connachtexile wrote:

Please correct me if I'm missing something obvious here. I am not trying to make excuses for Elwood but seriously was it really necessary to bring up the 'Elwood out' thread (indirectly) less than one week into the new season?

I don't see anyone calling for his head (yet) but we lost to the Cardiff 3rd string team at home so he's bound to get criticism for it.

I agree of course he should be criticised for the display against Cardiff, but my point is what changes could he realistically have made for this game given our current injury problems. Then to say if we lose what will be a very tough game then Elwood has serious questions to answer does not really make sense to me.

Please correct me if I'm missing something obvious here. I am not trying to make excuses for Elwood but seriously was it really necessary to bring up the 'Elwood out' thread (indirectly) less than one week into the new season?

I don't see anyone calling for his head (yet) but we lost to the Cardiff 3rd string team at home so he's bound to get criticism for it.

What changes could be made though?

Drop Fets ok but as mentioned before on previous thread that smacks of shooting ourselves in the foot given the conditions for Friday.

Outside of that given the current injury list there does not appear to be a whole lot of changes that could be made.

Please correct me if I'm missing something obvious here. I am not trying to make excuses for Elwood but seriously was it really necessary to bring up the 'Elwood out' thread (indirectly) less than one week into the new season?

First thought was that i could understand that there was no changes .Give them a chance to redeem themselves .If things don't go to plan 2nd time ,than at least they got the chance again and it's fair enough to make significant changes then.

I think thats the philosophy EE is going with and to a degree it makes sense. They've had a game to play with each other and hopefully some of the rust will have gone and guys like Macca will know their due a big game an so will up there performance.

Good to see Henshaw on the bench as well. I think we'll see Griffin be taken off around the 50/60 min and him given a chance especially if Griffin still isn't 100%. Seeing White to is encouraging and I think we should match there scrum at the very least and maybe dominate it. I'm guardingly optimistic.

ummm, wrote: Not sure it's a good message for everyone else in training when Eric says the result was unacceptable but then plays the exact same XV.

We haven't scored a try in 166 minutes. We need a statement.

First thought was that i could understand that there was no changes .Give them a chance to redeem themselves .If things don't go to plan 2nd time ,than at least they got the chance again and it's fair enough to make significant changes then.

Second thought though ,is that there is a bad message being sent out doing this .Play crap ,ok ,you'll get another chance.

Settled on the second thought.After such a result , couple of changes are needed .

Insanity: doing the same
thing over and over again and
expecting different results.

Albert Einstein

if we play awful again and lose, there should be serious questions asked about eric.
take a little read over the threads here from the 14 games we lost in a row last season.
fingers crossed. will he hard game but results will be bigger one way or the other

ummm, wrote: Major gamble. Especially against an Italian team.

Rodney hasn't exactly pulled up many trees at tighthead (did fine last week when he came on though) and came on a loosehead against Glasgow at the end of last year, so maybe they're converting him. I don't think the scrum will be the winning or losing of this game (forecast: dry, temp. in mid 20s at kickoff). The greater ability of our props to get around the field might be - Buckley, Loughney, and Ah You covered an immense amount of ground last week and carried and tackled to good effect.

Good to see we have a fit scrum half on the bench, the one area that worries me is lock, where due to age/late preseason I don't see either of Swifty or Macca lasting the full 80.

ummm, wrote: Hang on, so Dave Ah You <em>and</em> Nathan White? Two tightheads? So Dave will be coming on at loosehead?

Major gamble. Especially against an Italian team.

my guess would be to let buckley play 80mins, sub locks after 55mins, with either rodney or white and if buckley gets injured, bring locks back on

Hang on, so Dave Ah You and Nathan White? Two tightheads? So Dave will be coming on at loosehead?

Major gamble. Especially against an Italian team.

Not sure it's a good message for everyone else in training when Eric says the result was unacceptable but then plays the exact same XV.

We haven't scored a try in 166 minutes. We need a statement.

Big test for some of the players that underperformed last week to show it was a once off and that they still deserve their place. This is a must win game imo, can't be the first team to lose to Zebre in Italy, sets the standard for the Heineken, and if we want to do better in the league than last year this is the sort of game where connacht have to get 4-5 points. I am hopeful though I think there's a lot of quality in that connacht team if the backs can be unlocked and if we have the right gameplan it should be a good win.

Connacht announce XV to take on Zebre in their first away game of the RaboDirect PRO12

Connacht Rugby have announced their starting XV that will take on new club Zebre in the second round of the RaboDirect PRO12 tomorrow in Parma, Italy.

