Pro14 R6: Connacht v Leinster Fri Nov 8 KO 7:35 EIR/TG4

[curates_egg]

Connacht Rugby v Leinster Rugby – KO 19:35

The Sportsground, Galway

Referee: Sean Gallagher (IRFU, 17th Championship Appearance)
AR1: Johnny Erskine (IRFU), AR2: Mark Patton (IRFU)
TMO: Leo Colgan (IRFU)

Read more at https://www.pro14rugby.org/match-centre ... J1lmHyq.99

Don't recall us having Gallagher before.
I see he's from Navan. Is that near Galway?

[cormac]

Connacht Rugby v Leinster Rugby – KO 19:35

The Sportsground, Galway

Referee: Sean Gallagher (IRFU, 17th Championship Appearance)
AR1: Johnny Erskine (IRFU), AR2: Mark Patton (IRFU)
TMO: Leo Colgan (IRFU)

Read more at https://www.pro14rugby.org/match-centre ... J1lmHyq.99

Don't recall us having Gallagher before.
I see he's from Navan. Is that near Galway?

Reffed us once before. An away defeat to the Scarlets in 2016. Think it was the match Barry Daly got sent off in.

[curates_egg]

Connacht Rugby v Leinster Rugby – KO 19:35

The Sportsground, Galway

Referee: Sean Gallagher (IRFU, 17th Championship Appearance)
AR1: Johnny Erskine (IRFU), AR2: Mark Patton (IRFU)
TMO: Leo Colgan (IRFU)

Read more at https://www.pro14rugby.org/match-centre ... J1lmHyq.99

Don't recall us having Gallagher before.
I see he's from Navan. Is that near Galway?

Reffed us once before. An away defeat to the Scarlets in 2016. Think it was the match Barry Daly got sent off in.

Didn't really have a choice with that decision. Hopefully, he doesn't overcompensate for being a Leinster Branch ref.

[Dave Cahill]

The decision, whatever it may be, around Henshaw's selection (or not) is the interesting one to me. He has been unfortunate with injury this calendar year, and when he's been fit he's been thrown into difficult situations with the result that his form has been pretty poor. As things stand, on form, he shouldn't really be in the 23 for the Treviso game. If selected for Connacht though, it gives him a chance to display that he has some form and if he does that, then combined with his 'back catalogue', it might well give him the edge over Tomane and Conor O'Brien

[betty swallocks]

Henshaw has never appeared in the Sportsground since his transfer from Connacht. Wonder if there's an unwritten gentleman's agreement on that. We'll know Thursday I suppose.

[alanair]

Connacht Rugby v Leinster Rugby – KO 19:35

The Sportsground, Galway

Referee: Sean Gallagher (IRFU, 17th Championship Appearance)
AR1: Johnny Erskine (IRFU), AR2: Mark Patton (IRFU)
TMO: Leo Colgan (IRFU)

Read more at https://www.pro14rugby.org/match-centre ... J1lmHyq.99

Don't recall us having Gallagher before.
I see he's from Navan. Is that near Galway?

Gallagher now works for IRFU in Referee development in Connacht

[Jonny tight lips]

Connacht Rugby v Leinster Rugby – KO 19:35

The Sportsground, Galway

Referee: Sean Gallagher (IRFU, 17th Championship Appearance)
AR1: Johnny Erskine (IRFU), AR2: Mark Patton (IRFU)
TMO: Leo Colgan (IRFU)

Read more at https://www.pro14rugby.org/match-centre ... J1lmHyq.99

Don't recall us having Gallagher before.
I see he's from Navan. Is that near Galway?

Gallagher now works for IRFU in Referee development in Connacht

At least he’s not a former player of one of the sides I suppose.

[Ruckedtobits]

I'd expect to see a decent sprinkling of our RWC players on Saturday. Looking back at other post-national return selections, some of Healy, Porter, Ruddock, McGrath, Henshaw & possibly Ringrose could grace the Squad of 23. Galway on Saturday will be no place for the faint-hearted and the "Returned" will not be invited just to make up the numbers.

[LeinsterLeader]

I'd expect to see a decent sprinkling of our RWC players on Saturday. Looking back at other post-national return selections, some of Healy, Porter, Ruddock, McGrath, Henshaw & possibly Ringrose could grace the Squad of 23. Galway on Saturday will be no place for the faint-hearted and the "Returned" will not be invited just to make up the numbers.

Friday!

or your gonna miss it!

[LeinsterLeader]

Stronger team then I was expecting to by honest.

