gaillimhabu wrote: If it wasn't for TG4 we'd be screwed

In fairness, the Munster are the only ones without a local TV station looking after the local club and they have done best of all.

If it wasn't for TG4 we'd be screwed

Was about to post this, now don't have to

Just to add, though, there are 6 new weeks scheduled, 2 home & 4 away. Of those we will have both of our home games shown two of our away games. Hopefully the Treviso game will be picked up by an Irish broadcaster, but the other two (v Blues & v Scarlets are not being broadcast on Welsh TV so there will be no opportunity to option the rights)

For the whole season:

	RTE	TG4	BBC NI
Connacht	0	9	1
Leinster	6	4	1
Munster	3	9	1
Ulster	3	0	8

10 games on from now till end of march.

tg4 will cover 5.

december(home vs munster, away to leinster,)
feburary (home vs ospreys)
march (home vs zebre, away to munster)

sportitalia will cover 1.
march (away vs treviso)

uncovered games
december (home vs edinburgh)
january (home vs dragons)
febuary (away to scarlets, away to cardiff)

No more worried than usual with Edinburgh's trip to the Sportsground. No matter how well Connacht are going or how poorly the visitor's recent form might be there is always a concern in the back off the mind that things can go wrong. But as Swift says if they play up to their potential they should be able to account for Edinburgh. I'm anticipating as healthy a squad as has been available all season by that point and they will have cleared out any layoff rust through the Dragon's game.

The period after the AI will go a long way in defining Connacht's season. Dragons & Edinburgh are a couple of winnable games that could put some distance between themselves and the bottom of the table. Those games are followed by the home and away HEC games against Biarritz. IMO they will need to win one of them for any progress to be considered achieved in the HEC. Two wins against Zebre will not qualify for me. That will bring them to the holiday period and the derbies against Munster (H) and Leinster (A). These games should be a fair gauge of how much progress has been made at Connacht and if they find themselves at 6-6 in the Rabodirect table by the time they are over there will be very little to complain about.

We'll take them in Galway. We'll even stop them getting a LBP

I'm worried.

A host of Edinburgh players are about to head off to international training and will be a few matches at a proper speed under their belts. If they come back and don't listen to the Edinburgh coaches they might be able to put in a performance.

phatguerilla wrote: Anyone else a little worrying coming into the Edinburgh game?

not to worried about edinburgh, as long as we go out there and play like we can, we will do well.
i dont know how many games they lost in a row now, but they have taken some beatings.

our next game is vs dragons and they have lost 5 in a row in both, pro12 and amlin. they should be there for the taking.

looking at results from this season and last, from our 4 home games we have won 2 lost 2 compare to last season, lost 3 won 1.

away form, won 1, lost 3 compare to last season lost 4.

last season played 8, won 1 lost 7.
this season played 8, won 3 lost 5

Anyone else a little worrying coming into the Edinburgh game? They have been on a losing streak and I for one don't want to see them end it at the sportsground. They have been fairly good in the past against us home and away, the Bradley factor gives them a bit of inside knowledge even if that will be a bit more diluted this time. Afaik they have a really hard game before ours so they'll surely be targetting us for a win.

hopefully the anglo french pressure will lead to the pro 12 being the direct entry into the heineken cup, more than top 6 tho, this will enable us to fight to be there ourselves without having to win the amlin or another province winning the henio.

Ulster Rugby 7 31
Scarlets 8 29
Glasgow 8 27
Munster 8 23
Leinster 7 22
Ospreys 7 19
Cardiff Blues 8 15
Connacht 8 14
Benetton Treviso 8 13
Edinburgh 8 13
Newport Gwent Dragons 8 9
Zebre 7 1

So after tonights games the table looks a bit better. Only 1 point off Cardiff in 7th. Dragons and Edinburgh to come in the coming weeks. Its clear to see what two wins there would do for us.

At the top Ulster look in great shape, two games over in Italy to come to stretch their lead out. Glasgow look determined to reach top 4 again also. Interesting game tomorrow Leinster are missing a lot of players so you'd expect an Ospreys win which would leave the top 6 nicely bunched.

