Connacht Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - Part II

Redo91

RoutineBites wrote: »

https://instagram.com/p/3IaQU8ixnm/

Deleted?

ouncer

its_phil wrote: »

Embarassing writing from David Kelly in the Indo. Referenced Aaron Connelly (he left a year ago) still being in the Connacht academy and being excellent on Sunday. I'd have serious doubts to whether he watched the match.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/champions-cup/lams-high-praise-for-carty-after-connachts-best-season-31253231.html

Would the reason for that be because our friend Neil Francis said connelly had a great game on 'against the head' last night

its_phil

ouncer wrote: »

Would the reason for that be because our friend Neil Francis said connelly had a great game on 'against the head' last night

Neil Francis isn't on against the head, and Lenihan is actually a guy who would want Connacht to do well

ouncer

its_phil wrote: »

Neil Francis isn't on against the head, and Lenihan is actually a guy who would want Connacht to do well

Correct and true. It was a reference by Donal lenihan. Have Francis on the brain after recent daft articles. And while Donal may or may not wish the best for Connacht he has always had a limited list of names he seems familiar with. Funny enough it was Donal and tony ward who kicked off the show to give deserved plaudits to the life of bill o'herlihy. And then tony was replaced. In truth I find tony ward an absolute gentleman and one of the best informed rugby reporters these days. I was so disappointed to see him replaced. I agree with pretty much all his rugby analysis while I find Donal lenihan has a very limited knowledge outside Leinster and Munster.

freyners

After yesterdays slip up its been officially announced

http://www.connachtrugby.ie/connacht-sign-leinster-lock-ben-marshall/#ConnachtNews

Good recruitment. Lets hope he works out like Roux and Cooney have

typhoony

I saw him play against the Eagles in the Sportsground 2 years ago and was impress that day, havent seen a whole lot of him since.

b.gud

@ERChallengeCup: .@connachtrugby & @SaleSharksRugby guaranteed Tier 1 status in #EPCRPoolDraw for Challenge Cup http://bit.ly/1JVftsH

Obviously we'd prefer to be any seed in the Champions cup but it's something

ouncer

b.gud wrote: »

Obviously we'd prefer to be any seed in the Champions cup but it's something

You would have to think that any winner of the challenge cup next year will have a route to the champions cup. To only allow an English premiership club such a route is ludicrous and unfair. Sounds a bit like FIFA selection processes :-)

its_phil

ouncer wrote: »

You would have to think that any winner of the challenge cup next year will have a route to the champions cup. To only allow an English premiership club such a route is ludicrous and unfair. Sounds a bit like FIFA selection processes :-)

It's the Pro12s own decision to do that.

ouncer

its_phil wrote: »

It's the Pro12s own decision to do that.

Can't understand the logic of that. Why would the pro12 feel it beneficial to limit the number of clubs it has qualify for the champions cup. Likewise with the French top 14 league. Surely its the ruling body for the challenge cup who decides this and not any of the different leagues. Confused????

thomond2006

ouncer wrote: »

Can't understand the logic of that. Why would the pro12 feel it beneficial to limit the number of clubs it has qualify for the champions cup. Likewise with the French top 14 league. Surely its the ruling body for the challenge cup who decides this and not any of the different leagues. Confused????

They aren't limiting anything. PRL have obviously decided they would prefer if their winner of the Challenge Cup takes a spot otherwise reserved for a league position finish. This season Gloucester took what would have been Sale's spot. It's not an extra spot for PRL.

ouncer

thomond2006 wrote: »

They aren't limiting anything. PRL have obviously decided they would prefer if their winner of the Challenge Cup takes a spot otherwise reserved for a league position finish. This season Gloucester took what would have been Sale's spot. It's not an extra spot for PRL.

I'm obviously not getting this. There are 3 leagues involved in the challenge cup. But the premier league is happy to allow the winner of the challenge cup (assuming it is a premier league club) which means that the pro12 and the top 14 aren't. I'm utterly lost. Inclusion to the champions cup is worth sizeable income to the club that gets it. Why would the pro12 and top14 say no. Now utterly confused

Zzippy

ouncer wrote: »

I'm obviously not getting this. There are 3 leagues involved in the challenge cup. But the premier league is happy to allow the winner of the challenge cup (assuming it is a premier league club) which means that the pro12 and the top 14 aren't. I'm utterly lost. Inclusion to the champions cup is worth sizeable income to the club that gets it. Why would the pro12 and top14 say no. Now utterly confused

Because they have decided that the position should go to the teams who qualify on merit from the league, and the last qualifying team should not lose their playoff spot to another team for winning the CC.

