connachta wrote: Well no sign of Scholes on training pics or Eagles team. De Buitlear appears though, not with Eagles so might have be 24th man in Belfast...
Start him as 11, and Niyi 23 vs UBB
(+ the same, Joyce for Robb as 12 if the latter is unavailable)

Pretty sure I heard that Scholes got a fairly bad injury in one of the early eagles games and is out for a fairly significant length of time.

Well no sign of Scholes on training pics or Eagles team. De Buitlear appears though, not with Eagles so might have be 24th man in Belfast...
Start him as 11, and Niyi 23 vs UBB
(+ the same, Joyce for Robb as 12 if the latter is unavailable)

Looks good for Horwitz!

www.sportsfile.com/id/1584266/

So, Europe Rounds 1 and 2

Policy : not throw it away but rotation on key players

Unavailable : Thornbury, Heff, McCoy
Rested for Ireland : Aki, Roux, Marmion

Rested because they will play nearly 100% of our Pro14 games : Buckley, TOH, Farrell, Bealham, Healy, Butler, Dillane, Carty

Should absoluted play because they're senior players who could feel hard done by and deserve gametime : Leader, Carey, Scholes, Maksymiw, Gallagher, O'Donnell, Delahunt, Connolly, Robb, SHs

Others : players who have played a bit but still can, and will prove we really care about winning in Europe : Copeland, McCartney, Griffin, Kelleher, Cannon, Fainga'a

Which mean a well-balenced team made of :

1) O'Donnell
2) Delahunt
3) Carey
4) Maksymiw
5) Cannon
6) Gallagher
7) Fainga'a
8 ) Copeland
9) C.McKeon (kicker)
10) Horwitz (if fit, if not Ronaldson)
11) Scholes
12) Robb
13) Griffin
14) Kelleher
15) Leader

16) McCartney
17) McCabe
18) Bealham (if we want to close out the game we shouldn't take risks for sub TH IMO)
19) Claffey
20) Connolly (inject McKeon/Masterson if back fit vs Sale)
21) Mitchell or Kerrins
22) Ronaldson (if Horwitz can't play, then Godwin as 22 -10/12-)
23) De Buitlear

Thoughts?

If we assume that the squads as listed on the EPCR site are correct then it's the 10 senior front rows plus Matthew Burke and Conor Kenny. Tom Mc is down as a tight head though I doubt we need to read anything into that.

Clermont have a 55 man squad whereas Bordeaux and Perpignan have only 42 each.
Perpignan's 42 seems to include pretty much all of their first choice players (from what I can see), which doesn't leave them a whole lot of scope for throwing their hat at it. Given their league position I would have fancied them to pull an Oyonnax - the fact that they could include unlimited players makes the lack of academy representation seem a bit odd.

pinky wrote: All of the Eagles will presumably be in it. No logical reason to omit anyone. I might even ask them to put me in as a second row.

...and I had you down for a lanky openside.

[Edit: I have no idea why Horvitz isn't in the EPCR squad but we can't register Reece while he's still attached to Waikato: "All such players must, on registration, be fully and properly registered with their club and Union and available to play for the club from that date."]

All of the Eagles will presumably be in it. No logical reason to omit anyone. I might even ask them to put me in as a second row.

10 front-rowers, we only have 6 props.
It will be either the 4 hookers in it or an Eagles prop

I was looking up when the deadline for submitting European Squads is (it was this day last season) when I spotted this:

3.1 There is no limit to the number of players in a Challenge Cup squad. A minimum of 10 of the players nominated by the club must be capable of playing in front row forward positions. All such players must, on registration, be fully and properly registered with their club and Union and available to play for the club from that date.

www.epcrugby.com/challenge-cup/format/rules/

That one slipped in under the radar. I never heard any mention of a change.
The 48 man squad squad on the site leaves out Reece and Horwitz (and maybe some others, I didn't check) but I presume they will be added since there's no reason not to ...
To make up for last season's bizarre omission of Sean O'Brien, they have included two of them this time!
www.epcrugby.com/club/connacht-rugby/#players

(41 man limit still applies for the I can't believe it's not the I can't believe it's not the Heineken Cup and the deadline looks to have passed, because they all have a 41 man squad listed. I must have missed the usual media analysis of who's in and who's out.)

No they’ve set kick off for pretty much every game

If I remember correctly from previous years these are just the weekend of the games. Times are confirmed later on
I think it was 3 to 4 weeks last year

Connnnnacht wrote: Sat Oct 13th 3pm Bordeaux (H)
Sat Oct 20th 3pm Sale (A)
Sat Dec 08th 3pm Perpignan (H)
Fri Dec 14th 8pm Perpignan (A)
Sat Jan 12th 3pm Sale (H)
Bordeaux (A) - round 6 game probably Sat 19th of Jan but TBC for some reason

Well according to the fixture list on the website, Enisei v La Rochelle is today, but they haven't confirmed the time yet. Logistical nightmare getting to Krasnoyarsk in those circumstances

So it's done , we'll be in GALWAY for the 8th of december ...

may be we'll need further assistance for finding hotel or B/B in GALWAY ...

I'll come back !

First time I've ever seen Round 5 and 6 KOs announced in advance.

Booked the Christmas trip DUB-BCN. Thurs 1710 Sun 1635 with the hopefully no longer striking Ryanair. Those trains to Perpignan seem pricey.

Happy with those kick off times for the home games. As a Dublin based Connacht supporter, that means a day trip up and down without staying the night.

Some of the Round 6 kick off times have already been announced. Our away game against Bordeaux hasn't been announced.

ConnachtCows wrote: [strike]Makes sense for the last round to be TBC. The TV companies will want to certain games played at times that suit them. They just wont know what those certain games are until after the 4th round realistically[/strike]
Scratch that. I see the Champions Cup fixture dates and times are confirmed. Surprised this game is TBC

As for the fixtures, considering going to the Sale away game.
The times for the home matches are frustrating. All Saturday afternoons (or early evening)
Whatever the reason, Friday Night matches seem to have been killed off