Connaught / International News
03/ 03 /10
ENGLAND STUDENTS 42 IRISH COLLEGES 9
The Irish Colleges squad fell away in the second half of Friday's international clash at Druids Park in Gosford, as the England Students took the try tally to six and ran out 42-9 victors.
NUI Galway student Conor Murphy, who played for the Connacht Under-20s this season, kicked three penalties for the Irish Colleges side against England Students on Friday night
After losing 60-11 to their French counterparts recently, there was more disappointment for the Irish Colleges side on Friday in a game that was switched to the all-weather Druids Park grounds in Gosford.
The Irish were out to reverse last February's late defeat at Derry RFC when England students snatched victory in the dying minutes of the game, with an injury-time try giving them a 13-10 win.
The men in green started particularly well in this game, but the atrocious conditions hampered both sides' play.
NUI Galway student Conor Murphy kicked the visitors ahead with a fifth minute penalty, and although they suffered a setback when England number 8 and captain Phil Burgess touched down, Murphy quickly added a second penalty for a 6-5 lead.
Some surefooted defending by Irish Colleges was not enough for a strong England Students pack when they drove over the line with Burgess grabbing his second try.
Murphy knocked over his third penalty but an indiscretion by the visitors before half-time allowed James Crozier kick the home side 13-9 ahead for the break.
Although Irish Colleges started the second half with great determination, England Students quickly put a succession of tries on the scoreboard to put the result beyond doubt.
Flankers Evan Stewart and Mark Wilson, centre Matt Humphries and winger Sean Morris all crossed the Irish whitewash, pushing the winning margin out to 33 points.
Scorers: England Students: Tries: Phil Burgess 2, Evan Stewart, Mark Wilson, Matt Humphries, Sean Morris; Cons: James Crozier 3; Pens: James Crozier 2
Irish Colleges: Pens: Conor Murphy 3
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The Connacht Youth Cup Draws will be held in the Cawley Room of the Sportsground on Thursday 20th Jan.at 8pm (sharp)
The draws will cover the Cup matches for U19, U17, U16, U14 & U13 age groups and will be presided over by John Carr, the Junior Vice President of Connacht Rugby. The draw is open to all who wish to attend.
There are 44 sides competing in the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup this season and Connacht are one of just two sides to have won all five games to date....
Connacht hooker Sean Cronin and prop Brett Wilkinson have been included in the Ireland squad for the RBS Six Nations.
With Ireland opening the Championship against Italy in Croke Park on Saturday, 6th February and two international A games in quick succession against England Saxons (January 31) and Scotland A in Ravenhill (February 5), the squad reflects the competitive fixtures for Ireland over the next three weeks.
This squad will train together in Limerick next week before an A squad is named on January 26 ahead ahead of the away fixture against the England Saxons in Bath. Additional players outside of the 44 man squad named today will be added to the A squad from which the team to play the England Saxons will be named.
Overall the squad contains nine uncapped players, with Dan Tuohy and Declan Fitzpatrick the newest members to the squad for this season. Elsewhere in the forwards, Rory Best returns to the squad after resuming contact training as does Marcus Horan after his injury layoff. Shane Jennings is named in the squad after his return to playing to increase the competition for places in the backrow with his Leinster team mates Jamie Heaslip, Sean O'Brien, Kevin McLaughlin as well as Chris Henry, David Wallace and Stephen Ferris.
In the backs, there is an equal amount of competition at scrumhalf with Peter Stringer, Isaac Boss, Tomas O'Leary and Eoin Reddan all included. The wing positions also show Denis Hurley, Andrew Trimble, Shane Horgan, Tommy Bowe, Johne Murphy, Ian Dowling and Keith Earls all named in the squad and competing for a starting spot against Italy.
Attention Tec Analysis Evening
Connacht Rugby Coaching Department will host an evening with Irish Technical Analyst, Mervyn Murphy, on Wednesday 16th December in the Sportsground at 8pm.
Murphy is an integral part of the Irish coaching team and has been a consistent component of the set-up under Gatland, O'Sullivan and now Kidney. An accomplished player having captained Connacht and earning 5 Ireland "A" caps he has gone on to becom one of the best technical analysts in the game.
Following the dissappointing 2007 world cup one of the few positives the Genisis report highlighted was that the Technical Analysis being done on the Irish team and that being done on opposition was world class.