Surely a better system would be to add the CC winner to the playoffs and have 2 semi-finals, rather than one team getting straight through to a final and only have to win one game to qualify.

mooonpie

Zzippy wrote: »

Because they have decided that the position should go to the teams who qualify on merit from the league, and the last qualifying team should not lose their playoff spot to another team for winning the CC.

Surely a better system would be to add the CC winner to the playoffs and have 2 semi-finals, rather than one team getting straight through to a final and only have to win one game to qualify.

http://www.epcrugby.com/europeanrugbychampionscup/qualification/index.php

For the 2017/18 season and beyond, the play-off format will include four clubs with a second PRO12 club competing. If not already qualified, the winner of the Challenge Cup will take the place in the play-offs of the seventh-ranked club in the Aviva Premiership and Top 14, and will also take the place of the second PRO12 club if applicable.

ouncer

Zzippy wrote: »

Because they have decided that the position should go to the teams who qualify on merit from the league, and the last qualifying team should not lose their playoff spot to another team for winning the CC.

Surely a better system would be to add the CC winner to the playoffs and have 2 semi-finals, rather than one team getting straight through to a final and only have to win one game to qualify.

OK there's a small bit of light seeping through here and I am sure the eureka moment is immenent. So let's just look at this from a pro12 point of view. The top 6 automatically qualify for the champions cup. 7th place goes into a semi/final qualifier. Are you saying that if we all went for the challenge cup winner (no matter from what league) qualifying to this semi/final stage we somehow lose the 7th place pro12 team automatically gettng into this semi/final qualification.

Bazzo

ouncer wrote: »

OK there's a small bit of light seeping through here and I am sure the eureka moment is immenent. So let's just look at this from a pro12 point of view. The top 6 automatically qualify for the champions cup. 7th place goes into a semi/final qualifier. Are you saying that if we all went for the challenge cup winner (no matter from what league) qualifying to this semi/final stage we somehow lose the 7th place pro12 team automatically gettng into this semi/final qualification.

Yeah. This year each of the three leagues was allocated 1 playoff spot. Pro 12 and t14 chose to allocate it to 7th place(highest non automatic qualifier) while the English gave it to the highest non automatic qualifier or, if the winner of the challenge cup was from their league they would take the spot instead.

ouncer

Bazzo wrote: »

Yeah. This year each of the three leagues was allocated 1 playoff spot. Pro 12 and t14 chose to allocate it to 7th place(highest non automatic qualifier) while the English gave it to the highest non automatic qualifier or, if the winner of the challenge cup was from their league they would take the spot instead.

This is good. So nearly there on this. If all leagues signed up to their qualifier coming from the challenge cup what does this mean exactly. I am working on the basis that all teams not qualified from all 3 leagues automatically for the champions cup go into the challenge cup. So then would it be the four semi finalists of the challenge cup who would play out for the last champions cup spot. Wouldn't that make sense. Whoever wins the challenge cup wins the place in the champions cup rather than this ludicrous semi/final playoff. Or am I still missing something?

Bazzo

ouncer wrote: »

This is good. So nearly there on this. If all leagues signed up to their qualifier coming from the challenge cup what does this mean exactly. I am working on the basis that all teams not qualified from all 3 leagues automatically for the champions cup go into the challenge cup. So then would it be the four semi finalists of the challenge cup who would play out for the last champions cup spot. Wouldn't that make sense. Whoever wins the challenge cup wins the place in the champions cup rather than this ludicrous semi/final playoff. Or am I still missing something?

Seemingly that's very similar to how it'll work in 2017/18 with 2 spots going to the pro 12 and one of them being taken by the challenge cup winner if they're not already automatically qualified.

thomond2006

Tbh I'd give a spot to the Challenge Cup instead of the lowest qualifier in a domestic league if it meant the French teams started giving a monkeys about the Challenge Cup and didn't phone it in from the start. The fact that there were 8 French teams involved this year and none of them qualified for the quarter finals was a joke.

irishbucsfan

thomond2006 wrote: »

Tbh I'd give a spot to the Challenge Cup instead of the lowest qualifier in a domestic league if it meant the French teams started giving a monkeys about the Challenge Cup and didn't phone it in from the start.

