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Connacht v Glasgow Saturday 3rd September 17:15

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9 years 7 months ago #47800 by Shelflife
Replied by Shelflife on topic Connacht v Glasgow Saturday 3rd September 17:15
OK In my ham fisted attempt to remove the quote I managed to delete the last two posts which wasn't my intention so apologies for that.

However quoting third party allegations on a public forum however good the sources are, is not a good move. There are plenty out there that are very happy to lift quotes from here and treat them as facts and spread them to a much wider audience.

Lets stick to what you know yourself as facts please.

Courage is knowing what lies on the other side and still opening the door.

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9 years 7 months ago - 9 years 7 months ago #47796 by swift4prez
Replied by swift4prez on topic Connacht v Glasgow Saturday 3rd September 17:15
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Last edit: 9 years 7 months ago by swift4prez.

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9 years 7 months ago #47795 by ConamaraOB
Replied by ConamaraOB on topic Connacht v Glasgow Saturday 3rd September 17:15

Sol_ie wrote:

ConamaraOB wrote: Brilliant!!! :)


Warriors fan in, folks.


How so?

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9 years 7 months ago #47794 by Sol_ie

ConamaraOB wrote: Brilliant!!! :)


Warriors fan in, folks.

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9 years 7 months ago #47790 by ConamaraOB
Replied by ConamaraOB on topic Connacht v Glasgow Saturday 3rd September 17:15
Brilliant!!! :)

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9 years 7 months ago #47779 by RonanL
I felt we'd struggle to win this one, but never thought we'd be on the receiving end of such a hiding. When the fixtures came out I winced, because nobody wants two very tough home fixtures straight off the bat. It's looking very likely that we'll go into game 3 with two losses under our belt, and the pressure will be on then in Italy, which isn't ideal.

Very few positives to be drawn from the game but I have to say I'm surprised to hear criticism of the line out. I thought that went reasonably well, but then I did have my eyes closed for much of the second half! The scrum was solid too. In fact, while I'm being positive, we made a couple of good breaks in the first half, and appeared to butcher them. Bundee was guilty on at least one occasion. If we'd converted one of those, maybe the heads wouldn't have dropped so dramatically in the second half.

In general, I agree that we were most definitely under cooked. But people need to take the number of injuries into account. It's my understanding that they went to Sale and could have had a game, but didn't for fear of more injuries (to the second row in particular).

You can be sure the players and management are sitting through a rather painful video review session right now. They'll be keener than anyone to make up for what was an embarrassing performance. All we can do is support them (and stay til the end if you can).
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9 years 7 months ago #47778 by Darragh
Yep, a new week so time to move on.

Apologies if I appeared overly negative towards certain players.

I still maintain it was a very worrying performance (less so the end result). Just as winning becomes a habit, so does losing. That is the concern.
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9 years 7 months ago #47777 by kermis
Didn't see the game as I was away for the weekend but I'm very surprised at that result. It seems Glasgow have rediscovered how to put scores on the board which we struggled to do for a lot of last season.

Nothing gets won in September so good luck for the rest of the season.
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9 years 7 months ago #47776 by CONN8
Right it's time to move on, it was a bad day at the office, if I'm honest I thought they looked tired even though it is the start of the season. I'm not condemning them to the bottom half of the league just yet, every one has to improve, so bring on the Ospreys and then we can judge.

I have to say that I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a bit more laid out for the fans as a start of season opener for the pro12 champions. Just like our performance I thought the atmosphere was a bit flat. Maybe it's just me but I was expecting a bit more to get the crowd going.

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9 years 7 months ago - 9 years 7 months ago #47775 by clanman
for me it was a combination of some poor individual performances and a system malfunction, there were quite a few players out there who hadn't played a competetive game together, the forwards did ok for me in general although the lack of turnovers and power in rucks was a bit worrying. The backline was a bit of shambles in defence, in offence there were glimpses of last years team. the good news is our backline was at it's weakest in terms of players that were missing, I thought healy was poor considering he was a regular in the team last season but even last year he had one or 2 blips so we'll hope that's all it was in this game. I think Robb should have started having played quite a few times alongside aki last year. griffen is a good player but I don't think he has really improved as a player in the last 3 years, hopefully he'll be able to do just that training with the team. Kellegher was a bit of a disappointment stuttering into the line, unlike O'Halloran who glides passed defenders and nearly always makes yards. Let's see how he goes this season, but I think he may have some competition from the younger academy guys to be the backup to O'Halloran
Last edit: 9 years 7 months ago by clanman.

