Connacht Squad 2017-2018

To add fuel to the fire looking through the Cardiff Blues fixtures & results (surprised no-one else brought this up) he hasn't even featured off the bench for Cardiff in pre season. for such a crucial player who is a oversee signing that is a little odd to me and certainly doesn't look good from a cardiff perspective.

Sadly the more i think about it, it more than likely was dawai, Too big to be rey lee-lo... the beard and lack if connacht gear threw me off it being dawai, just heard somebody say they thought it a new centre from new zealand to cover bundee with Ireland.. We might just have got excited... but good spot on the lack of preseason for lee-lo, fingers crossed he comes.

by bigger you mean build like as they are both the same height but Dawai of course is about 10 kg heavier. It could be a signing as being dressed like he was seemed a little to casual for someone already in the squad (even if he isn't on the panel for the match) and dawai doesn't look like the snapback type (Then again you never really know with SH players). The report on centres on the boards.ie is that it is a Highlander centre being signed but realistically the only one it could be is Emery and he is very small about 5'8.

Like someone said above another signing is expected and I'm sure they would really underwhelm people if that announcement is Conroy as we have known since the Grand Prix 7's he was coming pretty much & he is untested at 15's at a professional level. Centre is the position we really need just 1 more option in (maybe another SR but other than that we look good especially with Coulson on the books now atlast!)

EDIT - Another theory is Rey Lee Lo could just be injured but can't see anything to confirm or deny this, he surely still can't be away on holiday's. Still in the process of looking on the Cardiff forum and there doesn't appear to be load's of grief that you would expect when such an important player is potentially leaving.

The Rey lee lo not playing for cardiff is more then likely because he was on international duty with Samoa during the summer so like dawai isn't back yet. On the other hand I did see dawai at the match and he was wearing a Connacht training top and didn't have a SnapBack

Anyway if it was Dawai good news he's hanging around and not kept in Fidji for visa or family reasons, it's common with Islanders

I thought Fijian's don't require visa's to come to Ireland, we're like the only country in the EU that this applies to.

Saw Dawai walking down shop street the other day in the grey Connacht Snapback . Regularly wears them and basketball jerseys on his instagram

Thats actually true to be fair, tbh I had honestly forgotten about Samoa's fixtures this summer outside of the NZ & Wales matches, him not being back yet does make some sense tbh now. First of all I really really want one of those Connacht snapbacks & secondly yes that kind of fits the billing for him now.

EnricoPalazzo wrote: Not sure if this is new news but Irish under 20's captain Paul Boyle is joining the Academy

www.rugbyworld.com/in-the-mag/hotshots/h...row-paul-boyle-86550

Been fairly common knowledge for a while, still waiting on official confirmation of the academy though obviously.

I think this is our full list of squad change for the coming season.

Players In
Gavin Thornbury from New Zealand - Wanganui
James Mitchell from England - Sale Sharks
Peter McCabe from Ireland - Munster
Jarrad Butler from Australia - Brumbies
Andrew Deegan from Australia - NSW Waratahs
Rory Scholes from Scotland - Edinburgh
Denis Coulson from France - Grenoble

Cormac Brennan promoted from Academy
Conor McKeon promoted from Academy
Pat O'Toole promoted from Academy

Players Out
John Cooney to Ireland - Ulster
Danny Qualter to England - Nottingham
Lewis Stevenson to Ireland - Bangor
Josh Rowland to Ireland - Ireland Sevens
Ciaran Gaffney to Italy - Zebre
Shane O'Leary to Canada - Atlantic Rock
Rory Parata to New Zealand Harbour - RC Dunedin
Marnitz Boshoff to South Africa - Blue Bulls

Ben Marshall retired
Rory Moloney released
Nepia Fox-Matamua released
Ronan Loughney released
Danie Poolman released
Ivan Soroka released

One the balance of it I think we are in a stronger place, not a lot of the guys that have left were first 15, and some of the incoming guys will be.

With the two new S.A provinces having difficulties to build a squad I can't help thinking Poolman would have been worth a deal for them.
Fox would be a great addition anywhere too...

I'm not sure if Poolman is interested in returning to South Africa to be honest. Isn't his fiancée from Galway?