And the Harlequins team is:

Quins
1.Ceri Jones
2.Tani Fuga
3.John Brooks
4.James Percival
5.Jim Evans
6.Phil Davies
7.Neil McMillan
8.Chris York
9.Danny Care
10.Nick Evans
11. Seb Stegmann
12. Jordan Turner-Hall
13. De Wet Barry (Captain)
14.Charlie Amesbury
15.Tom Williams

That's two pretty full strength sides by the looks of them, should be interesting for sure...

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Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
Muhammad Ali

Strong Harlequins team.I thought they were bringing a weaker than usual team due to the 7s tournament.Should be interesting to see their half back partnership since they are in Ulster's HC group as well.

Looking forward to this.Expect a much better effort from Connacht this week and hopefully we can see a good collective performance and an indication that we aren't going down the same road as the last 3 years.

Yeah, as excited as we are about young Keatley and Murphy at half-back, I think they'll be pretty excited about seeing how Nick Evans and Danny Care get on.....

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Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
Muhammad Ali

Good result, a 24-8 win. From the brief comments on the Quins supporters site we were all over them in the lineout, they couldn't buy one in the first half. It'll be interesting to see the full match report. Not holding my breath that it'll make a national newspaper (never mind the result even).

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Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
Muhammad Ali

Ah yeah Keatly had a great game today. Drop goals, conversions and penos. He got the lot. Frank Murphy had a slow start but ultimately played well. Pack were savage. Farley, O'Connor, Swift & Muldoon all did well. New boy Cronin played well also.
They held 'Quins of the in first half against the wind and we in touch at half time. Then upped the pressure in the second half. Played the position game and ultimately Quins couldn't live with the pressure.

Good win. Well deserved.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:08:19:21:57:48 by LDTT.

Quote:

LDTT
Ah yeah Keatly had a great game today. Drop goals, trys, conversions and penos. He got the lot. Frank Murphy had a slow start but ultimately played well. Pack were savage. Farley, O'Connor, Swift & Muldoon all did well. New boy Cronin played well also.
They held 'Quins of the in first half against the wind and we in touch at half time. Then upped the pressure in the second half. Played the position game and ultimately Quins couldn't live with the pressure.

Good win. Well deserved.

Any view on how Bibo did..?

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Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
Muhammad Ali

Agree with ldtt on all his points there.I'd add that Matthews looked good,Gavin Duffy did well for his first outing.I was quietly impressed by Bibo he certainly hasn't done himself any harm in the last 2 games.

We looked very good tonight and the basis is now there for us to push on and head into the season in good form.Good to see Bradley gave the team pretty much the 80 mins on the park and that definitely helped cohesion.In fairness all the new signings have impressed to some degree.

Manky night though!!!!!!!

That was as good a performance as last weeks was awful - looks like we have a pretty decent 1st team with not too much in reserve. Everyone performed well and Keatly was outstanding. The pack were brilliant and I really liked Cronin's contribution around the park, he threw really well also. There seemed to be huge desire there this week compared to last week and JOC is still a legend. The small crowd, although not bad considering the unbelievably bad weather, really got behind the team after Swifty threw a dummy reminicent of John Dawes from the great BaaBaas try against the All-Blacks - YES it was that good, it will take something to top that as moment of the season so far - it has been put up on You Tube

Last week I was so disappointed by the display I couldn't even talk about it, this week we were bloody brilliant - ah the joys of being a Connacht fan

Bibo has been putting in the hours in the gym. He's gotten a lot bigger since last season. He didn't really get many chances going forward. Was reasonably good on defense. He didn't stand out like Roberts did last week. Though, different game was played this week with the dodgy weather and all.

Keatley was assured though I thought a few passes from his S-Half certainly asked questions of him. Morris had a good game too, both in the tight and around the field.

From the IT:

PRE-SEASON CHALLENGE: IRELAND A's Ian Keatley made an impressive debut for Connacht on Saturday in their pre-season challenge against NEC Harlequins at the Galway Sportsground.

The 21-year-old former Clontarf RFC outhalf, partnering another new recruit, scrumhalf Frank Murphy, notched 14 of Connacht's tally in the 24-8 win over the English premiership side, including two second-half drop-goals.

Keatley had opened Connacht's account with a ninth-minute penalty, but it was the visitors, shorn of several front-line players on duty at the Middlesex Sevens, who took a half-time lead through a Tom Williams try and a penalty from the boot of Nick Evans.

Connacht were better able to utilise the wind in the second half, however, and they took the lead after Murphy set up Keith Matthews for a try, with Keatley, having already landed an early second-half penalty, adding the extras.

He then kept Connacht in front with two drop goals, before flanker and new Connacht captain John Muldoon crowned a fine Connacht performance with a 78th-minute try.

Coach Michael Bradley acknowledged Keatley's contribution.

"It was a good start," said Bradley. "He's a confident young man and it's important players like him get game time. He put himself into position where he is competing for the number 10 jersey.

"He was on the Ireland under-20 Grand Slam-winning team and has made appearances in the Churchill Cup in the past two years and it is important he gets game time."

Bradley had other reasons for satisfaction.

"It was a good performance from the team all round, and the collision area, which is always key, was good last week against Leeds and it improved again this week.

"The new guys coming in have to put pressure on the guys in the slots. Liam Bibo has put two solid performances together, which is good to see.

"Frank Murphy and Seán Cronin came in and put in good performances."

SCORERS: Connacht: Tries - Matthews, Muldoon; Pens - Keatley (2); Con - Keatley; Drop goals - Keatley (2). Harlequins: Try - T Williams; Pen - Evans.

CONNACHT: G Duffy; L Bibo, M Deane, K Matthews, J Hearty; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, R Morris; M Swift, A Farley; J Muldoon, J OConnor, C Rigney.

Replacements: M McCarthy for Swift (63 mins); A Browne for Rigney (70 mins); A Dunne for Keatley, T Nathan for Matthews, A Wynne for Deane (all 75 mins); C Muldoon, A Flavin, R Loughney, J Lyne, B McGovern, K Campbell.

HARLEQUINS: T Williams; C Amesbury, D W Barry, J Turner-Hall, S Stegman; N Evans, D Care; C Jones, T Fuga, J Brooks; J Percival, J Evans; P Davies, N McMillan, C York.

Replacements: O Kohn for Percival, S O'Connor for Evans, A Croall for Brooks, M Lambert for Jones (all half-time); G Robson, G Williams for Turner-Hall, G Lowe for Care (both 57 mins); S Smith for Evans (70 mins); T Sargeant for McMillan (78 mins).

Perhaps Bradley is trying to keep things in check, but the way he talks about Keatley it sounds like he wouldn't start him when the season starts even if it was apparent he was the top outhalf.

I wonder if Nathan will end up regretting signing with Connacht, though he is getting some time on the pitch. Just not at outhalf.

Obviously I should have read seanin's thread about Keatley before I posted here.