Connacht travel to the hopefully sunnier climes of Italy tomorrow to take on Aironi in the Rabo Pro12. After a run of disappointing defeats the Connacht team, staff and fans alike will hope for the best despite their injury striken squad.
CONNACHT |
AIRONI |
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Starting XV: |
Replacements: |
Starting XV |
Replacements: |
15 Gavin Duffy (C) 14 Fetu'u Vainikolo 13 Kyle Tonetti 12 Dave McSharry 11 Tiernan O'Halloran 10 Matthew Jarvis 09 Frank Murphy 01 Brett Wilkinson 02 Adrian Flavin 03 Dylan Rogers 04 Michael Swift 05 Mike McCarthy 06 Mike Kearney 07 John Muldoon 08 George Naoupu |
16 Ethienne Reynecke 17 Denis Buckley 18 Steward Maguire 19 Eoin McKeon 20 Ray Ofisa 21 Paul O'Donohoe 22 Niall O'Connor 23 Henry Fa'afili |
15 Andrea Masi 14 Giulio Toniolatti 13 Roberto Quartaroli 12 Gabriel Pizarro 11 Sinoti Sinoti 10 Luciano Orquera 09 Tyson Keats 08 Josh Sole 07 Simone Favaro 06 Nicola Cattina 05 Marco Bortolami (cap) 04 Joshua Furno 03 Fabio Staibano 02 Roberto Santamaria 01 Alberto De Marchi |
16 Tommaso D'Apice |
Jarvis holds onto the hotly contested out-half position after a disappointing kicking game against Leinster. He will be hoping to replicate his excellent running game and game management this week, while also improving his returns from the kicking tee. Niall O'Connor returns from injury to provide backup from the bench.
Tiernan O'Halloran will start after penning a 2 season contract with Connacht this week, with Vainikolo coming into the squad to replace Brian Tuohy who unfortunately broke his leg last week and will be out for the season. In the centres are McSharry and Tonetti with Tonetti promoted to the starting 13 slot after Griffin twinged his hamstring again, an injury that he had just recovered from, and which Brian O'Driscoll has much experience in his long career to date. The battle for starting scrum-half sees the starting position switch again this week with Frank starting.
With Loughney and JOC picking up injuries in the game against Leinster, and Michael Swift making a timely return, the pack looks very different this week. George is back to his old position at 8, up against Josh Sole, forcing Muldoon into his least favored openside slot for this match, with young Kearney at 6. Dylan Rogers put in an impressive enough shift last week and will look to continue that against the tough Italian front row.
Check out the forum for the match thread, and have your say on whether this will end our bad-run.
COME ON CONNACHT!