jmc

We'll start with rods. The first row has 3 rods, the second row has 6 rods, and continuing down, we see that the next rows have 9, 12, 15, and so on rods. So the total number of rods in an eight-row triangle is $$3+6+9+\cdots +24=3(1+2+3+\cdots +8)=3(36)=108.$$For the connectors, note that in an $n$-row triangle, the connectors form a triangle which has $n+1$ rows. For example, a two-row triangle has three rows of connectors, and $1+2+3=6$ connectors. So an eight-row triangle has $1+2+3+\cdots +9=45$ connectors. We have a total of $108+45=\boxed{153}$ pieces.