I'm always going to support my team. I'll shout til I'm hoarse. So far this season there's been nothing that tells me we have anything that will worry the Ospreys. Struggled again against Zebre, lost to a Cardiff team that was there for the taking who in turn lost to Zebre, we then lose to one of the weakest Ulster teams to play in the sportsground. Ospreys on the other hand have won in Treviso, which is always a tough place to go to, should have beaten Leinster and hammered Edinburgh. They are unbeaten and are coming with their full team from what I see. We are in shite form and they are not. What from all I've said makes you think otherwise? You talk of white flags, but you've offered nothing to back your opinion that we're going to win

If it's blind optimism you're after you'll find plenty of that on the official Connacht Rugby Facebook page. Most of the regulars on here are more realistic about our chances in any given game. It has absolutely nothing to do with supporting the team which I have done for many years and will continue to do. I would dearly love us to win this but I just don't see it happening given Ospreys current form and what I've seen from us this season.

Couldn't agree more Swify4prez and Mareegoo. Hear hear.

tomsauce2000 wrote: It's too early to be very pessimistic about Lam's era

here here! end of.

3 games and gone, 1 win, 1 away loss and 1 home loss vs the finalist and table toppers from last year.
even after 14 losses in a row 20 months ago, people werent throwing in the towel 24 hours before kickoff.
FFS lads and cop on, if people are so negative go back and ''support'' man utd or barcelona in the pub, sure they win most of the time.

pat has changed or game plan, which has been awful for along time, aimless kicking, now its running style, early days and people have lost hope!!??

how about these people, show up 40mins before kickoff tomorrow, clap the players coming out for the warm up and when its quiet in the stands, start singing and others might join in.

fucking hell; we have great weather, why are so many people down? cheer up

swift4prez wrote: im nearly sure about this but maybe someone can set me straight, when a prop is on the bench, the team sheet has loosehead and tighthead by there name. can the TH prop sub come on for the LH prop???

for exampe locks is sub TH, if brett (LH) gets subbed at 60mins, can locks come on for him, and if white (TH) gets subbed at 70mins, could locks move to TH and rodney comes on at LH

I think it's just that if both recognised tightheads or both recognised looseheads are injured you can opt for uncontested scrums. But you can choose to scrum with 2 LHs or 2 THs if you want. Open to correction on that.

While Elwood was in charge, I always went to the Sportsground with hope. I always felt there was a chance we could win because we pulled out unbelievable performances from time to time. The obvious example is when we beat Harlequins after 14 straight defeats. I remember going to that game still with a little hope we could win.

It's too early to be very pessimistic about Lam's era but we need a performace soon to show we are capable of big performances. Otherwise, the enjoyment of going to the Sportsground will be eroded.

Optimism will come from a good performace. I'm still hopeful at the moment

i think the culk and menacthedenis should be banned by moderator for their attitude



roll out yer white flags ye yellowbellies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mary hinge im with ya on this

mary hinge wrote: That really is defeatist sh*t lads. Roll out the white flags!

It's called being realistic

cant see why the 6th highest try scorer n the league ever is sitting on the bench. crazy.

glad to see george on the bench, has been useless all season, when he came on vs ulster he was sent back on his ass. not sure if he is running to sraight or if he runs straight into defenders rather then trying a step. muldoon is not the answer but he's better then george. if only SOB was fit!
i guess that its the IRFU playing henshaw at 13 rather then swappin with gavin.

im nearly sure about this but maybe someone can set me straight, when a prop is on the bench, the team sheet has loosehead and tighthead by there name. can the TH prop sub come on for the LH prop???

for exampe locks is sub TH, if brett (LH) gets subbed at 60mins, can locks come on for him, and if white (TH) gets subbed at 70mins, could locks move to TH and rodney comes on at LH

galway_gas wrote: According to thread on babbling brook (no source mentioned) Ospreys team as follows:
15. Fussell
11. Hassler
12. Ben John
13. Ashley Beck
14. Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9. Tito Tebaldi
1. Duncan Jones
2. Scott Baldwin
3. Adam Jones
4. Alun-Wyn Jones
5. Ian Evans,
6. Joe Bearman
7. Justin Tipuric
8. Morgan Allen

bench

bevington,hibbard,jarvis,king,ardon,habberfield,morgan,spratt.

one change from above Joe Bearman/ James King swap places at 6/bench

mary hinge wrote: That really is defeatist sh*t lads. Roll out the white flags!

Call it what you like, but we rolled over and got our bellies tickled by a poor Ulster team and now we welcome an undefeated Ospreys with their returning Lions. We've seen nothing from Connacht that suggests they are close to gelling with each other and with Lam's game plan yet.

Happy to see poolman and ronaldson start, Muldoon at 8 again though. We have a new coach so he's not picking muldoon there out of sentiment, does Lam see something we don't? If George is partially on the naughty step (but kept in the squad due to lack of 8 cover) then I think I'd like to see some academy lads given a chance soon off the bench at least.
Also given the height and ability of the ospreys second row I half-expected to see muldowney start, I hope giving swift the captaincy does not preclude him coming off around 45 minutes to see muldowney come in and hopefully win some line outs.

Mind you I thought we'd get hammered by Leinster this time last year and look what happened there!

That really is defeatist sh*t lads. Roll out the white flags!

15. Gavin Duffy
14. Danie Poolman
13. Robbie Henshaw
12. Eoin Griffin
11. Matt Healy
10. Craig Ronaldson
9. Kieran Marmion

1. Brett Wilkinson
2. Sean Henry
3. Nathan White
4. Michael Swift (captain)
5. Craig Clarke
6. Andrew Browne
7. Jake Heenan
8. John Muldoon

Replacements:

16. James Rael
17. Rodney Ah You
18. Ronan Loughney
19. Aly Muldowney
20. George Naoupu
21. Paul O’Donohoe
22. Dan Parks
23. Fionn Carr


Big call to put Ronaldson, hope he takes his chance.

Can't see us getting anything from this. Coming out with no injuries is probably the best we can hope for unfortunately.