the odd bet and have bet on Connacht many times and in return won more than lost. I have never bet against Connacht, I have simply abstained. This weekend I will abstain. While there is so much strength in this squad there is a singular weakness that I feel is going to be our demise. But I will there either ways. I just hope I'm wrong

Paddy Power have us at +5 to beat Wasps That's nothing ! They seem to be a lot more positive about us than some of the sentiment that is out there ... and they are bookies ! they don't care who wins. One thousand of us got behind our team last weekend and created a better athmosphere than ten thousand of them . Lets turn the Sportsground into a fortress and hockeye them . Connacht abu !

Brennan may well be n°22 this Saturday
Seems pretty in form with Wegians, scoring tries, but has somebody actually seen him play, especially his defence ?

Hi Ladies and Gents

I am looking for 2 tickets for aul lad and myself. Just wondering would anyone have some if they cant make it. Thanks Dara

watched a rerun of the game tonight and the two players that annoyed me most (after our weaknesses discussed) were Niyi and Jake. There were so many times during that 80 minutes that each player refused to pass with opportunities abounding. I'm happy that Niyi has developed, I am very unhappy he sees nobody other than himself. Yes people feed him the ball, Niyi simply does not reciprocate. And that's not nothing new. Jake seemed like he had blinkers on also, but I forgive him because its not his norm

Hello All,

Despite the result on Sunday it was an enjoyable trip and I had the fortune of having the team on both my outbound and return flights to and from Birmingham. Players looked really down at the departures lounge at Birmingham Airport while the management looked through the match via their laptops.

I even joked to Bundee Aki and Stacey Ili to get some Knock Holy Water on their injuries!

Here is my video highlights of the match from the Ricoh Arena, please feel free to view the video and share in all social media platforms.



I wont be in the Sportsgrounds this Saturday . Hope you enjoy the day if you's are going yourselves.

Borders no.2 wrote: T Was it hoped Boshoff would be up to speed from the Treviso game.

That was the plan, Lam mentioned it after Treviso but obviously got swamped by bigger news. Ronaldson was to kick against Treviso (Boshoff hadn't kicked competitively with the Rhino ball the Pro 12 uses) so when Craig pulled up Cooney was emergency kicker. Ronaldson or Boshoff would have kicked vs. Wasps if they hadn't both got injured the previous week.

The injury to Craig Ronaldson is very unfortunate as it heaps extra pressure on Jack. For me I like seeing Jack in the attacking sense and defensively he puts himself about reasonably well. Its definitely an area he's improved. Kicking the corners in open play he's improved in that area too. He has the habit of missing touch or putting out on the full at least once most days which can be infuriating but I suppose a few inches the other way and he'd be lauded.

However, the problem is the lack of kicking options means the focus rightly or wrongly is going to be on his goal kicking. You can't dress it up. His place kicking record has never stood up to scrutiny but it appears his confidence is gone now. Seeing John Cooney elevated to kicking duties can't have helped. I'd love to know what the thinking was in terms of how the kicking duties would play out against Wasps. Marmion is our starting 9 so Cooney kicking (and kicking superbly) wasn't exactly a help to Carty's confidence. Was it hoped Boshoff would be up to speed from the Treviso game.

Carty was really put in the firing line with the way things played out. Apart from the lineout and lack of goal kicking options what did frustrate me was the lack of distance we were able to get kicking up the line. Wasps first try basically was scored after Jimmy Gopperth's booming penalty put them 5/6 metres from our line from inside their half. With Jack we never gain significant distance. I thought he had improved in that element last year but he seems to have lost it again. Of course its always better to find touch but finding touch 7/8 metres out compared to 18-20 metres out in these games is huge especially with a malfunctioning lineout.

I see in the article about Hanrahan returning to Munster that Keatley is our of contract. He frustrates me hugely but especially at Pro 12 level I'd definitely bring him back here. Munster has been a tough experience for him but he'd be a big plus for us still I think.

Bazzo wrote: How many kicks to touch did he miss? From my memory one and a Wasps player did well to jump and knock it back in field to keep it in play.

Cooney is a better outhalf? Has Cooney ever played at 10 in his entire professional rugby career?

An outhalf doesn't have to be able to kick to be a good 10, especially not if someone else on the field can kick. See Joey Carbery at Leinster or for an extreme example a chap called Beauden Barrett playing for NZ isn't a half bad outhalf even though he usually couldn't kick snow off a rope.

I take your point. As for Jack missing touch. I take into account two positional kicks that went into the Wasps 22 that simply didn't reach touch and should have. Then the lack of distance achieved with kicking to touch bugged me. In return Wasps were making serious distance with their kicks. And then the question is the other values an outhalf brings to a team. So, in my humble opinion, yes it can be simple lateral passing, but also line breaks to keep the opposition honest. There is also the linkage with the backline which means you need the pick the right time to take the ball into contact or open up the backline. There is also the case of which side of the field to move the ball when using the backline. So John does much of this as a scrum half so why not as an outhalf. I believe (maybe I'm deluded) that a good pacey scrum half can be a good pacey outhalf. Maybe that's simplistic to those more knowledgeable. So if John can do most all of MY suggested requirements of a decent outhalf why not give him a shot. You can only learn by giving someone a chance.

And with Carbery, he was given a chance. You can't simply say somebody can't do it if you don't give them an opportunity to do it. We have an abundance of scrum-halves while running out of out-halves. You can argue that Jack is the linkage expert between forwards and backs that makes the team tick. I think what he does here is fine, not fantastic, just fine. I think for someone else to step in here would really not be the death of Connacht. Maybe Cooney would be better, maybe he would be worse. But here is the point. If he is better we will likely win, if worse we will lose. But if Jack is in situ next weekend I fear for us so as such I see little to lose.

Anyway in the meantime Salmson has posted an injury update that makes my point moot

Agree with your lineup but won't Poolman be available as 22/23 along with Brennan and Blade?