Good to see O'meara Mc Auley and Cooney, no sign of Reily (maybe absent or substitute because of a late arrival from south africa rwc?), anyway our future seems bright..

i stand corrected, long day plus had a pint due to katie taylor winning.

he is right wing and centre.
i thought i seen he played flanker for exiles and also got cunfussed with his twitter name which has a 7 in which rugby players usually use there place number

As far as I know Cooney is a loose-head. Thats where he played most of the time with Garryowen anyway.

Is O'Meara not a full-back? He's definitely a back anyway.

connachtexile wrote: Is Alex O'Meara in the academy or do you think maybe a sub-academy contract? Is Kurt Haupt a AIL player or someone we're looking at? I thought Cooney was a tighthead?

surprised swapping 3 with 1. im more surprised alex o meara who is a flanker playing full back.

Is Alex O'Meara in the academy or do you think maybe a sub-academy contract? Is Kurt Haupt a AIL player or someone we're looking at? I thought Cooney was a tighthead?

Very promising. It'll be interesting to see how this team goes, good to see us seeking out new players in areas like hooker. Hopefully this lad could be our Strauss in time. Looking at his CV he's certainly worth a punt.

Interesting to see Conor Finn at 13.

Plenty of new blood there with some familiar Connacht faces. Should be interesting.

Some details for the newer names....

swift4prez wrote: Kick-off is at 3pm this Saturday 11th August at The Sportsground and entry is free of charge.

Connacht XV



15 Alex O’Meara - Irish Exiles

14 Steve Macauley - Leicester Tigers’ Academy via Leinster

13 Conor Finn

12 Tadhg Leader

11 Matt Healy - Lansdowne RFC

10 Darragh Leader

9 Chris Lilly - St Mary's College

1 JP Cooney - Garryowen

2 Kurt Haupt - Sth Africa - www.sarugby.co.za/playerprofile.aspx?id=44330

3 Jamie Dever

4 Danny Qualter

5 Jonathan Gardiner

6 Dave Heffernan

7 Aaron Conneely

8 Danny Kenny - UCD / Greystones

nnacht Development Squad welcome American side to the Sportsground


The Connacht Development XV will welcome the US Collegiate All American XV to the Sportsground this Saturday at 3pm.

The Connacht Development squad is a combination of the extended senior squad, academy players and also a number of club players hoping to make their mark. The encounter against the American side will be followed by a fixture against Munster on Thursday 23rd August at the Sportsground.

The All American team is made up of players who were selected from a pool of approximately 15,000 college rugby leagues across the US and eventually whittled down to a squad of 30.

As part of their two match European tour that includes the game against Connacht here at the Sportsground, they will also face Leinster in Dublin next Tuesday.

Team Manager Nigel Carolan commented that “this game is a great opportunity for some of the younger development players to get a run out at this stage of the season and will give coaches a chance to look at players ahead of the British & Irish Cup which kicks off in October.“

The team contains some well-known names in the starting XV. Aaron Conneely and Conor Finn were both part of the Irish under 20’s squad that finished 5th in the Junior World Championship in South Africa during the summer. It’s the first game for winger Matt Healy who recently joined the club from Lansdowne RFC. Flanker Dave Heffernan is a former Irish U20’s International and made his senior debut against the Scarlets last season.

Speaking about this year’s academy Nigel Carolan said: “I’m very excited about the season ahead. The British & Irish Cup will provide some great opportunities for a lot of the academy members to play with the Connacht Eagles. We have some exceptional talent coming through the ranks and it’s up to us to help nurture and develop those players so they can make the most of the challenges that await them.”

Kick-off is at 3pm this Saturday 11th August at The Sportsground and entry is free of charge.



Connacht XV



15 Alex O’Meara

14 Steve Macauley

13 Conor Finn

12 Tadhg Leader

11 Matt Healy

10 Darragh Leader

9 Chris Lilly

1 JP Cooney

2 Kurt Haupt

3 Jamie Dever

4 Danny Qualter

5 Jonathan Gardiner

6 Dave Heffernan

7 Aaron Conneely

8 Danny Kenny

I suspect the game will be against the Academy. The first xv have a match that day against Exeter, away, and I'm sure many of the A side will be travelling. Saves a lot of confusion for supporters - the US (college) eagles vs the Connacht eagles!

I don't know. This is uni level, so academy would still make sense in terms of age group. I'm sure there's plenty of age overlap between the two, but Academy would still be the right level I think.

Especially if they're also playing Leinster Academy. If they played Leinster A they'd get hosed.

ummm, wrote: Eaglets?

What I was suggesting in the topic is that is more likely to be against the Connacht A (Eagles) rather than an Academy side per se, as we don't have an academy side (U-20's would be closest). This was a US Rugby story so they may have mis-referenced the side they will actually face.

Eaglets?

Spotted this earlier, hopefully Branch will post venue and line-up details..

