Lets get this ball rolling, here are the pieces from todays independent and irish times:
Independent
Home bird Bradley has Connacht on edge of glory
'Sportsground Strategy' key as legacy of success is developed, says Jim Glennon
Sunday April 18 2010
with the excitement of the Heineken Cup quarter-finals providing a memorable passage for Leinster and Munster, Connacht's qualification for the Challenge Cup semi-final remained in the relative shadows of the limelight.
On the domestic front, if it can be called that, of the Magners League, the westerners remain in their uncomfortably familiar position at the foot of the table. They have, however, rekindled the fires of their recent rivalry with Ulster for that third Irish Heineken Cup spot -- and in a big way too.
John Muldoon's men currently trail their northern brethren by five points but they have four games remaining with Ulster having just two. Interestingly, and perhaps crucially, the two sides are fixed to clash in Ravenhill on the final day of the regular season in early May, one week after the visit of Toulon to Galway, in what could well turn out to be a cliffhanging, winner-take-all finale to what has been an eventful season for both provinces.
The primary factor in Connacht's strong showing over the season has been the utter reliability of their home form. I know from personal experience over a long number of years that the Sportsground has never been an enticing prospect for any visiting team, not least Leinster who, coincidentally, are next up there on Wednesday night.
When Michael Bradley stated his intention to establish the ground as a fortress, he drew some quizzical attention from pundits and followers alike. My own view was that it was a highly pragmatic attempt at extracting maximum benefits from very limited resources. His policy of targeting home Magners League games, in conjunction with the Amlin Challenge Cup, has been an undoubted success with the Ospreys the only team to taste competitive victory in Galway this season, and that in the very first week of the season. Only the next few weeks will tell whether Connacht will reap the rewards of his wily 'Sportsground Strategy'.
Bradley's, or should it be said Eric Elwood's, team welcome Munster this evening and, as with any local provincial visitor to the venue, the home side will look to swarm all over them and create as much organised chaos as possible -- such has always been their way. What's different about the current group, however, is their capacity to exploit the mayhem by implementing their own positive and constructive game plan in its midst.
Will they win? Well, a very depleted Munster will definitely provide them with a real opportunity to follow up on last season's win in the corresponding fixture, but I'm not so sure. I would, however, back them to pick up a losing bonus point, and that is certainly more than Ulster seem capable of these days having, once again, been singularly unimpressive in their defeat in Glasgow on Friday night.
Brian McLaughlin's team have now failed to record a Magners League win since mid-January and the wagon, which was trundling along with such impressive momentum pre-Christmas, now appears to have shed its wheels in dramatic fashion, with the potential for alarming consequences as they approach their season's final destination.
The implications of the season's run-in for both provinces are stark, and particularly so for Connacht against the background of uncertainty arising from the structural review currently being carried out in relation to their future.
In the context of this week, games today, Wednesday and then having to travel to Llanelli on Friday -- three games in six days -- is a massive ask for a sparsely resourced squad and, realistically, something will have to give. Given their home record against Leinster, and their strong recent performance in the RDS when they were unlucky to come out on the losing side, I'd expect everything bar the kitchen sink to be included in the welcome for Leinster and, if necessary, sacrificing Friday's game in Wales in order to do so.
With the European champions themselves facing a trip across the channel on Friday, to Ulster's conquerors of Friday, Glasgow, it is unclear how strong a team Michael Cheika will field when he and his troops venture west; suffice to say that the resources at his disposal are the stuff of which Bradley and Elwood can only fantasise.
All in all, there is a real possibility that Connacht could have closed that gap on Ulster by Wednesday evening, leaving it all to play for in terms of that final Irish Heineken Cup spot, and setting up that finale at Ravenhill very nicely indeed.
Although Muldoon's men have yet to record an away win in the Magners League this season, Ulster's seeming inability to even buy a win recently will present Connacht with the opportunity of a lifetime and it would be difficult to back against Michael Bradley bowing out on a high note, leaving behind him a legacy of enormous long-term significance to the game in the west.
And I haven't even mentioned the upcoming visit to the greyhound track of the lavishly resourced (€16.5m annual budget) French side Toulon. Regardless of the priceless pearls of wisdom and personal experience in the possession of Felipe Contepomi and Jonny Wilkinson, nothing will prepare them for what lies in wait for them, be it from the team, their supporters, or the environment in which they have combined to repel all invaders bar one this season.
