Connacht v Glasgow Warriors, 25 April

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Connacht Rugby v Glasgow Warriors
Saturday 25 April
KO: 13:05
The Sportsground, Galway

Live on TG4/BBC ALBA

Referee: Marius Mitrea (FIR, 40th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Andy Brace, Oisin Quinn (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: Dennis Templeton (IRFU)
TMO: Dermot Moloney (IRFU)

A. Head to Head

25 Played 25
7 Wins 15
15 Losses 7
3 Draws 3
44 Tries 62
32 Conversions 43
50 Penalties 54
5 Drop Goals 2
449 Points 564
24 Avg. Age 26

B. Form

Fri 26 Sep 2014 - Glasgow Warriors 39 - 21 Connacht Rugby

Sun 9 Feb 2014 - Glasgow Warriors 8 - 6 Connacht Rugby

Sat 2 Nov 2013 - Connacht Rugby 12 - 19 Glasgow Warriors

C. Teams

Connacht Rugby

[tbc]

Glasgow Warriors

15. Stuart Hogg
14. Tommy Seymour
13. Richie Vernon
12. Peter Horne
11. Niko Matawalu
10. Finn Russell
9. Henry Pyrgos
 
1. Jerry Yanuyanutawa
2. Fraser Brown
3. Euan Murray   
4. Leone Nakarawa
5. Jonny Gray (Captain)
6. Rob Harley
7. Chris Fusaro
8. Adam Ashe
 
16. Kevin Bryce
17. Ryan Grant  
18. Jon Welsh
19. Tim Swinson
20. Josh Strauss
21. Duncan Weir
22. Peter Murchie
23. Lee Jones

A BP win is a good result, but the performance didn't deserve it (a win but under a 7 point difference).

A LOT to improve on for next week.

Nematode wrote:A BP win is a good result, but the performance didn't deserve it (a win but under a 7 point difference).

A LOT to improve on for next week.

We are not playing next week. That is probably part of the problem, a bit stop start at the moment, but they will go into the final run fresh, which is the important thing!

Henry pyrgos MOTM

Edinburgh were a lot easier to watch last night...

Nematode wrote:Edinburgh were a lot easier to watch last night...

Think you're being harsh Nematode.
Edinburgh have far easier opposition, were playing at home & Zebre spent large stretches down to 14.

By contrast, the Sportsground is always a tricky place to visit, and Glasgow spent 1/4 of the match down to 14.
As it was the managed to soak up the Connacht pressure, and were ruthless when it came to taking their chances. Compare that to the Ediburgh backs who spent Friday night guddling the ball about & failing to take advantage of 13 men.

I'll take the result and look forward to seeing the highlights. Now all we need is for Munster and Ospreys to drop points.

Nematode wrote:Edinburgh were a lot easier to watch last night...

Are you out your feckin mind? The Luvvies were playing Zebre at Morgue Murrayfield. WE were away against a feckin good side, and a cheat referee and a cheat TMO (no real surprise there tbh - it is Ireland after all).

Get real ffs !

Both got a BP win!

George Carlin wrote:I'll take the result and look forward to seeing the highlights. Now all we need is for Munster and Ospreys to drop points.

Indeed, sadly they both go results today. Looking pretty tight at the top of the table

Glasgow 70
Munster 68
Ulster 67
Ospreys 66

The next game against the Os will be massive.

Bit touchy today Poopie - all he's saying is an easy win over zebre was easier to watch than a nervy start from Glasgow!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Bit touchy today Poopie - all he's saying is an easy win over zebre was easier to watch than a nervy start from Glasgow!

Exactly.

Edinburgh looked comfortable - not spectacular - against Zebre. It was good to see their scrum and maul dominating after the Munster game and some good tries. It was hard to watch Glasgow though when they made so many errors and gave away so many penalties (compared to their high standard). For example, it was frustrating seeing Euan Murray lying on the ground like a seal that had had an all-you-can-eat buffet, scooping the ball back in the ruck under Mitrea's nose.

Can anyone who saw the game give me a quick overview? Yellow cards are a worry and it sounds like we took an arsekicking at the scrums?