2012 Collegiate All-America Touring Teams Announced
PUBLISHED: THURSDAY, 2. AUGUST, 2012 IN CATEGORY U.S.

USA Rugby Announces Academic All-Americans

The 2012 Men’s Collegiate All-America (MCAA) touring teams have been announced. The Fifteens squad will travel to Ireland this month to play Provincial Academy teams, facing Connacht Academy on Aug. 11 and Leinster Academy on Aug. 14. The MCAA Sevens touring teams will assemble in Glendale, Colo., for the Serevi Rugbytown Sevens tournament Aug. 8-12, and in Chula Vista, Calif., for the National All-Star Championship (NASC) 7s tournament Aug. 14-19.

The MCAA touring teams were selected by scouting over 20,000 collegiate rugby players. A regional network of selected coaches from across the country established a player pool of 125 athletes. The athletes were then evaluated by scouts in their own regions, as well as at national championship playoff games. The player pool was ranked and All-America and Honorable Mention teams were named.

The 2012 Fifteens touring team consists of fifteen All-Americans, seven Honorable Mentions, and four athletes who were selected based on their performances at the combine held in Houston, Texas, June 21-24. A complete list of the All-American and Honorable Mention MCAA’s can be found here.

Two squads of twelve were chosen to represent the Sevens All-Americans in Glendale and Chula Vista. Six athletes will play in both tournaments. A complete list of the First, Second and Honorable Mention Sevens All-Americans can be found here. The athletes were evaluated predominantly during their performances at the National Championship, USA Sevens Las Vegas Invitational and the USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship.

Sevens head coach Tony Pacheco said he enjoys creative players who make their teammates better. “My hope for the players is this is just a step in the process of becoming an Eagle. I want them to enjoy their time in the All-American jersey because it is special and is a great honor,” Pacheco said.

Matt Sherman, head coach of the fifteens squad, hopes the players will be challenged by the experience of having to cross an ocean and come together quickly to represent their country. “Through that experience we hope the players will further develop as players, have a better understanding and familiarity with the challenge and demands of internationals rugby, and hopefully take a step closer toward becoming full international players that continue to drive and improve the standard of the Eagles,” Sherman said.

In addition to the final roster for the MCAA Fifteens (below), the following players were considered, but unavailable for the tour: Danny Barrett (Cal), Matt Crawford (St. Mary’s), Brendan Daly (Cal), Shaun Davies (BYU), Paul Lasike (BYU), Kingsley McGowan (St. Mary’s) and Will Holder (Army).

The following athletes were considered, but unavailable for the Sevens tour tournaments: Jake Anderson (Cal), JP Eloff (Davenport), Shaun Davies (BYU), Will Holder (Army), Kingsley McGowan (St. Mary’s) and Darrian Woodson (Life). The full rosters for the Sevens tournaments are below.

The MCAA Fifteens squad is traveling to Ireland with the help of sponsorships from Training Day and Irish Tours.

Training Day Sports Nutrition, a wholly owned subsidiary of Corr-Jensen, Inc ("Training Day") is proud to partner with USA Rugby for the sponsorship of the 2012 Collegiate All-American Team. Training Day, based in Denver, CO, provides clinically tested NSF certified safe nutritional supplements designed to enhance athletic performance. Training Day is committed to providing athletes with education related to safe supplementation, nutrition, and training enhancement to maximize potential and provide athletes a platform to perform at their highest level. Training Day is proud to partner with USA Rugby in their shared mission of building elite athletes throughout the USA Rugby organization to compete at the highest levels of competition and ultimately take their rightful place among the best in the world.

USA Rugby is proud to partner with Irish Rugby Tours Ltd. for the upcoming MCAA tour to Ireland. Irish Rugby Tours Ltd. is Ireland’s largest sports tour operator and the largest U.S. rugby tour operator. Irish Rugby Tours has always been a dedicated supporter of USA Rugby.

2012 Collegiate All-America Fifteens Touring Team
First Last School

TJ Allred Brigham Young University
Nathaniel Brakeley Dartmouth College
Andrew Cook Saint Mary’s College of California
Joseph Cowley Life University
Cameron Dolan Life University
JP Eloff Davenport University
Nick Evans University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Raymond Forrester Brigham Young University
Dean Gericke Arkansas State University
Alec Gletzer University of California Santa Barbara
Madison Hughes Dartmouth College
Seamus Kelly University of California-Berkeley
Jamie Kelm San Diego State University
Hoseki Kofe Brigham Young University
Sosaia Leaaetoa Brigham Young University
James Lynch Life University
Jacob Mizell Arkansas State University
Zachary Mizell Arkansas State University
Don Pati University of Utah
Shaun Potgeiter Arkansas State University
Ryan Roundy Brigham Young University
Christopher Saint Penn State University
Michael Shepherd University of Utah
Mikey Su'a Brigham Young University
Patrick Sullivan Arkansas State University
Nicholas Wallace Saint Mary’s College of California

Fifteens Tour Staff
First Last Position Team

Matthew Sherman Head Coach Stanford University
Matthew Huckaby Forwards Coach Arkansas State University
Phil Eloff Backs Coach Davenport University
Craig Brown Manager Western Washington University
Christopher Mizer MS, AT Ohio State University
Luke Gross High Performance USA Rugby