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9 years 7 months ago #47774 by Wasrednowgreen
Replied by Wasrednowgreen on topic Connacht v Glasgow Saturday 3rd September 17:15
The ball handling skills from last year were certainly not on show last night to say the very least!! The amount of turnover ball we coughed up was extremely worrying. It cannot be avoided but the losses of Henshaw , Muldowney and AJ are massive. Thats Fact. TOH not playing also was a huge loss. Was also worried about Bundee's body language at times. Kelliher has a long long way to go - I certainly thought he was at fault for the first two tries from where I was watching.

Connacht were simply miles off the pace. The second row situation worries me also if Dillane & Roux get called up to the Irish squad also. Very soft. For me, for now, O'Leary starts every time ahead of Carty - felt sorry for the guy as he left the pitch yesterday - confidence shattered.

Top 6 is going to be a massive ask this year but it has to be attained to maintain club momentum. Going to have to blank this result out of the memory bank & put it down to ring rust.....I hope!!!

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9 years 7 months ago #47772 by Sol_ie
Agree that some of the criticism on here re: Jack is a bit OTT. Not that I'm saying he had a good game, but he didn't stand out (to me) as being exceptionally bad.

Niyi had one or two small breaks (including one where he just zipped straight thro two lads), Buckley did some kind of flip in mid air to get the ball back on side, scrum was dominant in first half, set pieces were ok (can't recall losing any scrums or LO, but really don't want to go and look for stats!). We had moments which could've been chances in the early first half.

Couldn't poach the ball, they could turn over at will. Defence was very soft, and we seemed to lack that cutting edge when it came to breaking their line (or at least breaking their line, and then holding onto the ball for more than 20 seconds).

I just want to move on from here, look forward to next week and onwards. The worst I've felt leaving the SG in a long time.

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9 years 7 months ago #47771 by connachta
Replied by connachta on topic Connacht v Glasgow Saturday 3rd September 17:15
Not a surprise for me that the breakdown would have been the key, and we lost the game mostly there.

What is puzzling me is I swear we were up to it in France, not at all the classic hammering I'm used to for summer friendlies. And Montpellier was only 8 days from their top14 round 1, so they were decent opposition.
That doesn't make any sense.

That's not mainly about rustiness, that's about Glasgow reading our game and counter it. Other teams have a solution now : commit in every Rucks in defence, go forward and break tackles in attack. Of course it won't work that well for a less efficient team, but still.
Knock-ons aren't the main issue, handling game was promising time to time, and will be good

The key IMO is power in both attack and defence: I do want to see Roux, Robb, Heenan, Ronaldson, and Poolman as much as we can.
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  • Alan Connell
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9 years 7 months ago #47770 by Alan Connell
Replied by Alan Connell on topic Connacht v Glasgow Saturday 3rd September 17:15
From a Glasgow Fan, may I add a couple of very minor points to, perhaps, aid your view of Connacht’s performance and prospects for the season?

a) Yesterday’s match was, as one poster has already stated, Glasgow’s missed Cup Final from last season. There was huge disappointment that Glasgow did not reach the final at Murrayfield and, for fans at least, anything other than a win would have been a major setback and concern for the season. The performance was not perfect (I’ve yet to see one) but I, for one, couldn’t have asked for more and motivation was high. Perhaps too high in the case of Ryan Wilson.

b) Connacht played well in patches, particularly first half and the game was in the balance until about 55 minutes (?). One could argue that the final score flattered Glasgow but, equally, Glasgow could have scored more in the second half. A beauty of sport is that many opinions may be valid. A big change from the two games last season was that Glasgow were on top in the line outs. Last season, Glasgow were unable to relieve pressure nor retain possession, partly because of Connacht’s line out dominance. I’m not sure if it was Glasgow competing better or Connacht regressing. BTW, a factor in Glasgow’s success may have been their experience from the two games last season. The wind does give Connacht an enhanced home advantage. Scotstoun has a peculiar wind pattern but not as ‘individual’ as the Sportsground.…

c) Connacht played, essentially, as they did in the games I saw them last year. Fast line speed and pressing, very solid basic skills, good pace in the back three, serious grunt in midfield with a very good scrum. There is an All Blacks’ tint in Connacht’s play which won’t disappear and should mean that, notwithstanding the loss of O’Halloran and Muldowney (?), a top 4 place should be achieved. It’ll, clearly, be more difficult than last year and Pat Lam mat be a bit more pragmatic and/or flexible but he’s a very good coach so I wouldn’t be worried.

