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Connacht Clan
Official Supporters Club of Connacht Rugby

Wasps V Connacht ; Preseason Friendly
- Bazzo
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- tlocke
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Rory Scholes and Darren Leader look like they are separated at birth. Or they at least go to the same stylist.
James Cannon stole a lovely line-out and the line-out was solid when he was on the pitch. But in open play he wasn't very effective to be honest. He missed a tackle in the first half for a Wasp break. He just looks like a man who is carrying a ruck sack full of cement when he runs with the ball or when he tries to get into position for a defensive tackle. But then again to be fair he is a very big man.
Great to see Eoghan Masterson on the pitch. I thought he did very well and he looked fit. He'll be important this year I feel.
Eoin McKeon looks like he has bulked up a lot. Maybe it just appeared that way from where I was sitting, I'd be Interested to hear other people's opinion on that. It could just be me.
Gavin Thornbury looked very light, but there's loads of potential there. Great signing I reckon. Being in a real professional environment will bring him on.
James Mitchell is a lot smaller then I thought he was. He through some great flat passes in the first half. Very quick to the ruck as well.
Really impressed by Jarrad Butler. He was looking for the ball all the time. That said, he was on a different level match fitness wise to everyone else.
Look ... Some really good Rugby was played by Connacht in that game.
The one real concern I would have, Is that Connacht couldn't deal with any kind of physical pressure in the game. Either in the scrum or maul (in both halves). I mean it was glaring and shocking. Wasps didn't even look like they were breaking a sweat. I know there are a lot of players to come in. But it's still a worry and it just doesn't sit right. Something to work on I guess.
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- Evil_g
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“We will hopefully learn a lot from that match as well,” said Keane, whose side led by 22-12 after 65 minutes against Wasps, but with 29 players being used Connacht’s youthful 15 were caught in the final quarter.
“It was a really good workout against Wasps, we gave all the guys a run and we learned a lot from it. I was pleased with the first-half, the first team performed very well.
“We had the young babies on in the second-half, a couple of people got found out on a few issues but they will learn from that, they will grow from that and that was the idea of playing everybody.
“I enjoyed the atmosphere, a pre-season game, seven and a half thousand people at it in a magnificent facility, it was a really worthwhile exercise for us.
“It’s been a bit of a muddled week with the two fixtures but I think we learned a lot from the game against Wasps and moving forward to Bristol, we will learn a bit more there,” added Keane, whose side will open their Pro14 campaign at home to Glasgow Warriors when he will be pitted against his former Chiefs boss Dave Rennie.
www.the42.ie/kieran-keane-pat-lam-3563346-Aug2017/
"Babies"? I like this guy.
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- Fast twitch
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- Greenkeeper
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- MulMan
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- connachta
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- BleedGreen
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- greyingbeard
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- connemara man
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Accidentally Onside wrote: Are people honestly giving out about us losing our first preseason game away to one of the best teams in europe, in our coaches first outing, with having made 13 changes at half time in a match where the oppositions match report says the score did not reflect the closeness of the game?!
Jesus wept!
Person
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- Accidentally Onside
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Jesus wept!
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- connachta
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We clearly have a senior team who can compete with the best in Europe. But as a consequence, international call-ups happen and we don't have the depth
As usual the point will be avoiding injuries (if Ronaldson is injured, troubles come as soon as now)
And hoping 2 or 3 young guys will step up in position where we're short in, i.e LH, 2nd row, centre
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- Cathalsmart
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- MulMan
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- Stakeknife84
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The second half, especially the final quarter, was a shocker but I wouldn't be too disheartened. Wasps had a strong team out for much of the game and their big players delivered when they needed it. The Connacht team that finished were inexperienced.
All in all I'm happy. A win against Bristol would be ideal preparation before the Glasgow game.
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- ConnachtCows
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Friendlies are all about practice. Working on moves.
Trying new ideas. Some ideas will work, some wont. If they dont work, and cost us 40 points, so what. As long as we learn from it before the season starts.
On a side, a friend of mine was at the game with his green tinted glasses.
He was keeping me in the loop during the game, but he basically said that we played some really good stuff in the first half. He was most impressed with our hands, which is great to hear. Lets hope that they keep improving during pre-season
@ConnachtCows - Always looking for new followers
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