Dragons vs Connacht 23rd March

Dragons: 15 Daniel Evans, 14 Tom Prydie, 13 Ross Wardle, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Will Harries, 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Netani Talei, 7 Nic Cudd, 6 Lewis Evans, 5 Rob Sidoli, 4 Andrew Coombs (c), 3 Bruce Douglas, 2 Hugh Gustafson, 1 Owen Evans. 
Replacements: 16 Elliot Dee, 17 Phil Price, 18 Duncan Bell, 19 Matthew Screech, 20 Taulupe Faletau, 21 Wayne Evans, 22 Ashley Smith, 23 Matthew Pewtner.

Connacht:15 Robbie Henshaw, 14 Tiernan O'Halloran, 13 Eoin Griffin, 12 Dave McSharry, 11 Fionn Carr, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Kieran Marmion, 8 Eoin McKeon, 7 Eoghan Masterson, 6 John Muldoon (c), 5 Mick Kearney, 4 Aly Muldowney, 3 Rodney Ah You, 2 Jason Harris-Wright, 1 Denis Buckley.
Replacements: 16 Dave Heffernan, 17 Ronan Loughney, 18 Nathan White, 19 Michael Swift, 20 Andrew Browne, 21 Frank Murphy, 22 Miah Nikora, 23 Darragh Leader.

Good enough side from us, bar Goose at hooker. Big pair of centres, our best halfbacks and good to see Dan back. Hopefully Douglas can gain parity at least and we could do ok.

As an aside, I don't really feel comfortable with an Irish ref via province at the best of times. But when it's Clancy, it could be such a stop, start game while he gives his whistle a good tooting.

Isn't it like the first start Gus has had at hooker since september. Also did you hear about the Russian prop could Kingsley just be preparing for the world cup.

Yeah, I don't see it working out really. Visa issues and I don't think (judging by what I've seen at Rodney), Russian props are much cop. Otherwise I suspect he'd be playing at a better standard already.

Russia have the worst scrum in international rugby

Is the Bruce Douglas deal permanent then, Risca? He'll definitely do a job for you.

Loan for rest of season, but will probably end up signing full time

Lovely day for the George Clancy whistle blowing show, featuring supporting artists Dragons and Connacht rugby.

God bless Clownshoes. At least 3-4 guaranteed chin scratchers per game. Condolences to both sets of fans.

I think this is the 1st time i will see a Dragons-Connacht game, usually these games aren't on TV.

No try, apparently.

There are times when you think that George Clancy can't drop any lower in your estimation, but then he pulls out new energy and further plumbs the depths of ineptitude.

Dragons pack is getting absolutely anihillated, i feel sorry for the Dragons supporters.

I don't think i have ever seen a full front row change that early in a game...

VinceWLB wrote:I don't think i have ever seen a full front row change that early in a game...

Seems to have worked

Yeah Bell and Price doing better. We are so poor today. It's like we are the away team.

Wasn't overly keen on Gus starting two and it's proven correct. That ball he threw on the floor was unforgivable.

Well done Connacht on the bonus point

How did Henshaw play?

Didnt see the game Rory, but he was starting full-back not 13 I think. Not sure if that would affect how much you care   

First off congrats to Connacht well played and very well deserved. For us Dragons, shocking shocking shocking, we can sign the likes of Byrne, Brew and even Henson possibly until the cows come home but until we sort out our front 5 we wont do anything.

Any team with an half decent front 5 know they can play us home or away and just blow us off the park.

In fairness Connacht have a strong pack, they didn't take a backward step down in Toulouse and they dominated Treviso's and Zebre's pack convincingly.

Duncan Bell added steel to the scrum in the middle of the game but i'm not sure Bruce Douglas will be signed full time on that showing.

Vince,

The point is that teams don't need a strong pack against us, we cant even in the worse case hold our own and lineout was complete shambles

Good to see Connacht are only 4 points off been in the final qualifying spot for Europe, although Edinburgh have two games in hand.

Connacht I think won't get into Europe ahead of the Scarlets even if they beat them next week- Scarlets have a far easier run-in. Connacht still have to go to Ravenhill, still have to go to the Liberty Stadium and will be hosting Munster. If they lose at Parc Y Scarlets next week there's no chance. Cardiff at the Sportsground would be the only one of their final four games I'd pick a win for them in.

But it's great to see Connacht racking up three successive bonus point wins. If Connacht could finish 7th that would be fantastic. That should be the realistic target.

Golden wrote:Good to see Connacht are only 4 points off been in the final qualifying spot for Europe, although Edinburgh have two games in hand.

They are currently in the final qualifying spot for Europe are they not?

