Why 10th? 9th would be enough to rule us out of a playoff if (when) the Italians finish in the bottom three, and we'd have to negotiate two games in the playoffs to get back in fron 7th or 8th.

Seriously though, we've come in from 100-1 to 33-1 for the Champions Cup, so if you can find a bookie willing to give you 100 or 150 for winning the Cup and not being round to defend it, let me know.

neill_m wrote: •The eight and ninth-ranked clubs from the PRO12, or the winner of the Challenge Cup if from the PRO12 and not already qualified for the Champions Cup. This club will take the place in the play-offs of the ninth-ranked club.

How would people feel if we won the Champions Cup and finished tenth?

www.epcrugby.com/europeanrugbychampionsc...lification/index.php

The play-offs will include the following clubs:
•The seventh-ranked club from the TOP 14, or the winner of the Challenge Cup if from the TOP 14 and not already qualified for the Champions Cup.
•The seventh-ranked club from the Aviva Premiership, or the winner of the Challenge Cup if from the Aviva Premiership and not already qualified for the Champions Cup.
•The eight and ninth-ranked clubs from the PRO12, or the winner of the Challenge Cup if from the PRO12 and not already qualified for the Champions Cup. This club will take the place in the play-offs of the ninth-ranked club.

19-21 May 2017

Play-off 1: Aviva Premiership v PRO12

Play-off 2: TOP 14 v PRO12

The PRO12 clubs' opponents to be decided by a draw

The Premiership and TOP 14 clubs will have home advantage

26-28 May 2017

Play-off Final: winner Play-off 1 v winner Play-off 2

Home advantage to be decided by a draw

As far as I can figure out from the EPRC website there are also 2 playoff places for Pro12 this year.

My understanding is that we need to finish at least 6th to get in to Champions Cup!- with one proviso that the top six contains at least one representative from each of Ireland(assured), Wales & Scotland.

If, for example, we finished sixth with top 5 containing 3 Irish and 2 Welsh teams then last spot would go to best placed Scottish team!

7th is preserved for Italian team on basis they will not make top six!

Open to correction!

Just crystal ball gazing here but assuming we're unable to improve our league position and end up 4th of the Irish provinces in the Pro12, and don't win the Champions Cup (I know I know) would that leave us back in the Challenge Cup next season?

Second try from Dragons looked like a knock on but no TMO

just watched this on tg4. not pretty at all. tiernan had a shocker. ili in the centre might work as robb is simply not working whatsoever.

Hey lads in terms of streams and what not. there is a handy app that has all the irish radio stations - it's free and pretty reliable too all the radio stations in Ireland got together to make it so somewhat official too

I'm listening to Galway Bay fm, with the Radioplayer app. www.radioplayer.ie/

I live in cork so can't tune in to the radio itself and I was out and about so handy for me to listen to with the headphones etc - thought it might be handy

The most worrying thing is the lack of consistency and the lack of squad depth in some key positions.

LH is the most obvious, Buckley is a world class prop but has been prone to injury lately probably due to the savage amount of work he get's through both at set piece & round the field but there's nobody putting up their hand as a really competent alternative when he's not available. (Finlay's good but his best position is TH).

Centre is the other glaringly obvious one right now. If Bundee & Ronaldson are unavailable then what other names on the teamsheet fill you with the same warm glow of confidence. Robb ? maybe but very inconsistent & very much a powerful line breaker (Like Bundee) & not the silky playmaker (Like a Ronaldson) I think is always required onfield to help piece all of the intricacies of their attack together. O'Leary for me anyway fit's the bill on this at 10 or 12 but for whatever reason (Maybe his defence) he doesn't seem to have the confidence of Pat for anything more than a place on the bench & who am I to argue.

Not Griffin on current evidence, but I'd love to see either Ili, Parata or possibly even Kelleher staking a claim for this spot when required. If Boshoff does what's expected & ends up displacing Carty as starting 10 then maybe Jack could do a good job at centre.

Lack of this link playmaker in the centre is maybe the reason for so many of the recent handling errors & breakdown in play recently especially at the RDS once Ronaldson went off.

Either way. now that so many top players vital to future success have been retained for the, more options at LH, centre & possibly TH are urgently needed to get Connacht back up the table & into the top 4 at least. Top 2 maybe beyond even them now but they're the kind of team capable of becoming the first to win an away SF & go on to retain their crown in the RDS next June.

basically expected a defeat considering the lack of front row options so I'll take the bonus point even though we always hope for better. As Connachta says the big thing now is integrating players and coming back and firing straight away - can't afford a slow start after an international break as is usually the case.

I really think this is NOT the real Connacht, the one who will face Wasps

Had a look at the scrum stats against Glasgow and Scarlets -when Buckley played-, none lost on our feed, some won on their introduction. Don't forget Carey never played at this level before, and J.P very few, I won't be harsh on them.

Probably the same, on a lesser extent, for McCartney and the lineout.
More obvious, the difference between Connacht with Ronaldson and without. Day and night.
Heenan and Muldoon have played any minutes possible for a long time. They can only come back better after a 3 week-rest, and 2 preparation games before Wasps
Connolly/Kelleher/Carty are ok, but Healy, Boshoff and Nepia experience will be available too.

So it's all about Lam now. He has a month, no more, to introduce 8-10 players into a system, and make it work. Hard task, but he should know that the individuals he should have back fit for selection, are well able to produce a required high performance

Our league form is worrying tbh

Oh flitterigibbets...

its a very strange pro12 this year. looking at muster whipping ospreys and Edinburgh whipping ulster and Treviso challenging blues. its very much open season. and season is not over just yet. but it definitely has become more difficult. robb is really struggling as a partner to aki, Ronaldson is such a huge loss and his unavailability makes aki look ordinary.

That's that. 21-16. After losing against Leinster we really needed to win the next 3. To be honest, it's an awful long way back in the Pro 12 now.