Bordeaux Away.

With the well-deserved call-ups to the Irish squad this week, it'll be very interesting to see what kind of side Andy goes with for this weekend's clash. He had already said that Jack Carty would sit this one out, and with an eye on the crucial Cardiff game the week after (for which none of the players called into the Irish squad will feature) I wonder will we go with something like this for Bordeaux?

15 Leader. 14 Kelliher. 13 Tom Farrell. 12 Bundee. 11 Healy. 10 Horwitz. 9 Mitchell.
1 Buckley. 2 Delahunt. 3 Bealham. 4 Dillane. 5 Roux. 6 Butler. 7 Connelly. 8 Copeland.

16 Heffernan. 17 McCabe. 18 Carey. 19 Cannon. 20 Fainga'a. 21 Lloyd. 22 Fitzgerald. 23 Godwin.

Lloyd isn't in the epcr squad and can't be added. Unless Kerins is fit Blade will be in the 23.

Copeland isn't fit either but Boyle is.

Thanks Salmson. That explains Copeland's absence in recent weeks then. Boyle will do a good job at 8.

Andy stated on Wed night in Connacht hotel that Murphy would feature at hooker at some stage on Sat !!

Betty Swallocks wrote: Andy... had already said that Jack Carty would sit this one out, and with an eye on the crucial Cardiff game the week after (for which none of the players called into the Irish squad will feature)

Is this definitely true?

Given that the Cardiff game is huge for our Q-Final chances, I hoped some of the lads who are unlikely to get much 6N game time might be released.

fatgav wrote:

Betty Swallocks wrote: Andy... had already said that Jack Carty would sit this one out, and with an eye on the crucial Cardiff game the week after (for which none of the players called into the Irish squad will feature)

Is this definitely true?

Given that the Cardiff game is huge for our Q-Final chances, I hoped some of the lads who are unlikely to get much 6N game time might be released.

I believe this is true as it is a Monday to Friday camp in Portugal so no point bringing them to release them after day 3

There are multiple references in the media to Friend saying Jack will be rested this weekend. He's not likely to be involved against Cardiff either as the Portugal camp doesn't fly home until Friday, by which stage the Connacht team will have departed. So unless he gets Uncle Joe's blessing to fly direct to Cardiff from Portugal and Friend is happy to play someone who's missed the entire week's buildup...

Connacht squad for the game
(15-9) Tiernan O’Halloran, Darragh Leader, Tom Farrell, Bundee Aki, Matt Healy, David Horwitz, Stephen Kerins. (1- Pete McCabe, Shane Delahunt, Finlay Bealham, Gavin Thornbury, Quinn Roux (C), Paul Boyle, James Connolly, Eoin McKeon.

Replacements (16-23): Jonny Murphy, Matthew Burke, Dominic Robertson-McCoy, James Connon, Eoghan Masterson, Caolin Blade, Jack Carty, Eoin Griffin.

Team for Saturday

(15-9) Tiernan O’Halloran, Darragh Leader, Tom Farrell, Bundee Aki, Matt Healy, David Horwitz, Stephen Kerins. (1- Pete McCabe, Shane Delahunt, Finlay Bealham, Gavin Thornbury, Quinn Roux (C), Paul Boyle, James Connolly, Eoin McKeon.

Replacements (16-23): Jonny Murphy, Matthew Burke, Dominic Robertson-McCoy, James Connon, Eoghan Masterson, Caolin Blade, Jack Carty, Eoin Griffin.

Did I read that right? Quinn Roux is captaining?

Based on French Euro Sport they are showing it so there should be a few dodgy streams around for those not lucky enought to be with ye at it. www.eurosport.com/rugby/challenge-cup/20...tc1071009/live.shtml

I think that means they will have live updates somewhat like what our Twitter feed would show, but I could be wrong, either way it should be on Galway bay, and may yet be shown on the EPCR stream like the Benetton and Harlequins game were tonight.

DrFreako wrote: Based on French Euro Sport they are showing it so there should be a few dodgy streams around for those not lucky enought to be with ye at it. www.eurosport.com/rugby/challenge-cup/20...tc1071009/live.shtml

Connacht Rugby site is streaming game.

If you can't get in through there (I couldn't as it wouldn't let me reset my password), see if this works for you.
www.dailymotion.com/video/x70od8t