Connacht Rugby Thread - Part III - The Violence of the Lams

flogthebog

connachta wrote: »

Healy was terrible too, Qualter didn't step up at all. But TOH+Roux wouldn't have changed the outcome in the end.

We just have to re-gather ourselves and build the team around Bealham/Buckley/Dillane/and Aki, who made mistakes too, but clearly shown again how "special" they are

Spot on Connachta. I was disappointed that Kelleher never looked left or right to try and offload but if TOH was there it would have made little difference. I suspect TOH is breathing a sigh of relief he wasnt involved.

Its so obvious to see the loss of Muldowney and the style of play of AJ. Its a good slap on the hands. And I'm a happy supporter to see this happen today rather than further down the line,

Glasgow are an excellent team.

I watched all the provincial games over the weekend and to be honest prior to the Connacht game they were awful. Munster retain this fantastic pack with no linkage to the backline. Leinster flatter to deceive by these quick offloads that go absolutely nowhere and Ulster are the Pienaar conundrum, when he plays well, Ulster plays well, otherwise they are very poor.

Dave Ellis has work to do. The methodology is there. Certain players need to improve or be replaced.

Adbrowne

flogthebog wrote: »

Spot on Connachta. I was disappointed that Kelleher never looked left or right to try and offload but if TOH was there it would have made little difference. I suspect TOH is breathing a sigh of relief he wasnt involved.

Its so obvious to see the loss of Muldowney and the style of play of AJ. Its a good slap on the hands. And I'm a happy supporter to see this happen today rather than further down the line,

Glasgow are an excellent team.

I watched all the provincial games over the weekend and to be honest prior to the Connacht game they were awful. Munster retain this fantastic pack with no linkage to the backline. Leinster flatter to deceive by these quick offloads that go absolutely nowhere and Ulster are the Pienaar conundrum, when he plays well, Ulster plays well, otherwise they are very poor.

Dave Ellis has work to do. The methodology is there. Certain players need to improve or be replaced.

For me connachts defence was a huge let down. There will be days when things go wrong attack wise so just dont ship a load of soft points. Munsters defence won the game for them today even though they offered little in attack they denied scarlets the LBP

connachta

Too early to think about that but we should not forget Robb/Poolman/Romaine/Soraka/Ronaldson/TOH may come in for Griff/Healy/Qualter/Loughney/Carty/Kelleher in the very near future. Competition will bring us to the higher level

Zzippy

Something badly wrong there today - had to be mental. Never saw such poor execution of basic skills from a Connacht team - handling was dreadful, kicking was poor, defence was shambolic and tackling was simply embarrassing. Blade made things worse - it's bad enough seeing a forward running across the field taking all the space and making the defenders job easy, but when your scrumhalf is doing it over and over, and off set piece ball...! The only positive to take from today is that we simply cannot play that badly again.

BrokenMan

I'm just hoping that was down to the lack of a proper pre season. It was embarrassing. The players are really going to be hurting after that and hopefully they can take it out on ospreys next week.
On another note it was a seriously long game. Some amount of stoppages. We had to leave with 5 mins to go to catch the 7.20 train. Never had to do that before

Neil3030

Why didn't Connacht have a proper pre-season?

kuang1

BrokenMan wrote: »

I'm just hoping that was down to the lack of a proper pre season. It was embarrassing... We had to leave with 5 mins to go to catch the 7.20 train. Never had to do that before

So I hope that was the reason why we saw shots of connacht fans leaving before full time?
(There looked like a lot of people who needed to catch that train if that's the case.)

flogthebog

kuang1 wrote: »

So I hope that was the reason why we saw shots of connacht fans leaving before full time?
(There looked like a lot of people who needed to catch that train if that's the case.)

Cheap shot. Not required. Nobody from Connacht commented on the Treviso game so behave yourself and go back to your Leinster thread if you have nothing constructive to say.

ClanofLams

kuang1 wrote: »

So I hope that was the reason why we saw shots of connacht fans leaving before full time?
(There looked like a lot of people who needed to catch that train if that's the case.)

