galway_gas wrote:
6th is unrealistic.

I'll say.

We have 3 will/should/must wins - Zebre, Treviso, Cardiff at home.

We have 2 maybes - Munster at home, Dragons away.

We have 3 not-before-Neil-Francis'-gender-reassignment-op - Ulster, Ospreys, Scarlets away.

I make that at least 12 points more, maybe 17 is we play out of our skins.

That's 34 points at best. Only Treviso and Cardiff (did you see them last night? They looked like their backs and back row were the Fijian 7s team, and the front 5 were fat blokes hauled out of The Duck and Dragon to make up numbers) look in poor enough form/lacking games in hand on us to fall below that level.

swift4prez wrote:
Scarlets 28 points (vs edinburgh) for us it would be better for edinburgh to win.

6th is unrealistic. I would prefer Scarlets to beat Edinburgh. A few teams around us have games in hand but these games are mostly against top 4 opposition. We could within a couple of points of 7 place after this weekend but realistically I can see us and cardiff fighting for the 9th/10th spot at end of season.

You're being hugely optimistic there swift4prez but definitely this game and Treviso at home next week are two games we must win to try and make ground before the end of the 6 nations games. After that we can take stock as there is 3 weeks to the next game.

Being honest if someone offered me 9th or 10th at this stage I'd bite their hand off after the season we've had.

looking at the table, we can make 6th spot if we get our act together, we have 8 games left.
our next 4 games are vs our rivals to fight for 6th. they are winnable.
zebre away
treviso home
dragons away
scarlets away

Scarlets 28 points (vs edinburgh) for us it would be better for edinburgh to win. game in wales
Dragons 24 (vs glasgow) we'd want glasgow win. game in wales
edinburgh 23 look above
cardiff 23 they already played leinster tonight and got 0 points
treviso 19 (vs ulster) we'd want ulster to win, game in italy
connacht 17 we play zebre
zebre 14 see above

after this round, we will have played 15 game, same as zebre & cardiff,
treviso, scarlets and dragons will have played 14.
edinburgh will have played 13

Zebre v Connacht – Stadio XXV Aprile Rabo Direct Pro 12 Round 15
Sunday 23rd February 2014 Kick Off: 16:30 (Irish Time)
On TV: Mediaset

Connacht travel to Parma this weekend hoping to make it 8 from 8 over the past two seasons against bottom of the table Zebre. Connacht's uninspiring win over Edinburgh last Saturday lifted them above Zebre in the table but the team will be aware that defeat on Sunday would leave an uphill struggle to the end of the season to avoid finishing bottom of the league.

Zebre Stats
Founded: 1973 (Formed as Professional Team in 2012)
History: 1973 – 1997 Invitational Selection for North West Italy.
Ground: Stadio XXV Aprile, Parma
Capacity: 3,500
Captain: Marco Bortolami
Director of Rugby: Roberto Manghi

Rabo Direct Pro 12 League Position 2013/14: P:14 Position:12th Points 14
Rabo Direct Pro 12 League Position 2012/13: 12th Points 10
Heineken Cup: 4th in Pool 6 Points 1

Recent Results
Zebre 6-16 Toulouse
Zebre 8-31 Leinster
Munster 36-8 Zebre

Next League Fixture:
Saturday 1st March 2014 16:00 (local time) Zebre v Cardiff Blues @ Stadio XXV Aprile, Parma

Heineken Cup (Pool 3)
Toulouse 23
Saracens 20
Connacht 13
Zebre 0

Previous Meetings

Saturday 11th January 2014 Heineken Cup Connacht 20-3 Zebre

www.ercrugby.com/matchcentre/26587.php

Saturday 19th October 2013 Heineken Cup Zebre 6-33 Connacht

www.ercrugby.com/matchcentre/25213.php