PRO12 Play Off 2: Connacht v Glasgow Warriors, 21 May

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Connacht Rugby v Glasgow Warriors
Saturday 21 May 2016
KO: 18:30
The Sportsground, Galway

Referee: Marius Mitrea (FIR, 53rd competition game)
Assistant Referees: Nigel Owens (WRU) Stefano Penne (FIR)
Citing Commissioner: Gwyn Bowden (WRU)
TMO: Carlo Damasco (FIR)

Live on Sky Sports/TG4/BBC ALBA and BBC Sport Scotland

A. Head to Head

28 Played 28
8 Wins 17
17 Losses 8
3 Draws 3
508 Points 635

B. Form

7 May 2016
Connacht Rugby 14 - 7 Glasgow Warriors

11 September 2015
Glasgow Warriors 33 - 32 Connacht Rugby

25 April 2015
Connacht Rugby 13 - 31 Glasgow Warriors

26 September 2014
Glasgow Warriors 39 - 21 Connacht Rugby

C. Teams

Connacht Rugby 

T O'Halloran; N Adeolokun, R Henshaw, B Aki, M Healy; AJ MacGinty, K Marmion; R Loughney, T McCartney, F Bealham; U Dillane, A Muldowney; E McKeon, J Heenan, J Muldoon (capt).

Replacements: D Heffernan, JP Cooney, R Ah You, A Browne, S O'Brien, John Cooney, S O'Leary, P Robb

Glasgow Warriors

S Hogg; T Seymour, M Bennett, P Horne, S Lamont; F Russell, H Pyrgos; G Reid, F Brown, Z Fagerson; L Nakarawa, J Gray (capt); R Wilson, S Favaro, J Strauss.

Replacements: P MacArthur, R Grant, D Rae, T Swinson, A Ashe, G Hart, D Weir, T Naiyaravoro

And offside now exists?

That's got to be one of the worst scrum penalty decisions I've seen in a long time

Relax, here comes Tim Swinson for Josh Strauss....

Agreed on that scrum penalty. Baffling!

Glasgow's mistakes absolutely killing them

RDW_Scotland wrote:That's got to be one of the worst scrum penalty decisions I've seen in a long time

I think Grant reputation of late may have worked against him there but yeah that was a terrible call.

Oh well...

Really wasn't the best time to try a fancy backs move in your own 22 with a poor forwards platform

How was nobody offside there?

He kicked it into Aki!

Fortunate!

Pile in Tiny Tim!!

Rodney Ah You is a total idiot. Why on Earth did we sign this guy?

Yellow is probably fair.

Stupid prop!

Right, still need to get up and score in 8 mins! No good if G-gow can't win their own lineout...

Eejit Naivaravoro. Need to keep it in play!

Glasgow have made some dreadful decisions this game.

Stupid from Hart to give it to Big T right on the touchline!

Glasgow players must be mentally exhausted from watching their teammates continually shooting themselves in the foot

Glasgow got absolutely nothing left

Marius has certainly got his glasgow shirt on underneath

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:Glasgow players must be mentally exhausted from watching their teammates continually shooting themselves in the foot

Totally.

toml wrote:Marius has certainly got his glasgow shirt on underneath

Seriously?!

RDW_Scotland wrote:

toml wrote:Marius has certainly got his glasgow shirt on underneath

Seriously?!

Without a doubt, I've no problem with the yellow card, but the only decisions that have went Connachts way have been because of Nigel.
How Glasgow didn't get a yellow I don't know

No complaints about the result - Connacht deserved that.

Glasgow just made too many mistakes and made some very poor decisions.

Great effort given they lost their 10 and tighthead in the 1st minute!

Come on Connacht - finish the job now!

Well done Connacht, deserved victors.

Glasgow lacked leadership today, stupid decision making and very naive tactics.

Hugely frustrating but Glasgow can have no complaints. Far too many errors.

