Hugely disappointing result. Very proud of the lads, just a little fearful that the season is taking its toll on a lot of them. Hopefully they will be able to dig deep and get a few of the injured back to give this season the finish it deserves.

Congratulation to Dragons. Who would have thought they'd be flying the banner for the Pro 12 at this stage? Good luck to them, if they make it to the final they will truly deserve it after two away knockout games.

eezipc wrote: Just a thought. I'm sitting in Geneva airport now waiting for Aer Lingus to get its act together.
There are a few other Connacht folk on the same flight. Some I know and some I only recognise from the weekend. .....

Stay away from the €22 burgers!! They're awful & served with a few oily crisps!

For those who weren't there, the atmosphere in the stadium was superb - although heavily armed army guys on the way in was a far cry from what we're used to at the Sportsground. The game was fantastic but obviously gutting that we couldn't have finished them off (esp after building a 19-3 lead).

The French were looking around in awe at the noise that was coming from the Connacht fans. Severals took videos & came over to shake hands and have their pictures taken with us afterwards.
A few bad eggs shouted for our kicks and one idiot even threw an empty beer jug ....but idiots can show up anywhere.

Grenoble was a nice city - not quite as nice as Toulouse or Parma, but the cable cars and view from the mountain down on the city was impressive. The French even went to the trouble of putting on a traditional French protest for our entertainment.

Great to meet so many more Clan heads. Didn't go back to O'Callaghans on the Sat night as they were incredibly rude on Friday night but bumped into a few more in the Druid.

Thanks @Pinky for organising the tickets & everyone on the thread for all the information, tips and banter!

Just a thought. I'm sitting in Geneva airport now waiting for Aer Lingus to get its act together.
There are a few other Connacht folk on the same flight. Some I know and some I only recognise from the weekend. The consensus is that we are all exhausted but not particularly upset with the result. Connacht gave it a fair crack with an astonishingly limited match day squad. I have no doubt Connacht would have won if Heenan, Ally, White, Tiernan, Ronaldson, Carty and others were available.
The grenoble fans were in awe of that team. So many said to me how much better they were than they realised.
It's over now, move on.
If Connacht play like that against munster, they will beat them and claim a Champions Cup spot In the process.
Still a lot to play for this season so FRONT UP & F*****G RISE UP.

@Connnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnacht Thanks a million

eezipc wrote: I didn't see any TV coverage but one side of the stadium was practically empty..... probably looked like a packed stadium on TV.

They filmed the match from the empty stand so it looked 90% full when it was actually 70% full. Occasional line-out/reverse angle shots gave you a glimpse of the mostly-empty stand but that was it.

Darragh wrote: For those at the game, what was the stadium like? It looks very well on tv.

We could only dream of similar facilities!!!

Lovely stadium to be honest. Sports ground is very amateur compared to it. I didn't see any TV coverage but one side of the stadium was practically empty..... probably looked like a packed stadium on TV.

Gutted for the lads- they showed passion in spades...
Think we could start a Clan Choir with the [strike]noise[/strike], sorry singing from the stands. Well done travellers, ye done us proud (again).. Missed a certain roar though.. oh that's right.. I didn't make it...

Just home, flaked.........


Anyone have an idea where to get the game seeing that I don't have BT?!

Don't suppose some genius has it up on youtube or something?!

For those at the game, what was the stadium like? It looks very well on tv.

We could only dream of similar facilities!!!

Great game. Team and fans were a credit to the province and Irish rugby. I could hear the fields ringing out. Connacht have still a lot of league games (maybe 5!) to play and they have sure put themselves on the map with their style of rugby. Hope all those that travelled have had a good time and safe journey home. Also, hope the injury profile of the team improves from here on in.

Totally heartbroken today. What a crazy game, out half was the difference I think. Nice to meet a few of the forum members and put faces to names.

Darragh wrote: Not trying to be doom and gloom. It was a great game!

But the lineout and re-starts have been a concern for a while now.
Discipline can go off and has been hurting us in that final 20 minute period in the last two games.

Absolutely agree on those points. I think it was Andy Goode on Bt that described the restart as the third set piece. Our scrum is excellent, our lineout was great but is creaking, but our restart must be close enough to dead last in the league and its killing our ability to close out games and handing possession/points back to opposition after we score.

I'm worried that the discipline issue might be coming from tiredness and an inability to maintain tempo in the last quarter, which is being compounded by injuries which prevent us replacing our props efficiently.

Borders no.2 wrote: Thought we should have got a penalty at the end for off-feet.

Agreed, I thought they were off their feet too, would love to see it again. Heartbreak!

Not trying to be doom and gloom. It was a great game!

But the lineout and re-starts have been a concern for a while now.
Discipline can go off and has been hurting us in that final 20 minute period in the last two games.

Three games left now, at a minimum!

Hoping we take our frustrations out on Munster next week now.

Darragh wrote:
There is a lot to fix.

I don't think we have to go too far down the doom and gloom road just now, we haven't turned into a bad team despite the loss.

I do think there were some obvious problems, but I thought 1 to 8 were excellent apart from perhaps a blip or two in the lineout, Marmion was very good, SOL mixed the good with the bad but we can count his senior appearances on one hand, every fly half makes mistakes and he has to be allowed make his if he's going to be an option for us there. He's still only 23 and has only 15 senior appearances between Grenoble and Connacht. If anything perhaps this shows that he should have been given a couple more games earlier in the season.

Bundee, Niyi and Healy were outstanding, is Healy starting to become a viable long term option at 15?

Thought Henshaw shot up too often, or the Grenoble lads were well tuned into it, they seemed to step and negate his big hit pretty well. I don't know if we marked Farrell well enough, massive carrier for them and managed to create a lot of space and make important offloads.

Second game where we've given away a team yellow due to persistent penalties/infringement and again its cost us. Buckley did redeem himself with his part in that turnover for the penalty once he came back on.

This was the first game in a long while where our bench didn't offer much if any impact and was a big part in our loss. Carr and Cooney made important contributions but the rest just couldn't get up to the pace of the game for whatever reason. A sign of how stretched we have become due to injuries etc.


Grenoble are a huge team who are probably equal or better than Leinster for physicality, making this the the third massively physical encounter in three weeks and in the end it was probably too much. Have to give Grenoble some credit for their win too, they pressured Connacht for almost the entire 80, managed to win kickable penalties and finished strong. We were very good at the breakdown initially but Grenoble found a way back into the game there.