If the Italians leave the Pro 12 then that could well be where they get that spot from. It seems they're quite interested in giving the Challenge Cup the spot back at least.

ouncer

irishbucsfan wrote: »

If the Italians leave the Pro 12 then that could well be where they get that spot from. It seems they're quite interested in giving the Challenge Cup the spot back at least.

Can't see Italians leaving pro12. In particular zebre. Bunch of private investors just bought them out. Has to be for a financial reason

its_phil

Early bird prices on season tickets given, ironically, extra-time if anyone needs to renew or knows someone who needs to grab one.

Redo91

its_phil wrote: »

Early bird prices on season tickets given, ironically, extra-time if anyone needs to renew or knows someone who needs to grab one.

Any idea when the deadline is? I just checked the website there and it mentions that it's been extended without actually saying when the deadline is! I managed to miss the deadline to renew my ST so I'll be sickened to miss the early bird price too.

Bazzo

Redo91 wrote: »

Any idea when the deadline is? I just checked the website there and it mentions that it's been extended without actually saying when the deadline is! I managed to miss the deadline to renew my ST so I'll be sickened to miss the early bird price too.

According to their website it runs til Thursday the 4th of June.

http://www.connachtrugby.ie/extra-time-on-early-bird-offer/#ConnachtNews

Funk It

Heartbreak for Gloucester yesterday I see, lost in full time.

Playoffs certainly make it more interesting that's for sure.

henryporter

Funk It wrote: »

Heartbreak for Gloucester yesterday I see, lost in full time.

Playoffs certainly make it more interesting that's for sure.

After the heartbreak we had last week, my heart bleeds for them - well done Bordeaux

b.gud

henryporter wrote: »

After the heartbreak we had last week, my heart bleeds for them - well done Bordeaux

Strangely enough I don't really feel anything about the result yesterday. Going into the game I didn't have any ill feelings towards Gloucester because it wasn't really their fault we were robbed last week and they played really well. At the same time I didn't particularly want them to win because they shouldn't really have been in the game.

I found it hard to have any feelings for the game because I knew it should have been a game that we were all deeply invested in and discussing and looking forward to all week

ouncer

henryporter wrote: »

After the heartbreak we had last week, my heart bleeds for them - well done Bordeaux

Gloucester are a really good team that play exciting rugby so it is a shame to see them lose. They were simply exhausted. A full premiership campaign, followed by a full challenge cup, followed by the qualifiers. Its ludicrous. Either the challenge cup is the entry to the champions cup or its not. If it is not the get rid of it as it becomes pointless and just adds to the already busy season agenda.

Personally I like the challenge cup. Its entertaining to play theses fixtures with French and UK clubs. However if all the different leagues dont agree that the challenge cup is the entry point for the last place into the champions league it becomes meaningless.

It was one step too much for gloucester. And I think the result will have ramifications. I expect the premiership to pull their support for the challenge cup. They have found out the hard way that after winning so many games they are without the extra qualifier into the champions cup. As was pointed out by thomond, I think, there was not one French club qualified for the latter stage of the challenge cup. And why would this be? They simply understand that its a pointless competition as it stands and only adds to their already busy workload. So I fear the challenge cup will die a death following this result

its_phil

ouncer wrote: »

Gloucester are a really good team that play exciting rugby so it is a shame to see them lose. They were simply exhausted. A full premiership campaign, followed by a full challenge cup, followed by the qualifiers. Its ludicrous. Either the challenge cup is the entry to the champions cup or its not. If it is not the get rid of it as it becomes pointless and just adds to the already busy season agenda.

Personally I like the challenge cup. Its entertaining to play theses fixtures with French and UK clubs. However if all the different leagues dont agree that the challenge cup is the entry point for the last place into the champions league it becomes meaningless.