Andy Nicol is speaking. Time to change channels!

toml wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:

toml wrote:Marius has certainly got his glasgow shirt on underneath

Seriously?!

Without a doubt, I've no problem with the yellow card, but the only decisions that have went Connachts way have been because of Nigel.
How Glasgow didn't get a yellow I don't know

All the disallowed tries were disallowed correctly, Glasgow were given a final warning then Connacht messed up the lineout so Glasgow were left off, there was an incredibly dodgy scrum penalty against Glasgow...

I'm not saying he was the reason why Glasgow lost in any way bit there's no way he favoured Glasgow!

Hardluck Glasgow, nailbiting stuff, feel exhausted. Two best teams in league this year played today. Beyond delighted. Ref was bad across the board

Leinster now...

Commiserations, Glasgow.

Well done, Connacht! Delighted for you, and wish you all the very best in the final.

Cheered me up after the loss yesterday

Didn't watch it, but well done Connacht - hope you win the whole thing.

Cracking result.
Aki is some signing.
Awesome player.

Great team spirit in this Connacht side.

Have come a long way.

80 minutes away from our first pro 12 title.

C'mon Connacht.

Glasgow put up a great fight for a team that lost 3 players to injury, but they were outclassed today. I don't think there will be many Neutrals going for Leinster in the final. Connacht abu

I hope Connacht can get the title. This would be an amazing story.

RDW_Scotland wrote:

toml wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:

toml wrote:Marius has certainly got his glasgow shirt on underneath

Seriously?!

Without a doubt, I've no problem with the yellow card, but the only decisions that have went Connachts way have been because of Nigel.
How Glasgow didn't get a yellow I don't know

All the disallowed tries were disallowed correctly, Glasgow were given a final warning then Connacht messed up the lineout so Glasgow were left off, there was an incredibly dodgy scrum penalty against Glasgow...

I'm not saying he was the reason why Glasgow lost in any way bit there's no way he favoured Glasgow!

No need for a final warning... 2 cynical infringements in a row to stop pretty much certain tries. Even the commentators said they should have had a man in the bin

Congrats Connacht, I don't think you'll be short of people cheering for you in the final!

Fair play to Connacht, best of luck in the final.

Glasgow were done for from the first minute when Finn Russell went off, to unlock what has been, over the last two games, a rather negative side they were going to need to do something special and if Duncan Weir has is capable of something special it certainly is not on the rugby pitch. I won't be sorry to see Naiyarovoro go, he seems to be an incredibly unintelligent rugby player albeit an impressive athlete. We lacked a lot of bulk in the midfield, too much lateral movement from Horne and Bennett and not enough drive. Weir was dreadful, he's all heart and very little talent bless him. We need an openside, Favaro and Fusaro are two work horses but not skilful enough over the ball.

My wishlist for the summer is a tighthead, an openside and a 10-15 try a season winger, obviously none of these come cheap. We do need to change our game plan mind you as it seems to have been found out to some extent so perhaps Nakarawa leaving won't be the blow it seems.

Ah You had to receive a red card, it would make no difference to the result, but the tackle was incredibly dangerous, if we're giving reds out for spear tackles and tackles in the air reckless tackles like that have to receive a similar punishment.

Watched this match in a Belfast pub with a few Glasgow fans. Very enjoyable.  And the match was as well.

Congrats Connacht.  

Final should be interesting.

123456789 wrote:Glasgow were done for from the first minute when Finn Russell went off, to unlock what has been, over the last two games, a rather negative side they were going to need to do something special and if Duncan Weir has is capable of something special it certainly is not on the rugby pitch.

Sorry Numbers, I don't think you can label Connacht as negative side. Their ambition is one of their hallmarks, as could be seen by the number of kicks at goal they turned down.

Well had to go to work at the end of the first half and could only follow on Twiiter after that. The writing was most certainly on the wall after the first minute when we lost Fargerson and Russell. Though to be fair, Rae seem to hold the scrum up pretty well and should be given great credit for that.