Dev, fardy Luke Mcgrath, Robbie H all starting

Rob K and Ruddock to bench

Deegan at 8 is interesting

[LeinsterLeader]

15. Hugo Keenan (9)
14. Adam Byrne (54)
13. Robbie Henshaw (37)
12. Joe Tomane (17)
11. James Lowe (33)
10. Ross Byrne (75)
9. Luke McGrath (113)
1. Cian Healy (208)
2. Rónan Kelleher (6)
3. Andrew Porter (53)
4. Devin Toner (235)
5. Scott Fardy (47) CAPTAIN
6. Josh Murphy (25)
7. Will Connors (8)
8. Max Deegan (51)

16. James Tracy (97)
17. Ed Byrne (45)
18. Michael Bent (129)
19. Ross Molony (87)
20. Rhys Ruddock (161)
21. Jamison Gibson-Park (75)
22. Ciarán Frawley (15)
23. Rob Kearney (210)

[LeRouxIsPHat]

As I said previously, I was worried about Robbie's fitness but if he's good to go then that's great and I hope he plays as much as possible from now until the end of the season. Didn't expect him to be at 13 but I like that idea and Tomane deserves another start. It's probably unlikely but I'd love ROL to be on the bench next week.

Happy to see Adam back in as well, hope he's able to make a claim to start next week although barring injury he's unlikely to be involved.

Huge test for Kelleher. This is a really tough ask for an inexperienced hooker but he's surrounded by a really strong front five. If he comes through this then I'll be very confident about him going forward.

Another big game for Deegan. Hard to know if that back row is picked because it's not going to be involved next week or if Deegan is being given a chance to stake a claim but he really needs to step up.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Aki on the bench for them, could be a huge impact there. Blade and Carty start, so Ireland's world cup saviour Marmion is only on the bench too.

[wixfjord]

Wow strong side.

Big boost for Keenan and Kelleher. They've clearly made the biggest move in the first five games.

Big game for Deegan at 8. A performance here will nail him into that jersey for Europe.

Our 11-14 certainly won't be lacking in power anyway!

[wixfjord]

(15-9): Darragh Leader, Niyi Adeolokun, Tom Farrell, Peter Robb, Stephen Fitzgerald, Jack Carty, Caolin Blade (1-8): Denis Buckley, Tom McCartney, Finlay Bealham, Cillian Gallagher, Joe Maksymiw, Eoghan Masterson, Jarrad Butler (C), Paul Boyle.

Replacements: Dave Heffernan, Matthew Burke, Dominic Robertson-McCoy, Sean O’Brien, Colby Fainga’a, Kieran Marmion, Bundee Aki, Kyle Godwin.

Strong Connacht bench.

Second row looks a wee bit weak and we're strong there.

[Oldschool]

15. Hugo Keenan (9)
14. Adam Byrne (54)
13. Robbie Henshaw (37)
12. Joe Tomane (17)
11. James Lowe (33)
10. Ross Byrne (75)
9. Luke McGrath (113)
1. Cian Healy (208)
2. Rónan Kelleher (6)
3. Andrew Porter (53)
4. Devin Toner (235)
5. Scott Fardy (47) CAPTAIN
6. Josh Murphy (25)
7. Will Connors (8)
8. Max Deegan (51)

16. James Tracy (97)
17. Ed Byrne (45)
18. Michael Bent (129)
19. Ross Molony (87)
20. Rhys Ruddock (161)
21. Jamison Gibson-Park (75)
22. Ciarán Frawley (15)
23. Rob Kearney (210)

Fingers crossed Henshaw gets through the game ok.
Ryan, Furlong, Larmour and JVDF played a lot of minutes in Japan so obviously getting an extra break.
Hope Frawley gets 30mins off the bench.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Just thinking, it'll be interesting to see if Lowe starts both games in Europe given that he needs extra breaks because of his arthritis.

[Ruckedtobits]

Most interesting feature of Connacht team is the absence of Roux and Dillane from their Squad. Despite the huge experience of a front-row of Buckley, Bealham and McCartney, Ronan Kelleher should get a great platform in Galway to accelerate his progress in the Leinster pecking order. There's going to be lots of scrums in this weather in Galway.

[desperado]

Most interesting feature of Connacht team is the absence of Roux and Dillane from their Squad. Despite the huge experience of a front-row of Buckley, Bealham and McCartney, Ronan Kelleher should get a great platform in Galway to accelerate his progress in the Leinster pecking order. There's going to be lots of scrums in this weather in Galway.

Surprisingly; the forecast is good for tomorrow in Galway.

[cormac]

Most interesting feature of Connacht team is the absence of Roux and Dillane from their Squad. Despite the huge experience of a front-row of Buckley, Bealham and McCartney, Ronan Kelleher should get a great platform in Galway to accelerate his progress in the Leinster pecking order. There's going to be lots of scrums in this weather in Galway.

No rain forecast today in Galway and none for tomorrow either, according to Met Eireann.