It was one step too much for gloucester. And I think the result will have ramifications. I expect the premiership to pull their support for the challenge cup. They have found out the hard way that after winning so many games they are without the extra qualifier into the champions cup. As was pointed out by thomond, I think, there was not one French club qualified for the latter stage of the challenge cup. And why would this be? They simply understand that its a pointless competition as it stands and only adds to their already busy workload. So I fear the challenge cup will die a death following this result

The Premiership will be the last league to pull out, considering they designed and the legal ramifications involved if they ever did. Also financial incentives are to be made greater apparently

irishbucsfan

its_phil wrote: »

The Premiership will be the last league to pull out, considering they designed and the legal ramifications involved if they ever did. Also financial incentives are to be made greater apparently

No, the premiership and Top 14 teams suggested the place remain with the competition originally. They also suggested the Pro 12 only get 6 places. It was the negotiation over that final extra place going to the Pro 12 that saw the competition lose its place, it was quite late in the day. Im sure those teams would be all for moving that extra place from the Pro 12 to the Challenge Cup, I can't imagine the Celtic teams would support it.

its_phil

irishbucsfan wrote: »

No, the premiership and Top 14 teams suggested the place remain with the competition originally. They also suggested the Pro 12 only get 6 places. It was the negotiation over that final extra place going to the Pro 12 that saw the competition lose its place, it was quite late in the day. Im sure those teams would be all for moving that extra place from the Pro 12 to the Challenge Cup, I can't imagine the Celtic teams would support it.

I meant a PRL hand in designing the competition, organisation and the general ludicrousness of PRL pulling out of an EPCR run event.

ouncer

irishbucsfan wrote: »

No, the premiership and Top 14 teams suggested the place remain with the competition originally. They also suggested the Pro 12 only get 6 places. It was the negotiation over that final extra place going to the Pro 12 that saw the competition lose its place, it was quite late in the day. Im sure those teams would be all for moving that extra place from the Pro 12 to the Challenge Cup, I can't imagine the Celtic teams would support it.

The pro12 has only 6 automatic places. The 7th place goes into the playoffs.I see no reason why the playoffs should be shelved altogether and the place go to the challenge cup. It might encourage the French to show an interest. Certainly Connacht will have learnt how ludicrous the challenge cup is as it currently stands. They should use it as the equivalent of the b&I cup if the structure remains the same next year

irishbucsfan

ouncer wrote: »

The pro12 has only 6 automatic places. The 7th place goes into the playoffs.I see no reason why the playoffs should be shelved altogether and the place go to the challenge cup. It might encourage the French to show an interest. Certainly Connacht will have learnt how ludicrous the challenge cup is as it currently stands. They should use it as the equivalent of the b&I cup if the structure remains the same next year

The Pro 12 has 7 automatic places, ie, Glasgow, Munster, Ospreys, Ulster, Leinster, Scarlets, Treviso. It also has 1 qualifying place, ie, Connacht.

ouncer

irishbucsfan wrote: »

The Pro 12 has 7 automatic places, ie, Glasgow, Munster, Ospreys, Ulster, Leinster, Scarlets, Treviso. It also has 1 qualifying place, ie, Connacht.

Crap. Just struck me i forgot about the Italians. So its 7 for the pro12, 6 for the prl and 6 for the top 14. So the pro12 has done well. Would the pro12 and top 14 not consider handing the qualifying place back to the challenge cup. As it currently makes no sense for Connacht to show any interest, other than blooding players, in the challenge cup. Its also a great opportunity to rest players. That's about it

oneofakind32

Just to pint out that we will be a top seed for the Challenge Cup next season and the 20th Champions Cup spot for 16/17 will be given to the winner of the challenge cup next year to facilitate the the RWC (http://www.epcrugby.com/europeanrugbychampionscup/qualification/index.php).

Zzippy

oneofakind32 wrote: »

Just to pint out that we will be a top seed for the Challenge Cup next season and the 20th Champions Cup spot for 16/17 will be given to the winner of the challenge cup next year to facilitate the the RWC (http://www.epcrugby.com/europeanrugbychampionscup/qualification/index.php).

Well, that certainly puts a new slant on things...

ouncer

oneofakind32 wrote: »

Just to pint out that we will be a top seed for the Challenge Cup next season and the 20th Champions Cup spot for 16/17 will be given to the winner of the challenge cup next year to facilitate the the RWC (http://www.epcrugby.com/europeanrugbychampionscup/qualification/index.php).

Correct me if I'm wrong but that means the qualifiers are gone for 2015/2016 seasons and beyond. If so this is only good news and it means the challenge cup has value. By the way your weblink doesn't work.

connemara man

ouncer wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong but that means the qualifiers are gone for 2016/2017 and beyond. If so this is only good news and it means the challenge cup has value. By the way your weblink doesn't work.

just for next season

its_phil

Two days left on early bird offer for season tickets

Zzippy

ouncer wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong but that means the qualifiers are gone for 2015/2016 seasons and beyond. If so this is only good news and it means the challenge cup has value. By the way your weblink doesn't work.

