I know its early guys but I think we can all see the buzz that the Heineken Cup has given us this year and I was wondering if the only way that we can get in to the cup again next year if we finish above another Irish team or an Irish team wins one of the two european cups. For arguments sake if we finish 4th behind the other three provinces but ahead of everyone else do we still not qualify? Just something I was wondering about.

Table this morning maks for wonderful reading

1  Munster 4 - 17
2  Ospreys 4 - 16
3  Connacht Rugby 4 - 13
4  Ulster Rugby 4 - 12
5  Cardiff Blues 4 - 11
6  Leinster 4 - 9
7  Scarlets 4 - 6
8  Benetton Treviso 4 - 6
9  Edinburgh 4 - 6
10  Glasgow Warriors 4 - 5
11  Newport Gwent Dragons 4 - 5
12  Aironi Rugby 4 - 5

Nice bit of a gap opening between 6th and 7th hopefully we can remain in the top half but next weekend up against the hairsprays we will have it all to do. Ulster well beaten there yesterday, a losing BP might be as much as we can get, but hopefully they will see this as an "easy" game and take us for granted.

If we do get something out of fridays game it will give us HUGE confidence to go to the RDS the following week and look for a few points, but for lets just play one game at a time and try to keep our good start going. We must keep the pressure on ourselves for the next few weeks because when the WC finishes everyone else will get a boost from the players returning..

Lets get that upgraded quick and tie him down. He's too good to lose

+1

O'Halloran is the best winger at our disposal bar none. He has talent to burn, his kicking game is excellent, he's well able to tackle. He has it all. He can do all the fancy stuff but his basics are very sound as well. I continuously hear Munster supporters build up Zebo, Leinster fans Conway and ditto Ulster with Gilroy. I think we've got the pick of the bunch. I just hope we have him tied down for a couple of years because the other provinces and even teams from further afield will be sniffing around him.

AFAIK he's on a Development contract.

Lets get that upgraded quick and tie him down. He's too good to lose

O'Halloran is the best winger at our disposal bar none. He has talent to burn, his kicking game is excellent, he's well able to tackle. He has it all. He can do all the fancy stuff but his basics are very sound as well. I continuously hear Munster supporters build up Zebo, Leinster fans Conway and ditto Ulster with Gilroy. I think we've got the pick of the bunch. I just hope we have him tied down for a couple of years because the other provinces and even teams from further afield will be sniffing around him.

AFAIK he's on a Development contract.

This is their time to shine and stake a claim for the big match starting places, with Vainikolo, Matthews and Nikora to come into the mix. Good opportunity to build up their confidence while we take advantage of the RWC absencees...

O'Halloran is the best winger at our disposal bar none. He has talent to burn, his kicking game is excellent, he's well able to tackle. He has it all. He can do all the fancy stuff but his basics are very sound as well. I continuously hear Munster supporters build up Zebo, Leinster fans Conway and ditto Ulster with Gilroy. I think we've got the pick of the bunch. I just hope we have him tied down for a couple of years because the other provinces and even teams from further afield will be sniffing around him.

Very excited about having Vainikolo back as well. Looks like a real gamebreaker and he makes things happen. McCrea is a very good player as well. I personally don't rate Tuohy but I suppose he's not a bad backup option. I'd be very worried if we got an injury in the centre though. I feel Matthews is limited and McSharry has alot of bulking up to do. Lets hope Griffin and Fa'afili can stay fit

We'll find it harder against non-Irish teams, but to be honest once the RWC is over the provinces will still be choosing from the same squads.

The player management scheme will wrap the internationals up for another few weeks, and then it's HEC time. I can't see the internationals being used in the Pro12 very much before the new year, TBH.

but after watching this I have to say there is alot of tough days ahead of us when the RWC finishes, I think we need to relish these victories...its going to get tougher and I just hope we can maintain the attendances after a few visits from BETTER rabodirect teams...
[/quote]

:-\have to agree with conman, i think we can justifiably go for higher mis table as a goal, once the RWC is over we will find it a lot harder to get points on the road especially, saying that I think the squad has improved in terms of quality & depth over previous seasons despite the huge turnover over the pre-season

Jarvis looked good again when he came on. I'm not willing to write either NOC or himself off at the minute though or suggest that it's a simple quick between them.

Griffen is looking very sharp, and working with TOH they are lethal. Let's hope they gain as much experience as they can through all of this. I'm so thrilled we'll be able to show off these home-grown players on the world stage in the HEC this year

This is their time to shine and stake a claim for the big match starting places, with Vainikolo, Matthews and Nikora to come into the mix. Good opportunity to build up their confidence while we take advantage of the RWC absencees...

