The Ulster fans from my own experience travelling up must be some of the grandest you could meet. They are always welcoming and delighted to see us make the effort to travel up. Post match they shook our hands, congratulated us on our win and wished us well. Compared to others they rank top of my league for friendliness. Now of you want to meet some first class cobshites, go to Allianz Park.

Didn't want to say anything at the time as I was afraid I might say something over the top in anger but glad that particularly nasty attack on people from Ulster has been removed. Disgraceful comment to make, just hope the embarrassment of it being said by a Connacht fan was limited to this forum.

Because for some ungodly reason it needs to be said:

"Racist comments, sexism and the general use of offensive terms or foul language will be also deleted. Abusive posts will be deleted upon sight of a moderator, again, without warning or explanation."

ChrisY wrote:

Carty in the USA wrote:
DELETED BY MOD

Nah. I've had a look at their forum and there's nothing as mean spirited as your post. Ulster team and supporters are grand.

I'm pretty sure Marmion rolled his ankle while trying to block an Ulster kick, not through some Northern Dark Art.

On the subject of out half.... Cummiskeys article in the times about Potential future 10s has a picture of Matt instead of Jack

swift4prez wrote: Good win last night, could been better, could been worse, I'll take it.
Injuries are a bit of an issue, KM, ToH, Farrell went for HIA? Cian K didnt look right.
Won't be able to make either Challenge Cup game, maybe that's why I'm not interested in the next two weeks, although 2 trips to France and trip to Sale might be to much effort and injures, to not even even get of the group.
I Think we could make the play offs in the league if we fight hard, we could get second spot behind Glasgow.
Out of the 3 bottom teams in both groups we've only played 1 team, Zebre! Alot of points to be picked up against weaker teams.

I see a few people suggest that the Sevu contract money, that we should sign a TH, but is there any chance that Connacht had to pay some/or all of the contract to Sevu?
If there is funds available, I'd suggest that we need to sign an outhalf.
As much as I like Craig, how many times has he came on as a sub, in his 'come back' game only to go of injured? I could be wrong but i'm counting 3 in 3 seasons. How much can his body take?
Along Carty we've David Horwitz, who has to get fit, match fit and they see what level he's at or how far away he is from being a good back up.
Next two games, we can't rest Jack as Kyle might be able to stand in for few mins, different story starting him and having Luke Carty or Fitzgearld benching.

99% might think i've lost the head, but there is an IQ outhalf playing club rugby and has been in very good form the last few seasons over in Wales. Matthew Jarvis has come on loads since leaving us, getting man of the matches left right and centre. Not sure if he'd be interested in leaving Wales or rejoining us. He might be thinking he's close to signing for a Welsh region.

Come on Leinster, Scarlets and Dragons today!

I fully agree with you that signing a third outhalf is a must as well as a LH. While I Like Craig as a player, he's not an outhalf IMO. His confidence was shot in the games he played last season and that seem's to have carried on into this season also. When he's on form and confidant he's probably one of the best place kickers around but you need far more tools in your box for outhalf and I've never seen any evidence he possesses them. I think he may have something to offer at fullback where the extra time he'd get would help him, but again questions may be asked here over his defence, pace and fielding ability. Jack has grown steadily into a genuine contender for the Irish squad and a call up even for the November internationals would leave Connacht in serious trouble at 10.

And the same applies to Dennis Buckley. The scrum has been our best weapon all season dominating the opposition in most games so far. Credit for this has to be shared equally among all of the forwards who've been immense. We seem to have reasonable cover in most positions apart from LH. Joe Schmidt has to have been impressed with Buckley's performance against some of the best TH's around. Even in the loss to Leinster, our scrum was probably the better one on the day. No one could argue if both Buckley and Bealham were picked by Joe for November and that would leave Connacht in serious trouble on both sides of the scrum, given CO'D's inexperience and DRMcC's suspension.

Right now there are many reasons to be cheerful but just as many reasons to be fearful also. Connacht need to be very proactive in solving some obvious issues before they occur.

Deserved win for you guys. Hope you had a good night in Belfast. Good to meet some of you after the game. Booked for the return game at Christmas, you guys have some great beer (Galway Hooker, Galway Bay Brewery).

Nah a LH please

Good win last night, could been better, could been worse, I'll take it.
Injuries are a bit of an issue, KM, ToH, Farrell went for HIA? Cian K didnt look right.
Won't be able to make either Challenge Cup game, maybe that's why I'm not interested in the next two weeks, although 2 trips to France and trip to Sale might be to much effort and injures, to not even even get of the group.
I Think we could make the play offs in the league if we fight hard, we could get second spot behind Glasgow.
Out of the 3 bottom teams in both groups we've only played 1 team, Zebre! Alot of points to be picked up against weaker teams.

I see a few people suggest that the Sevu contract money, that we should sign a TH, but is there any chance that Connacht had to pay some/or all of the contract to Sevu?
If there is funds available, I'd suggest that we need to sign an outhalf.
As much as I like Craig, how many times has he came on as a sub, in his 'come back' game only to go of injured? I could be wrong but i'm counting 3 in 3 seasons. How much can his body take?
Along Carty we've David Horwitz, who has to get fit, match fit and they see what level he's at or how far away he is from being a good back up.
Next two games, we can't rest Jack as Kyle might be able to stand in for few mins, different story starting him and having Luke Carty or Fitzgearld benching.

99% might think i've lost the head, but there is an IQ outhalf playing club rugby and has been in very good form the last few seasons over in Wales. Matthew Jarvis has come on loads since leaving us, getting man of the matches left right and centre. Not sure if he'd be interested in leaving Wales or rejoining us. He might be thinking he's close to signing for a Welsh region.

Come on Leinster, Scarlets and Dragons today!

