It's definitely winnable, and I guess we'll know more when we see the team sheets, but I'd take an LBP right now. 5 pts from the first two games would be decent.

Having said that after the Blues we have to host Ulster and Ospreys as well as travel to Treviso and Leinster, so we've a pretty tough start to this season. A win on the road would set us up nicely.

they don't have the strength of a few years ago with players either retiring or leaving, last week they only had 2 well known players on the field Matthew Rees and Bradley Davies, not going to be easy for us but this match is winnable.

galway_gas wrote: Was reading at weekend that Cardiff visited the 3g pitches in UL (where munster are now based) earlier this year and eventually awarded the contract for their 4g pitch to the same Irish based contractor. www.tonypattersonsportsgrounds.com/

a few nice galleries of new Cardiff pitch here
www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-...ture-special-5709376

The pitch looks well in fairness. Fingers crossed for a dry evening, and a Connacht try fest........but I'll take a 3 nil win in the lashing rain

I wouldn't be so sure about a win in Cardiff. We did very well there last year and were on a roll, but Cardiff have improved their squad on last year. We have the quality to win away, but they won't be pushovers in their first home game in front of a fan base that have expectations of significantly improving on last years final place.

connachta wrote: I'd love to hear your "rudimentary French" :woohoo:

Trust me, you wouldn't...

Tis a rare, and ugly thing... :oops:

sea_point wrote:

RonanL wrote:

gaillimhabu wrote: TG4 it is so...Someone to pick BBC over our own irish channel.. Tut tut RonanL

You should change your username in respect to Ronan Loughney who is fluent in Irish

Unlike my namesake, I don't speak Irish fluently and I like to be able to understand the commentary, hence the preference for BBC Wales.

You don't need to speak any particular language fluently to watch a rugby match to be honest. 95% of it is stating the bleeding obvious..

Before BT very kindly gave me their TV channels for free (incl ESPN), for two seasons I used to watch the Top 14 highlights programme on TV5 Monde. My French is at very best rudimentary and nowhere near commentary speed that's for sure.

Even the most basic Irish should see you through comfortably, and sure you might even pick up a couple of focaíl freisin... :woohoo:

www.tg4.ie/en/programmes/rugby-on-tg4/dictionary.html

Thanks Seapoint. I've watched plenty of games on TG4 but when a good English language equivalent is available I'll take it every time. Personal choice. While we're on the topic, I watched the BBC Wales coverage of the Leinster game last weekend and I thought it was very good - I even found Jonathan Davies' commentary entertaining at times, some good one liners.

phatguerilla wrote:

Darragh507 wrote: we got to win this

Agreed, especially as the squad is near to full strength. I think we won this fixture last year and lost the home game is that right? Should be looking for the double this year imo. Also there doesn't seem to be any mention of Frank Murphy in that squad update, didn't he pull out before the Zebre game, anyone know what that was about/if its sorted?

Correct. And we should have won the home game as well. I haven't heard what happened murphy at last minute but I'm coming around to thinking that POD should be our number 2 SH. From what we saw in brief Castres highlights he looked sharp and scored a good try. Similarly at weekend was heavily involved in Carr's try.

Darragh507 wrote: we got to win this

Agreed, especially as the squad is near to full strength. I think we won this fixture last year and lost the home game is that right? Should be looking for the double this year imo. Also there doesn't seem to be any mention of Frank Murphy in that squad update, didn't he pull out before the Zebre game, anyone know what that was about/if its sorted?

I think we're going to win this. You're welcome

Was reading at weekend that Cardiff visited the 3g pitches in UL (where munster are now based) earlier this year and eventually awarded the contract for their 4g pitch to the same Irish based contractor. www.tonypattersonsportsgrounds.com/

a few nice galleries of new Cardiff pitch here
www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-...ture-special-5709376

we got to win this

I'd love to hear your "rudimentary French" :woohoo:

RonanL wrote:

gaillimhabu wrote: TG4 it is so...Someone to pick BBC over our own irish channel.. Tut tut RonanL

You should change your username in respect to Ronan Loughney who is fluent in Irish

Unlike my namesake, I don't speak Irish fluently and I like to be able to understand the commentary, hence the preference for BBC Wales.

You don't need to speak any particular language fluently to watch a rugby match to be honest. 95% of it is stating the bleeding obvious..

Before BT very kindly gave me their TV channels for free (incl ESPN), for two seasons I used to watch the Top 14 highlights programme on TV5 Monde. My French is at very best rudimentary and nowhere near commentary speed that's for sure.

Even the most basic Irish should see you through comfortably, and sure you might even pick up a couple of focaíl freisin... :woohoo:

www.tg4.ie/en/programmes/rugby-on-tg4/dictionary.html

In my opinion, this anouncement clearly means Duffy 15, Henshaw 12...

Squad Update ahead of Cardiff game Pat InternalGame_reszied

The Connacht Rugby squad trained in Galway today ahead of their first away game against Cardiff Blues this Friday night. This is the first home game for the Blues on the newly installed artificial pitch.

Following on from Saturday’s 25-16 win over Zebre, Pat Lam’s men came through with relatively few knocks and bruises.

Still on the sidelines are forwards Eoin McKeon (ankle), Denis Buckley (shoulder) and Craig Clarke (calf). All three players will continue to be monitored over the coming weeks.

The squad were pleased to welcome back club captain Gavin Duffy who re-joined full training this week. The Ballina-native is available for selection at the weekend.

Centre Dave McSharry was also back training this week and continues to make progress in a bid to be back playing in the coming weeks.

The team to face Cardiff is set to be announced at noon on Thursday.

Cardiff Blues gained a losing bonus point during their defeat in Glasgow on Friday night but have still only won one of their last eight RaboDirect PRO12 encounters. The Welshmen have not lost their opening two games in the tournament since season 2009/10.

Connacht beat Zebre 25-16 at the Sportsground in round 1 and have been defeated just once on the road in their last four trips: 0-22 at Munster in March. Connacht have won three of their last four encounters with Welsh Regions.

The Irishmen have beaten the Blues in just three of their twenty previous meetings in the tournament, but one of those was in this equivalent fixture at the Arms Park in February.

Cardiff Blues v Connacht
Friday, 13th September 2013
At Arms Park, 7:05pm.
Live on TG4 / BBC Alba
Referee: Claudio Blessano (FIR, 4th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Simon Rees, Martyn Lewis (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Aurwel Morgan (WRU)
TMO: Gareth Simmonds (WRU)

gaillimhabu wrote: TG4 it is so...Someone to pick BBC over our own irish channel.. Tut tut RonanL

You should change your username in respect to Ronan Loughney who is fluent in Irish

Unlike my namesake, I don't speak Irish fluently and I like to be able to understand the commentary, hence the preference for BBC Wales.