Ospreys v Connacht [11-12] - Match Thread

Referee for the match will be... Stefano Penne from Italy, who will take charge of his 6th competition game.  :'(

That's three Italian refs in the first 5 matches. I've been keeping a running total of the refs assigned to each match and with the list already out for next week it looks like this

Team	Average ref experience (games)
Ulster	22
Leinster	18
Blues	17
Munster	17
Dragons	16
Edinburgh	15
Ospreys	14
Scarlets	13
Aironi	11
Glasgow	9
Treviso	8
Connacht	6

Aironi get a bit of a bump after last weeks match was refereed by Peter (ahem) Allan, who has 44 games experience. (But he hides it well)

We've had one single game where the refs experience has reached double digits, contrast that to Munster who've had that pleasure 4 times out of 5.

I'm going to keep this going through the season to see if it balances out, but if it doesn't then I think the branch have grounds for making an unholy racket to ensure a level playing field for all involved.

I'm not expecting us to get anything from this game unfortunately.
I'd have the Ospreys up there with Leinster and Munster, as the best teams in the Pro12.

I'll take a result that included no injuries, and no embarrassement

They've dealt with Leinster and Ulster comfortably, I think this will be a game too far. LBP not impossible though, but we'll miss George going head to head with Rush.

Need to stay healthy for the RDS game, that's one we can realistically target.

Shame on the TV people for not broadcasting a top-of-the-table clash, though  :

They've dealt with Leinster and Ulster comfortably, I think this will be a game too far. LBP not impossible though, but we'll miss George going head to head with Rush.

Need to stay healthy for the RDS game, that's one we can realistically target.

Shame on the TV people for not broadcasting a top-of-the-table clash, though  :

Doh!

I must admit I was slightly confused.

Obviously not as confused as I!

Who said that??

Team's out -

15 Gavin Duffy (C)
14 Brian Tuohy
13 Eoin Griffin
12 Henry Fa'afili
11 Tiernan O'Halloran
10 Niall O'Connor
9 Frank Murphy
1 Brett Wilkinson
2 Ethienne Reynecke
3 Dylan Rogers
4 Michael Swift
5 Mike McCarthy
6 TJ Anderson
7 Johnny O'Connor
8 John Muldoon

16 Adrian Flavin
17 Ronan Loughney
18 Stewart Maguire
19 Dave Gannon
20 Ray Ofisa
21 Paul O'Donohoe
22 Matthew Jarvis
23 James Loxton

Does anyone know if Rodney is injured/rested/dropped?

Ditto Mark McCrea?

Very tough on Jarvis, bet he would love to start against his old teammates.

thats a strange team thats picked i think. Not sure how eric picks his team. I think he wants to keep the squad happy more so than picking on form. If it was form then ray and jarvis would start plus p o d gave us faster ball when he replaced frank-

Keeping the team fresh is important, though.

Jarvis sounds like he's making the 10 spot his own, but Eric knows an out-half needs more than one start to prove his worth, so two in a row for NOC was probably a plan he had from the beginning.

I'm happy for TJ, but not happy to see Mul at 8. I wish we'd stop with that particular experiment. Razor at 8, Mul at 6 please!

Apart from that, fair enough. Probably some tight calls. Dave must be injured, but it'll be interesting to see how Maguire fares. Away to Ospreys will be  a tough baptism.

Dylan deserves his chance, he was superb when he came on the last day. Said it alot before, Mul at 8 is a waste, he gets through his best work at 6. Would have gone with Jarvis, O'Donoghue to keep things fresh and everyne on their toes

Fair enough EE might feel this one might not be a "target" game and to keep lads happy give them some game time.

But for me RO should start (@ and Muller should be @ 6

but look we have had a fantastic start to the season, and im not saying Elwood is right to throw in the towel b4 the game starts, but lets just cut the manager and team a bit of slack on this one

Anyone know if its on the box, i've checked s4c and surprisingly it's not on (esp a home game when a welsh side is playing) but alas.