Great night in Galway, The crowd were great and the score was ok imho. Thats where Connacht are. I thought the ref and touch judges were poor. The touch judges were useless and very slow to call for forward passes like the one that send medard racing down the line. We were lucky Medard didnt have a hattrick in the first half.
There was a massive difference physically between the teams and we looked knackered but why were we trying to run so much ball from our 22 and our half. We can hardly do that in the rabo. We should have kicked it ito the stand and put pressure on them in the lineout where we did well.
Toulouse are a great side and I'll say they will win it when the time comes. The sheer difference in financial stats are mad.
Spoke to Gerry Kelly on Saturday and while confident that they would put in a performance, The day was very important in getting people through the gate and giving them something that will get them to come back for the Rabo less marketable games. It looks like Gloucester will take 3000 tickets which is what they were entitled to for the next game. That should make for a great atmosphere.
Duffy looked great, The centres are improving with every game and the lineout was solid. The scrum wasnt as bad as I thought it would be. The ref had it in his mind that Connacht were to be penalised in the scrum when it suited toulouse. A better ref would have given us more.
The sports ground looked great, There was great work done to get it right and a few more things to be sorted like toilets walkways and easing up access and exits.
Great time had by all

This is a video taken from the Main Stand Terrace during the Team intros at the start of the Connacht v Toulouse game!

Anyone know where I can get highlights and better still the whole game online?

Well Done Connacht!! In fairness after about 20 mins the writing was on the wall for us...But the Lads done well, didnt cave in and gave us a big cheer in the second half with the Try...The Flags were a great addition, Very proud to see a Sea of Green all around the Sportsground for once. 9120 Fans, I hope the same crowd comes to Gloucester and from all the enquries for tickets I was getting on Thursday it looks like they could have sold 10000+ tickets...

Hopefully we can give Gloucester a good game and notch up a win...

So proud to have been a part of it, I missed the Toulon game 2 years ago glad I didnt miss this one! Hopefully more Big nights to come!!

Disappointing but not unexpected. Didn't come to grips with their class and pace soon enough and it was basically over as a contest by the time they did. But will say this first round of HEC rugby was a valuable learning experience. To come through these two games with their pride very much intact says a lot about the team. I will take such a moral victory as that if they realise they have very little to fear from any side in the Rabo home or away.

Very impressed with McSharry. Was a bit fearful that the occasion and opposition might overwhelm both Griffin and he, but that didn't seem to be the case at all. They are both doing well going forward and defending. Duffy did well again, he really seams to be taking this opportunity to play HEC rugby for his province to heart. Flavin was the standout performer in the pack for me, he seemed very disappointed to be coming off and it was probably a call that was 10-15 minutes early. George was more prominent in this one and Muldoon was ever ready to put his body on the line for the cause.

There's definitely room for improvement though. As BN2 said, far too many first up tackles missed and that's never going to work against a team like Toulouse. Two yellow cards were not helpful as well. This tactic of trying to tie up the ball carrier has it's perils. The margin of error becomes smaller and it's easier to end up above the player's shoulders and around their neck. The refs actually seem to be missing some of the high tackles, but Macca's was too blatant to let go. Not sure what Reynecke was thinking, thought a penalty try was going to be awarded along with the yellow. Maybe he just bumped into the player as he was turning to go after the ball, but more likely he felt it was his only option to stop a certain try. He was lively though when he came on for Flavin, but he has to lose the mullet.

RuggerMan wrote: Is McCarthy likely to be cited I wonder?

The problem now is do we rest players and rotate the squad for the Rabo12 games, to ensure we have a fresh and competitive team for the Glaws Heino Cup double header? Or do we go full blast at every game, and risk being knackered and taking hammerings in December?

The perils of a small squad

For the high tackle, I don't think so. Yellow card offence and it was issued, so he should be ok. Wasn't a good challenge though and put a lot of pressure on his teammates.

Our squad is what it is, our budget dictates what we have and it's just the way it is. Still if I was forking out €26m anually, I'd sorta be wondering why my lads didn't destroy Connacht...

If we had played at all well in the first half it would have been Very Interesting, but we showed them too much respect and the the ref absolutely crucified us with some awful decisions(touch judge on Clan side wasn't too far behind...)...

We can afford to shuffle the front row a bit, I'd start Rogers and Reyneke next week and keep Flavin and Ah You in reserve.

Don't think we can afford to rest Swifty or McCarthy even though it's them who need the rest the most. Possibly Gannon for one of them and have them on the bench.

