Connacht v Edinburgh Rugby, 15 February

Connacht v Edinburgh Rugby

15 February 2014
The Sportsground, Galway
KO: 5.00pm.

[TV tbc]

Referee: Claudio Blessano (FIR, 5th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Olly Hodges, Mark Connolly (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: Wayne Sheridan (IRFU)

A. Previous Meetings

29/11/13 Edinburgh Rugby 43 - 10 Connacht Rugby
12/4/13 Edinburgh Rugby 24 - 32 Connacht Rugby  
1/12/12 Connacht Rugby 23 - 24 Edinburgh Rugby

B. Form:

1	Munster	13	11	0	2	323	201	4	48
2	Leinster	13	9	1	3	294	203	7	45
3	Ulster	13	9	0	4	254	177	5	41
4	Ospreys	13	8	1	4	300	226	6	40
5	Glasgow	11	9	0	2	177	148	1	37
6	Scarlets	13	5	1	7	240	259	6	28
7	NG Dragons	12	5	0	7	209	210	4	24
8	Edinburgh	11	5	0	6	202	255	2	22
9	Cardiff Blues	13	4	1	8	253	328	4	22
10	Treviso	12	3	1	8	231	258	5	19
11	Zebre	13	2	1	10	204	313	4	14
12	Connacht	13	2	0	11	171	280	5	13

C. Teams:

1. Connacht
15.          Robbie Henshaw
14.          Fionn Carr
13.          Eoin Griffin
12.          Dave McSharry
11.          Tiernan O’Halloran
10.          Craig Ronaldson
9.            Kieran Marmion

1.            Denis Buckley
2.            Jason Harris-Wright
3.            Rodney Ah You
4.            Mick Kearney
5.            Michael Swift
6.            Andrew Browne
7.            Jake Heenan
8.            John Muldoon (captain)

Replacements:

16. Dave Heffernan
17. Ronan Loughney
18. JP Cooney
19. Aly Muldowney
20. George Naoupu
21. Paul O’Donohoe
22. Dan Parks
23. Darragh Leader

2. Edinburgh
15 Jack Cuthbert
14 Dougie Fife
13 Nick De Luca
12 Andries Strauss
11 Tom Brown
10 Carl Bezuidenhout
9 Grayson Hart

1 Wicus Blaauw
2 James Hilterbrand
3 Willem Nel
4 Grant Gilchrist
5 Izak van der Westhuizen
6 Mike Coman CAPTAIN
7 Roddy Grant
8 Cornell Du Preez

Substitutes

16 Ross Ford
17 Alex Allan
18 Geoff Cross
19 Ollie Atkins
20 Tomas Leonardi
21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
22 Sam Beard
23 Harry Leonard

Match Preview:

Connacht have won just one of their last twelve RaboDirect PRO12 matches: 14-11 at home to the Dragons on 21 December.

The Irishmen have lost their last four contests with Scottish opponents since beating Edinburgh at Murrayfield last April.
Edinburgh Rugby have not played in the tournament since Boxing Day having suffered two postponements in away games due to waterlogged pitches.

The Scotsmen have won just once on the road this season: 16-10 at Gloucester in the European Cup in December.

Edinburgh's only victory in Ireland since September 2009 was at Connacht in December 2012.

The last eight fixtures between the two sides have been evenly split with four wins apiece, with Edinburgh winning by the narrowest of margins on their last visit to Galway in round 10 last season.

We're fecked always do poorly in Galway. Prediction Parks DG wins it with the clock Red.

Will be interesting to see if Matt Scott gets some gametime. It's such a shame the Dragons game was called off because a lot of our new boys were really needing some gametime, Suspect Matt Scott will be on the bench with Strauss primed to start.

Probable team:

Blaauw
Hilterbrand
Nel
Gilchrist
VDV
Coman
Grant
Du Preez

Hart
Bezza
Brown
Strauss
De Luca
Fife
Cuthbert

Also GC, I'm assuming you copy and pasted this from the Glasgow thread and S4C aren't in fact showing the game??

RDW_Scotland wrote:Also GC, I'm assuming you copy and pasted this from the Glasgow thread and S4C aren't in fact showing the game??

S4C have the Glasgow V Blues match, but maybe they are hedging their bets and having this match lined up, just in case.

Edinburgh Rugby team to play Connacht at the Sportsground on Saturday 15 February (kick-off 5pm)

15 Jack Cuthbert



14 Dougie Fife

13 Nick De Luca

12 Andries Strauss



11 Tom Brown



10 Carl Bezuidenhout

9 Grayson Hart



1 Wicus Blaauw

2 James Hilterbrand

3 Willem Nel

4 Grant Gilchrist

5 Izak van der Westhuizen

6 Mike Coman CAPTAIN

7 Roddy Grant

8 Cornell Du Preez



Substitutes

16 Ross Ford

17 Alex Allan

18 Geoff Cross

19 Ollie Atkins

20 Tomas Leonardi

21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne

22 Sam Beard

23 Harry Leonard

Edinbokke

Very strong side. 5 pointer I reckon.....

RDW_Scotland wrote:Also GC, I'm assuming you copy and pasted this from the Glasgow thread and S4C aren't in fact showing the game??

Sorry, but yes

3-7 to Edinburgh at half time, the Ginger Midget scoring for the Exfoliators.

And we lose 11-7.
A try from Swift? And 2 penalties from Parks as once again he proves to be the thorn in our side.

Connacht win 11-7. Double doh with a side order of sh!t.

 

I hate being an Edinburgh fan

Well at least Scotland are going well.....

*weeps*

Just to make us all feel better. Lee Jones scored a belter of a try for Glasgow to tonight...

*sobs uncontrollably into beer*

Desperate DP really hates the MF luvvies - he always destroys them

I listened to the game on-line on the Galway Bay FM site. Sounds as if discipline let Edinburgh down. When I switched it off Edinburgh had conceded something like 13 penalties to Connacht's 2, and were lucky to only have 1 yellow shown.

Apparently Edinburgh's scrum was under pressure all game long which is a bit disapointing.

Seems all Irish provinces (bar Ulster) were pushing the forwards route to victory this weekend (didn't see the Edinburgh game but going on Vince and the supposed penalty count, it seems that way even in the Connacht game)