Connacht vs Edinburgh

Edinburgh team:

15 Chris Paterson

14 Tom Brown
13 Jim Thompson
12 Matt Scott
11 Tim Visser

10 Gregor Hunter
9 Chris Leck

1 Kyle Traynor
2 Andrew Kelly
3 Jack Gilding
4 Grant Gilchrist
5 Sean Cox
6 Stuart McInally
7 Roddy Grant CAPTAIN
8 Netani Talei

Substitutes
16 Alun Walker
17 Mike MacDonald (Stirling County)
18 Ulises Gamboa
19 Esteban Lozada
20 Hamish Watson
21 Alex Black
22 Phil Godman
23 Dougie Fife


Unavailable through injury: Ben Cairns (knee), James King (groin), Alan MacDonald (illness), Robin Hislop (rib), John Houston (neck strain)

Unavailable through international duty:Mike Blair, Geoff Cross, Nick De Luca, David Denton, Ross Ford, Allan Jacobsen, Lee Jones, Greig Laidlaw, Harry Leonard (U20) and Ross Rennie

Certainly a better looking team than last week (must be the absence of WCP), let's hope they play with a little more effort

Connacht: 15 Gavin Duffy (capt), 14 Fetu'u Vainikolo, 13 Kyle Tonetti, 12 Henry Fa'afili, 11 Tiernan O'Halloran, 10 Niall O'Connor, 9 Frank Murphy, 8 George Naoupu, 7 Eoghan Grace, 6 John Muldoon, 5 Mike McCarthy, 4 Michael Swift, 3 Ronan Loughney, 2 Adrian Flavin, 1 Denis Buckley.
Replacements: 16 Ethienne Reynecke, 17 Dylan Rogers/Brett Wilkinson, 18 Stewart Maguire, 19 Mick Kearney, 20 Ray Ofisa, 21 Paul O'Donohoe, 22 Matthew Jarvis, 23 Eoin Griffin.

www.planetrugby.co.uk's preview:

Michael Bradley on Friday returns to the Sportsground - where he spent seven years - for the first time as Edinburgh boss when his troops face Connacht in a RaboDirect PRO12 clash.

Bradley enjoyed a successful spell as director of rugby at the Irish outfit before going on to join Edinburgh in May of last year.

The 49-year-old concedes that he has mixed feelings returning to the Galway club.

"On a personal level I've a lot of fond memories from my time at Connacht and am looking forward to going back but, from a performance perspective, I know exactly how tough it is for teams to take any points away from the Sportground," he told Edinburgh's official website.

"I know the set-up and the side very well and have naturally tried to use that to our advantage as we've prepared for this match however our emphasis has, as ever, been on how we need to play to win, rather than on any sort of inside knowledge.

"When the game kicks off tomorrow it will be business as usual, with our focus fully on coming away with the win."

Bradley has made four changes to the team that lost to Dragons last weekend.

Among the backs, full-back Chris Paterson, centre Jim Thompson and fly-half Gregor Hunter come into the starting line-up at the expense of Sep Visser, the injured John Houston and Phil Godman.

There is just one change in the pack, with Andrew Kelly replacing Alun Walker at hooker.

Connacht chief Eric Elwood has made two alterations to his team for the encounter.

The 22-year-old prop Denis Buckley is handed his first competitive start as a result of Brett Wilkinson's involvement with the national side.

At scrum-half, Frank Murphy has recovered from a groin injury suffered in early January and he replaces Paul O'Donohoe who drops to the bench.

Interesting game. I don't know much about the Edinburgh halfbacks. That's surely the key.

Connacht aren't a great side but they've a lot of dog and can make life hard for teams, especially if the rain I see is forecast comes through and the halfbacks will basically need to play a smart game and dictate things (as all halfbacks have to do all the time I suppose- I'm not being insightful). But especially if it's pissing down with rain, your in your own half and Muldoon and co. are bearing down. That's not easy.

I think Connacht will sneak it.

Not really more we can say really about edinburgh, other than what we've been saying for weeks - we really need to win!

Connacht will be a real tough game but I hope we win it - really need some momentum for the toulouse game.

glad to see godman on the bench and Scott at 12

Also - who the hell is mike McDonald?? Are we that desperate for props?

Likewise pleased to see Godman benched. Not sure about CP starting ahead of Thompson at 15, and Fife being dropped. I'd have been tempted to retain Fife (looks promising) and shifted Thompson to 15 (where he's more dangerous).

Big chance for Hunter.

Mixed reports about Hunter when he's been back playing for Gala - will be interesting to see how he goes

Was he the guy that started the season playing 10 for Edinburgh, then Harry Leonard took over and he wasn't really selected again?

Anything's an improvement on Godman just now!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Was he the guy that started the season playing 10 for Edinburgh, then Harry Leonard took over and he wasn't really selected again?

Anything's an improvement on Godman just now!

Yes, that's the one, a year older than Leonard

He looked OK in those games, but was more impressed with Leonard's performances.

Hopefully Matt Scott has a stormer and puts himself in contention for Ireland and Italy (assuming he hasn't ruled himself out, as has been discussed elsewhere).

Edinburgh need a win, Galway is a tough place to get one though.

C'mon lads!

Black & Red Army

Yet another defeat! From the match reports it sounds like Connacht fully deserved their victory.

I said this last week but the most worrying part is to hear that we were bested at the breakdown - again!

This was one of our real strengths earlier in the season, and in the Heineken cup, and it's worrying that it has gone downhill so much since then.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Yet another defeat! From the match reports it sounds like Connacht fully deserved their victory.

I said this last week but the most worrying part is to hear that we were bested at the breakdown - again!

This was one of our real strengths earlier in the season, and in the Heineken cup, and it's worrying that it has gone downhill so much since then.

Caution, caution: Many a phoney war has been fought in the lead up to a genuine battle. The HC is the real war.