Of course, we all know from experience you can never tell how many changes Bradley will make in any given week. And if there are bangs and knocks after the weekend, which there are bound to be, his hand will be forced somewhat.

Ummm

Think you are right, Bradley will want to finish with a win at home after the weekend and will prob play full squad if available.

Leinster A should be on a high, one or two looking to stake a place on the bench for the final.

Edinburgh will be sore, but might be able to get the win try to finish their season on a high. And leinster have to fancy them because every guy playing will be giving 110% to play themselves into contention for the match day squad in Twickenham.

I can see Treviso winning, Edinburgh aren't clicking at home and Treviso won away at Dragons recently.

Now that they're out of Europe, however, Bradley might go for broke and play the same team as at the weekend, in which case they might be too strong.

Leinster will probably field their superb A team & Dragons are on a horror of a losing streak at the moment. Leinster to win.

Can we finish the season in 8th place?

Edinburgh play Treviso (1 points behind us) at home in Murrayfield

Leinster play the Dragons (2 points behind us) away in Rodney Parade

What are your predictions?

8-13 result in Treviso, late try for Glasgow by Van der Merwe, Converted by Ruaidhri Jackson. Good news for us but great news for them as it virtually confirms their place in the play offs for the 2nd time in 3 seasons.

Other result: Cardiff 38-13 Edinburgh. Edinburgh will finish 11th with Aironi 12th

In terms of the race for 8th-10th:

8 Connacht Rugby 21 37
9 Benetton Treviso 21 36
10 Newport Gwent Dragons 21 35

Its in our own hands. I think Treviso need to get 2 points or more away to Edinburgh to pass us out as we have the better win/draw ratio if we finish level on points.

Wouldn't be relying on too many favours from the Leinster A side away to Dragons.

Lets just hope we do ourselves justice on the final day and the lads are eager to put things right for the first 60-65 from last night.

Glasgow leading a low-scoring game 6-5 away to Treviso after an hour. We're looking for a Glasgow win there who themselves are pushing for the play offs.

Edinburgh being walloped away at Cardiff obviously with more than one eye on the game next Saturday. They needed two bp wins to move level on points with us so think its safe to say we'll finish above them.

Borders no.2 wrote: Bad night for Connacht in terms of those above us. Treviso 5 pointer away to Dragons who themselves got 2 points bringing both to 35 points 6 points ahead of us. If we're hoping to catch those two a win tomorrow is imperative.

In the end that's worked out ok for us.

If Dragons had won they'd have extended their lead on the rest. Right now we're all bunched up and could leapfrog two teams by the end of the season, instead of one.

Yup, I'm wrong already!

Bad night for Connacht in terms of those above us. Treviso 5 pointer away to Dragons who themselves got 2 points bringing both to 35 points 6 points ahead of us. If we're hoping to catch those two a win tomorrow is imperative.

Edinburgh were hammered at the RDS. If we win our next two games we will finish above them, probably even a win at home to Aironi will be enough for that.

After the hoo-ha of a HEC weekend, not to mention the sad news regarding the fate of Aironi it's probably a good time to revisit this thread.

Dragons	33	Treviso (H), Ospreys (A), Leinster (H)
Treviso	30	Dragons (A), Glasgow (H), Edinburgh (A)
Connacht	29	Ulster (H), Aironi (H), Glasgow (A)
Edinburgh	27	Leinster (A), Blues (A), Treviso (H)

At the start we said we'd need 3 wins from the remaining 6 games in order to equal last year. Our away win against Dragons has done great things for our chances and so has Ulster's win in the HEC. Two wins would see us finish on 37 points, although if Aironi decide to go down fighting we could be in trouble.

Dragons could be out of reach by that stage, they won away to Ospreys last year so that game holds no fear for them. Not only that but Leinster will have 1st place wrapped up by the last week, in all probability, so Dragons will probably finish against Leinster 'A'.

Treviso, on the other hand have tough enough games, all of which could go either way. I expect Dragons to beat them, but home to Warriors could be tough, especially with Warriors in the hunt for a playoff spot.

Edinburgh have a tough run in, Leinster & Blues away all while having one eye on the HEC semi immediately after. This should be enough to keep them off our backs. Having said that the lift they got from that result against Toulouse could work in their favour.

