Barry Fa'amausuli came on for Montpellier in the heineken cup over the weekend. he was a disaster of a signing for us.
came off the bench twice in the league, and he was part of the squad who lost to Cavalieri Estra in italy

From the Irish Times:

Back in the cage

Former Ireland underage international and A prop Peter Bracken is to take part in a Mixed Martial Art (MMA) cage fighting event in Galway under the banner Celtic Gladiator Amateur night in the Radisson Blu hotel in Galway on December 22nd.

According to the poster, he is fighting someone called Cameroon Dempsey (he might be called Cameron) and looking forward to a challenge for which he has been training hard by his own admission.

The 35-year-old Tullamore native played for Munster, Connacht, Wasps, Bristol, Harlequins, Newport Gwent Dragons and also spent some time in France. He twice toured with Ireland but was never capped. He has also worked as a scrum coach.

So he's a cage fighter! My condolence's to Mr. Dempsey's family.

I'd have him back in a heartbeat. Always amazed me that Leinster haven't snapped him up. He's IQ, a second row and could fill in for Leo on the captaincy side when they need him to.

Andrew Farley scored a try for Grenoble in the Amlin Cup at the weekend. What a player!

Brian Tuohy the new Shannon U21 Coach. Delighted for him.

www.limerickleader.ie/sport/rugby/limeri...boss-keogh-1-4447957

Brett Sturgess (prop who was with us for just one season 05/06/07 kind of time) at lh for Exeter against Leinster.

In fairness James Downey was here 2 seasons and injured for most of it .Bradley could just have easily been critisced for keeping what could be considered an injury prone player .Hindsight is great for answering past questions.I see what you mean though .I'm a big fan of his direct style and think it helps to put the opposition on the backfoot no end.It tis a shame though ,you would often need to be established first, before receiving any forgiveness for injuries.


As for Peter Bracken .Was a big fan of his .Not sure how he left but i didn't think Connacht had much say in it .

Bradley's mistakes could fill a whole other thread...

Letting Jimmy Downey go was the biggest single mistake of Bradley's tenure imho. Slightly ahead of letting Peter Bracken go.

sea_point wrote:

swift4prez wrote:

overstrander wrote: Still a big fan of Downey, hope he gets that call-up:

www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/vi...-knocks-3251212.html

after reading the article about wanting revenge and the hurt about being shown the door, this tweet from him show maybe he changed his mind

James Downey ‏@jamesdowney23
Great documentary on @tg4tv about @connachtrugby !!! #TheWestsAwake right in time for Heineken Cup!!!

Jimmy has been back to Galway loads of times, he still has a soft spot for the place. What he was saying in the article was pretty much just that he wanted to show that it was a mistake to let him go. In fairness it was, I felt it at the time (and I wasn't alone) and think we've seen enough of him to know that he is a better player than he was allowed to show at Saints where he was just used as a bosher and target for the pack...

Shook his hand in O'Connell's before the Toulon match a couple of years ago. He is a gentleman.

Remember quite a few of us couldn't believe he was being let go. I'm sure we all feel vindicated now that he has done so well.

swift4prez wrote:

overstrander wrote: Still a big fan of Downey, hope he gets that call-up:

www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/vi...-knocks-3251212.html

after reading the article about wanting revenge and the hurt about being shown the door, this tweet from him show maybe he changed his mind

James Downey ‏@jamesdowney23
Great documentary on @tg4tv about @connachtrugby !!! #TheWestsAwake right in time for Heineken Cup!!!

Jimmy has been back to Galway loads of times, he still has a soft spot for the place. What he was saying in the article was pretty much just that he wanted to show that it was a mistake to let him go. In fairness it was, I felt it at the time (and I wasn't alone) and think we've seen enough of him to know that he is a better player than he was allowed to show at Saints where he was just used as a bosher and target for the pack...

overstrander wrote: Still a big fan of Downey, hope he gets that call-up:

www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/vi...-knocks-3251212.html

after reading the article about wanting revenge and the hurt about being shown the door, this tweet from him show maybe he changed his mind

James Downey ‏@jamesdowney23
Great documentary on @tg4tv about @connachtrugby !!! #TheWestsAwake right in time for Heineken Cup!!!

Liked Fanning, Sweeney and Monahan. Of the three the one I was most surprised we let go of though was Fanning. It happens though sometimes a player clicks at a club and moves on and sometimes it doesn't happen because of a myriad of reasons. Good on Monahan for making it. Glad to see another Irish option for the Internationals teams.

Thanks for that Salmson, twas the ginger I was on about. Thought he was a handy enough winger.

think your getting darragh fanning and rob sweeney mixed together, fanning is a ginger. playing well for the vikings in oz.

vikingsrugby.com.au/teams/1st-xv-squad/p...les/darragh-fanning/

I think you're referring to two different players, Daragh Fanning (the ginger winger you refer to) and Rob Sweeney the prop.

Fanning was last mentioned in this thread as playing semi-pro for an Australian team (also doing marketing/PRO for them) while Sweeney is still playing AIL and was on the bench for our A team against Munster a few weeks ago.

Edit: Last month Fanning played for his team (Vikings) as they won the (unofficial) Australian club championship (representing ACT as champions).