Toulouse v Connacht Jan 22nd 2017 - Match Thread

So close and yet...

[quote="overstrander" post=51931 and yet...[/quote]
and yet what?. hugely proud of my team today. it was never going to be easy. they did their living best. hugely proud of them.

Great effort no doubt but the class of Dillane & Aki was needed here in the end. With was to many unforced errors & 26 missed tackles as Pat said afterwards ' Only has themselves to blame'. Shame - qualification would have been much more important to us than to Toulouse but such is life.

I was impressed with Carty today. would question if Dillane would have made a difference. Lineout and scrum were rock solid. Aki would likely have made some difference but most things functioned fine

dobby wrote: [quote="overstrander" post=51931 and yet...

and yet what?. hugely proud of my team today. it was never going to be easy. they did their living best. hugely proud of them.[/quote]

Well if you spoke English you'd know the expression was so close and yet so far.

Clown.

overstrander wrote:

dobby wrote: [quote="overstrander" post=51931 and yet...

and yet what?. hugely proud of my team today. it was never going to be easy. they did their living best. hugely proud of them.

Well if you spoke English you'd know the expression was so close and yet so far.

Clown.[/quote]
That is not a good response

Whoever comes in next season badly needs to sort out the defence. To play the running game you still have to protect the ball when you get tackled. We made it too easy on the floor. Also the line was shocking in that first half and Fickou destroyed us for it. You don't need to change our style, just tighten it.

That said I thought there were a lot of positives. The lineout was more than solid and our scrum stood up when we were dismantled at the SG. We had some guys like Carty and Buckley who weren't 100% give strong showings. Cuter teams are picking up a losing bonus point in the games we dropped the ball but there's a strong core for next season in Europe. Realistically we're out of the top 6 this season but there's no reason we shouldn't be able to win the Challenge Cup next year.

Gutted for the lads but fair play to all who travelled. Well represented with Connacht men and women.

dobby wrote: I was impressed with Carty today. would question if Dillane would have made a difference. Lineout and scrum were rock solid. Aki would likely have made some difference but most things functioned fine

Jack Carty was very good. Some of his territorial kicking was exceptional. We could have done with Bundee for line breaks, but was our D that let us down today. That said, in the last 15, you could see fear and worry on the faces of the Toulouse players and staff.

Well done lads. Now lets attack the Pro 12 with a bit of a swagger.

Diabhal wrote: Whoever comes in next season badly needs to sort out the defence. To play the running game you still have to protect the ball when you get tackled. We made it too easy on the floor. Also the line was shocking in that first half and Fickou destroyed us for it. You don't need to change our style, just tighten it.

That said I thought there were a lot of positives. The lineout was more than solid and our scrum stood up when we were dismantled at the SG. We had some guys like Carty and Buckley who weren't 100% give strong showings. Cuter teams are picking up a losing bonus point in the games we dropped the ball but there's a strong core for next season in Europe. Realistically we're out of the top 6 this season but there's no reason we shouldn't be able to win the Challenge Cup next year.

Gutted for the lads but fair play to all who travelled. Well represented with Connacht men and women.

If we finish 7th we get a playoff against maybe the 7th place AP team (open to correction on that) which would be very winnable considering Wasps are 1st and they weren't very good at all when we played them. It looks like it's a straight shootout between us and Cardiff (who aren't very good either) for 7th and we play them away next which makes that an absolutely vital game, the most important of our season I wold argue.

sea_point wrote:

overstrander wrote:

dobby wrote:

overstrander wrote: and yet...

and yet what?. hugely proud of my team today. it was never going to be easy. they did their living best. hugely proud of them.

Well if you spoke English you'd know the expression was so close and yet so far.

Clown.

Actually if we're doing the pedantic and then insulting thing, which frankly is embarrassing to you both..

It's actually "so near, and yet so far"...

Yes it was I think we'd all agree, lets move on to actual points...

Please tell me how I should reply in future to posts like Dobby's so, sea_point. Just so I can avoid being pedantic and insulting to an idiotic post.

Mark Mostyn wrote:
If we finish 7th we get a playoff against maybe the 7th place AP team (open to correction on that)

8th seed from Pro 12 (7th position since Italians are pants) goes into the playoffs as does 9th seed (8th) unless the Challenge Cup winner has not qualified through their league e.g. Edinburgh could be in this position.

The two pro 12 sides will be away to the representatives of England or France - 7th or Challenge Cup winner and the winners play the next week.

overstrander wrote:

sea_point wrote:

overstrander wrote:

dobby wrote:

overstrander wrote: and yet...

and yet what?. hugely proud of my team today. it was never going to be easy. they did their living best. hugely proud of them.

Well if you spoke English you'd know the expression was so close and yet so far.

Clown.

Actually if we're doing the pedantic and then insulting thing, which frankly is embarrassing to you both..

It's actually "so near, and yet so far"...

Yes it was I think we'd all agree, lets move on to actual points...

Please tell me how I should reply in future to posts like Dobby's so, sea_point. Just so I can avoid being pedantic and insulting to an idiotic post.

Move on overstander. Huge credit to connacht today.Yes a hard result to take. But we are inching our way to being a credible european team

as a result it wasnt an unexpected result. the guys worked their backsides off and it wasnt good enough, it happens. but i felt how much they tried. i cannot fault that team