Nearly show-time at the Sportsground!

Our Connacht man John O’Sullivan can’t wait for the season to get going.

The start of the season is so close, I already feel the nasty bite of the infamous Sportsground wind on my skin. Indeed, Connacht's opening Rabo Direct Pro 12 fixture, at home to Cardiff Blues, is only a matter of days away.

Since my last post, Connacht's pre season preparations have been stepped up a gear. Two fixtures against English opposition, Exeter and Harlequins, have provided vital tests and lessons for Connacht, albeit in two contrasting ways:

Firstly, Connacht will take great heart from their dogged 8-6 win over Exeter. Connacht showed all the tenacity and desire usually associated with the province, but also an end product which, sadly, has often failed to match Connacht's aforementioned doggedness and desire.

If our victory over Exeter raised hope within the squad, then their subsequent 11-45 tonking at the hands of Harlequins, old foes and future Heineken Cup pool opponents for the second season in succession, brought them back down to earth with a bang.

It must be remembered, though, that Harlequins are English champions and will be one of the favourites for the upcoming season’s European crown. The old sporting cliché says you'll learn more about yourself in defeat than in victory, with that in mind, Connacht's youngsters will benefit from the experience of playing some top internationals.

Heartened by the progress of the province’s underage teams over the past few years, Connacht have invested both time and money in their academy set up. Indeed, the formation of the Connacht Eagles, a Connacht A side who will play in the British and Irish Cup, is another positive step for the rapidly greening Westerners. Not content with the kudos for setting up the Eagles, Connacht had to make a statement on the pitch; and that they did, beating Munster A 13-6 at the Sportsground (pic courtesy of knockon.ie). The Eagles will provide players with a vital bridge between U-20's and the senior side and will, no doubt, provide the necessary grounding and experience for many a future Connacht star.

And finally, Gavin Duffy has been rewarded for his tremendous consistency by retaining the Connacht captaincy for a second successive season. The Mayo man has been the epitome of calmness at full backs for Connacht for years and will, undoubtedly, provide many more years or sterling service.

To paraphrase the clubs marketing motto: the West is about to rise, its nearly show time!

Today’s Independent = Elwood sweats on Dan Parks’ fitness

Keep an eye on Twitter & Facebook throughout the season, John’s posts will appear at 9am every Tuesday.

I’m John O’Sullivan, 20. Part time student, full time sports nut. Crazily addicted to Liverpool F.C. My forte is obscure sporting facts. For example, not many people seem to know that Alfredo Di Stefano had an Irish grandmother. Love rugby and am currently the PRO of Connemara R.F.C. I also do some radio work for my local radio station. One day, I would love to be a Sports Journalist/Broadcaster. I would like to thank Jeff for giving me the chance to cover my beloved Connacht on ‘Harpin2’ Looking forward to a great season!

Premiership’s Preseason–Part 2

The second part of Felix McCabe’s look at how the Aviva Premiership clubs are warming up for the new campaign.

With only one week until we kick off this season’s Aviva Premiership, I’m going to take a look at some of the recent pre-season friendlies and follow up with a preview of Round 1 of this year’s Aviva extravaganza.

Heading to Franklin’s Gardens first, to get the least favourable result from this rugby fan’s point of view, where Northampton registered a 43 points to nothing hammering of Heineken Cup champions, Leinster. A mixed team from the Irish outfit included experience in the form of captain, Leo Cullen, Issac Boss and Devin Toner as well as plenty of youth; with academy graduate Noel Reid and Jordan Coghlan. This formula didn’t work for Leinster on a day where the Saints managed to ground the ball on seven separate occasions. It was a great moment for Saints fans when returning back rower, Tom Wood crossed the line announcing his return to the Gardens. Dom Waldouck, Scott Armstrong, Paul Diggin, Tom May, Noah Cato and Vasily Artemyev all made the scorecard on the day.

Sale Sharks taught us the meaning of impact substitution on the same day when they emptied their bench to overcome Scottish rivals, Glasgow. Included in the replacements was former Glasgow Warrior, Richie Gray and debutant, Danny Cipriani; who started strong and only improved as the game reached its close. It finished 49-27 at Heywood Road.

Attempting to get their pre-season back on track, Harlequins had two games at the Stoop last weekend and boy did it not disappoint. First they out-muscled a London Scottish team 42-21 with tries from Stegmann, Taylor, Burns, Matthews and Marfo. They then met Rabo side, Connacht in a game that saw three yellow cards in the first half! Nikora the offender for Connacht; Luke Wallace and Nick Evans for Quins. Fortunately for Quins, this didn’t affect them in the slightest and they completed their double with scores from Evans, Easter, Care, Smith, Chisholm and Lowe to easily win out the game 45-11.

Ravenhill hosted the Tigers in what would turn into a very physical game. Niall O’Connor played fly-half and converted an early penalty try. George Ford levelled the game with his efforts and then Thomas Waldron’s try pushed the visitors into the lead. This was short-lived as Chris Cochrane’s late try, converted by Paddy Jackson, levelled the game. It finished 14 points a piece.

The Ospreys continued a miserable pre-season last weekend; losing at the hands of Bath. Lee Mears and Dan Hipkiss scoring for the visiters while Tom Graham touched down for the Welshmen. 18-0 at the half, it was Bath’s to lose – which they didn’t. A late effort by Matthew Morgan saw himself clear, but he fumbled the ball and so summed up a bad day at the office for Ospreys. Bath take the spoils at 21-10.

