I agree with most of what you say borders, but you are being kind to the ref, he was awful.

We responded very well after the intercept try, and looked in total control, but then lost the plot for 10 mins. We were in trouble when down to 14, but again we regrouped and again took control. Cooney made a big difference when he came on, as did Muldowney. We are lucky Patchell got injured and could not take any more kicks. They had 2 kick-able pens that were missed.

I don't understand why George et al were left on the bench until the 79th minute, Cardiff looked gassed and fresh legs might have killed them.

Still, 5 points against a team we have had trouble against for some time, that'll do nicely.

5 points in the end which is always a good evening's work. The intercept early on put us on the backfoot but the 3 tries in quick succession looked to put us in a comfort zone. End of the half was sloppy though and the YC turned the game in Cardiff's favour. However, to be fair we regathered ourselves again. Too far away to notice how close it was but TOH did well to dot down for the 4th try and we pushed on from there.

Bit of a downer to give them the 2 at the end considering we had won the kick off and only had to run the clock down. We need to become a bit more strategic in those situations instead of chasing another try which makes no difference to us. The ref did appear to only be seeing the breakdown from one perspective at that stage but still disappointing.

Defence still needs huge work. Another 31 points conceded against mediocre opposition (and it could have been more). We brought a lot of trouble on ourselves this evening. Very much a work in progress but plenty of positives too. Tiernan, Bundee, the two wings, McKeon, Fox-Matamua and Muldowney when he came on in particular impressed me.

Anyway 11 points in the bag. Hopefully push on for another good result against Zebre and keep building the points during the World Cup.

0-7 ---->7-7, Marmion try

connemara man wrote: I'm missing it as well. It's a shame there isn't a way someone can use my season ticket for one match. Especially when I can't physically give it to them. Like print of my number and I'll sign my ticket out of circulation for one match

That would be handy alright. Leinster have such a system afaik. In my case I should be in the Pucan pre-match/bus so if anyone wants to borrow mine for two games, keep an eye out for me.

I'm missing it as well. It's a shame there isn't a way someone can use my season ticket for one match. Especially when I can't physically give it to them. Like print of my number and I'll sign my ticket out of circulation for one match

Looks like I'm going to miss this one, unless ...
I don't suppose anyone happens to be driving to Dublin Airport straight after the final whistle ... worth asking ...

Cardiff Blues: 15 Dan Fish, 14 Aled Summerhill, 13 Tom Isaacs, 12 Gavin Evans, 11 Richard Smith, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Tavis Knoyle; 1 Sam Hobbs, 2 Kristian Dacey, 3 Craig Mitchell, 4 Jarrad Hoeata, 5 Lou Reed, 6 Josh Navidi (c), 7 Ellis Jenkins, 8 Josh Turnbull

Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Thomas Davies, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 James Down, 20 Manoa Vosawai, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 Garyn Smith

Cardiff team looks useful. I'll be honest and say that Bealham is a worry and O'Donnell even more so. Then again we are down to 4th and 5th choice tight head. Sam Hobbs has built up a good chunk of experience at this stage and could give him problems. Having said that Cardiff aren't as powerful a scrummaging unit as others we will face. Still expect us to win but not quite as confident as earlier in the week.

Worried about this one now......TH is a real problem :dry:

Best of luck to O'Donnell but having a first year academy player in any position poised to come on is a worry, at TH it's a massive, massive worry :oops:

That unavailable list would almost make a decent team.

Great bench from Aly outwards but nobody in the front row better get hurt. Anyone know what happened to Dillane?

Line up for Saturday

15. Tiernan O’Halloran
14. Danie Poolman
13. Rory Parata
12. Bundee Aki
11. Matt Healy
10. Jack Carty
9. Kieran Marmion

1. Denis Buckley
2. Tom McCartney
3. Finlay Bealham
4. Quinn Roux
5. Andrew Browne
6. John Muldoon (captain)
7. Nepia Fox-Matamua
8. Eoin McKeon

Replacements:

16. Dave Heffernan
17. JP Cooney
18. Conan O’Donnell
19. Aly Muldowney
20. George Naoupu
21. John Cooney
22. Craig Ronaldson
23. Fionn Carr

Unavailable / Injured: Jason Harris-Wright, Nathan White, Rodney Ah You, Ronan Loughney, Ben Marshall, Ultan Dillane, Jake Heenan, Eoghan Masterson, Api Pewhairangi, Robbie Henshaw, Dave McSharry, Shane O’Leary, Conor Finn.

Don't like to say this for an injured player, but this is just a cap : I'm relieved Anscombe is out

I'd go with

1) Buck
2) McCartney
3) Ah You
4) Roux
5) Muldowney
6) Muldoon
7) Fox
8 ) McKeon
9) Marms
10) Carty
11) Healy
12) Leader
13) Aki
14) Poolman
15) TOH

16) JHW
17) Cooney/Loughney??
18) Bealham
19) Dillane
20) Naoupu
21) Cooney
22) Ron
23) Parata

salmson wrote: Mixed injury update:

www.connachtrugby.ie/squad-update-ahead-...game-2/#ConnachtNews

Eoin Mc, Leader, Niyi & Muldowney available.

Out: Dave Mc (broken finger 8 weeks), Marshall (arm fracture 6 weeks), Masterson (hamstring strain back for Zebre), O'Leary (concussion, return to play protocols).

Good to have the returning players back. That must have been some break of the finger for McShazz to need surgery and be out 8 weeks with it. Makes Leaders return even more timely.

Mixed injury update:

www.connachtrugby.ie/squad-update-ahead-...game-2/#ConnachtNews

Eoin Mc, Leader, Niyi & Muldowney available.

Out: Dave Mc (broken finger 8 weeks), Marshall (arm fracture 6 weeks), Masterson (hamstring strain back for Zebre), O'Leary (concussion, return to play protocols).

I said last year that the Blues seem to bring out the inconsistency in Connacht and that will still be the case this year. If anything with Blues missing so many leaders things could be even more helter skelter. If Connacht play boring by the numbers set piece driven rugby they will win, if they start repeatedly lobbing it around in their own 22 or running penalties from deep rather than kicking they could lose a game that they should win.

has there been any injury update in the last week or so? i think we should be winning this one