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Connacht v. Bristol Bears - Sunday 20th December at 5.30 p.m.
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3 years 4 months ago #67987
Connacht Rugby are back into...
Connacht Rugby are back into European Champions Cup action this weekend, taking on some familiar faces in Bristol Bears. The Bears are the current Challenge Cup winners and riding high in the English Premiership. Unfortunately, we won't be there to cheer Connacht on (or welcome people back to the Sportsground!) but be sure to catch the action live, or in Clan HQ - Murty Rabbitts. Bookings are essential for Murtys and can be contacted on 091 566490.
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3 years 4 months ago #67988
Dunno what to make of this one. Apparently their coach is fantastic, they've got a really speedy winger, an absolute demon from NZ in the backrow. Some lad from Portumna is their forwards coach, it seems.
Messing aside, such a shame we won't be able to be in the SG in person for this match. It'd be a cracker, and it would have been especially great to give Niyi a proper send off.
Pat and Mul know our lads well, and you've got to think they'd both absolutely love to get points out of this. Would imagine the video sessions in Bristol this week were VERY in depth.
I know our lads were disappointed to be coming away with 'only' a BP from last weeks match, but if we played this week like we did in the second half of last week I'll be very pleased.
Last edit: 3 years 4 months ago by Sol_ie.
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3 years 3 months ago #67990
Welp, that was a great preformance in parts - showed real guts to put it up to Bristol. Yellow Card for Bundee was a real turning point, won't make for a great review. Could've inched a losing BP out of it too in the closing seconds too, which probably won't effect must but perhaps shows a lack of cynicism that is maybe needed.
Defensively we were excellent for good stretches of the game. Ultan was in great form, backs were great when they were able to get even a bit of space. Obviously, Bristol made great returns from the maul and scrum, Mul must've been chuffed.
Lovely to see Pat (and Niyi and Mul) back in the SG even under these circumstances. Would've loved to have made them work harder for their christmas pressie, tho.
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3 years 3 months ago #67991
As you said, some good/some bad. First half we were far too passive, but the error rate right from the off was disappointingly high. Could have been performance anxiety. Don't think they were too worried about the calibre of the oppo, but perhaps got too focused on first half on not losing and ended up not playing any rugby.
The game highlighted the limitations of a physically small pack, Ultan is what as a second row myself I would consider a small second row, and Eoghan is a par sized Blindside/No8. Both's strengths are in the loose, and both excelled there on both weekends. The match in Paris suited us because it was windless with a firm dry pitch and allowed us to get away with being undersized over the eighty minutes as there were fewer handling errors and set-pieces as a result, in the conditions our mobility gave us an advantage .
But because of our error rate in the first half and the conditions it was as a much more energy sapping match in Galway, Bristol having done their homework strategically and took us on via mauls and scrums at every opportunity. It was a fair result over 80mins, thought Bristol despite being poor themselves in the firs half were more dominant over the whole game, much more convincing winner than Racing last weekend.Even with Quinn and Gavin back, the reverse fixtures will be tough asks.
Not overly bothered about the missed losing BP farrago, absolutely 100% confident Boyle will learn a lot from it and be better for the mistake. Personally couldn't care less about the Challenge Cup. Even in the unlikely even we were to get through to the final the winners of this years European Cups will have asterisk's against their names due to the Covid crises and restructured tournament...
Sol_ie wrote: Welp, that was a great preformance in parts - showed real guts to put it up to Bristol. Yellow Card for Bundee was a real turning point, won't make for a great review. Could've inched a losing BP out of it too in the closing seconds too, which probably won't effect must but perhaps shows a lack of cynicism that is maybe needed.
Defensively we were excellent for good stretches of the game. Ultan was in great form, backs were great when they were able to get even a bit of space. Obviously, Bristol made great returns from the maul and scrum, Mul must've been chuffed.
Lovely to see Pat (and Niyi and Mul) back in the SG even under these circumstances. Would've loved to have made them work harder for their Christmas pressie, tho.
As you said, some good/some bad. First half we were far too passive, but the error rate right from the off was disappointingly high. Could have been performance anxiety. Don't think they were too worried about the calibre of the oppo, but perhaps got too focused on first half on not losing and ended up not playing any rugby.
The game highlighted the limitations of a physically small pack, Ultan is what as a second row myself I would consider a small second row, and Eoghan is a par sized Blindside/No8. Both's strengths are in the loose, and both excelled there on both weekends. The match in Paris suited us because it was windless with a firm dry pitch and allowed us to get away with being undersized over the eighty minutes as there were fewer handling errors and set-pieces as a result, in the conditions our mobility gave us an advantage .
But because of our error rate in the first half and the conditions it was as a much more energy sapping match in Galway, Bristol having done their homework strategically and took us on via mauls and scrums at every opportunity. It was a fair result over 80mins, thought Bristol despite being poor themselves in the firs half were more dominant over the whole game, much more convincing winner than Racing last weekend.Even with Quinn and Gavin back, the reverse fixtures will be tough asks.
Not overly bothered about the missed losing BP farrago, absolutely 100% confident Boyle will learn a lot from it and be better for the mistake. Personally couldn't care less about the Challenge Cup. Even in the unlikely even we were to get through to the final the winners of this years European Cups will have asterisk's against their names due to the Covid crises and restructured tournament...
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3 years 3 months ago #67992
This goes for both sides - seemed like a pretty conservative game for the first 30 or so.
sea_point wrote: Could have been performance anxiety. Don't think they were too worried about the calibre of the oppo, but perhaps got too focused on first half on not losing and ended up not playing any rugby.
This goes for both sides - seemed like a pretty conservative game for the first 30 or so.
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