Decadence wrote:

dobby wrote: And the French don't even have a team of worth these days. Yes Toulon in the past was a team. These days there is nothing worth talking about in the top14.

What about the 'Mighty Toulouse' that you were using to talk us up earlier?!

The french simply don't seem to like playing outside france. Their bread and butter seems to be their own league. Challenge cup or champions cup seems to be secondary. I am not saying that they don't have great players, its just their focus is different. As for the EPL, well there ain't much happening there no matter what their focus is

Highlights up now.

t.co/QKzzQmibRe

Davies sounds seriously out of breath on the ref mic.

The next 2 games against Wasps will tell us a lot as to where we really are

dobby wrote: And the French don't even have a team of worth these days. Yes Toulon in the past was a team. These days there is nothing worth talking about in the top14.

What about the 'Mighty Toulouse' that you were using to talk us up earlier?!

Borders no.2 wrote: Ah lads come on, win the European Cup. If we get to the quarter finals it will be a fantastic achievement. The difference between the Top sides in England and France and the Pro 12 is still quite stark.

I would argue that point. Think the lv cup would back me up in terms of stats. As salmson says, other than sarries, there isn't a team in england. And the French don't even have a team of worth these days. Yes Toulon in the past was a team. These days there is nothing worth talking about in the top14.

Borders no.2 wrote: Ah lads come on, win the European Cup. If we get to the quarter finals it will be a fantastic achievement. The difference between the Top sides in England and France and the Pro 12 is still quite stark.

Much as I hate to say it Saracens are well ahead of everyone. But beyond that the Premiership is quite weak, as the likes of Sale getting into the Champions Cup this season, and maybe Newcastle next, would testify to.

Harder to tell if the Top 14 is any better or worse, they've usually been able to rely on either Toulon or Toulouse to carry the torch in Europe, but they look shot. Maybe Racing will take up the mantle but their group is a dog.

Borders no.2 wrote: Ah lads come on, win the European Cup. If we get to the quarter finals it will be a fantastic achievement. The difference between the Top sides in England and France and the Pro 12 is still quite stark.

Its all a matter of perception. We already beat the mighty Toulouse this season without our best team. I simply don't understand these 'limitations'. I honestly believe that Pat has built the best team in Europe. On any day a team can be beaten but the Connacht team is as competitive as any team. Now maybe that is green blinkered vision but it is in fact what I think

Ah lads come on, win the European Cup. If we get to the quarter finals it will be a fantastic achievement. The difference between the Top sides in England and France and the Pro 12 is still quite stark.

To finish fourth you need 14 wins, most likely. In the 6 years of the current format, 12, 13, 14 (3 times), and 15 have been needed, with teams finishing 5th with 14 wins twice.

So Connacht need 10 wins from their last 13 games, of which 8 are away.

Assuming we win 4 or all 5 at home, 5 or 6 away wins are needed. We have none so far, and of the equivalent away games lsst year we won 4, including hen's teeth wins at Munster and Ospreys.

There are no obvious pick ups either - Cardiff are poor and Treviso worse, but our record at both is wojious.

So the playoffs are not impossible, but to put it in perspective finishing 4th from where we are now would be a far greater achievement than finishing 2nd last year.

I still think we could be the first team to win the Champions Cup and not be able to defend it - that's certainly a better bet than us finishing 4th.

We should at worst finish 7th, Cardiff, Edinburgh, the Italians and Dem-don't-look-like-Dragons-daddy below us, but 6th will be no use if Glasgow keep losing. We really need Ulster or (and, preferably) Scarlets to start tanking to give us a shot at direct qualification.

connachta wrote:

Borders no.2 wrote: Looking at the league table, Cardiff's early season surge looks to have died out completely. 7th should be very achievable. The Top 6 will be hard to displace but we've got to keep doing our own business and try to capitalise during the 6 nations. One of them will hopefully come back to us. I think I'm right in saying that finishing 6th ahead of Glasgow wouldn't be any good to us. Scarlets maybe our most realistic target, already 12 ahead of us even if we have a game in hand.

Thank you, I'm sick of being mocked when I say top 6 is unrealistic and Champions Cup of this season + Play-off! I'm a bit more pessimistic, but we have the same views.

If you think back to the pro12 final and champions cup final last year which of all those teams were easily the best team. We are not the team that Saracens destroyed some years ago. There is no reason to believe we can't win the champions cup. We are not there making up numbers. We have a realistic chance of beating any team in Europe. Look at our team. Consider the ability of these players. Yes we have had a poor start to the Pro12 season. Primarily that comes down to a poor pre-season and injuries. So the pre-season is behind us and our injury list is now getting to the point where we can pick our best 15 each game.

On the other side of the equation look at Glasgow, look at ospreys, look at scarlets. even with their best squads available I would suggest a degree of confidence in beating them. This season is by no means over. Ili looked great alongside Bundee yesterday. Boshoff seriously looks good. Plays the positional game that Connacht so badly needs. If his injury is not major he will have a huge impact in our season.

So many good players of real quality in this Connacht team. I see no boundaries. And I certainly believe we can take a top 4 position before this season is complete

Thought Roux was brilliant

I was a little late in but I heard Ronaldson was interviewed before kick-off. Is that true and if so, did he give an injury update?

Borders no.2 wrote:
Only downside was that once the replacements were made our scrum was destroyed. No real test of where we are ahead of a busy and very important few weeks but not much we can do about that.

Bealham will help Carey. Buckley has to last 80 minutes next week and the one after. Or close to it

Borders no.2 wrote: Looking at the league table, Cardiff's early season surge looks to have died out completely. 7th should be very achievable. The Top 6 will be hard to displace but we've got to keep doing our own business and try to capitalise during the 6 nations. One of them will hopefully come back to us. I think I'm right in saying that finishing 6th ahead of Glasgow wouldn't be any good to us. Scarlets maybe our most realistic target, already 12 ahead of us even if we have a game in hand.

Thank you, I'm sick of being mocked when I say top 6 is unrealistic and Champions Cup of this season + Play-off! I'm a bit more pessimistic, but we have the same views.

Did the needful. Showed a lot more continuity at times than most games this season but you have to factor in the standard of the opposition.

Will have to see about Boshoff's injury. Backline for next week should be interesting. Having Jake and Nepia on the pitch together makes us very competitive at the breakdown. Both get through so much work during a game.

Only downside was that once the replacements were made our scrum was destroyed. No real test of where we are ahead of a busy and very important few weeks but not much we can do about that.

Looking at the league table, Cardiff's early season surge looks to have died out completely. 7th should be very achievable. The Top 6 will be hard to displace but we've got to keep doing our own business and try to capitalise during the 6 nations. One of them will hopefully come back to us. I think I'm right in saying that finishing 6th ahead of Glasgow wouldn't be any good to us. Scarlets maybe our most realistic target, already 12 ahead of us even if we have a game in hand.

Tom McCartney was immense. One any other day Ili might have gotten MotM, but Tom was at another level today.

Boshoff had a very good game, his passing was crisp and effective, he can play quite flat, has a step in him, and boy can he kick a penalty down the line. Aside from a couple of knock-ons, Poolman had a fairly impressive game, good to see him slot in with such ease.

The only down side was Boshoff coming off with what I hope is nothing more than a knock.