I'd give Ofisa the nod next week, alongside Mul and George there.

Murphy and Nikora 9 & 10

I'd go with McSharry and Griffin again, they'e building up a good partnership, causing defences problems and the more games for them the better.

Provided they go well with the 'A's on Monday, McCrea and Vainikolo both need games and won't necessarily weaken the team. Duffy at 15

Is McCarthy likely to be cited I wonder?

The problem now is do we rest players and rotate the squad for the Rabo12 games, to ensure we have a fresh and competitive team for the Glaws Heino Cup double header? Or do we go full blast at every game, and risk being knackered and taking hammerings in December?

The perils of a small squad

Outclassed as you'd expect but I think we didn't help our own cause especially in the first half, whether it was nerves or whatever I don't know but there were far too many basic errors at this level. First up tackling was at times woeful. First 3 points were a gift. I was too far away to see how legitimate or not the first try was but that ball should have been gone long before Toulouse poured through on it. Another 3 from our own scrum shortly after. I think all Connacht fans knew the scrum would be out of its depth given our scrum has struggled against poor pro 12 sides.

At least we recovered and kept the score down and denied them the bp, Toulouse will be unhappy with their 2nd half, they looked like they thought the bp would just come naturally. Mike McCarthy was superb as always, Duffy is well up to it at this level. McSharry is looking like a nice capture under the radar but being honest signings are needed at a minimum in the front row and at half back to make us competitive.

Whatever about the breakdown we are very pondorous and easy to read and that makes it easy for opposing defences.

Team needs a bit of a shakeup for the 2 vital Rabo games, our first team is weaker than previous years but our squad is a bit more balanced than other years so changes could be made without weakening the team. Number of players looked out on their feet at the end.

Tonight was a distraction from the main business and showed us how far we need to go to be consistently competitive at this kind of level. Rabo is where its at for us. Gloucester at home may give us an opportunity of a win if we deliver a performance that I have yet to witness from the 2011/12 connacht side but apart from that the less glamorous stuff against the Glasgows and Trevisos of this world are what will define our season.

We were outclassed but most teams would have been against that Toulouse side. They seriously outmuscled us up front, and played the game at a pace we simply couldn't live with - particularly in the first half hour - but thankfully we got to grips with them somewhat in the second half, and a 3-1 try count is no disgrace, particularly considering a couple of their tries were somewhat dodgy and the third came against 14 men.

Agreed with Porterbelly, Duffy was sheer class and should really be back in the Ireland frame with performances like that. Precise kicking too which gave us some much neeeded breathing space. .

The pack had a tough day at the coalface, but will be relieved that they won't come up against many sides with the power, size, and strength in depth of that monster Toulouse pack.

What a historic day for Connacht rugby though. More more more please!

We were outclassed tonight, as you'd expect with a team with a budget of 26 million v a team with 2.5 million odd.

What can't be excuse is some of the officiating. 14 points were handed to Toulouse. Neither of the 1st 2 tries should have counted. For the 1st one, it was double movement and the ball wasn't even touched down. For the 2nd one, Wilko did a super job to get the scrum wheeling 90 and then 180. It should have been turnover ball, instead he gave a penalty try. Truly shocking.

We were up against a serious outfit tonight. We weren't at our best, we made mistakes but we carried on and tried our damdest. Better teams would have had 60 points put on them.

Thought Duffy had a super game, and was also very impressed with McSharry

a bit?

Well, that hurt a lot. Proffesional job by Toulouse today as expected, they took advntage of a poor inexperienced ref...

About the only things he got right were our try and Mike mcCarthy's & Reineke's yellows. For the rest he was in Toulouse's pocket..

Teams like us have to beat HEC Royalty like Toulouse twice in a game just to get a draw...

We denied them a bonus point. We weren't that bad, but I haven't seen a team like Toulouse in the Sportsground before, they're pretty, pretty, pretty good. The Sportsground looked class on tv, and the crowd stayed with the team (from the sound of it). Disappointing to have 0 points from 2 games, but we'll just have to keep goin. more important to finish above another province in the pro12 now, but qualification this way is stupid, it should be based on the pro12 itself, like it's not fair on the dragons not to be in this year.

Connacht abú!!!

Well done lads the mighty Toulouse, not allowed a bonus point. McCarthy was awesome along with O'Halloran, McSherry and even Rodney (I have been hard on him for a few performances) some great carries but under presure at scrum time. Let's just do the business on Gloucester.

Anybody got a stream?