clanman wrote: jake posted a photo on twitter, nasty gash, the only positive is that it goes across the fleshy part of his hand

with modern stictching and sutures and the fact jake has youth on his side its amazing how quickly something as nasty as that can be turned around. no tendon damage, no bone damage (from what I understand) and those are the critical points. with the best of medical care (which he gets) i wouldn't be surprised to see him back within a month. we'll have to struggle on with nepia in the meantime. Not a bad complaint

I'm absolutely thrilled to see Kelleher and Brenann doing the business. Will keep Tiernan and Matt focused. They may be our 'new internationals'. But they still have to keep an eye on their backs. So all good. Go Connacht.

Thought Kerins might have warranted the camp in France. Isn't it great to see all this potential talent?

Don't believe it- Jake out again. This lad has had such a horrible time with injuries...

rugbylad.com/pic-connacht-flanker-suffer...y-nasty-hand-injury/

jake posted a photo on twitter, nasty gash, the only positive is that it goes across the fleshy part of his hand

connachta wrote: but his morphology is (for now?) not the same as Finlay's

And with that, a euphemism was born ...

www.irishrugby.ie/guinnesspro12/37827.php
Illustrations here!

So, extended summary for you guys, as there was no coverage;

30 seconds of nightmare, kick-off not taken, White junior (their scrum-half) ran to score with no opposition on the fringe of the 1st ruck

Then 80 minutes of very very good rugby. 7th Friendly game I attended, and this one was the most "accomplished performance" I've ever seen

Clearly a tight game against French Challenge Cup Champions, who are only 9 days from the 1st top14 match! We are 3 weeks away from ours! And we were without 70% of our "likely" 1st team. The lads were impressive. Much cohesion, very few missed tackles and knock-ons for an early friendly

Individually Niyi made a 50 meters breakthrough, making fun of 3-4 defenders, leading to the 1st try. Btw, this try was concluded by Brennan and Kelleher with impressing skills : quick pass and Cian getting through two defenders to gain the last 5 meters

McKeon (Eoin) was brillant as blindside, very commited to the tackles

Griffin looked a bit rusty, Aki was closely watched by defenders

Delahunt played just 20, was good, as was Haffernan during the whole 1st half ball in hands (darts are still so-so)

McCoy was a good surprise for me, only conceeded two pens against NARIASHVILI, and every scrums were steady. Saba Meunargia was even dominant and gained ground ball in hands. The future is bright for TH, hope White will help them to develop further 1 more year;

I don't get why Carey was "non playing", he warned-up well beside Bealham, but his morphology is (for now?) not the same as Finlay's (to be clear : much more fatty).

Romaine is a young beast, Stevenson played 15 minutes and stole two lineouts.Fox has the ability to finish the (long) attacking phases which is important, and I can't see any issue if he (and Connolly) has to play 2 or 3 games in September

Can't we all just get along?!!! It's preseason lads, let's not lose the run of ourselves. I think Pat & Co have shown that they might just know what they're doing so let's try and have a little faith. Delighted for Fox, gutted for poor Jake, the guy is just so unlucky, bit at least it should be fairly short term. Great to see Brennan and Kelleher get themselves on the score sheet, will do wonders for their confidence. Any word on how Stevenson got on? Brings a lot of experience to a fairly youthful second row, let's be honest it's a massive ask to expect him to come in and replace Aly but fingers crossed he settles in.

sea_point wrote:

dobby wrote:

sligsup wrote:

dobby wrote: I'm at a loss for Montpellier selection. I've seen the B&I stuff which is pedestrian. I've seen the emerging ireland stuff which is woeful. There is nothing to be learnt about new players if they simply are fitting to something that will never start a PRO12.

Pre-season is about integrating players not simply playing 80 minutes for 'rugby time'. I really think management have to approach the concept of pre-season differently. Yes all our internationals will not play against Montpellier so its a matter of finding the balance without them.

The Montpellier first 40 minutes selection would be a huge stretchof the imagination as a starting Connacht 15. I see this as a total waste of an opportunity to integrate new players into a core group.

