Just wondering were there any replacements for Connacht on Saturday as I can not find them anywhere online. Would be grateful if someone could point me in the direction of where to find this information.

rossie wrote: Im a bit confused after reading that article. Did Cooney play this game or was he in Exeter? If he didnt who started at LH? Great to hear that Dever can scrummage1

Bryan Teape was the loosehead for the development Squad

Im a bit confused after reading that article. Did Cooney play this game or was he in Exeter? If he didnt who started at LH? Great to hear that Dever can scrummage1

www.knockon.ie/2012/08/13/five-lessons-f...ht-development-game/

A very brief article about the game on saturday from Knockon but with some very encouraging words all the same.

ruckin_hell wrote: I'm assuming a good few of these lads will get B&I time? It'll be very tough for Connacht in the B&I this year, the standard is fairly good and we don't have the big squad needed to stretch to be fully competitive.

With the recent signings, I think we have. Only a third of the developement XV should be on the B&I fields, 'cause yesterday a lot of guys of high level, who have won against Exeter are n°2 choice, mostly ready for b&I cup like : Reilly, Cooney, Grace, Marmion, Fafita, Murphy, Jarvis, Mc Crea, Loxton, Bealham, Kearney, Mc Keon. It makes at least 12 players out of 22

Connacht had the beating of the US sidebut just didn't turn up for the second half. Support was poor for breaks and a lack of numbers at the breakdown just led to easy turnover ball for the Americans. Leader looked handy with a varied kicking game and a few decent breaks. The hooker's throwing was poor to be honest, lost plenty of our own ball.
I'm assuming a good few of these lads will get B&I time? It'll be very tough for Connacht in the B&I this year, the standard is fairly good and we don't have the big squad needed to stretch to be fully competitive. Good game time for the younger lads though.

I thought D Leader had a decent game everything went through him. Conor Finn was very good when he went out to the wing. Gardiner is a big lad that we could see a lot more off this year. Macauley was ok a few nice breaks he has good pace

What about Mc Auley and the south african hooker?

swift4prez wrote: just back from the sportsground.i missed the first 10mins, but not any score as far as i no.

to be honest it was not a great game, the usa by far the better team.

they sometimes didnt let go when they tackled and the ref gave it there way. 1 try 4peno's i think.

alex o meara had a good game when he got the ball, went of injured but came back in again soon after, clearly the coach wanted to see what he has. he got two huge tackles, one he was sent flying backwards 5yards by the prop who would make rodney look slim at his worse.
conor finn and tadhg leader were the stand out backs with o meara.
tadhg kicked very well from the tee..

none of the forwards stood out for me apart from one or two moments from 5+6 with one of them i think going of injured on a strecher with a neck brace.

line outs were a mess, didnt win a clear one all game.
ill find it hard to see any of these making the step up apart from conor finn.
i know its there first game but half this team have been playing together for 3 years now.

usa had a good kicker too but im not sure if its the said above.

<strong>there was an eddie o suillivan lookalike in the stand at full time. not sure which team he was interested in</strong>

This is a completely scratch side, a few of the lads know each other through the Youth/U-20's but half the team have come in this season so a level of incohesivness was to be expected. Great that they got a game in so early what with the B&I cup still some way away and most of them not inviolved in the Senior squad pre-season...

just back from the sportsground.i missed the first 10mins, but not any score as far as i no.

to be honest it was not a great game, the usa by far the better team.

they sometimes didnt let go when they tackled and the ref gave it there way. 1 try 4peno's i think.

alex o meara had a good game when he got the ball, went of injured but came back in again soon after, clearly the coach wanted to see what he has. he got two huge tackles, one he was sent flying backwards 5yards by the prop who would make rodney look slim at his worse.
conor finn and tadhg leader were the stand out backs with o meara.
tadhg kicked very well from the tee..

none of the forwards stood out for me apart from one or two moments from 5+6 with one of them i think going of injured on a strecher with a neck brace.

line outs were a mess, didnt win a clear one all game.
ill find it hard to see any of these making the step up apart from conor finn.
i know its there first game but half this team have been playing together for 3 years now.

usa had a good kicker too but im not sure if its the said above.

there was an eddie o suillivan lookalike in the stand at full time. not sure which team he was interested in

19-17 down late on, presume its a result, dissapointing to lose this one late on.

Edit: Result: 19-17 win for the US team.

17-16 now

Do you know if Pat Sullivan is playing at 10 for the US team? He's 6-4 with a big boot on him, so will be hard to miss!

Saw him in the College final over here in the US, even though his team Arkansas State lost, he kept them in it with his kicking - first time I'd seen an American outhalf with the range/consistency, plus he's a fairly big boy! Looked like he had some potential to play with the national team in a few years if he got a gig. The US national team already called up the BYU scrumhalf from that final.

From Twitter:

Connacht Rugby ‏@connachtrugby

Connacht Development XV winning 14-3 at half-time at the Sportsground. Tries from scrum-half Chris Lilly and wing Steve Macauley.

connachtexile wrote: Is Alex O'Meara in the academy or do you think maybe a sub-academy contract? Is Kurt Haupt a AIL player or someone we're looking at? I thought Cooney was a tighthead?

Tweeted our old mucker Stephen Knoop who is now a talent agent back in SA to get this thoughts on Haupt:

‏@Snoopyknoop wrote: @ConnachtClan won the varsity cup with tuks who are like a Baby Bulls team. Have to be good to play for them. Hope he does well for u guys!

He wasn't a starter for University of Pretoria Tuks/Blue Bulls Development, but one to keep an eye on for sure if you're heading along.

Entry is free for this tomorrow at 3PM....

JP Cooney is a loosehead. ive been playing against him since he was 12 and he has always been a LH