'
jimglennon@o2.ie'
Sunday Independent
Irish Times
Time never better for Connacht to strike
GERRY THORNLEY
Connaught v Munster
THINGS ARE becoming giddy in the west, and opportunity would appear to knock for Connacht, almost too loudly, when they host their neighbours from down the N18 tomorrow. European involvement and a mounting casualty list has obliged Munster coach Tony McGahan to field a decidedly callow and unfamiliar line-up.
Three of the backline will be making their competitive debuts for the province: the Irish under-20 wings Simon Zebo and the exciting Danny Barnes (the Tralee flyer born in New Zealand who moved here when he was 10), and Thomond outhalf Declan Cusack.
There are also three more potential debutants on the bench in 21-year-old lock Dave Foley, 20-year-old scrumhalf Conor Murray and Seán Scanlon.
Furthermore, loosehead Dave Ryan will be making his first competitive start after three appearances off the bench, while 21-year-old Scott Deasy – like Barnes, Foley and Murray a member of the Munster academy – will be making only his second start and fifth appearance.
Admittedly, Deasy scored a crucial try in his 14-point haul on debut in the win over Edinburgh in February, and started at fullback in the win over the Scarlets last month. But in such company, Tom Gleeson (four starts) and lock Billy Holland (eight starts) are veritable old heads.
Admittedly the pack contains a fair few familiar faces, and there are a smattering of old hands to help guide the tyros, such as Mick O’Driscoll (who captains the side), Niall Ronan, Peter Stringer and Paul Warwick, who makes his first appearance at centre this season on his old stomping ground.
Paul O’Connell, Denis Hurley, Doug Howlett, Ian Dowling, Keith Earls, Lifeimi Mafi, Jean de Villiers and Barry Murphy are all nursing injuries of varying degrees to join longer-term casualties Denis Leamy, Donncha Ryan and Felix Jones among those hors de combat.
Also mindful of the IRFU’s 2011 World Cup player management programme, McGahan’s hands, to a large degree, were tied.
The selection has implications elsewhere, not least on the AIB League semi-final given a half-dozen Constitution players and five Dolphin front-liners have been pulled from that game.
Of course, Ulster may not be too enamoured with the selection either, particularly if Munster lose and Connacht draw level with Ulster in their battle to earn the third Heineken Cup qualification place. That said, Ulster have benefited in the past from hosting an over-stretched Munster toward the end of the season.
Of course, all of this relatively callow Munster selection will see this as a golden opportunity to stake a claim, and many have also been playing for the Munster A side in their progress to next week’s semi-finals of the British and Irish Cup.
Whereas they will go into this game with nothing to lose, Connacht have a dreadful record against their neighbours and the pressure to emulate last season’s win at the Sportsground over Munster – their only victory in the last 32 fixtures between the sides, dating back to 1986 – will now be accentuated. Still smarting from their 35-3 beating in Thomond Park this season, for them and their ex-Munstermen, Seán Cronin, Frank Murphy and Keith Matthews, there may even be a danger that they might want this one too much.
Although they have sharpened their cutting edge, and scored a couple of good tries last week, Connacht also left a few behind against Bourgoin and they have struggled to score tries over the last two seasons. In that time they have been heavily reliant on the remarkable Fionn Carr, who has scored 25 tries in 41 appearances, and has accounted for seven of their 13 tries in 14 league games this season, and 15 of their 33 league tries over the last two campaigns.
They make one change to the team which beat Bourgoin last week, with Bernie Upton starting in the secondrow and Michael McCarthy reverting to the bench.
They also come into this game in good form, unbeaten in eight home games dating back to the defeat to Ulster in September, while Munster’s only away win in the league this season dates to a week before that when they beat the Scarlets.
On the face of it, for possibly the first time, the odds now favour those sequences being maintained.
CONNACHT: G Duffy; T Nathan, N Ta’auso, K Matthews, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, J Hagan, M Swift, B Upton, J Muldoon (capt), J O’Connor, G Naoupu. Replacements: A Flavin, R Loughney, M McCarthy, M McComish, C O’Loughlin, M Nikora, A Wynne.
MUNSTER: S Deasy; S Zebo, T Gleeson, P Warwick, D Barnes; D Cusack, P Stringer; D Ryan, D Varley, T Buckley; M O’Driscoll (capt); B Holland; N Williams, N Ronan, J Coughlan. Replacements: D Fogarty, J Brugnaut, D Foley, P O’Mahoney, C Murray, J Manning, S Scanlon.
Referee: Alain Rolland (IRFU).
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