watching the TG4 highlights last night, had to laugh when Dan Parks kept a straight face and explained McKeon accidentally poleaxing Dmitri to the ref - 'the wind blew that ball back, sir!'. Might as well have told him 'the dog ate my homework'. :lol:

Didn't notice how much work JHW got through while watching it live, great game for the young fella.

Found highlights of the game here:

In fairness, we are a good looking bunch. She probably got carried away in the moment.

He's a shot of Diom looking VERY excited to be handing over the pennant. Fair play to all in making it happen (shout out to fourdogs on this)

imgur.com/lSpra

Sol_ie wrote: I feel like I won the fucking lottery, that peace on earth was declared and Scarett Johannsen told me I was the sexiest man alive.

Holy hell.

She told me exactly the same thing last night! Trollop!

I feel like I won the fucking lottery, that peace on earth was declared and Scarett Johannsen told me I was the sexiest man alive.

Holy hell.

Was really surprised that the scrum more than held its own. Fair play to them.

For me, Parks was man of the match, and Robbie Henshaw if outrageously talented, he pulled one ball out of the sky at full tilt when most would have taken their chances and let it bounce.

Great night.

Borders no.2 wrote: Good night for us but we need to push on now, lots of games coming in quick succession.

And that's the rub isn't it. This season got off to a disappointing start and then there was the Leinster game. I had hoped they would have pushed on from there, but they turned around and were shut out by Ulster. Sure it was at Ravenhill against the most consistent Irish side, but you would have hoped for a more competitive match and some points.

Well it's going to take some to push on from this win. Even if Biarritz gives up on this tournament they will not be in any mood to lose to the redheaded stepchild of Irish rugby at home. Then it's Munster and Leinster. They must be competitive over the next few weeks. Biarritz and Leinster away will be challenges, but Munster at home is quite winnable.

Perhaps my greatest hope to come out of this win is that it marks the return of Brett Wilkinson to the form that had him threatening the Irish squad. The entire tight 5 had a strong game and the scrum held its own even with McKeon off. If they can repeat this performance next time out it will do all of their confidence a world of good.

Great win for a side with a lot of young lads in it.

coacheygalway wrote: Nothing to fear today Biarritz only won 1 game away from home this season and that was back in August with that record they are bound to be fragile travelling here, A good start is a must and if we can compete in the scrum and get a few lucky breaks we could get a famous win tonight, Time to front up and rise up

Guess its time to say i told ya so fantastic performance from the lads the clan was rocking

Great Match everyone stepped up all the young guns showed they would fight tooth and nail for the eagle and have no fear of anyone i dont think we missed any of the injured guys in fact besides possibly white and naoupu it may have made us more mobile and energetic. The qiucker we get more and more of the academy guys into the squad the better.

Lots of stand outs think JHW was fantastic hit every lineout and worked hard all night, mcsharry, mccarthy, kearney. mckeon, marmion, parks, loughney ah basically everyone! :silly: did fantastic. Pity i could only watch it on the telly but i was singing the fields despite, have my ticket for the leinster rematch tho.

A great night. It was for nights like these that Parks was bought. and didn't he just deliver!

Attendance was 6583.

Those wot wasn't there seriously missed out.

Fine win and to win by 8 with Yachvilli's missed conversion was great. A bp for Biarritz would have been undeserved and taken the shine off the win a bit. If we can get some kind of a result next week (even a losing bp) to edge them over the two games we'll give ourselves a shot at the Challenge Cup which would be great. Biarritz could lose interest for the January games as they attempt to keep in touch with the play off spots in France.

I was seriously cheesed off with us over the last two weeks for failing to perform and making stupid errors in the bread and butter Rabo games (even though we were well short handed in the pack last week) but I always knew we could win this one if we got ourselves right. I put it down for the shock of the year in the pre-season expectations thread but in the end it wasn't much of a shock. Once Vainikolo got the try Biarritz looked beatable. We defended stoutly but gave away a few silly penalties but to see Yachvilli miss 3 kicks is rare.

Biarritz will be a different animal at home next week but it was a big win and gives our season a shot in the arm that was badly needed.

It was hard to pick a man of the match, there were many fine performances in the pack in particular. Front row all did well including Buckley off the bench, Harris-Wright is starting to nail down the no.2 jersey. Kearney impressed me again, McCarthy made a few handling errors but got through an amount of work. Back row performed much more cohesively this week. With White, Swift and Naoupu to come back and Reynecke back on the bench tonight we'll have more genuine options when everyone is fit.

Marmion was much improved on last week, Parks did the business bar one missed kick and the ball that went dead in the final few mins. For years we were almost allergic to drop goals but to step back and kick the dg for 10-6 when nothing was on was a vital score. Vainikolo was superb, McSharry and Poolman are improving. There's more to come from them you'd hope. Tiernan O'H was improved on his awful display last Saturday but given his talent he still has plenty to work on. Henshaw is an exciting attacking talent and performed well tonight.

Good night for us but we need to push on now, lots of games coming in quick succession.

awesomeness!

Dan Parks was The Man. Never stopped cajoling and encouraging and dictated the game the way everyone expected Yashvili to do. We made no costly errors, which was what we've been looking for since the Leinster game. A few guys falling off tackles, but the ball retention was very good.

We were the better side from about 25 minutes in. No arguing when you out score them in both halves. Ref was poor, we got screwed in the first half and looked to me like they got screwed in the second. The touch judges were no help to him either.

Finally, has to be said that Biarritz were no Edinburgh. Balshaw was ok, Ngwenya and Yashvili weren't at the races and their forwards were beaten up. I watched the big dog warming up at half time for them, and he didn't look remotely fit, but was clearly sent on to give them a bit of spine. Didn't make much difference. Nice to see him put on the back foot after having a go at Marmion for being a cheeky pup though.

Crowd was a bit thin I thought. Maybe about 7000. Atmosphere was great, but for sheer drama and tension followed by release it wasn't like the Quins game last year. This one was very comfortable. Mildly annoying that we mucked up the lineout at 80mins and allowed them the try. It's going to be interesting next week!

Hell yeah!! Couldn't see the game, a bunch of Ulster lads came in wanting to watch there one against Northampton so fair's fair. Got to see the Fetu try though. So proud of the lads and their effort. This keeps us in the loop and if we beat Zebre at home and away we have a good chance of getting in the Amlin after. So proud of the guy's performance!!

So incredibly proud

22-14 win by the way.

J Harris hit most/all his lineouts.
Scrum kept its own at the least
McCarthy was everywhere

Connacht looked to spread the ball and didnt take Biarritz on in 10 man rugby

Good stuff