There is plenty of potshots that could be had at Munster supporters but I won't stoop to your level

Utopia Parkway

Neil3030 wrote: »

Why didn't Connacht have a proper pre-season?

Two pre-season games against Narbonne and Bristol were cancelled for various reasons. A third fell through. As much as pre season games don't mean anything they are played for a reason. To help with match fitness and sharpness.

That was very embarrassing for Connacht though. For defending champions to be hammered at home in their first game is really poor. No other way to look at it. Despite the shoddy pre season preparation.

CatFromHue

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

That was very embarrassing for Connacht though. For defending champions to be hammered at home in their first game is really poor. No other way to look at it. Despite the shoddy pre season preparation.

I only saw the last 20 mins or so but the Connacht team I saw was one that was still in pre season mode. They looked off the pace, were sloppy, and not integrated as a team.

In a few weeks they'll look a different team.

The biggest worry for Connacht now is that teams will pay attention into how to figure you out.

A shooter in defence and to attack the rucks philosophy could negate a lot of Conn's strengths.

As the saying goes if you're standing still you're falling behind.

Funk It

Blade - as already mentioned didn't have his best game. Closed down quite a lot, ran sideways and can remember 1 or 2 shoddy passes (Carty had to jump to take one overhead).

Carty - good moments over ruled by bad patches.

Qualter - actually surprised me. Thought he looked to be blowing early on, but played the pivot role well at times.

Kelleher - showed early glimpses. Hopefully get to see the best of him.

Robb - was throwing himself into hits. Looks to have got bigger (alike Buckley, but in different ways).

Fox - first real time to get a look at him playing. Didn't seem to be at the races. Lack of match fitness more than likely, expected to improve.

Defence looked lazy and staggered at times. Could bet your house last season of them closing out a game based on the tight defence. Too many dropped balls, missed passes and just sloppy execution. It's early days yet, so no time to worry, plenty of work to do.

salmocab

flogthebog wrote: »

Cheap shot. Not required. Nobody from Connacht commented on the Treviso game so behave yourself and go back to your Leinster thread if you have nothing constructive to say.

Hes not a Leinster supporter Billy and weren't you in a former life warned about posting nonsense in other teams forums

Shelflife

kuang1 wrote: »

So I hope that was the reason why we saw shots of connacht fans leaving before full time?
(There looked like a lot of people who needed to catch that train if that's the case.)

The reason so many left was because it started raining very heavy just near the end. Those that left were the supporters who were in uncovered terraces .

Hardly a reflection on the team, more on the crappy weather.

MarinersBlues

I thought Carty did okay. Possibly a few more chips over the top would have kept the Glasgow defense further back a bit, but the only time I can remember him trying that it was straight into Hogg's arms.

I thought Kellegher was good in attack but should he have been wrapping around the defensive line to pick up the extra men they seemed to permanently have on the Clan side?

Blade had a very poor game. I really like him - but his passing and decision making were not up to it yesterday. Even when the pass did go to hand the receiving player wouldn't have complete control and his subsequent pass would be dodgy. Hopefully part of his learning and he'll improve over the coming weeks. The handling in general left alot to be desired. You could see the difference once Marmion came on but it was way too late at that stage.

Everyone's defense was shocking.

It was definitely not up to the standards of last year and you would hope they would step up shortly but hard to see it happening before next week.
It reminded me of the preseason game against Grenoble last year. Even then we were poor enough for the first two or three games in the league.
The only silver lining is that Scarlets lost at home as well, unfortunatley, it was to Munster.
It's going to be a really competitive pro12 this season, it would be a shame to start with two home loses.

Swan Curry

The year Leinster won the Pro12 and the Challenge Cup, the Scarlets beat them 45-20 in the first round. The year before that, when they won the Heineken Cup, the Ospreys won 27-3 in the first round. It's impossible to tell what one loss means for a team's future

kuang1

Shelflife wrote: »

The reason so many left was because it started raining very heavy just near the end. Those that left were the supporters who were in uncovered terraces .

Hardly a reflection on the team, more on the crappy weather.