On the seminar Mervyn will highlight how they use analysis to pin point strengths and weaknesses in opponents and how they adapt their game accordingly.
Saturday, 03 October 2009
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( Posted 04/10/09 )
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A try in stoppage time prevented Connacht from getting a bonus point at Rodney Parade in a match they should have won.
Connacht trailed 13-10 at half-time having played against the wind, with Miah Nikora getting in for a try he converted five minutes from the break.
Dragons led 10-0 after 16 minutes thanks to a try from James Harris but a penalty from Nikora just before the break reduced the deficit.
Shaun Connor extended Dragons lead in the final quarter and as Connacht launched a series of attacks in a bid for a match-winning try, they were hit when turnover ball saw Joe Bearman break down the right-wing to ensure that the visitors left without the consolation of a bonus point.
DRAGONS:
Tries: J Harris, Bearman
Cons: Arlidge, Connor
Pens: Arlidge (2); Connor
CONNACHT:
Try: Nikora
Con: Nikora
Pen: Nikora
Newport Gwent Dragons: M Thomas; A Brew, T Riley, A Smith, R Fussell; J Arlidge, D Lee; H Gustafson, S Jones, G Robinson; A Jones, L Charteris; D Lydiate, J Harris, J Bearman.
Replacements: N Hall for Robinson, 46 mins; H McDonald for Harris, 50 mins; S Connor for Arlidge, 51 mins; W Evans for Lee, 60 mins.
Connacht: G Duffy; B Tuohy, T Nathan, K Matthews, L Bibo; M Nikora, C O’Loughlin; R Loughney, S Cronin, J Hagan; M Swift, B Upton; M McCarthy, J O’Connor, J Muldoon.
Replacements: B Wilkinson for Loughney, 53 mins; F Murphy for O’Loughlin, 60 mins; I Keatley for Nikora, 70 mins; A Browne for Swift, 77 mins.
Referee: P Fitzgibbon (IRFU).
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Connacht 6 Ulster 30 Fri. 25/09/09 Posted 26/09/09
Connacht went down to a disappointing defeat at the Sportsground on Friday night.
Connacht trailed 7-6 at the break having had wind advantage with two penalties from Ian Keatley coming in response to an early converted try from Darren Cave.
Brendon Botha touched down for Ulster shortly after the restart with Ian Humphreys adding two penalties.
Ulster secured a bonus point with tries from Timoci Nagusa and Humphreys.
CONNACHT:
Pens: Keatley (2)
ULSTER:
Tries: Cave, Botha, Nagusa, Humphreys
Cons: Humphreys (2)
Pens: Humphreys (2)
Connacht: G Duffy; B Tuohy, T Nathan, K Matthews, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, J Hagan; A Browne, B Upton; J Muldoon, R Ofisa, M McComish.
Replacements: M McCarthy for McComish, 54 mins; J O’Connor for Ofisa, 54 mins; L Bibo for Tuohy, 59 mins; R Morris for Hagan, 59 mins; C O’Loughlin for Murphy, 59 mins; A Wynne, 59 mins.
Ulster: C Schifcofske; T Nagusa, D Cave, P Wallace, S Danielli; I Humphreys, I Boss; T Court, A Kyriacou, B Botha; D Tuohy, E O’Donoghue; C Henry, W Faloon, R Diack.
Replacements: A Trimble for Danielli, 31 mins; T Anderson for Henry, 65 mins; D Fitzpatrick for Botha, 65 mins; N Brady for Kyriacou, 72 mins; P Marshall for Boss, 77 mins; I Whitten for Wallace, 77 mins; N McComb for O’Donoghue, 77 mins.
Referee: G Clancy (IRFU).
Better Late than Never !!
Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship.
English rugby attempts to restore image
English rugby began the fight to restore its battered image on Wednesday with the launch by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) of a set of Core Values that they hope will underline all the best aspects of the game.
Damian Hopley, head of the players' union, lamented the game's "horrific summer" at the Twickenham launch but RFU president John Owen stressed that the new campaign pre-dated the events of the last few months.
The fake blood scandal at Harlequins, the missed drug test bans and cocaine-taking confessions at Bath and eye-gouging in high-profile international matches combined to batter the game's reputation and raise serious questions about its occupation of the sporting moral high ground.
Those events led to the hurried setting up of a new "Image of the Game" group - which will report back next week - but the Core Values task force was set up two years ago in response to concerns that standards of behaviour both of players and spectators in the professional and amateur games were changing for the worse.
