Connacht vs Cardiff - 29/10/11 6pm KO - Match Thread

Henson out according to an article on BBC site today.... This game is very, very winable

15 Gavin Duffy ©
14 Fetu’u Vainikolo
13 Eoin Griffin
12 Henry Fa’afili
11 Tiernan O’Halloran
10 Niall O’Connor
09 Frank Murphy
01 Brett Wilkinson
02 Adrian Flavin
03 Rodney Ah You
04 Michael Swift
05 Mike McCarthy
06 John Muldoon
07 Johnny O’Connor
08 Ray Ofisa

16 Ethienne Reynecke
17 Ronan Loughney
18 Dylan Rogers
19 Dave Gannon
20 George Naoupu
21 Paul O’Donohoe
22 Miah Nikora
23 Brian Tuohy

Good enough, but think NOC is lucky to be in the squad let alone starting, would have much preferred Jarvis starting and Miah as replacement.

Great to see George back!

From RaboDirect

The Blues welcome back Dan Parks and Taufa'ao Filise from the Rugby World Cup and there is also a welcome return for John Yapp who has recovered from his calf injury to make his first start of the season.

The front row is also boosted by the return of T Rhys Thomas who has recovered from his knee operation.

Cardiff Blues

15 Chris Czekaj 14 Alex Cuthbert 13 Casey Laulala 12 Dafydd Hewitt 11 Tom James 10 Dan Parks 9 Richie Rees

8 Xavier Rush 7 Josh Navidi 6 Maama Molitika 5 Paul Tito 4 Michael Paterson 3 Taufaao Filise 2 T Rhys Thomas

1 John Yapp

16 Ryan Tyrrell 17 Sam Hobbs 18 Scott Andrews 19 Deiniol Jones 20 Ellis Jenkins 21 Lewis Jones 22 Ceri Sweeney 23 Gavin Evans

I have to agree with UMMM on this one, in my opinion Jarvis has merited a starting berth with Nikora or NOC covering from the bench, I would prefer Nikora to have more game time with a lower division team to prove his fitness before throwing him into an important RABO Direct fixture which is a must win for us !!!
I hope he proves me wrong,but it is a gamble.

well i knew jarvis was not in the squad but starting noc, ?
Also with our best back starting (not the bench tho, mccrea should be on it ) why is murphy starting. I would love if some one had a stop watch and timed how long it takes him to get the ball out and spread it to our backs. Pod should come in soon. With nearly all the team starting apart from george, we should be more direct.
Only 2players i fear from them lualua and the boot off parks

25hours to go.

Come on Connacht

"What say you all? Better?"

YES!

Thats a pretty decent Cardiff team, even with them missing their welsh players, hopefully nobody will fall for Laulalas show and go this time around, can remember the replays being shown time and time again after he fool Ta'auso last season to sneak in uncontested to score

Laulala is a class player, we have to be in his face when he gets the ball or he'll do damage. If he got one on one with Henry there's only one winner, Henry is very slow to move his feet in defence and Laulala would step him with ease. It's going to be a dirty wet night so it's up to the pack to front up and get the set piece right and O'Connor to kick the goals. He needs to repay Elwood's faith with a big performance tonight.

Anyone got a linky? Not an Irish/UK one!