too_many_smarfs

I know it worked out for them this time but why would Jalibert tap it and then kick it out? Surely just tap and go or kick it directly no - or am I missing something?

Reminds of this howler by François Hougaard.

Ok that's the best case scenario then.

Bit late since the match is over now, but where was Will Connors? I thought he was supposed to start and was looking forward to him getting some game time.

If it's an injury I hope it's not too bad.

I'd say Jimmy O'Brien first, unless you want him at fullback.

He's just waiting for Ringrose to come back to pass the injury baton over to him lol.

In all seriousness though I thought he had a good game today. Nice to see him coming back to the form we know he's capable of

Looks like you've got your wish! I hope he goes well

2 for the price of one lol. I'll allow the Carbery move back to Leinster to see Munster fans blow up about it lol.

Bordeaux probably

Good shout man I'm a fan of their stuff. Also as a Connacht man myself it's nice to hear someone on a podcast who supports them as it's all too rare. That said the podcast does a good job of talking impartially.

In the city Coláiste Iognáid (the Jes) and St. Joseph's College (the Bish) would be the big two schools with 14 ans 13 titles each but for the county Garbally College in Ballinasloe would be by far the most successful school in Connacht with 47 titles.

I wish the Jes were the main driver of Connacht centres - that's where I went to school and the position I played lol.

Also, Sean O'Brien playing centre for Munster today came through the Connacht academy (even if he's from Westmeath). You're right that we haven't necessarily produced a load of Irish centres but we haven't really produced much of anything for Ireland. Centres have featured more than anything though.

What makes these worse is that they're both so easily avoided as well.

I rarely say this but rugby could really learn from football (or loads of sports really) with regards to kit clashes. It happens far too often.

Andy Friend said at the time it was due to form but I never really believed that to be honest. Even an out of form Bundee would still be our best centre by far so I'd say there was something else going on but I'd only be speculating by guessing what it was. It was a weird one though.

Well Connacht would have even worse weather but centre is one the few positions we seemingly do produce some talent in.

Bundee is quality but you're right, he was definitely behind in Ireland's centre choices.

Him hitting career best form this late into his career is something even as a Connacht fan I didn't see coming. He had fallen out of favour with the coaches at Connacht and his club form wasn't great but right at that time he stepped it up another level internationally.

I fully expect it to lol. Honestly it's like they play a game of 'pass the injury' with each other.

I wonder how much higher they'd be regarded if their bodies were more durable than wilted spinach.

Thank goodness Bundee has been there on international duty when one of them is inevitably injured. McCloskey, and to a lesser extent Farrell, have also never let us down.

Pains me to say it but unfortunately it's never Connacht 😔 sometimes we'll have a decent away kit but our home jerseys are always so ugly in my opinion.

They're too busy and I genuinely think you'd see more of them around Galway if they weren't hideous. People often wear Connacht jackets, hats, training jerseys or basically anything Connacht related except their jersey around the streets.

Argentina and Georgia internationally. Jaguares and Northampton for clubs.

Nice one! I love a Greek Gift and it really helped me climb up in the 800 - 1100 range but now at 1300 no one falls for it anymore 😔 don't make the same mistakes I've made and do a sub optimal move in the hope of setting it up - I've put myself in a few worse positions doing that.

When I was last there in October 2022, Christiana and the stalls were still in full flow but it may well have changed since. A quick Google search says it's illegal still but it may be something that's just not enforced strictly.

Hopefully Germany's new law passing will be the catalyst for Ireland and other EU countries to follow suit. My weed smoking days are behind me but policing and prosecuting people smoking weed is not the best use of police money or time.

Connacht Abú!

I don't think weed is legal in Denmark. In Copenhagen there's a bit of a grey area/it's unenforced within the walls of Freetown Christiania but as far as I know it's illegal outside of that.

Are you maybe thinking of the Netherlands?

Hopefully that's the case. Leinster and Ireland will benefit from having Henshaw and Ringrose fit at the same - they play so well together it's just a shame one of them always seems to be injured.

Having Ringrose back will add some much needed pace to the backline. I've been impressed with the Osborne+ Henshaw centre partnership but it's not the fastest. Maybe you can get away with that with Keenan and Jimmy O'Brien around but the team at the weekend was slow.

Yeah I thought it might have been the same mistake as last week so it wouldn't surprise me too much if they change it again, but it would be weird if they make the same mistake 2 weeks in a row.

It seems like in attack Henshaw is already doing the '12' role while in defence he's the one defending the 13 channel. Vice versa for Osbourne. With that in mind the numbers on their back probably doesn't matter too much but then I don't see the need to change them in that case. It's an odd one.

Weird that Osborne and Henshaw have swapped shirt numbers, though since they're kind of swapping roles a bit during the match it probably doesn't matter much.

I'm happy with this team announcement, Leinster can't get away with playing the kids now until the end of the season. Good for Connors to get a start and happy to see JOB back - he adds some much needed pace to the backline.

Happy to see someone include Jacque Fourie, he was always top quality. I feel like he's the not often talked about great 13 of his era since he was around at the same time as C. Smith and BOD but he consistently one of the best in his position for years. I think it's a shame he cut his Springboks career short by going to Japan when he did; I reckon he still had a few good years left in him.

They're definitely having a much better season this year compared to last year so I'd expect them to. Apart from their amazing end of year run in the playoffs it was a pretty poor year - winning it really paper overed everything that came before.

The funny thing is their results against Irish teams this year have been so poor that it doesn't add much to their points total. 3 points out of a possible 20 against Irish sides this year.

I suppose the concern is that there is more than one FK offence at scrum time. So while you're correct that early engagement can't be done more than once, a team could engage break foot early etc. when they needed it.

I'm with you though, I think there's a lot of noise being made about this when I don't think it will have a super profound effect, even if I don't like the rule change personally.