Sounds like we got what we deserved though and you have got to give credit to Connacht, myself and just about anyone who does not support Leinster will be routing for them in the final!

Its been a long season and it finally seemed to catch up with us in the last two games. It is all about peaking at the right time and it looks like we drained the tank getting to the playoffs from such a long way back.

Well done Connacht, a fantastic acheivement this season. You thourughly deserve to be in the final.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Rodney Ah You is a total idiot. Why on Earth did we sign this guy?

Irish eligible mediocrity is what the IRFU think we should fill our team with if we can't produce our own decent players from our Academy.

Notch wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Rodney Ah You is a total idiot. Why on Earth did we sign this guy?

Irish eligible mediocrity is what the IRFU think we should fill our team with if we can't produce our own decent players from our Academy.

Yeh, we get Ah You, while two of our academy products in Bealham and Carey will be lining out for Connacht next season. Something not right, not right at all.

Artful_Dodger wrote:

Notch wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Rodney Ah You is a total idiot. Why on Earth did we sign this guy?

Irish eligible mediocrity is what the IRFU think we should fill our team with if we can't produce our own decent players from our Academy.

Yeh,  we get Ah You, while two of our academy products in Bealham and Carey will be lining out for Connacht next season.  Something not right, not right at all.

Yes, it is pretty ironic- we clearly have some people in the Academy system holding us back to an extent.

Well done, Connacht.  It was a bit of a white knuckle ride there, especially at the end.  Glasgow NOT a team to go one man down against! - and it took some resolve for Connacht to keep making the defensive hits to get over the line.

For most of the year that might have been as much as saying 'job is done'.  Glasgow were possibly the biggest hurdle of any hurdle (for any team) to overcome on the lead in.  
But Lam will have noted Leinster's revival and has now a whole new set of strategic headaches lined up for next week.  One more game.  Connacht will want it all so it should be a bruising game.  Let's hope a few Internationals are left standing to hop on a plane down South by the end of it

In a way it is perhaps a blessing in disguise Glasgow didn't win - I dread to think what team they'd be able to put out next week given all the injuries and walking wounded sustained - it was a brutal game!

Hopefully Connacht can pick up all their players physically after that contest.

I thought that was a great game. Two sides just flat out attacking. Hugeley entertaining to watch

I thought Mitrea( bar the scrum pen) had a great game. played advantage well, no major blunders

Obviously disappointed with the loss. Thought both teams were fairly evenly matched. Connacht just wanted it more. Good luck to them in the final. They can have my support

Well done Connacht, deserved winners with a scoreline that flattered Glasgow.

I think Glasgow were just flat out exhausted - the World Cup was a long time ago now and to be expected to play at such a high level with so many world cup teammates was too much. When you consider how few Connacht players played at the RWC and 6 Nations, they were bound to be better prepared in terms of fitness (mental and physical) - it showed.

Going forward, Glasgow's pack must improve. They lack a hard edge and just don't do the backs justice.

A word on Rodney Ah You - what a colossal doghnut, to put it nicely. On the replays he looked pleased with the intentional high tackle, which could have caused serious damage. That could have been the catalyst for Glasgow to score, losing Connacht a historic triumph. I hope for Connacht's sake he is at least benched.

Nematode wrote:

A word on Rodney Ah You - what a colossal doghnut, to put it nicely. On the replays he looked pleased with the intentional high tackle, which could have caused serious damage. That could have been the catalyst for Glasgow to score, losing Connacht a historic triumph. I hope for Connacht's sake he is at least benched.

I hear he's been told by Lam that Connacht lost, that he's been banned from watching any more TV, using his smartphone or computer; that's he's been given his directions to Ulster already.... via Peru, by way of Mongolia, across the Himalayas - and told to enjoy the trip.

Of course the opposing joke will be that Kiss will turn him into a player everyone will be after come this time next season.