salmson wrote:

Evil_g wrote: Why is Henshaw recorded as "unavailable"?

Marmion and TOH are in the unavailable list too, despite not being injured, whereas McKeon, Masterson etc. are not. Perhaps this is an official rest week for them under the international player welfare programme. If so, that's good news for TOH.

They seem to be stretching the definition of unavailability alright.
From what I can see the only ones in the euro squad but not selected or "unavailable" are McKeon, Masterson, Browne and NFM.

I think Eoin was excused as he had to stay up late to do the interview in the Clan Bar.

connemara man wrote: Who's the youngest there?

Conan O'Donnell (still 19) unless I'm mistaken.

Who's the youngest there?

Decadence wrote: Bringing Aki and Muldoon over is a bit of a strange decision, given the amount of rugby they've played so far, and will have to play over the next few months. Maybe they'll be rested next week. And bringing all three outhalves gives us no clear indication as to who'll start next week.

Thought Aki earned a rest as well, but need some maturity in the backline and I'm sure the hope is that once McSharry returns Aki will be able to get a game off here and there. As for Muldoon, he won't get to 300 caps sitting on his a$$ in Portumna. Sure he's happy to add Siberia to his list of exotic playing locations.

Someone on another thread was wondering if a 6th win on the trot in Siberia would be Connacht's best ever winning run.

Short answer is YES.

Long answer:

In the amateur days Connacht usually only played three interpros a season, very occasional matches against touring sides excepted. Most years we lost all three; but we did win two of three in 1955/56 and the following season 1956/57. I don't have dates for these but even if we won the last 2 in 55/56 and the first 2 in 56/57 that's a maximum of four in a row.

Things didn't get much better with the advent of professionalism, with an extended InterPro season, the Exiles dipping in and out of that competition, and the Challenge Cup giving us in and around a dozen matches a season. The longest run I could find in the early professional era was 4 matches in the Challenge Cup from September 20th 1997 to October 11th that same year. That said the run of wins - Bordeaux-Begles (a), Nice (h), Bordeaux-Begles (h), and Northampton (a) - was damned tasty. The two away wins were the first times an Irish side had beaten French and English sides, *in* France and England, in competitive games.

We set our (current) best ever winning run in five Celtic League and Challenge Cup games from September 7 to October 6th 2001 against Neath, Newport, Caerphilly, Narbonne, and Rugby Roma.

As widely reported here and elsewhere, this was equaled in a League only streak the following year, when we beat Borders, Cardiff, Leinster, Newport, and Bridgend between August 30th and September 28th, and again in our most recent five league games (Cardiff, Zebre, Ospreys, Edinburgh, Treviso) of this season. You can see why Pat Lam keeps harking back to the Glasgow game we lost so needlessly; had we won that fixture then this year's squad would already have the record in the bag.

I read you don't want Robb at 13, but for the others I proposed
9 Porter 10 AJ 12 Ronaldson 13 Robb 11 Parata 14 Niyi 15 Leader
Would rest both Carty and Aki

Rumored backline :
Porter-9
Aj-10
Parata-11
Robb-12
Aki-13
Niyi-14
Leader-15

Think we'd all prefer Bundee not playing but we need Parata on the wing as have no one else really

Evil_g wrote: Why is Henshaw recorded as "unavailable"?

Marmion and TOH are in the unavailable list too, despite not being injured, whereas McKeon, Masterson etc. are not. Perhaps this is an official rest week for them under the international player welfare programme. If so, that's good news for TOH.

swift4prez wrote: a 24-man Connacht Rugby squad

That doesn't leave much margin for error.
After a couple of days training in the cold, we could be starting without a full bench.

Bringing Aki and Muldoon over is a bit of a strange decision, given the amount of rugby they've played so far, and will have to play over the next few months. Maybe they'll be rested next week. And bringing all three outhalves gives us no clear indication as to who'll start next week.

Why is Henshaw recorded as "unavailable"?

swift4prez wrote:
Unavailable from Challenge Cup Squad: 
Rodney Ah You, Fionn Carr, John Cooney, Matt Healy, Robbie Henshaw, Kieran Marmion, Ben Marshall, Tom McCartney, Dave McSharry, Tiernan O’Halloran, Danie Poolman, Quinn Roux, Nathan White.

Add backrows and outhalf, and once again that's a hell of a virtual team

Later this evening, a 24-man Connacht Rugby squad will depart from Shannon airport for the nearly 6,000 km trip to Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The two-flight, 9-hour journey will see the squad arrive in the Siberian city (7 hours ahead of GMT) at 11am on Wednesday where they will prepare for the Saturday afternoon fixture against Russian side Enisei-STM in round 1 of the European Rugby Challenge Cup.

The uncapped duo of Peter Robb and Sean O’Brien are included in the traveling squad and join their Academy colleagues James Connolly, Shane Delahunt, Conan O’Donnell and Rory Parata for the trp.

Experienced returnees Jason Harris-Wright and Ronan Loughney are named to travel having both played in the Eagles win over Leinster ‘A’ last week.

The starting XV and replacements for Saturday’s game will be announced on Friday at 12 noon Irish time.

Traveling Squad

Backs (10)
Darragh Leader, Niyi Adeolokun, Bundee Aki, Peter Robb, Rory Parata, Craig Ronaldson, Jack Carty, AJ MacGinty, Ian Porter, Caolin Blade

Forwards (14)
Jason Harris-Wright, Dave Heffernan,  Shane Delahunt, Conan O’Donnell, Ronan Loughney, Denis Buckley, Finlay Bealham, Aly Muldowney, Danny Qualter, Ultan Dillane, James Connolly, Sean O’Brien, George Naoupu, John Muldoon.

Unavailable from Challenge Cup Squad: 
Rodney Ah You, Fionn Carr, John Cooney, Matt Healy, Robbie Henshaw, Kieran Marmion, Ben Marshall, Tom McCartney, Dave McSharry, Tiernan O’Halloran, Danie Poolman, Quinn Roux, Nathan White.

Apparently there is a feed for the game, so for those of you who get frustrated with TG4 as Gaeilge, good luck...

news.sportbox.ru/Vidy_sporta/regbi/spbvi...Konnaht_Kubok_Vyzova

Don't forget, 8AM kick off our time....

I know a few of them wouldnt have pleyed anyway but the injury report dosent make great reading

www.the42.ie/matt-healy-injury-quinn-rou...ery-2434237-Nov2015/