Have you ever played competitive team sport dobby have u ever being away with a team on a pre season or even a work team building weekend there is so much more to the weekend / week than the game ! This game is a part of the jigsaw and a small part your point is lost on me !!!!

As Borders said before you sligsup.I just made the point that with B&I, emerging ireland that it is a totally useless exercise to simply field a team of unknowables when this team will never be fielded. I don't suggest I know better than Pat, but I do suggest that there is little to be learnt by fielding a team that will be never fielded in our Pro12 season. My expectation of Pro12 is to see the likes of Kelleher (fullback) strutting his stuff alongside a centre partnership of Robb and Aki, (Adeolukum on wing with ? on other wing). O'Leary at outhalf. Blade the only option at scrum half (with cooney and marmion unavailable). So these are the names but you get an idea of their ability if they are included within a quality backline.

Then you look at the pack. Delahunt is a huge favourite of mine and a great backup to tom. But instead the front 3 looks awfylly weak which allows nobody to look good. Second row. Well I am convinced SOB will be our best second row for the totatility of the season next year but Qualter and SOB is simply not going to happen unless we have a crisis.

I just want us to learn. You cannot learn if there isn't a basis for learning

If anything last year proved proved that there is no such thing from a Connacht perspective as Pat Lam's best team, ( with injuries and International selections it only ever exists on paper) so to diminish the performance of the squad Pat chose to put out last night without knowing the restrictions that were in place for some players is just petty really...

And the performance/result against a very strong MHRC side shows that Pat knows a lot more about his players than you, or I for that matter...

Think you very much might have a point . Great to see the new lads scoring tries. Looking really positive for the new season. Shame to hear Jake injured. And incredible to have such a talent as nepia for backup. Onwards and upwards.

dobby wrote:

sligsup wrote:

dobby wrote: I'm at a loss for Montpellier selection. I've seen the B&I stuff which is pedestrian. I've seen the emerging ireland stuff which is woeful. There is nothing to be learnt about new players if they simply are fitting to something that will never start a PRO12.

Pre-season is about integrating players not simply playing 80 minutes for 'rugby time'. I really think management have to approach the concept of pre-season differently. Yes all our internationals will not play against Montpellier so its a matter of finding the balance without them.

The Montpellier first 40 minutes selection would be a huge stretchof the imagination as a starting Connacht 15. I see this as a total waste of an opportunity to integrate new players into a core group.

Have you ever played competitive team sport dobby have u ever being away with a team on a pre season or even a work team building weekend there is so much more to the weekend / week than the game ! This game is a part of the jigsaw and a small part your point is lost on me !!!!

As Borders said before you sligsup.I just made the point that with B&I, emerging ireland that it is a totally useless exercise to simply field a team of unknowables when this team will never be fielded. I don't suggest I know better than Pat, but I do suggest that there is little to be learnt by fielding a team that will be never fielded in our Pro12 season. My expectation of Pro12 is to see the likes of Kelleher (fullback) strutting his stuff alongside a centre partnership of Robb and Aki, (Adeolukum on wing with ? on other wing). O'Leary at outhalf. Blade the only option at scrum half (with cooney and marmion unavailable). So these are the names but you get an idea of their ability if they are included within a quality backline.

Then you look at the pack. Delahunt is a huge favourite of mine and a great backup to tom. But instead the front 3 looks awfylly weak which allows nobody to look good. Second row. Well I am convinced SOB will be our best second row for the totatility of the season next year but Qualter and SOB is simply not going to happen unless we have a crisis.

I just want us to learn. You cannot learn if there isn't a basis for learning

If anything last year proved proved that there is no such thing from a Connacht perspective as Pat Lam's best team, ( with injuries and International selections it only ever exists on paper) so to diminish the performance of the squad Pat chose to put out last night without knowing the restrictions that were in place for some players is just petty really...

And the performance/result against a very strong MHRC side shows that Pat knows a lot more about his players than you, or I for that matter...

Sounds like a pretty positive outing, given the injury Heenan sustained. Hopefully, he doesn't have too long of a mend.

I like that we scored some tries and they were scored by the newer guys and Fox-M after nearly a year out of the game.