There are no changes to the starting XV from last week and only two changes on the bench with Nathan White taking the place of Finlay Bealham and Frank Murphy stepping in for Dave Moore.

Connacht will be looking to convert last week’s possession and opportunities into points this week. Despite crossing the tryline twice in the first half and hour, handling errors denied the home side a try which would have made all the difference playing into the strong wind. The losing bonus point from that match means the league campaign is well under way and there’s more to come from Eric Elwood’s side this week.

Connacht XV to face Zebre (Stadio Aprille XXV Parma – ko 19.05 local time (18.05 Irish) live on TG4)

15 Gavin Duffy (C)

14 Tiernan O’Halloran

13 Eoin Griffin

12 Mata Fifita

11 Fetu’u Vainikolo

10 Miah Nikora

09 Kieran Marmion

01 Denis Buckley

02 Ethienne Reynecke

03 Ronan Loughney

04 Michael Swift

05 Mike McCarthy

06 John Muldoon

07 Johnny O’Connor

08 George Naoupu



16 Adrian Flavin

17 Rodney Ah You

18 Nathan White

19 Dave Gannon

20 Willie Faloon

21 Frank Murphy

22 Matthew Jarvis

23 Robbie Henshaw

Yeah, when you think new team you'd hope they would have a bedding in period and you're lucky to get them early in the season, but as been noted a lot of them played together at Aironi. Still they are making 4 changes to the side that lost to the Dragons and two positional changes to accommodate Sole and Bergamasco. Connacht should be able to match them up front so it will be up to the backs act like professionals and win one for a change (fingers crossed on injuries). Orquera kicked enough points against Connacht last season so penalties in their own end need to be kept to a minimum as usual.

swift4prez wrote: www.connachtclan.com/forum/2-connacht-ru...eam-benvenuto-zebras

10 out of the starting 15 are former aironi players.
14 out of the match day 23 are former aironi players

That's what I've been saying all along, different name, different location but if anything Zebre should prove a tougher challenge than Aironi, and we had enough problems with them.

We really have to go Full Metal Jacket on them....

ummm, wrote:

sea_point wrote: I've sadly got more chance of seeing the game on SportItalia than on fecking TG4...

Aironi and Treviso games were on RAI last year. I don't have Skysports Italia, but I do have RAI! Arrrrgh!

Think I found a link for a stream for Sportsitalia, I'll stick her up later in this post...

TBC

Sheepsean wrote:

Porterbelly wrote: Plenty of experience in that Aironi team.

Not sure if this was just a Fraudian slip PB ,but would be curious to see how many went from Aironi to Zebre.

Hope this game goes better than the one last year against Aironi (Which unfortunatly was also on TG4)

Doing my best to get the Early season optimism back after last weeks loss to the Cardiff 4th team development Junior subs.A 4 pointer here would do nicely .C'MON CONNACHT

swift4prez

props

Matias Aguero - aironi
Andrea DE MARCHI - aironi
Carlo Fazzari - treviso
Luciano LEIBSON - club san luis
Salvatore PERUGINI - aironi
Luke REDOLFINI - aironi
David RYAN - lazio
Flavio Tripodi - crociati

hookers

David GIAZZON - rovigo
Andrea HANDLES - crociati
Carlo Festuccia - aironi

second rows

Mark BORTOLAMI - aironi
Philip CAZZOLA -
Quintin Geldenhuys - aironi
Josh SUN - aironi
Michael VAN VUREN - crociati
Filippo Cazzola - prato

back row

Nicola Belardo - prato
Mauro Bergamasco - aironi
Emiliano CAFFINI - crociati
Nicola Cattina - aironi
Philip CHRISTIAN - rovigo
Philip FERRARINI - aironi

scrum half

Alberto CHILLON - petraca padova
Luca Martinelli - fiamme oto
Tito TEBALDI - aironi

fly half

Alberto BENETTIN - aironi
Paul BUSO - aironi
Luciano ORQUERA - aironi

centre

Gonzalo Garcia - treviso
Andrea Masi - aironi
Samuel PACE - rovigo
Roberto Quartaroli - aironi

wing

David ODIETE - reggio
Matteo Pratichetti - aironi
Leonardo TAILOR -
Sinoti SINOTI - aironi
Giovanbattista VENDITTI - aironi

full back

Roger Trevisan * - aironi


just seen there squad and posted it here, they have 39 players which 21 played with aironi last season.
this is not good for as they will be used to playing together and we all know how hard we found it beating them. only 1 from 4 times.

www.connachtclan.com/forum/2-connacht-ru...eam-benvenuto-zebras

10 out of the starting 15 are former aironi players.
14 out of the match day 23 are former aironi players