Take out the ) at the end or just click here

connemara man

Zzippy wrote: »

Take out the ) at the end or just click here

That would give you a headache

ouncer

oneofakind32 wrote: »

Just to pint out that we will be a top seed for the Challenge Cup next season and the 20th Champions Cup spot for 16/17 will be given to the winner of the challenge cup next year to facilitate the the RWC (http://www.epcrugby.com/europeanrugbychampionscup/qualification/index.php).

OK weblink sorted, thanks zzippy. So first to say I'm feckin lost. Now most of my posts border on rational but I can't work this out. Next year is simple. Winner of challenge cup gets the 20th place in the champions cup. So I like this. Simple is good :-)

So then we go to the following years. So we now have 4 qualifiers, two from pro12, 1 from prl, 1 from top 14. And then the winner of the challenge cup takes one of these places. I can only guess that if a member of the top 14 wins the challenge then they supersede the 7th placed top 14 team (if not already the 7th place team in the top 14 themselves in which case they replace themselves) in the playoffs, if from the prl they replace the 7th place team in the prl within the playoffs and the logic works the same for the pro 14. Within the pro12 the 7th and 8th placed teams go into the qualifiers unless a team outside 8th place wins the qualifier.

My heads wrecked :-)

.ak

It's ridiculous it's only next season. I still don't understand what the incentive is for winning the challenge cup after that?

thomond2006

.ak wrote: »

It's ridiculous it's only next season. I still don't understand what the incentive is for winning the challenge cup after that?

You can ask your fellow Leinster fans at the start of the 2016/17 season.

Please don't ban me.

ouncer

thomond2006 wrote: »

You can ask your fellow Leinster fans at the start of the 2016/17 season.

Please don't ban me.

Now thomond, let's not go there :-). The way things are looking we may all be fighting for places. Its such a strange thing that as our international team seems to go from strength to strength, most provincial teams are struggling. Is this a player welfare issue? There is no question that this has been the most successful season for Connacht but we do not lose players (other than Robbie) to player welfare. Next year is going to be a disaster for ulster/Leinster/Munster with both the world cup and six nations. It certainly will be interesting on how the pro12 turns out as Connacht can field a consistent team thru the season. When you consider how many players are playing well at Connacht currently, how many players are returning to action, pat lam, and the impact of the international competitions on player availability for other provinces I feel Connacht will have their most successful next year while I wonder if the other provinces could feel half as confident.

freyners

Layden made the sevens squad.

errlloyd

.ak wrote: »

It's ridiculous it's only next season. I still don't understand what the incentive is for winning the challenge cup after that?

There doesn't need to be. The challenge cup merely exists to give more teams a chance to play cup rugby. That experience is actually valuable to them. Getting used to travelling to various grounds in Europe and winning knock out matches should be enough incentive in it's own right.

.ak

errlloyd wrote: »

There doesn't need to be. The challenge cup merely exists to give more teams a chance to play cup rugby. That experience is actually valuable to them. Getting used to travelling to various grounds in Europe and winning knock out matches should be enough incentive in it's own right.

Money is better though.

Sorry, just to clarify, what I mean by that is playing in a mickey mouse cup with no progression means you won't get many people in the door, or TV viewers, or sponsors, etc., etc. It's a waste of time on an already crowded calender IMO and teams won't take it seriously.

CatFromHue

It's going to be interesting to see how it goes as this year was very much a honeymoon period where no one, the fans going to games, was sure what to expect, next with the RCC spot up for grabs it may improve a bit, but the season after could be poor competitively and attendance wise.

I mean there were 8 French teams in the comp this year but only 2 of them managed to finish in the top 2 of their groups and none made the QF's!

ouncer

CatFromHue wrote: »

It's going to be interesting to see how it goes as this year was very much a honeymoon period where no one, the fans going to games, was sure what to expect, next with the RCC spot up for grabs it may improve a bit, but the season after could be poor competitively and attendance wise.

I mean there were 8 French teams in the comp this year but only 2 of them managed to finish in the top 2 of their groups and none made the QF's!

It will indeed be interesting to see the reaction of the French clubs to the fact that the challenge cup will offer direct inclusion to the champions cup next year. I wonder if the challenge cup is seen as a success next year will they stick with the format for following years and simply change the ruling. That said all leagues have semifinal/final matches to conclude the seasons so maybe the governing body want the final qualification place to follow the same process.