Zebre v Connacht - Sat 1st Apr - Match Thread

Because then we risk some of our best players coming back in to the playoffs cold or undercooked. I don't​ think we are reading the same thing. I don't regard resting as the same thing as rotating and I'm not surprised Pat is playing close to as strong a team as he can, mentally he wants them to have built up a head of steam coming in to the playoffs.

Back to the yesterday team selection: I'm really happy Soroka, McCoy, Griffin, Farrell, Rowland, Poolman, McKeon, Masterson are all given a chance to make their ways into the 23 for play-off and next season.

Whether it's because of injuries or not.

connachta wrote: Back to the yesterday team selection: I'm really happy Soroka, McCoy, Griffin, Farrell, Rowland, Poolman, McKeon, Masterson are all given a chance to make their ways into the 23 for play-off and next season.

Whether it's because of injuries or not.

Completely agree. Its good to see another option at full-back, its great to see Dani getting game time. You did mention in the past about a Tom Bundee combo so it will be interesting to see how that works out. That said I would have rathered Caolin starting and surely we can do some minor rotation 1-8. I appreciate Andrew is fresh but I would really like to see a bit more rotation. I guess Soroka is a start. So I am caught between being excited with the new inclusions and disappointed with the 1-8 rotation

First minute try by Ili, Cooney missed conversion

Try for Ronaldson! Only a minute on the pitch, Ili gone off injured according to Connacht tweet. Cooney converts. 12-3

10-12 after 25mins, converted try for Zebre.

twitter.com/connachtrugby

Really frustrating stuff. Tonnes of knock ons both teams, passes not sticking, lax defending let them in for their points and silly penalties, we really look like​ conceding an intercept try, heads aren't here at all

Any chance of a rain dance?

Come on time to sort this out. This is looking a bit like Treviso last year. Two early tries then zone out.

Yellow for Zebre no.7. Time to take advantage now.

Lost possession in their 22 they run down and score a try

This is embarrassing. Serious questions to answer for all concerned after this.

25-22 at full time. Couldn't see it but I wonder how much Illi going off unsettled us. Don't really know how the backline would line up with those changes? Still not good enough by a long way. Probably justice for Zebre for that game in September. We need to sort ourselves out before the play offs.

I seem to have suggested we should rotate. My argument failed famously

Top 4 now ruled out, Scarlets need 2 points to make automatic Champions Cup qualification impossible. Edinburgh still mathematically in with a chance of overhauling us. F*****g mortifying.