Jarvis looked good again when he came on. I'm not willing to write either NOC or himself off at the minute though or suggest that it's a simple quick between them.

Griffen is looking very sharp, and working with TOH they are lethal. Let's hope they gain as much experience as they can through all of this. I'm so thrilled we'll be able to show off these home-grown players on the world stage in the HEC this year

Aironi looking like they are going to add Edinburgh to their list of scalps (Biarritz & ourselves). 25-16 up coming towards the end. Really congested down the bottom at the moment. Good weekend for the Italian teams against the Scots.

Great Attendance there tonight, I didnt think coming into the Sportsground that the crowd would be as big  as the scarlets game....how wrong was i ..great crowd....but we were very bad in the first half as many were saying around me they didnt seem to have any fight, thankfully the second half changed this, Jarvis was very impressive when he came on, not gonna slate niall either he kicked a great penalty in the first half, but jarvis when he had to delivered and fair play to him after the abuse he got after the edinburgh game...

but after watching this I have to say there is alot of tough days ahead of us when the RWC finishes, I think we need to relish these victories...its going to get tougher and I just hope we can maintain the attendances after a few visits from BETTER rabodirect teams...

Great to see the impact of the bench. Connacht seems to have strength in depth.
Ethienne wasn't having the best of days and Flavin came on and did a great job. This is also true of Loughney coming on for Wilkinson and Rodgers coming on Rodney, the new front row completely dominated the Dragons in the scrum and this along with the two changes at half-back made the difference.
I think that Eoin Griffin and Tiernan O'Halloran are supremely gifted players and feel it is a privilege to watch them in the Sportsground.

great win, showed great attitude in second 1/2, jarvis/ anderson/ o'd made important impacts, v important win as we have a couple of v tough away games coming up

I was demoralised at 1/2 time, lacklustre - like form 2-3 seasons ago, line out etc abysmal

main difference IMO is that we have some depth in the squad now and the "bar" is now at our second half performance

can't get over the crowd and the noise, heard it was over 3500 - you can see that the crowd/ atmosphere are lifting the players

Definitely the subs helped turn the tide. Jarvis gave some spark to a stagnant backline and kicked 2 magnificent conversions but Loughney and Rogers contributed well too and we  got the squeeze on in the scrum late on having struggled in that aspect. Dave Gannon did well I felt for a fella who hasn't played a lot of rugby, Mike McCarthy put in a good shift. O'Halloran was a major positive and kept going even when we looked in trouble. Some sensible kicking and always posing a threat in the loose. Starting front row didn't really make an impact.

Overall though for 50-55 minutes or so that performance from Connacht simply wasn't up to scratch and a better side than Dragons would have us out of sight. Lineouts were poor, Dragons were dominant in the scrum, we were falling off tackles all over the place. We looked a bit clueless of times. The 10/12 ball off the lineout is predictable and is fairly easy to defend even with the power of Fa'aili.

Once we got the try out of pretty much nothing, some quick hands and good feet from Jarvis and O'Halloran, Dragons caved in and in the end they were clinging on for just the bonus point.

Pleased with the win (13 from 4 isn't a bad return) but worried about the level of performance shown by some players who should be leading the team. The team for Ospreys should be interesting.

Big crowd which is great to see and important we dug out a result to keep them coming back. Great atmosphere once the players gave the fans a small bit of encouragement at all. A game like Dragons in the past was played out in front of just over 1000 people with a fairly drab atmosphere. Once the players give the fans something to shout about, the numbers are there to generate a good atmosphere.

Good result but not so good performance, our substitutions worked well, but the Dragons bench was very weak and that had a big bearing on the result as well.


We could have gone for scrums rather than line-outs at the end to deny them a bonus point as we were completely dominant in the scrum by then and a push-over was a real possibility.


It is a positive that we have 13 points and are solidly in the top half while the management are still trying to figure out what the best line up is as well as the fact that we are still waiting for Nikora, Browne and Vainakolo to return or arrive.


Crowd was brilliant again and the players are definitely reacting positively to them - we need a decent song to sing, it has to be said

A fantastic comeback and an incredible atmosphere, a great night all round. Terrific to see O'Halloran and Griffin linking up for a try, that's where our future lies!

I think the issue of our starting 10 has been put to rest tonight, Jarvis really lifted us when he came on. I've bitten my tongue for a few games now but O'Connor's decision making is extremely suspect IMO and we're a much better side with Matt on the pitch.

I also though Flavin did very well when he came on, Reynecke hasn't overly impressed me, the lineout was very poor initially and he seems a little small in the face of the opposition forwards.