Ulster vs Connacht

First topic message reminder :

Ulster

15. Ricky Andrew
14. Andrew Trimble
13. Tommy Bowe
12. Luke Marshall
11. Craig Gilroy
10. Paddy Jackson
9. Paul Marshall

1. Andrew Warwick
2. Rob Herring
3. Ricky Lutton
4. Johann Muller (captain)
5. Iain Henderson
6. Robbie Diack
7. Chris Henry
8. Nick Williams

16. Niall Annett
17. Tom Court
18. Adam Macklin
19. Lewis Stevenson
20. Sean Doyle
21. Michael Heaney
22. James McKinney
23. Stuart McCloskey

Darren Cave and Stephen Ferris have been rested whilst Pienaar, Best, Tuohy and Wilson are injured and Jared Payne is suspended. Stuart Olding, Callum Black, Paddy Wallace, Paddy McAllister and Chris Farrell are long-term injury absentees.

Connacht

15. Robbie Henshaw
14. Tiernan O’Halloran
13. Eoin Griffin
12. Dave McSharry
11. Fionn Carr
10. Dan Parks
9. Kieran Marmion

1. Denis Buckley
2. Jason Harris-Wright
3. Rodney Ah You
4. Aly Muldowney
5. Mick Kearney
6. John Muldoon (captain)
7. Eoghan Masterson
8. Eoin McKeon

16. Dave Heffernan
17. Ronan Loughney
18. Finlay Bealham
19. Michael Swift
20. Andrew Browne
21. Frank Murphy
22. Miah Nikora
23. Darragh Leader

Unavailable/Injured:  Sean Henry, James Rael, Craig Clarke, Jake Heenan, Mata Fifita, Aaron Conneely, Paul O’Donohoe, Craig Ronaldson, Matt Healy.

At Ravenhill Stadium
Kick off 7.05pm.
Live on BBC Northern Ireland
Referee: Ian Davies (WRU, 15th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Leo Colgan, Paul Haycock (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: John Cole (IRFU)
TMO: Kevin Beggs (IRFU)

neilthom7 wrote:The way it's going it's not going to be long before Anscombe can giving 1 to 1 training to all fit players, soon Newforge is going to have more coaches than players at training

That is the problem

If we were to name a team that was certain to be fit this weekend it would not be good enough - we need some guys pulling through from twinges etc

If Afoa comes through we have a decent pack with Ferris replacing Diack. Cave returning to the backline and a rejig with possibly Andrew losing out would be my other guess

Some belated thoughts -

Great performance, finally we've found our mojo again, unfortunately a week too late but a great response to the disappointment of the previous week.

Given Leinsters performance and with Munster with one eye on the heino there is still a lot to play for.

Trimble was the best player on the pitch by miles and has improved out of sight in the last 2 years. 3 tries, 2 assists and gave poor old car a pummelling a few times in defence. Irsh player of the season for me.

Bowe - took his try well, nice offload for Trimble's second and a sublime piece of handling for Marshalls try. There was one horrible pass off his left though that shows he has a lot to work on as a centre.

P Marshall - finally back to his best, Took both tries well and his speed of service caused Connacht loads of problems and helped our outside backs have a field day.

McCloskey - this guy is a beast and a great find.

Generally a good all round performance in front of Joe Schmidt and should help a few guys get on summer tours as well as build some momentum heading into the end of the saason.

rodders wrote:

Trimble was the best player on the pitch by miles and has improved out of sight in the last 2 years. 3 tries, 2 assists and gave poor old car a pummelling a few times in defence. Irsh player of the season for me.

 

If keeps the form going into next year we have to get a campaign going for Sports Personality of the Year as well   

Pat Lam has a stat for everything except the percentage of times his game plan of flinging the ball wide was the wrong choice in the circumstances, or the number of times Connacht didn't read what was going to happen or pick up on Ulsters running lines when they were defending...

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/pro12/pat-lam-says-zero-penalty-stat-a-world-record-for-connacht-1.1762007

They were atrocious up to Christmas (bottom of the table for a while) but to be fair to Lam they have been fairly good since then. Theyre defence is still poor and needs a lot of work but if they can improve on that then they will be in good shape for next year.

Hes also getting some good signings in. Hopefully the rumours about Clarke are not true.

No, they have been- and they looked pretty good with the ball on Friday, it's just disappointing how unbelievably soft almost every try was. Some of them from turnovers from over-ambitious play, some of them from poor defensive reads and some of them from just a criminal lack of concentration.

8 tries conceded and it could have been more.

Agreed.

In attack they looked really impressive but defensively clueless at times.
I can see the Westies improving though and under Lam I really hope they do.
Henshaw looks to be the real deal but can they retain him? I doubt it.
Is it not time to admit that Carr is not good enough?

Both Connacht wingers were poor.
TO'H was absolutely humiliated by P. Marshall for his second try

The irony is Connacht's defence was one of the best around under Elwood - or more specifically Mike Forshaw - I presume he is still there?