George Carlin wrote:Can anyone who saw the game give me a quick overview? Yellow cards are a worry and it sounds like we took an arsekicking at the scrums?

Main takeaways:

- The scrum with Yanuyanutawa and Murray was very worrying but was pretty solid with Grant and Welsh. Connacht should have got a try first from a 5m scrum to take them to 11/3 - 0.
- Yellow cards were from too many penalties. Discipline was embarrassing.
- The first half should have seen Connacht leading. They dominated possession and the lineout.
- Very lucky to get the BP - an intercept and some sloppy tackling gifted two tries.
- Pyrgos and Russell didn't look all that inspiring and Hogg hardly featured. Ashe carried hard and Fusaro got a few good turnovers.

I know Connacht are tough at home, but Glasgow should have done much better - this is as close as possible (minus the front row) to Glasgow's best XV. They looked unpolished and rusty, and everything just seemed hurried, almost like they were playing sevens. There was no focus a lot of the time and they gave away so many penalties.

Bit of an ugly game. The scoreline flatters Glasgow who will really need to step up.

Very good summary - thanks.

Only 2 games in the whole of April, so the rustiness is not surprising as a number of names just came back. Two desperately tough games coming up though - an almighty bugger that none of Maitland, Dunbar, Bennett and (probably) DTH will be available.

Still, where we go from now is within our control and this is a battle hardened set of players now.

GC, I hate to disagree with Mr Tode but I'll offer another take on the game.
Good news: -
the signing of Dan McFadden may be a stroke of genius. The Connacht pack were very good; superb in the scrum in the first 40, very competitive at the breakdown, not so good at line out. I think he may be the man to move our pack up a notch.
- Seymour is on fire.
- The game plan seemed to be "We will beat them in the backs so run from anywhere" At times it was like watching France in their heyday- not the merde we see nowadays.
- Henners had a good game and seems to be getting better all the time IMHO.
- We soaked up a lot of pressure early on and then went in three tries up from three scoring positions at half time. Like Liverpool in the seventies.(Wendyball reference).

Bad news;
-we ended up with Meatball and Hogg at 12 &13.
- and a back three of Seymour-Murchie-Jones
- Bluto went off hurt 10 minutes after coming on
- 23-5 penalty count against us. Schiz is still foaming at the mouth but it wasn't all the ref's fault.
- scrum was in reverse gear for first 40.


Not many teams go to Galway and win comfortably. The "run from anywhere" attitude showed a real sense of self-belief, it never looked as if we would lose. Connacht wanted a tight, forwards dominated game and we wanted to run in tries. It reminded me of what Arthur Ashe said of playing a young McEnroe, " He uses his racquet like a stiletto. You don't think he's hurting you and then you look down and you're bleeding to death." The game was over by half time, and not many people have done that at the Sportsground this year.

If Glasgow can keep this self belief we can win our next two games. And then ????

I think the rustiness was a big factor, when we played well towards the end of the match, we looked very good. The last try was a fantastic team try, moved them from side to side, created the space and scored. The one before, with the Strauss to Ashe pass was pretty good as well, we really were all over them by then.

The main worry to me was the two props in the first half and it was clearly a worry to Toonie as well, as he hooked them both at half time. All in all it was probably just the sort of game we neeed. Tough enough to get us back in the grove and make us play for 80 mins, which we have not had to do in our last couple of games. It has given Toonie an idea of who is still up for it at the end of a long season as well.

I think JS was taken off as a precaution, he did not look particularly keen to come off, but it was certainly the right call. I thought Adam ashe played really well at No. 8 though. He is really putting his WC squad case forward and was the pick of the back row today. He would have been my MoM.

All of the criticism of Strauss pre-game on these boards was, er, 'interesting'. As a non-SQ and captain in waiting, he has played every recent game, is at times almost solely responsible for making yards in the heavy traffic and has had to drag a very makeshift side through an almost unprecedented time of injury, suspension and colleague departure.

Like Bresler is showing recently, class is permanent.

I am not worried about Strauss.

Well if anything does keep Strauss sweating over his Scotland credentials it'll be the form of Adam Ashe. I've been nervous about Ashe being able to make the hard yards previously, but he's on fantastic form and had a great game.

