This ref is a nightmare. Couldn't buy a penalty off him.

FACECUTTR wrote: Just watched the Harlequins Toulose game.
Toulose destroyed them.
Shows how far us and Harlequins are behind with quality and experience.
BUT We both have young teams and with another few years under the belt in the Heineken and with the young guns we have coming through and a few quality signings i would like to see us play Toulouse again in 2 yrs and give them a real go.

Toulouse are streets ahead of most teams in Europe. Along with Leinster and Clermont when they can be bothered, there's a big drop to the next level to the likes of Munster and Leicester.

Watching that game puts us in credit I think. Toulouse were toying with Quins for long periods, like with us and they're the top team in England (although realistically probably 3rd best behind Leicester and Northampton). If you swapped Nick Evans to us the when we were over there we would have won that game, I firmly believe that. Confidence is low at the minute for us and getting to the level we want to be may seem a long way away but I don't think we're that far off. With a bit of quality at tighthead and half back we could be a good side.

Just watched the Harlequins Toulose game.
Toulose destroyed them.
Shows how far us and Harlequins are behind with quality and experience.
BUT We both have young teams and with another few years under the belt in the Heineken and with the young guns we have coming through and a few quality signings i would like to see us play Toulouse again in 2 yrs and give them a real go.

Seapoint im delighted to see competition. i just feel that a player coming out with such a bold statement and the following week is dropped indicates that it may be the cause.

A statement like that can bring a huge amount of negativity to the squad if someone feels they are being hard done by.

Look at the Leinster example. They have brought in a twitter ban from 48hours before a game to 48 hours after a game. This eliminates a huge amount of heat of the moment comments! the players police this themselves and have a punishment if it is broken.

exactly Ga1wegian. there wont be many of them in the clan but where ever they be i hope the connacht supporters standing next to them will sing loader with the fields of athenry. when scarlets came in september there supporters could be heard from the clan.

We are +5 and 7/4 to win this match with Paddypower, bookies don't have much faith in us by the looks of things.

We really need to get behind the team again tomorrow, I thought the crowd were brilliant last week and we need to keep it going, especially as they will have a pretty large travelling support which we don't normally have to compete with, so lets stand up and front up and get behind out team.

Player (#matches)	Tries	Conv	DG	Pen	YC	RC	Pts	Mins
o' connor (10)	1	6	1	10	0	0	50	458
nikora (3)	0	0	0	4	0	0	12	141
Jarvis (6)	0	3	0	5	0	0	21	272

all league match's

Anyone know much about the Gloucester pack? We lost alot of ground against Treviso at scrum time and I'm hoping we can get a much better scrum platform tomorrow.

_nobody_ wrote: Delighted to see McKeon on the bench. Think he is a future star of our backrow. Feel for Grace but it may not have been the smartest putting somthing like that visible to all on twitter.

There may be other reasons.

As for the rest of the team.........sigh!

Shouldn't make any difference, I'd be delighted if my players were unhapy about not being selected. If they were openly dissing the players or coach on the other hand then you're talking different kettle of fish.....

Happy enough with the tram, Eric has to settle on a XV and give the a run of games. Chopping and changing the halfbacks every second game is not smart business...

In the last 8 games it has been O'Connor or Nikora at 10 before that Jarvis started or was on the bench I think Ospreys was the last game he was on the bench. Was Jarvis injured but it is clear to me that Jarvis deserves his start

Look if O'Connor proves me wrong tomorrow we will all be happy

Interesting team. I'll happy to see McCrea getting back in to the first team and to see McKeon and Jarvis on the bench and going to see some game time. What do people think??

Connacht (v Gloucester): G Duffy; M McCrea, K Tonetti, D McSharry, T O’Halloran; N O’Connor, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, E Reynecke, R Loughney; M McCarthy, G Naoupu, D Gannon, J Muldoon, R Ofisa.

Replacements: A Flavin, D Buckley, R Ah You, M Kearney, E McKeon, P O’Donohoe, M Jarvis, F Vainikolo.

Until Fa'fili learns to front up in defence and put his body on line I wouldn't have a notion of picking him. yes he can offload but that's no good if he's a liability in defence

I guess Eric is sticking true to his word, if you're not performing you're in trouble. Nikora is the best out half we have, but he hasn't been setting anything alight, so he's dropped. Makes a bit of sense.

I guess when you only have 15 spots someone is going to lose out, we've been asking about McCrea, Jarvis and Fets, and they're now in. So someone is going to drop out.

Seeing Fa'afili in the A squad hurts. I really hope he turns things around. I know he doesn't have many fans on here, but I've seen moments of talent that I think we're just not exploiting and also it's a screaming waste of an NIQ spot if the player isn't making us better. Interesting that he is being tried at 13, not 12.

Connacht 'A' XV to Face Scottish Students:
15. David Panter
14. Shane Layden
13. Henry Fa'afili
12. Tadhg Leader
11. Brian Tuohy
10. Miah Nikora
9. Dave Moore (c)
1. Dylan Rogers
2. Kevin O'Byrne
3. Stewart Maguire
4. Conor Kindegren
5. Danny Qualter
6. Dave Heffernan
7. Aaron Conneely
8. Eoghan Grace

16. Dermot Murphy
17. Finlay Bealham
18. Jamie Stephens
19. James Connolly
20. Isaac O'Grady
21. Kieran Marmion
22. Jack carty
23. Robbie Henshaw


grace nikora rogers all not injured. im really starting to doubt eric now

ummm, wrote: Is that AM or PM?

I guess Eric was telling the truth when he said he had an injury list with 17 players on it

injury list or 17 players in the bad books

Gloucester Rugby:

Olly Morgan; Charlie Sharples, Henry Trinder, Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, James Simpson-Daniel; Freddie Burns, Rory Lawson; Nick Wood, Scott Lawson, Dario Chistolini; Peter Buxton, Jim Hamilton; Brett Deacon, Andy Hazell, Luke Narraway (capt)

Replacements:

Matias Cortese, Dan Murphy, Rupert Harden, Will James, Akapusi Qera, Nick Runciman, Tim Taylor, Jonny May