With the rapid expansion of the game has come some unwelcome developments from people the RFU said were "less aware of the game's traditions and values than they might have been."
Respect for match officials and their decisions, always an absolute in rugby from school level to World Cup, was beginning to be eroded while the aggressive pitchside-parent so prevalent in junior soccer was beginning to be seen more often at rugby.
A wide-ranging consultation exercise followed and the result was the enshrining of the five core values of teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship.
Hopley said his members had a "burning ambition" to restore the reputation of the game.
"They want to be out there delivering as role models," he said. "The sport has taken some body blows but the key thing is how we react and this is an important step forward.
"There are some outstanding people in the game and it's important to not lose sight of that after a pretty horrific summer."
RFU CEO Francis Baron said that the feedback he had received from all levels of the game was 'let's get back to underlying values.'
"What has happened in the summer is not typical in the game. The Core Values launch would have happened anyway but what happened in the summer has given it added piquancy," he said.
"A major part of ensuring that this is taken up is the elite players. They are massive role models now and essential for embedding the core values."
21/09/2009
Connacht skipper John Muldoon has issued an appeal for supporters to come out in force for their crucial Magners League clash with Ulster on Friday night (kick-off 8pm).
Connacht will hope to build on their 18-16 win over Cardiff Blues in the first of the Irish derby matches.
And Muldoon has asked fans to get behind the team as they bid for another victory.
“The supporters were fantastic against Cardiff and they really made a difference when the pressure was on.
“This is another huge test for us on Friday against Ulster and I would appeal to supporters to get out and get behind the team,” said the Connacht captain.
Sat 19th September Connacht Youths 13 Leinster Youths 0
Connacht U18 beat Leinster to claim the Youth Inter-Provincial title in the Sportsground today. The Youths had beaten Ulster and Munster previously and so entered the game with confidence. This confidence was evident right from the start when Callum Boland kicked a penatly with only 2 minutes gone.
Connacht U 18's
Bad day at the office for Connaught Seniors
Edinburgh 62 Connacht 13
11/09/2009
Connacht went down by eight tries to one in the Magners League at Murrayfield on Friday night.
Two first-half penalties from Ian Keatley in the opening eleven minutes saw Edinburgh hit back with two tries to lead 20-6 at the break.
Edinburgh continued to pull away in the second-half with Connacht responding with Conor O'Loughlin setting up Fionn Carr for a try after 67 minutes.
Miah Nikora, making his competitive debut for Connacht, added the conversion on a night when Chris Paterson scored 27 points for the Scots.
Connacht Youths defeat Ulster U18's
Ulster 7 Connacht 11
Connacht produced a powerful performance to beat Ulster in the opening match of their interprovincial campaign, which took place in Clogher Valley RFC, Co Tyrone last Saturday. In near prefect conditions. Connacht immediately put Ulster on the back foot to dominate the opening period. They deservedly led when Callum Boland slotted his second penalty attempt to give the visitors a 3-0 advantage. Ulster gradually began to come to terms with the pace set by Connacht and their back row trio of Jamie Kirk, Johnny Ogilby and James McMahon won a number of turnovers which they used to allow props Keith Dickson and second row Lee Bickers to drive at the heart of the Connacht defence.
However outstanding work by forwards Gary McConnell, John Gill and Eoin Tarmey made Ulster fight for every inch of ground. As half time approached, Ulster set up a great attacking position with a scrum just 5 meters from the Connacht line, but the combined defence of out half Jack Carthy, and centres Andrew Fallon and Jack Vaughn won a critical turnover to allow Connacht clear their lines and retain their 3-0 lead at the interval.
Immediately on the restart Connacht drove deep into Ulster territory, where flanker Jamie Dever was crucial in getting consistent possession for the Connacht backs to show their skills. A surging attack by scrum half Barry Digby set winger Ronan Burke into space but he was stopped just short of the try line. However Connacht were awarded a penalty and the Ulster No 8 was sin-binned. Connacht cleverly kicked for the corner and from the subsequent line out, they fed second row Connor Kindregan who crashed over for a try to give the Westerners an 8-0 advantage. Connacht continued to apply the pressure using the pace and power of flanker Aaron Conneelly and No 8 Daniel Qualter who were instrumental in setting up another penalty opportunity which was converted to give Connacht a commanding11-0 lead.