Gloucester also had fortune against the Welsh as they beat Cardiff Blues 20-8. A true preseason game, mistakes a plenty, Nigel Davies has plenty of time to perfect his team before they meet Northampton on September 1^st. And it would come to pass that the Welsh would lose, yet another, preseason game – this time when the Llaneli Scarlets travelled to Sixways to meet the Wocester Warriors. Josh Matavesi the hero of the day scoring two tries. It finished 22-7.

Elsewhere, the Exeter Chiefs showed the world why they’re good enough to be in the Heineken Cup this year. They dispatched a Cornish Pirates team 56-3 points, easily. New signing Will Chudley scored a double, as did Josh Tatupu with further tries coming from Rob Baxter, Mark Foster, Jack Nowell, Kai Horstmann and Ben White.

Chris Ashton made his Saracens debut last weekend in Italy when the team travelled to Treviso. Again, the Italian setup proved too strong for the English and fought a hard-earned victory. Simone Favaro scoring late to deny the visitors.

At Headingley, London Wasps found it difficult to get into a game with Leeds; but when they did, they opened up a poor Leeds defence and scored eight tries and win comfortably 50 points to 23. England flanker James Haskell returned to the Wasps bench and made an appearance on a day when, new signings, Stephen Jones and Andrea Masi both scored.

Finally their was some success for the Welsh last weekend when The Dragons welcomed The Exiles to Rodney Parade. Tómas O’Leary and Shane Geraghty controlled the game in the backs but tries from Steffan Jones and Adam Hughes were enough to keep London Irish at bay. It finished 18-12 to the Newport Gwent Dragons.

Results

Northampton Saints 43-0 Leinster

Sale Sharks 49-27 Glasgow Warriors

Harlequins 42-21 London Scottish

Harlequins 45-11 Connacht

Ulster 14-14 Leicester Tigers

Ospreys 10-21 Bath

Gloucester 20-8 Cardiff Blues

Worcester Warriors 22-7 Llaneli Scarlets

Exeter Chiefs 56-3 Cornish Pirates

Benetton Treviso 14-11 Saracens

Newport Gwent Dragons 18-12 London Irish

London Wasps 50-23 Leeds

Felix will be back later in the week with a look at the opening round of Aviva Premiership matches

Felix (@lightningrust): Blogger, eternal student of business & law, sunshine rugby player with a passion for music and fitness. Coffee is essential. Leinster fan and Irish proud.

Ends don’t justify the Deans

All Black fan Tim Cronin from rugbyshirts.net reckons the battle to avoid the Rugby Championship wooden spoon could be more fierce than that for first place.

The All Blacks cruised to a comfortable win over an increasingly hapless looking Wallabies side while the Argentinians came desperately close to securing a famous victory over the ‘Boks as Round Two of the Rugby Championship took place over the weekend.

Eden Park has never been a happy hunting ground for the Wallabies, but the beleaguered side must have truly been dreading this visit, with media, fans, and former players becoming increasingly impatient with their poor form, and calls for coach Robbie Deans to fall on his sword becoming louder and louder.

If there was one positive Deans’ and his men can take away from their 22-nil loss on Saturday it was their scrambling defence, which kept the scoreline from getting completely out of hand. While it was the first time in over 50 years the Australian’s had been kept scoreless against their Trans-Tasman neighbours, the score could have been considerably worse, as the world champions poured on the pressure late in the game. However, desperate work on their own line managed to deny the black machine and save the visitors the embarrassment of what could easily have been a 50 point loss.

But the signs really do look bad for the Wallabies. It’s obvious that there is discontent in the shed, and it shows on the field, with inaccuracy at set pieces and a disjointed backline that never really looks like constructing anything meaningful or threatening. Unless things change drastically they will not only struggle to keep things respectable when they meet the Springboks, but look odds on to provide the Argentinians with their first ever win in the Championship, a milestone that they were oh-so-close to achieving on the weekend.

Los Pumas hosted the South Africans at Mendoza in their first home game of the Rugby Championship, and were only denied an historic win thanks to an intercept try from Springbok midfielder Franz Steyn.

In front of a hostile crowd the hosts managed to make the game in to the kind of encounter they thrive in – a brutally fierce physical encounter. You could almost feel the intensity at the collision zone every time the Argentinians catapulted themselves at a ruck, and their approach obviously got under the skin of the Springboks, who were ill-disciplined and lacked accuracy.

But the Pumas have got plenty to work on, much of which will develop as they gain experience at this level. There was an obvious lack of self-belief and confidence at stages, and this affected their ability to execute when the opportunity to score arose. They must have been bitterly disappointed when Steyn crossed with 15 minutes to go to level the scores at 16-all, and it was a sound effort to hold on for the draw in the face of that disappointment.

Even though the Springboks were below-par there was enough to suggest that a trip to Argentina is going to be an arduous journey for any of the other Championship sides, and, once they genuinely believe in their ability, a win will be inevitable. At this early stage though it already looks like the title will be decided between New Zealand and South Africa, with Australia battling desperately with Argentina to avoid the wooden spoon.

Tim Cronin is a Rugby fan and full time writer based in the rubble of the Canterbury Crusaders’ home town, Christchurch. Tim is a part of the Pukeko Sports team, where his role is watching, writing, and complaining about all things rugby.