My current Scotland thinking is that Strauss, Harley, Cowan, Denton and Ashe are all making it, plus Hamish Watson if there's room for six back row players.

Fraser Brown's offload to Nico for the first try is pretty useful! Takes out two defenders whilst getting that ball away.

Ford, Brown and McInally. That's a handy trio to call upon.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Well if anything does keep Strauss sweating over his Scotland credentials it'll be the form of Adam Ashe. I've been nervous about Ashe being able to make the hard yards previously, but he's on fantastic form and had a great game.

My current Scotland thinking is that Strauss, Harley, Cowan, Denton and Ashe are all making it, plus Hamish Watson if there's room for six back row players.

Cowan shouldn't be anywhere near the squad imo, for an openside the guy has no rugby brains..

I disagree. I rate Cowan. He's an open side who really puts his body on the line and competes hard for the ball. He's also a handy ball carrier. He gave away too many penalties in the 6 nations but with Scotland frequently on the back foot and requiring the ball to be slowed down, I'm not too surprised at the penalty count.

The bigger question is whether Watson, Grant, Fozzy or Brown can do enough to usurp Cowan in the eyes of Cotter. Let's just assume Barclay is out. I think Watson has the talent but Grant is on cracking form at the moment.

I think we can all agree Fusaro is too small to have much of an impact at international level. However i would have all of Watson, Grant and Barclay ahead of Cowan, possibly even Brown too i mean Fraser Brown

As long as we have 2 of Denton, Strauss and Ashe in the backrow we are sorted in terms of ball carrying imo and we would need someone like Tipuric to complete the back row, Watson fit the bill. This means Rob Harley for all his efforts drops out of the team, he should also fear for his starting place in the Glasgow team.

I don't think Harley gets in the Glasgow XV anymore unless he's at 7. Strauss at 6 with Ashe at 8 would be my first choice.

I'lol have to disagree with you guys about Harley.

He's not been on top form since the 6 Nations, but he's absolutely central to the Glasgow defensive system. His line speed in fringe defense is outstanding and this plays a huge role in pinning the opposition back in attack and sapping their energy. I'd like him to develop his ball carrying a bit more, but otherwise he stays for me.

I can't possibly say if he'll be a dead cert for Scotland, but I don't think Peter Wright was wrong a few years ago for describing Harley as 'the next Jason White'.

Plus, he plays for Glasgow. He's world class. ;D

OK, allowing for my extremely dodgy arithmetic;



Glasgow
20 15 1 4 498 329 8 70

2

Munster
20 14 1 5 508 317 10 68

3

Ulster
20 14 1 5 491 317 9 67

4

Ospreys
20 14 1 5 501 328 8 66

If we beat the Ospreys next time out we will have 74/5 points and the Ospreys can get a maximum of 72 (lbp against us and 5 pts the following week).
Ulster and Munster play each other so one of them can only get a max of 6 more points. Munster 74 or Ulster 73.

So a win at Ospreys gives us a home semi. Which would mean that the last Saturday of the season would be about (a) avoiding injury (b) giving players a run out to prove fitness (c) denying Ulster a home semi. Lets send Ulster to Thomond Park and we'll play what'sleft standing in the final, thank you.

p.s. Scotland back row Harley-Ashe -Bluto , although Hamish Watson looks like a bolter.
p.p.s. talking with a Bok friend of mine yesterday he still didn't believe Bluto would actually opt for Scotland. When I said he would and would play against the Boks he said, "They'll kill him. They will kill him out of patriotism."

Jim, I think you're mostly right - in order to be sure of a home semi-final, Glasgow need to be five points clear of either Munster or Ulster.

According to my incredibly gimpy spreadsheet (see the main SD v MFL thread for a copy) if Glasgow win against the Os, the only way Glasgow aren't certain of a home semi is if they fail to get a TBP, Munster and Ulster draw, and Ulster get a TBP.

Thanks Ian, too many headaches in the numbers round...it's like watching Countdown without Rachel in her short skirts.

p.s. just got free tickets for Twickers on Saturday

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