Edinburgh V Connacht 12th Sept

First topic message reminder :



Preview: Edinburgh v Connacht
Edinburgh Rugby ended a five game losing streak in the Guinness PRO12 with their exciting 14-13 victory at Munster on Friday.
Related Multimedia
The Scotsmen have not begun a season with back-to-back victories since 2009/10, but are on an unwanted run of three straight home defeats.

Connacht also ended a five game losing run with their 16-11 victory at home to the Dragons on Saturday. Connacht began the 2011/12 season with two victories, the first time they had achieved this since 2006. The Irishmen's only victory in Scotland in their last seven visits was in this equivalent fixture at Murrayfield two seasons ago.

Connacht were victorious 11-7 in Galway the last time that these two sides met but have never managed back-to-back victories over Edinburgh.

At BT Murrayfield, 7.35pm

Live on BBC Alba & TG4

Referee: Gary Conway (IRFU, 2nd competition game)
Assistant Referees: Lloyd Linton, Graeme Marshall (both SRU)
Citing Commissioner: Rob Flockhart (SRU)
TMO: David Changleng (SRU)

Edinburgh

15 Jack Cuthbert
14 Sam Beard
13 Phil Burleigh
12 Andries Strauss
11 Nick McLennan
10 Tom Heathcote
9 Sean Kennedy

1 Alasdair Dickinson
2 Ross Ford (Captain)
3 John Andress
4 Fraser McKenzie
5 Ollie Atkins
6 Tomas Leonardi
7 Hamish Watson
8 Cornell Du Preez

16 James Hilterbrand
17 Rory Sutherland
18 W P Nel
19 Anton Bresler
20 Mike Coman
21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
22 Grayson Hart
23 Joaquin Dominguez

Connacht

15. Darragh Leader
14. Niyi Adeolokun
13. Robbie Henshaw
12. Dave McSharry
11. Danie Poolman
10. Jack Carty
9. Kieran Marmion

1. Denis Buckley
2. Dave Heffernan
3. Nathan White
4. Mick Kearney
5. Quinn Roux
6. John Muldoon ©
7. Willie Faloon
8. Eoin McKeon

16. Sean Henry
17. Finlay Bealham
18. Rodney Ah You
19. Aly Muldowney
20. George Naoupu
21. Ian Porter
22. Craig Ronaldson
23. Fionn Carr

So on the Glasgow match thread there's a big debate about whether their lack of TBPs are a concern. Meanwhile, our concerns are the following:

Dodgy scrum
Poor maul defence
Pedestrian defensive line
Blunt in attack
Poor kicking game
Mistakes
Bad decision making
High penalty count

They've got it easy!

RDW_Scotland wrote:So on the Glasgow match thread there's a big debate about whether their lack of TBPs are a concern.  Meanwhile, our concerns are the following:

Dodgy scrum
Poor maul defence
Pedestrian defensive line
Blunt in attack
Poor kicking game
Mistakes
Bad decision making
High penalty count

They've got it easy!

Blunt in attack is a bit harsh. Our problem was the lack of cutting edge we had against Connacht. Visser and Fife would have made a big difference IMO.

I don't think the scrum is too much of an issue. Glasgow's scrum was properly under the cosh and call me cynical but they took the scrum out of the game for 10 minutes and walloped in 2 scores....

Is 'lack of cutting edge' and 'blunt in attack' not the same thing?

To be fair, the one real chance we had we took.  The problem was we didn't have many opportunities to score - not opportunities that we made for ourselves anyway.

Notwithstanding the fact  that in Du Preez's disallowed try he didn't actually knock the ball fowards - he lost control but it went backwards - and that the scrum should have been ours, when we got the scum against the head we completely messed it up afterwards between Du Preez and S-H-C.  A minute or two later Connacht were down our side of the pitch scoring.

Make no mistake, the ref cost us that game!

That being said, good teams can win even when the ref is being a one eyed numpty! You either change your approach to negate the one eyed reffing or just score more points to give you a bigger cushion! Edinburgh are currently a mediocre team so we need a consistant ref to have a level playing field

RDW_Scotland wrote:Is 'lack of cutting edge' and 'blunt in attack' not the same thing?

Meh leave me alone

Seams there are a lot of Scottish/Edinburgh fans on this thread and no Connacht fans, maybe meaning views on it are a bit one sided,
Didn't see the game myself.
But going to try and use the below article to adjust the balance.

http://www.thescore.ie/connacht-edinburgh-1669447-Sep2014/

Whether they deserved the win is irrelevant, because they showed so much will to stay in the contest that they were entitled to a break as the match reached its conclusion.

IT WAS THE sort of win that Munster perfected during their heyday; away from home, on the ropes, but somehow they stick around ’til the death and snatch victory through sheer graft and determination.

I still believe Connacht were the better team and fully deserved their win!

Yes Edinburgh looked more dangerous when we had the ball, but through our own failings we didn't get it very often!

Given the pack we had out we should have been dominating possession and territory, like we did against Munster, but we didn't.

Two games two wins for Connacht, and still have
Mils Muliaina and Bundee Aki to come in to the team,

is champions cup beyond them?