So sounds positive enough really.

ConnachtCows wrote: Wow

So much negativity about a friendly. I think people are losing the run of themselves a lot.
We won the league last season. Something absolutely no one would have expected, yet now we're all experts.

People need to get a reality check. Look back on previous seasons. We usually lose all our friendly matches, and thats all they are. Friendlies.

Go look at soccer teams. They're preseason friendlies are made up of teams mixed between 1st teamers, reserves, lads on trials.

Agree completely, never an indication of our season or any other teams for that matter. More a case of coaches looking at players and seeing how they implement instructions and game plans. There will always be high changes in numbers during the games so no real consistent players on the pitch. It is just another step, ramping up the game intensity, giving runs to new players, watching and protecting some players from injuries where we are vulnerable in certain positions. Never worry about pre season games.

Preseason games should be about nothing more than fitness and maybe giving some new names a run in the jersey in a less pressurised environment.

The real work is done on the training ground

Wow

So much negativity about a friendly. I think people are losing the run of themselves a lot.
We won the league last season. Something absolutely no one would have expected, yet now we're all experts.

People need to get a reality check. Look back on previous seasons. We usually lose all our friendly matches, and thats all they are. Friendlies.

Go look at soccer teams. They're preseason friendlies are made up of teams mixed between 1st teamers, reserves, lads on trials.

You're talking like this game is in the future - you do know the game was on Thursday for some reason and this terrible selection lost by two points to a tooled up Montpellier, right?

sligsup wrote:

dobby wrote: I'm at a loss for Montpellier selection. I've seen the B&I stuff which is pedestrian. I've seen the emerging ireland stuff which is woeful. There is nothing to be learnt about new players if they simply are fitting to something that will never start a PRO12.

Pre-season is about integrating players not simply playing 80 minutes for 'rugby time'. I really think management have to approach the concept of pre-season differently. Yes all our internationals will not play against Montpellier so its a matter of finding the balance without them.

The Montpellier first 40 minutes selection would be a huge stretchof the imagination as a starting Connacht 15. I see this as a total waste of an opportunity to integrate new players into a core group.

Have you ever played competitive team sport dobby have u ever being away with a team on a pre season or even a work team building weekend there is so much more to the weekend / week than the game ! This game is a part of the jigsaw and a small part your point is lost on me !!!!

As Borders said before you sligsup.I just made the point that with B&I, emerging ireland that it is a totally useless exercise to simply field a team of unknowables when this team will never be fielded. I don't suggest I know better than Pat, but I do suggest that there is little to be learnt by fielding a team that will be never fielded in our Pro12 season. My expectation of Pro12 is to see the likes of Kelleher (fullback) strutting his stuff alongside a centre partnership of Robb and Aki, (Adeolukum on wing with ? on other wing). O'Leary at outhalf. Blade the only option at scrum half (with cooney and marmion unavailable). So these are the names but you get an idea of their ability if they are included within a quality backline.

Then you look at the pack. Delahunt is a huge favourite of mine and a great backup to tom. But instead the front 3 looks awfylly weak which allows nobody to look good. Second row. Well I am convinced SOB will be our best second row for the totatility of the season next year but Qualter and SOB is simply not going to happen unless we have a crisis.

I just want us to learn. You cannot learn if there isn't a basis for learning

dobby wrote: I'm at a loss for Montpellier selection. I've seen the B&I stuff which is pedestrian. I've seen the emerging ireland stuff which is woeful. There is nothing to be learnt about new players if they simply are fitting to something that will never start a PRO12.

Pre-season is about integrating players not simply playing 80 minutes for 'rugby time'. I really think management have to approach the concept of pre-season differently. Yes all our internationals will not play against Montpellier so its a matter of finding the balance without them.

The Montpellier first 40 minutes selection would be a huge stretchof the imagination as a starting Connacht 15. I see this as a total waste of an opportunity to integrate new players into a core group.

Have you ever played competitive team sport dobby have u ever being away with a team on a pre season or even a work team building weekend there is so much more to the weekend / week than the game ! This game is a part of the jigsaw and a small part your point is lost on me !!!!