However Ulster dug deep and began to use their rolling maul to great effect. A 20 meter dive by the Ulster pack sucked in the Connacht defence to allow second row Charles Gallagher to slip through the fringe defence and outstrip the cover to score a great individual try and put Ulster right back in the match at 11-7. With plenty of time remaining the game could have gone either way, but it was Connacht who pinned Ulster in their own half and restricted them, to either running from deep or clearing their lines. One such clearance was pounced on by replacement winger Joe Keane who raced 30m before being caught by the scrambling Ulster defence.
This was the signal for Connacht to close out the game with a confidence and maturity not usually seen at this level. Connacht now have a mouth watering fixture with Munster next Sat 12 Sept in the Sportsground at 1.00
Connacht Youths:
Callum Boland, Chris Feeney, Jack Vaughn, Andrew Fallon, Ronan Burke, Jack Carthy, Barry Digby, John Gill, Eoin Tarmey, Connor Kindregan, Jamie Dever, Aaron Conneelly (Capt), Daniel Qualter
Subs: Oisin Tierney, Damien McNelis, Diarmuid Higgins, Lorcan Laheen, David Heath, Joe Keane, Austin Gibbons
27/08/2009
Connacht's new out-half Miah Nikora is being replaced by Ian Keatley in the starting line up when Connacht take on Rotherham Titans at the Sportsground on Friday (kick-off: 6.30pm).
Nikora, who has a minor groin strain is not being risked ahead of the start of the Magners League season, which kicks off at the Sportsground against the Ospreys on September 4.
Connacht team (v Rotherham Titans):
G Duffy; T O'Halloran, E Griffin, K Matthews, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, J Hagan; D Nolan, A Browne; J Muldoon (C), R Ofisa, M McComish.
Replacements:
A Flavin, D Murphy, R Loughney, C Higgins, M Swift, B Upton, J O'Connor, C O'Loughlin, L Bibo, B Tuohy, T Nathan
Junior Rugby News
24/08/2009
The Connacht rugby Open Day in aid of Special Olympics Ireland, which had to be postponed at the weekend because of the appalling weather, has been rescheduled for Saturday, September 19, at the Sportsground. Events will get under way at 12 noon and continue until 3pm that afternoon.
Similar to the initial event planned for last Sunday, admission to the Sportsground for the Open Day will be free of charge, with events planned for all members of the family.
Free car parking will also be available at the Sportsground and throughout the afternoon there will be bouncing castles, obstacle courses, kicking and try-scoring competitions, while the Connacht players will do a demonstration of skills.
The Connacht squad will be in attendance throughout the afternoon with a series of events planned for all members of the family.Funds from the event will go to Special Olympics Connacht.
Connacht U20s Fixtures & Results
Friendly
Connacht U20's Vs Corinthians RFC
Thursday 27th August, Cloonacauneen, Tuam Rd, 7.30pm
Inter-Provincial Match
Connacht U20's Vs Munster U20's
Saturday 12th September, Sportsground, Galway 4.30pm
Inter-Provincial Match
Ulster U20's Vs Connacht U20's
Friday 18th September, Shawsbridge, Belfast 7.30pm
Inter-Provincial Match
Leinster U20's Vs Connacht U20's
Friday 25th September, Donnybrook, Dublin 7.30pm
Season tickets are available on line on www.ticketmaster.ie as well as www.connachtrugby.ie. Season tickets are also available through the Branch offices at the Sportsground.
The following are the price of the various season tickets on offer:
Season ticket €180
Season Gold (access to enclosed seating and bar) €255
Student/Senior €110
Family (two adults and two children) €320
Junior (7-18 years) €60
Season ticket holders will gain entry to all nine Magners League games at the Sportsground, the three group games in the European Challenge Cup and all pre-season friendlies, including the eagerly anticipated game against South Africa on August 21st.
In addition to season ticket holders gaining admission to the South Africa game, each season ticket hold will have the option to buy a second one before they go on general release.
In the case of a family ticket they will have the option to buy a second adult ticket and two junior tickets.
Gold season ticket holders should note that they will not have access to the enclosed seating and bar for the South Africa match as this part of the stadium will be required for corporate hospitality.
Rugby fans are encouraged to purchase their second ticket for SA at the same time as their season ticket for convenience.
Tickets can be purchased on-line at:
https://oss.ticketmastereurope.com/html/home.htmI?team=connachtrugby