d) Connacht did look undercooked and, at least, one likely try was butchered so they will improve. Glasgow looked much more polished and match aware. However, one shouldn’t overemphasise Connacht’s lack of pre-season games (one against three for Glasgow) since few of the Glasgow team played many minutes in any of their games. I think it was more to do with the settled coaching and personnel.

e) Personnel – Connacht were missing a couple of starters through injury, as was Glasgow but Glasgow have a bigger (better?) squad and had international replacements (Horne and Wilson). I don’t know the Connacht squad so, if I were a Connacht fan, I might be concerned since every team in the Pro12 will have, at least, a couple of players out at every game and lose players to the Autumn internationals and the Six Nations.

f) Re prospects (after one game!), I’d think both Glasgow and Connacht should finish in the top four. Connacht’s home advantage won’t be dissipated and, although they will be a target and teams will be more aware of their primary game plan, they look to have enough quality and team spirit/cohesion. From viewing the first week’s fixtures, my guess for the top four order would be Glasgow (I am a fan, after all), Ulster, Connacht and Munster.

Both Ulster and Munster look to have improved this year and Ulster have added quality but neither Scarlets nor Leinster impressed in their first games. It’s very early days and the Warriors v Leinster game next week should tell me a bit more.
I’m clearly no expert but thought an opposing fan’s view might be interesting.
Good Luck for the season (except when you visit Scotstoun, of course).

Alan Connell

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  • Borders no.2
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9 years 7 months ago #47769 by Borders no.2
Replied by Borders no.2 on topic Connacht v Glasgow Saturday 3rd September 17:15
Bad day at the office. There were concerns expressed about our lack of games in pre-season and those who raised them proved correct. We've had performance like these in recent years in pre-season against Wasps, Grenoble etc. but it'd help us work things out for the start of the season. Usually we'd start at home to Dragons or Zebre and a middling performance would do as we worked our way into the season. We met the best team in the league yesterday with a point to prove. First half we did ok in a lot of areas I felt but still made a lot of basic errors and failed to take our chances and the two tries as Pat Lam was saying was lads not trusting their team mates. Both tries were very preventable.

We were still in it at half time but Glasgow came out and meant business after the break and the 3rd try finished us. From there to the finish was a nightmare.

For me our work at the breakdown was miles off the pace. We let Glasgow own that area. We transitioned very poorly between attack and defence when we turned the ball over and really we tried to force things that weren't on at times. The problem with our game is that when it goes wrong it can go badly wrong.

The lads got demoralised very quickly. Only Robb really threw himself about a bit in the 2nd half.

Its far from a disaster, its a game we'd have struggled to do well in even at our best, its a reality check and it shows that last season means nothing. Draw a line under it after the video session horror show and move on.

Next week Ospreys could have a similar outcome if we play as poorly again but I'd hope we'll be a lot more up to speed for that one. However, Ospreys are a top team. The World Cup cost them last year. They are a Top 4/6 team 9 times out of 10 and will be desperate to lay down a marker. They'll want their stay in the Challenge Cup to be just one year.

We'll improve significantly as the season goes on but I thought it before yesterday but I definitely think it now. Top 6 will be a good season for us.
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  • Accidentally Onside
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9 years 7 months ago #47768 by Accidentally Onside
Replied by Accidentally Onside on topic Connacht v Glasgow Saturday 3rd September 17:15
Think I'm somewhere between the optimists and he dooms-dayers; I thought we were awful. Rusty in the first half (did a few good things but last pass/decisions cost us two or three tries) and looked ragged and tired in the second half. I think people saying Glasgow were brilliant are being generous to them- they beat us comfortably without every looking outstanding or close to it.

The upside is that we will get better from here, god knows we need to, but I think there is too much wrong to get right in the next week so we could be on the end of a proper hiding against the Osprey though I'd hope to win away to Treviso and kick on from there.

Niyi and Robb the only highlights and maybe NFM in the pack who was busy but fighting a lone battle against a dominant Warriors backrow. Actually Heffernan got some go forward when he came on but there was no-one else there able to take advantage of that. Healy was awful in defense and Kelleher needs to improve there too, for their first (or second?) try he needs to trust his inside man, drift to the outside man and you'd hope he makes that tackle.

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