I thought it was 7 from the Rabo, 6 Aviva, 6 Top 14, with the final spot being contested by the 7th placed Aviva and 7th placed Top14 club??

Artful_Dodger wrote:

Golden wrote:Good to see Connacht are only 4 points off been in the final qualifying spot for Europe, although Edinburgh have two games in hand.

They are currently in the final qualifying spot for Europe are they not?

I thought it was 7 from the Rabo, 6 Aviva, 6 Top 14, with the final spot being contested by the 7th placed Aviva and 7th placed Top14 club??

No it's top six from Aviva, top six from the Top14 and the highest placed Irish, Italian, Scottish and Welsh side plus the three highest placed teams in the table after those four have been taken out.

So the top teams from each nation right now are Leinster, Ospreys, Glasgow and Treviso. The other three teams to qualify would be Munster (2nd), Ulster (3rd) and Scarlets (6th)

Ahh I see.

If that IS confirmed as how it works then Top 5 would be a guaranteed qualifier every year if no Italian and Scottish side made the Top 7. Top 6 guaranteed qualifier if a Scottish side makes it into the Top 6. Top 7 guaranteed qualifier if all four nations get a team into the Top 7.

If it's anything different to that but still 7 places (say the Irish and Welsh guaranteed 2 places regardless of performance) it opens the door to various unfair permutations, so hopefully that IS the system.

Didn't actually know what had been agreed - so that's interesting. Means that intra-national standards really matter. Tough on the top 3 Irish provinces, which are all so competitive in their own right. It's not a bad balance. I think that all McKie wanted for the Scottish sides was a guaranteed place and a less than substantial cut in of the financial pie. He seems to have achieved that.

Its the Irish who should worry but the Welsh

Edinburgh and Connaught are starting to snap at Scarlets heels.
If one of them finish ahead of the Scarlets only 1 Welsh team will make the premier European competition next year

geoff998rugby wrote:Its the Irish who should worry but the Welsh

Edinburgh and Connaught are starting to snap at Scarlets heels.
If one of them finish ahead of the Scarlets only 1 Welsh team will make the premier European competition next year

Massively unlikely though, given the remaining games for the 3 sides.

even if Connacht turned them over in Lannelli this Sunday they would be unlikely to finish the season ahead of them. Embra have a much tougher run of games also, finishing with us in the RDS.

Well us and Munster could agree to lose to them just to urine off the Welsh    (joke!)

I agree but the mere fact it is possible shows how much the Welsh teams are declining year on year

I thought Gareth Simmons the Tmo was bloody awful, George did you see what happened on the screen, no, bugger, panic sets in. How the hell if cudd stole the ball from in front of the dragons line, assuming he was on side which to me he wasn't ,then dragged the ball back over his own line did the dragons end up with a 22 drop out? Nearly as bad as the dragons front five which were embarrassing.

George Carlin wrote:Didn't actually know what had been agreed - so that's interesting. Means that intra-national standards really matter. Tough on the top 3 Irish provinces, which are all so competitive in their own right. It's not a bad balance. I think that all McKie wanted for the Scottish sides was a guaranteed place and a less than substantial cut in of the financial pie. He seems to have achieved that.

Hmm, well if I'm not mistaken if all the Irish sides finish in the top five they are guaranteed to qualify whatever happens? Finishing sixth could potentially lead to missing out but only if both Scottish and Italian sides finish in the bottom half. Seventh and yes, you probably will miss out unless the Italians improve drastically.

I think Edinburgh have a good run in while dargons isn't bad. 6 to 9 will be another good finish like last year

The way our fixtures fell, I thought we would do ok. Now, I don't know. The only games I thought we would more than likely lose were Scarlets away and Ospreys home (cough). Now Edinburgh will undoubtedly target our scrum again, zebre (who we go to next I believe) will undoubtedly look forward to playing us, Treviso (who we play twice will look at us as a scalp twice) and suddenly we could be right down the bottom again.

Changes we have to make are Frak Gustafson right out of the 23 and start Parry, start Bell until he is out of steam, start Hill or Screech (if Hill's not fit), start Taulupe and start Ash and Pewtner in the backs. I would've probably given Prydie the hook Sunday before his try, so there's who Pewtner can come in for. I would possibly consider Ash and Leach to start, seeing as Dixon and Wardle were pretty poor.

I also think Dargons have the best coach of the welsh teams and he will move them forward again next year maybe not position but definately team proformance.

while alot of those teams will feel they can beat Dargon would have to feel the same. Next week could tell us alot more about the race for 6th. If Scarlets lose its game on.

Is 'Dargon' Irish for Dragon ?