I'll go out on a limb and say it'll finish

Dragons	42	W, LPB, W
Connacht	37	W, W, L
Treviso	34	L, W, LBP
Edinburgh	31	L, L, W

matching last years finish, albeit with fewer points than last year.

Having said that my Sportguru picks have been awful this year, so... probably not.

Another important factor is Connacht will be facing two teams in the hunt for a top four spot. Ulster will certainly be keen for a win when they come to Galway in a fortnight especially if Munster bounce them out of the HEC. And Glasgow will likely need a win in that final game of the season to punch their ticket for the playoffs.

Really hoping the lads can continue this little bit of momentum they've started here. They have the week off before facing Ulster who hopefully will have a bruising encounter against Munster so they have a good chance if the seize it.

Borders no.2 wrote: Unfortunately Edinburgh held on at home to Scarlets but looking at their run in I'd give them a finishing points total of 32 if Cardiff bother themselves at home to Edinburgh.

Looking at Dragons run in, I'd give them 5 potentially 8 depending on Leinsters situation going into the last game. It'll be tough to catch them.

Treviso maybe 6, I'd say more likely 3, they have only one home game left at home to Glasgow who are still pushing hard for top 4.

We should beat Aironi (famous last words), Ulster is a big one though a win there would give us a shot at catching Dragons and would put us probably get us ahead of Treviso.

Cardiff were absolutely woeful today in Glasgow, really awful. I'm sure they have one eye on next weekend but that side was strong enough on paper to get a result...

Our results will depend on injuries most of all over the next few weeks, ours and our oppo's

Leinster 18 64
Munster 18 56
Warriors 19 56
Ulster 19 55
Ospreys 18 53
Scarlets 19 51
Blues 19 45
Dragons 19 33
Treviso 18 30
Connacht 19 29
Edinburgh 19 27
Aironi 19 19

Unfortunately Edinburgh held on at home to Scarlets but looking at their run in I'd give them a finishing points total of 32 if Cardiff bother themselves at home to Edinburgh.

Looking at Dragons run in, I'd give them 5 potentially 8 depending on Leinsters situation going into the last game. It'll be tough to catch them.

Treviso maybe 6, I'd say more likely 3, they have only one home game left at home to Glasgow who are still pushing hard for top 4.

We should beat Aironi (famous last words), Ulster is a big one though a win there would give us a shot at catching Dragons and would put us probably get us ahead of Treviso.

its phil- the point i was trying to make is that when a team or players within a team continue to make the same or similar mistakes over a season its incumbent on the coach responsible for that aspect of the game and head coach to recognise and address that situation by either wworking with the player to improve his dificiencies or replacing him with someone more capable of meeting the standard required.
an example of this is flavin who, for all his good qualities, has proven on more than one occasion to be poor defencively at decisive times in big games. he is not on his own in this regard. but good coaches are quick and ruthless in dealing with this and hold no value in sentiment and i was merely calling for this attitude to be implemented by these coaches going forward. its no good defending well for 79 min and conceding a try in last min to lose game. connacht have got to get past moral victories and start taking what they deserve from games and big calls like this are needed to achieve that
.we also drew with glasgow largely because we didnt defend the rucks and again conceded easy points. there was treviso and cardiff aswell, not to mention, leinster, gloucester to mention a few. penalties conceded in the scoring zone is normally bad defence full stop. on occasion poor ball management or professional foul play but normally poor defence.
in relation to henry i am suprised by that stat but it goes in many ways to support my point about the lack of suppport runners and at offensive ruck time. he more than anyone has been penalised for holding on.

FACECUTTR wrote: I think he is great it takes 2 defenders to stop him and he is great at offloading. Its like the other players cant read into what he is doing.If that little gap was bridged it would create space outside for the 13 14 15.
Attacking this season is lacking in the backs department.

It's disappointing that the other backs have yet to cop on to Henry's style of play. As you said the man is tremendous with the offload, but too often there is no one there to take it or they've come on the wrong angle. Maybe it's a case of the grass is always greener, but I have to believe Fionn would have had a bagful of tries this year playing with Henry.