Next week will be massive. We play Treviso and we need not just to win, but to deny them bonus points.

Cardiff (home v Munster) and Edinburgh (away to Ulster) have two very tough games. This is the kind of week where we need to make a statement and be the only one of our mini group to get points. And even then, if we do will will still be within a point of all the others. Running to stand still is right!

Good point but the other team have gotten better as well there's a certain amount of running to stay in place about us but imo the next three games are going to be huge for us. We need to win them if we're gonna move on and go for 7th or 8th.

At this point in time I'd have to say I'd write "Not good enough" in our report card.

We're behind Edinburgh but have the same win/loss record. What's the difference? Losing bonus points, something that we achieved in 50% of our losses last year, but we've managed only once this season in 5 defeats. Edinburgh have 4 losing bonus points out of 5 defeats, which is effectively an extra win.

Last year we allowed 36 tries in 22 games. Right now we've allowed exactly half that number in only 7 matches. Multiple try bonuses have been conceeded, when only one team managed to do that against us last year.

The idea with the new signings was they were going to be the missing pieces that turned our tight losses into potential wins, but right now we're not coming close to being in tight matches.

A lot of things can be blamed, injuries have been very disruptive, but when you look at the way we've rolled over and had our bellies tickled against Ulster and Ospreys, not to mention an opening week loss that should never have been allowed to happen I can't honestly say this is a better team than last year.

agree totally with your assessment of the importance of the next three games.

imo cardiff are now down in the 2nd tier of this lge and its now two 6s with glasgow and scarlets having to work hard to stay with the big 4 as the season progresses. cardiff will top the 2nd tier but have been cut adrift by the others noe.

connacht need to forget about the win over leinster and the heineken and start winning the winnable games starting with these next 3. the gap between the top teams and the rest appears to be widening based on the scorelines but connacht shouldnt judge themselves by how they do against them but by results against the 2nd tier teams..

8th is very achievable with keeping within touching distance of cardiff an added bonus.

Rabo Direct Table End of October:

Ulster Rugby 6 26
Scarlets 7 25
Glasgow 7 22
Leinster 7 22
Munster 7 19
Ospreys 7 19
Cardiff Blues 7 14
Benetton Treviso 7 13
Edinburgh 7 13
Connacht 7 10
Newport Gwent Dragons 7 9
Zebre 6 1

Ok end of October, just under 1/3 of season gone and like last year we can already see the league dividing in 2 again (3 if you count Zebre as being adrift). Top 7 is the same 7 as last year. You'd expect the 3 Irish and Ospreys to stay the pace, Scarlets and Glasgow will really target Top 4 this year with their Heineken campaign over already.

Once again we look caught up in a mini-league of our own with Treviso, Edinburgh and Dragons. Cardiff could be drawn into the bottom half if tonights capitulation against Leinster is anything to go by but they should be better than that if they can rouse themselves at all.

We have 10 points from 7 games. I'd have hoped for maybe 3 or 4 more at this stage but after a poor start (and plenty of injuries) the 5 pointer against Leinster steadied the ship a bit. Ulster and Ospreys were never going to offer much.

Either way the next three games will tell a lot. Treviso at home next week is important to round off this series of games with a win. 4 points there (hopefully by 8 or more) would make the table look a lot better heading into the first break of the season and hopefully allow us to regroup and get some of our injured players back for the run of games from November to mid-January.

When we return its Dragons away followed by Edinburgh at home which imo are both winnable games.

Its all very well people pointing out all the positive stuff that has happened with Connacht Rugby in recent times but these next 3 games in particular are very important. We mightn't make Heineken Cup through the league but we need to start showing we are making progress in the league and its getting results against teams around us that will determine that.

A win over someone like Biarritz would be fantastic but the lads need to keep their eye on the ball in the league. The Heineken will be over in January and we'll be left with 4 months to play out. We want to have something to play for to send Eric off on a high and show that we are gradually progressing and its results over the next few weeks that will determine whether we have or not.