Fair enough. Was unaware of that.

kuang1

ClanofLams wrote: »

There is plenty of potshots that could be had at Munster supporters but I won't stoop to your level

My dear friend, there were a lot of fans leaving before the final whistle. That happened. It's not a fabrication.
Would you prefer everyone pretend it didn't happen?
I'm not sure it's possible for you to stoop at all if your head's already in the sand.

As shelflife pointed out to me, it started to rain heavily just before the end which significantly changes the narrative imo.
Watching it on tv though, the rain wasn't obvious and the commentator made some mention about the fans being disappointed as we were seeing shots of the crowd leaving.

It looked bad.
Whether it was actually bad form or not? I don't know.

But the images on tv looked bad.

irishbucsfan

kuang1 wrote: »

My dear friend, there were a lot of fans leaving before the final whistle. That happened. It's not a fabrication.
Would you prefer everyone pretend it didn't happen?
I'm not sure it's possible for you to stoop at all if your head's already in the sand.

As shelflife pointed out to me, it started to rain heavily just before the end which significantly changes the narrative imo.
Watching it on tv though, the rain wasn't obvious and the commentator made some mention about the fans being disappointed as we were seeing shots of the crowd leaving.

It looked bad.
Whether it was actually bad form or not? I don't know.

But the images on tv looked bad.

I think it's gas that a Munster fan is complaining about people leaving before the final whistle! We haven't forgotten 2009 just yet!

awec

The match was over as any sort of spectacle with about 20 minutes to go, you can hardly blame people for leaving.

kuang1

irishbucsfan wrote: »

I think it's gas that a Munster fan is complaining about people leaving before the final whistle! We haven't forgotten 2009 just yet!

Yeah.
And it would REALLY be gas if I had been one of those Munster fans who left a match early.
Imagine the flack I'd be in for then! Sheesh.

irishbucsfan

kuang1 wrote: »

Yeah.
And it would REALLY be gas if I had been one of those Munster fans who left a match early.
Imagine the flack I'd be in for then! Sheesh.

You have to answer for it just as much as anyone in this thread has to answer for fans leaving yesterday

kuang1

irishbucsfan wrote: »

You have to answer for it just as much as anyone in this thread has to answer for fans leaving yesterday

In fairness ibf I think that would only be true if I had ever attempted to defend those Munster fans or justify why they left a match early.

I was a lot more upset about that than this because it looked bad for Munster and I'm a Munster fan.

No double standards here much as it might suit you for it to be otherwise.

connachta

Not a surprise for me that the breakdown would have been the key, and we lost the game mostly there.

What is puzzling me is I swear we were up to it in France, not at all the classic hammering I'm used to for summer friendlies. And Montpellier was only 8 days from their top14 round 1, so they were decent opposition.
That doesn't make any sense.

That's not mainly about rustiness, that's about Glasgow reading our game and counter it. Other teams have a solution now : commit in every Rucks in defence, go forward and break tackles in attack. Of course it won't work that well for a less efficient team, but still.
Knock-ons aren't the main issue, handling game was promising time to time, and will be good

The key IMO is power in both attack and defence: I do want to see Roux, Robb, Heenan, Ronaldson, and Poolman as much as we can.

swiwi_

That little game where you change a letter.

Champs
Chimps
Chumps

The 2nd season is always the test, but I'd back Connacht to pick things up. Any laurels are no longer being tested on anyway.

In fairness, Glasgow is a totally different proposition to Newport or Treviso.

freyners

I've started watching the games down at the college road end due to a ST less father who is going more and more. One thing that struck me last night as totally different from last year was the level of talk, especially in the D. Seymours 2nd try was a perfect example. Glasgow players called the rewind and the Connacht players who heard it moved but there was noone screaming for numbers to fold back. AJ was savage for that and was missed there.

IMO, a lot of things that went wrong was due the lack of talk. In fairness there are a good few players there that are new or as good as (Griffin, Fox, Qualter, Kelleher, Stevenson etc) and thats to be expected.