About time we got that monkey of our backs

My ninth of these fixtures at Ravenhill, about time we got a win! Not to detract from the win, but it was very concerning that we couldn't exploit the 14/13 man advantage. Until Bundee worked his magic I was full sure we'd feck it up....
A good win, but we need to take some lessons home.

It was always likely. We just put that likely into a performance. All the indicators suggested as much. Most happy. That said we should have finished that game off and we did not.

Fair dues to all Clan who travelled. Delighted for ye.

what a win what a win what a win! Nobody mention the performance!!! It was always going to be a tough tough game, you don't turn around that much history in one game and play champagne rugby to do it. Let me get ahead of any ulster complaints that they would have won but for the red, if anything it helped them, they were gash in the first half and it seemed to focus their minds a bit in the second. Dan is probably rethinking his decision now, don't think he knew what he was getting himself into. Scrum - gash. Lineout - gash. 9-10 axis - almost non-existent. Two offloads out of touch and two tries disallowed because a player was ahead of the kicker - in the first half ulster looked like a team who thought they'd win just by showing up. The first five minutes they were as physical as I expected but they didn't learn anything from last week. They were just lucky that they took Marmion and TOH out of the equation, I think either of them might have done better for the first ulster try and it would have altered our gameplan somewhat or at least meant Blade was probably knackered by the end of the game. I thought Jack was very good in parts, his kicking compared to previous seasons is like night and day, and he tried his best to put himself about physically in defence, that forced knock on was a highlight. But he still plays so deep that it puts a huge amount of pressure on 9 and means any backs move is starting 5m behind the gainline. It will get exposed against better opposition.

Borders no.2 wrote: We just had to come out of that with a win given the circumstances. Had us sweating until the end. I think we have all seen enough bad nights in Ravenhill to appreciate this win especially given how poor we were away from home last year hopefully this will give us confidence for future away games.

However, I'll probably be called negative for saying this but I'd nearly put that down as 1 point lost in the greater scheme of things.

Lots of good stuff but once again we look bereft of ideas when we have extra men. We gave away so many senseless penalties in the 2nd half. Ulster had no real threat but we gave them the platform to stay alive.

My opinion is that Ulster are awful. I had put a few bob on us to win by the 13 margin because if you can't win by 13 against Ulster I do wonder what you can do.


That said 58 years. Go u Connacht. Very well done. I knew it was not only possible but likely

We just had to come out of that with a win given the circumstances. Had us sweating until the end. I think we have all seen enough bad nights in Ravenhill to appreciate this win especially given how poor we were away from home last year hopefully this will give us confidence for future away games.

However, I'll probably be called negative for saying this but I'd nearly put that down as 1 point lost in the greater scheme of things.

Lots of good stuff but once again we look bereft of ideas when we have extra men. We gave away so many senseless penalties in the 2nd half. Ulster had no real threat but we gave them the platform to stay alive.

Jez that was a weird match...

Brilliant and terrible all in one.

Put the win in the back pocket and look forward to Europe

It was beginning to feel like it might be 58 more years before Connacht won away to Ulster until that Aki try. Perhaps I'm being a little tough on the lads as losing Marmion so early on with TOH following shortly after would have been distributive but that was an ugly win right up to the end even conceding the bonus point to Ulster.

Connacht truly conspiring to lose this. Up two men and no points. Ulster down a man and still playing most of the little rugby that is happening in this game. Too many senseless penalties, they'll be down a man themselves soon enough.

Game on and go go Connacht. No surprise

salmson wrote:

ChrisY wrote: Heard on the radio going to work this morning that the last time Connacht beat Ulster in Ravenhill was 1960. Did I hear this correctly? Did provincial rugby even exist back then?

Absolutely you did hear it correctly. The interpros started not long after the war and Connacht, having had the whip hand against our northern cousins in the 50s, haven't won in Ravenhill in 58 years. We have terrible away records against all the provinces; it's 2002 since we won in Dublin and before 2015's win I think we hadn't won away to Munster since the 80s.

Thanks salmson, those are some shocking stats you provide. They may have dampened but have not quenched my honest belief that this team has the potential to break that voodoo tonight.

ChrisY wrote: Heard on the radio going to work this morning that the last time Connacht beat Ulster in Ravenhill was 1960. Did I hear this correctly? Did provincial rugby even exist back then?

Absolutely you did hear it correctly. The interpros started not long after the war and Connacht, having had the whip hand against our northern cousins in the 50s, haven't won in Ravenhill in 58 years. We have terrible away records against all the provinces; it's 2002 since we won in Dublin and before 2015's win I think we hadn't won away to Munster since the 80s.

Heard on the radio going to work this morning that the last time Connacht beat Ulster in Ravenhill was 1960. Did I hear this correctly? Did provincial rugby even exist back then?

Accidentally Onside wrote:

Betty Swallocks wrote: That's actually a reasonably strong Ulster pack and half backs, although I'm surprised Reidy isn't starting instead of Rea in the back row. You'd have to wonder how match fit/effective Best and Stockdale will be and also how marginal were the calls to play Henderson and Coetzee. Their bench is weak enough looking.

Andrew Warwick, Rory Best (captain), Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Iain Henderson, Matthew Rea, Nick Timoney, Marcell Coetzee;

Without being rude, that's a very weak pack. There is undoubted quality in Best, Hendo and Coetzee (if fit) but the two props are nothing to fear, O'Connor is hit and miss and hasn't pushed on from a good start, not seen much of Rea, agree that Timoney looks to have some class but he's still very young and tough to play behind what should be a beaten front 5.

I know we ALWAYS lose in Belfast, but this is a hell of a chance.

Gotta disagree here, Tom O'Toole has looked really really good whenever I've seen him this season - especially considering he just turned 20 less than 2 weeks ago
I agree we should be superior come scrum time though