Northampton vs Connacht 20th May 4pm - Match Thread

wait and see.....maybe a big lump of a centre as a marquee and maybe one as a project !!!!!

one marquee is done and dusted another one is likely en rout - that was two weeks ago
SH project also en route

All said and done, and after some thought, I have no problems with us losing our European Champions Cup status. We don't have the resources to work in both the pro12 and the Champions Cup. I really feel this is a positive and not a negative. We have a small base of very good players. So let us blood players in the challenge cup next year. We simply don't have the resources of others so we need to identify what is important

dobby wrote: All said and done, and after some thought, I have no problems with us losing our European Champions Cup status. We don't have the resources to work in both the pro12 and the Champions Cup. I really feel this is a positive and not a negative. We have a small base of very good players. So let us blood players in the challenge cup next year. We simply don't have the resources of others so we need to identify what is important

On a purely sporting level, I think being in the Challenge Cup in KK's first season (especially given his late arrival) is preferable to being 4th seeds in the Champions Cup. Not sure what the financial implications are though.

As others have said, once the dust settled on the result, I came to the conclusion that we're better off in the challenge cup in many ways next year. It's a competition we can do well in, and it'll give KK a better chance of building momentum, rather than getting pummeled in the champions cup.

On the off the field side of things, everyone will agree that the province have made great strides in recent years, but we need to eliminate stuff like the Griffin f*%k up completely. From what I heard, Danie hadn't even travelled with the team, so he had to head over separately on the Friday once they realised Griffin couldn't be named. That was far from ideal for the team, and not fair on Danie.

Still, when I turned on the telly with 45 seconds gone to see Northampton dotting down, I was tempted to switch it straight back off. At least we put a bit of pride back into the jersey. Looking forward to next season already. I think I heard something about a pre season game in Galway vs Bristol - might have dreamt that up tho!

I'd here Blade had to head over on his own, and that Danie was originally supposed to be on the Bench, could be wrong, but still it's poor form you would have thought they'd have brought a spare player or two in case anyone pulled up, obviously Cannon had travelled but they must have brought no spare backs, what if one of the backs had pulled up just prior to kick-off we would have been reduced to 22

MulMan wrote: I'd here Blade had to head over on his own, and that Danie was originally supposed to be on the Bench, could be wrong, but still it's poor form you would have thought they'd have brought a spare player or two in case anyone pulled up, obviously Cannon had travelled but they must have brought no spare backs, what if one of the backs had pulled up just prior to kick-off we would have been reduced to 22

There's every chance the backs cover they brought with them was also ineligible e.g. Leader, Boshoff...

Griffin was over so I'd say he wasn't eligible

connemara man wrote: Griffin was over so I'd say he wasn't eligible

Yeah he's the reason the team announcement was late, but if they had to fly someone in that suggests the 24th/25th man covering the backs wasn't eligible either.

Appropriate enough ending to the season. Agree with the others that the Challenge Cup is a blessing. Give KK a chance to bed in and the team to regroup. As it stands now I'm not sure Connacht have made the signings necessary to really compete in the Champions Cup. If they do come from the SH it mightn't be until late October that we see them in training. As it is KK won't be there for the start of training himself. Yes, next season is the time to get things moving back in the right direction and the lower level competition will help with that.

I got your points about re-building a team with K.K etc
But missing Champions Cup is NEVER a blessing (except if we become champions domestically as we did last season)
Fans, players, money, everything is targeted on meeting Clermont, Sarries etc, even as 4th seed, rather than Agen, Worcester Prato etc.

We all expected the outcome, but it still is a disappointment and a major one. Pro 12 Champions failed.
Reasonable ambition means qualifiying 3 years out of 4, not 1 out of 2

connachta wrote: I got your points about re-building a team with K.K etc
But missing Champions Cup is NEVER a blessing (except if we become champions domestically as we did last season)
Fans, players, money, everything is targeted on meeting Clermont, Sarries etc, even as 4th seed, rather than Agen, Worcester Prato etc.

We all expected the outcome, but it still is a disappointment and a major one. Pro 12 Champions failed.
Reasonable ambition means qualifiying 3 years out of 4, not 1 out of 2

Nothing wrong with your opinion connachta. Without a doubt the lack of champions cup rugby will have a negative financial impact on connacht. So I take your point.

Even though I'd prefer Champions Cup from a financial standpoint if we could get a home Quarter and maybe even a home semi it could give us two big games and we'd lessen the financial hit hugely of missing out, is there prize money for just qualifying for the Champions cup though