I thought ref had a decent game overall. 1 incident sticks out for me in that i need clarification on rule. In 1st half jared payne made a clean catch outside his 22 on main stand side. He was immediately tackled and held up by swifty and 1 other connact player and supported by ulster winger. More players joined and maul slowly moved forward about 5mtre before stopping and whistle going. Ref awarded put in to ulster and clearly stated that it was a clean catch and maul formed immediately upon making clean catch. I thought it should have been connachts ball. Is fact that maul was formed by defence team relevent?

Defence on 1st, 2nd and 4th try just isnt god enough at this level. The kick from nikora that lead to 4th try (i caregorise it as defence) just isnt good enough. The 5th just about gets excused given the circumstances they found themselves in game..

I think for long periods the played well and the issues raised above undermined all that good work. The reality is that ulster got their first 2 tries far too easily and the 4th was a present after some great work in defece to keep them out again undermining the team effort.

That said when the team sit down in 3 wks to analyse the season its not this game that will be focused on alone. Connacht have lost 5 out of 10 home lge games this season and failed to get anything out of 3 of those games. With glasgow to come needing a win and a bp win at that its likely to be 6 losses. That falls way short of my targets and hopefully teams for season. Its not a good enough home record by anyones estimation even if leinster and ospreys were beaten.

Imo home results have to be pat lams main focus next season. A less than 50% win ratio isnt good enough and definately doesnt justify 10%+ st price hikes.

phatguerilla wrote:
I don't want to be hasty but I thought Rodney looked ok at loose head when he came on, we'll need to keep seeing improvements though.

He wasn't completely embarrassed which is a step up on recent performances. I feared for his health against Afoa but he did ok. Hilariously at one scrum he kept his left hand balanced against the ground for a good 10 seconds while the scrum was in progress.

Mixed bag. For me we just fell off far far too many first up tackles, not good enough at this level. Once a team with Ulster's class get in behind you they will finish. We did well to hang in there up to the 4th try but really couldn't understand us continually kicking the ball on top of Payne who is rock solid. Given the looseness of some of our play we were lucky not to have conceded the bonus point before half time.

Vainikolo showed tonight why he will be missed, looked dangerous when given ball. Eoin Griffin had one of his better nights in recent times.

Small things make a difference, 2 kick offs directly into touch and a penalty down the line which failed to find touch from Dan Parks set us back.

Really though tonight showed the difference in quality and depth between the two sides. Still lots to work on.

7th doesn't look good now but 1 win from the last 2 games should get us 8th again and our best points total since the Italians joined so no point dwelling too long on this, need to pick things up for Treviso next Friday and hopefully get a couple of injured players back.

Darragh507 wrote: No idea.

Hate to say i but muldoon offers nothing.

Was thinking the same pretty much, he is in serious danger of being overtaken by kearney and Browne now, i know he's not used to 7 but if he keeps playing like today he would find it hard to make the 23 when everyone is fit.

Disappointed with the ending although I had a feeling from the 15th minute that it was inevitable that conn would run out of gas.

I don't want to be hasty but I thought Rodney looked ok at loose head when he came on, we'll need to keep seeing improvements though.

Ugly finish, do well to absorb Ulster pressure, get the ball back and eventually Nikora puts in a ridiculous kick. I'll have to put the last try down to tiredness. Vainikolo has a good run, brings the ball well into Ulster half. Ball gets turned over, no one back to defend and Payne walks in. Connacht were never going to win it, but they should have been able to keep it within 7.

No idea.

Hate to say i but muldoon offers nothing.

Griffin looking really good for sure but ulster are cutting through conn defence pretty easily. Why did parks go off I missed the restart?

Griffin having a stormer

Henshaw out, Duffy moves to fullback:

www.connachtrugby.ie/20130419...-connacht-team

Howdy lads... I posted the preview quite late last night as well, so if there is any feedback from proof-reading, I'll keep an eye on this thread.

swift4prez wrote: i was thinking 318 was small. less then 2 points a match!

293 in the celtic league in 50 games. plus sea points 491 thats,, 784 points in 103 games.

declan was it you who thought eoin mckeoin was 25/26 where you getting your stats from
**same stats as wikipedia. haha you got stung there

Sorry that was me. I've been up late most nights this week, so I was probably a little hair-brained when I wrote it. I see now that those points only included his international matches, but for some reason were beside his Connacht appearances. Thought it was low myself but was rushing the article so I could link to it from the FB page. Anyway, I have updated the article now.

Thanks for pointing it out.

+1

We'll be up against it. This is close to Ulster's best side. Our injuries are not the players you'd want to see out, even if we had White and Faloon back I'd be more confident but I trust this Connacht team to make a match of it.

The pressure is really heaped on Ulster for this one and we need to try and grasp the initiative early on unlike the Munster game. All logic says Ulster will win but then again all logic said Leinster and Biarritz would win earlier in the year.

Final interpro under Eric's tenure, he deserves a big performance.

Maybe the Dragons game marks the return to the dominance Ulster displayed in the fall, but since Feb their performances have been uneven. Sure the 6 Nations and injuries had a hand in that, but Connacht have a chance if the can hold their own at scrum time. A retreating pack conceding numerous penalties and it could get ugly in a hurry even if they let Jackson kick at goal. Would hate to see Eric honoured on the night of a drubbing.

connachta wrote:
Honnestly, I cant see how on earth we could beat that team... probably the best for Ulster since the 90's, ALL the back-line is international, + Court Tuohy Henry and Williams are massive beasts, and Afoa Handerson and Marshall as luxurious jokers....

without half of our regular team it will be difficult, the 16th man will be crucial.

Same as that. Best side we've faced since January. I think we're relying on luck and a dodgy Ulster performance. On the plus side, the McCarthy/Swifty/George combo is what we were sorely missing against Munster.