Top of the league + a game in hand?

[BaggyTrousers]

Oh sorry Bags, missed a comma after available; typo, honest.

Lucky you fessed up before I spotted it

[BaggyTrousers]

Guys, we're talking as if we can afford to rest players. Connacht are coming here on the back of a rare bonus-point win over Leinster, and they won't want to then be rolled over against another Irish side the week after.

In my opinion, not just because it's the HEC the week after, but because this could be a potential banana skin match, we should be playing our full strength team bar injuries. As top team in the league we have to make sure we don't slip up or we'll be quickly caught.

Ruckie, ever hear of the word context? YOU need to look at their BP win in the CONTEXT of who Leinster sent up to Galway for the match. An approximation of Ravens standard. I'd love them to send that side up on 21st December.

If MA selects along similar lines to the past 4 matches we will be strong, Connacht pose no extraordinary threat. Then again we don't even know what his thoughts are of his best team so whatever he picks its unlikely that we will be certain that the same team will or won't start v Castres.

[ruckover]

Any win over any Leinster team is a good win Baggy, I thought a man of your experience would know that.

Certainly their backline was rather experienced - unless you are belitting the talent of Rob Kearney, Isa Nacewa and Gordon D'Arcy? Nah, they hold no threat at all.

Never underestimate anyone.

[rumncoke]

Two of the 3 went off very early .

Leinster fielded a relatively weak pack against a team of hound dogs and when they started to chase the game by beefing up the pack it was too late

Reading Leinster fans they consider it a very poor performance all round

[rocky]

Her is the starting pack for Leinster -

Heinke van der Merwe, Thomas Sexton, Jamie Hagan, Quinn Roux, Tom Denton, Ben Marshall, Shane Jennings (capt), Leo Auva’a.

Really a very inexperienced lot in the main. Looks worse (in that sense) than the pack we sent to the RDS last season. The Connacht pack must have been rubbing their hands with glee. They may face a sterner test on Friday.

[againstthehead]

Hard to call this one. One the one hand, it seems a nice idea to start the strongest side to get them to gel. On the other hand, player freshness seems to be more significant these days. I'd be inclined to rest Afoa and maybe Tuohy if Muller is back. Would be nice to rest Williams too if Wilson was around.

Tuohy needs a rest

Not now, but with 2 big HC games upon that will be 4 on the bounce if he plays V connacht.

[BaggyTrousers]

Any win over any Leinster team is a good win Baggy, I thought a man of your experience would know that.

Certainly their backline was rather experienced - unless you are belitting the talent of Rob Kearney, Isa Nacewa and Gordon D'Arcy? Nah, they hold no threat at all.

Never underestimate anyone.

You see Ruckie, I tried to point you in the sensible direction, but of course, strangely you decided you know best

Don't bother taking my word for it, just read a few sensible posts and maybe even you will catch on eventually. I'm not belittling Connacht's win, I'm trying to put it into context, nothing more nothing less.

[Amiga500]

IMO the main threat to us on Fri night is complacency rather than anything Connacht can do.




But then again... I was the man that thought if we'd a dodgy first 10 mins last Fri night we'd end up getting stuffed.

A real rival for mystic meg me!

[ruckover]

Baggy, with all due respect, when was the last time you saw Connacht beat Leinster, let alone by five tries? Yes, it was a weakened side, but it wasn't far off the side that beat the Dragons 45-25 was it? 6 changes, and in my opinion, the players that played vs Connacht were better than the ones that played vs the Dragons. Did you also realise that 12 of those 23 on Saturday were part of the Heineken Cup Final team as well? Now in no way am I saying that Connacht have turned into Toulouse or Leicester with one win, but I am saying we must be wary of them. They aren't the walkovers they were 2/3 years ago.

I think we'll win, yes. In fact, I'd expect us to be close to, if not, scoring four tries. However that would be based more on our previous performance than anything else. What Connacht will bring will not be anything we don't know about, but I am simply reiterating, we must guard against complacency. We underestimated Treviso a year ago and were duly beaten. Nobody wants a repeat of that. (Yes it was with a weakened side but we still expected to win)

As for the team, I'll ultimately let MA pick it, although I would be surprised if it wasn't our full team. They haven't had a game together since May and it'll put us in great stead for Castres if we win convincingly. But, as I've said, Anscombe will choose his own team. And considering where we are I won't complain with it.

So next time, research your post before you put it into 'context' OK? I don't need any pointers either thanks. I'll do fine on my own.

PS welcome back

[BR]

We underestimated Treviso a year ago and were duly beaten. Nobody wants a repeat of that. (Yes it was with a weakened side but we still expected to win)

It wasn't as weakened as theirs was!

[ruckover]

We underestimated Treviso a year ago and were duly beaten. Nobody wants a repeat of that. (Yes it was with a weakened side but we still expected to win)

It wasn't as weakened as theirs was!

Exactly! We thought our team was so much stronger than theirs that we couldn't lose. Yet we did.

This time round, people are saying our team is so much stronger than theirs. We can't let the same thing happen just because we get a bit complacent.

[BaggyTrousers]

Ruckie, that's fair enough, all I said was your concern was not set in context & we will not be fielding a side on the level that Leinster did. Any win against Leinster is of course bunged full of merit & fair play to Connacht.

One thing I will say about them is that Dan Parks will improve them substantially. Its true he is limited as an international but at this level he is a class operator & a great signing for them.

I expect a great performance form Ulster next week - return to the home turf for teh first time since Nev died & on teh back of a monster away win. Don't worry too much this week, Maaaaaaak will make sure its all as it should be. Honestly I'll be surprised if we don't take a full hand of points.

[ruckover]

Agreed. Speaking to a friend from Galway and he reckons Park is more than double the player Nikora is. He's added a bit of composure and class to disjointed backline and is probably Elwood's best signing. With Parks at the helm, I reckon that win won't be the only shock they'll pull off this year.

[mikerob]

Connacht always raise their game against Leinster - in the last 5 seasons Connacht have won 3 home games against Leinster so have a much better record than Ulster at home against Leinster over this period

However while they are like wild dogs against Leinster, they very seldom seem to be able to raise their game to the same level for other fixtures.

[BR]

I see we're top of the fair-play league too (but with that game in hand). Winner gets £10k for their youth programme.