We got our arses thoroughly handed to us, but im not going to panic. The basis was still evident at times (strong scrum, solid Lineout, good attacking formations) but the fine tuning isnt there yet

ClanofLams

kuang1 wrote: »

My dear friend, there were a lot of fans leaving before the final whistle. That happened. It's not a fabrication.
Would you prefer everyone pretend it didn't happen?
I'm not sure it's possible for you to stoop at all if your head's already in the sand.

As shelflife pointed out to me, it started to rain heavily just before the end which significantly changes the narrative imo.
Watching it on tv though, the rain wasn't obvious and the commentator made some mention about the fans being disappointed as we were seeing shots of the crowd leaving.

It looked bad.
Whether it was actually bad form or not? I don't know.

But the images on tv looked bad.

Your post seemed rather unnecessary. Yep it rained a lot but some people left the clan stand so it wasn't just the rain. Some supporters are more casual and less interested in staying to the end when a team is beaten. This is not news.

It happens every team at every level, I saw plenty of Munster supporters hitting the road in the 35 14 game last season long before the final whistle and similarly Munsters core support has dropped in recent years when the team has been less successful.

So what exactly was the purpose of your post? Some supporters aren't as interested when their team isn't going well? No sh1t Sherlock.

evil_seed

Any word on Robb?

testtech05

evil_seed wrote: »

Any word on Robb?

Saw him walk into a bar in town a couple of hours after the game. Seemed to be ok thankfully!

Black_Knight

testtech05 wrote: »

Saw him walk into a bar in town a couple of hours after the game. Seemed to be ok thankfully!

That surely couldn't of done him any better.

evil_seed

ok time to talk about the game. If there is one positive it's our scrum. That's it. No other positives.
We looked leader less in defense. Our skills and process seemed to be left in Edinburgh. I haven't seen a team give up like that since Bradley was in charge. It was awful.
Mul said after the game the only way is up. It better be, because I don't want to see what further down looks like.

OceanSixteen

Stuart Lancaster appointed Senior Coach

b.gud

Black_Knight wrote: »

That surely couldn't of done him any better.

With Robb I'd be more worried about the damage done to the bar

b.gud

OceanSixteen wrote: »

Stuart Lancaster appointed Senior Coach

Wow he didn't last long at Leinster

connachta

My own team for Spreys

1) Buck
2) Tom
3) Beal
4) Dill
5) Stev
6) McKeon
7) Fox
8) Muld
9) Marmion
10) Carty
12) Robb
13) Aki
11) Poolman
14) Niyi
15) TOH

16) Delahunt
17) Soroka
18) J.P
19) Qualter
20) Connolly
21) Blade
22) SOL
23) Griffin

ClanofLams

I'd imagine Robb will be out for a few weeks at least unfortunately.

I thought Griffin had some decent flashes on Saturday, great pick up almost off the ground from Bealhams pass I think in the run up to the first try.

connachta

ClanofLams wrote: »

I'd imagine Robb will be out for a few weeks at least unfortunately.

I thought Griffin had some decent flashes on Saturday, great pick up almost off the ground from Bealhams pass I think in the run up to the first try.

I still hope Robb is right if he went to a bar just after. Griffin was ok and has better handling, the point is Robb brings more physicality and never misses a tackle, 2 quality we desperately need

Utopia Parkway

ClanofLams wrote: »

I'd imagine Robb will be out for a few weeks at least unfortunately.

I thought Griffin had some decent flashes on Saturday, great pick up almost off the ground from Bealhams pass I think in the run up to the first try.

Great bit of skill alright. All the injuries look to have really slowed him down though. Don't think he's going to be much of a threat to make many breaks in the 13 channel this season.

Number 137

Has Ivan Soroka definitely been offered a contract?

Redo91

Number 137 wrote: »

Has Ivan Soroka definitely been offered a contract?

Ya Pat announced it at the fan event.

FACECUTTR

I was just thinking about when Buckley jumped into the air and hit the ball back to retain possession. It was something special from a prop and I doubt many of the backs would have been able to manage it. For anyone who didn't catch it it's a must see.

Redo91

FACECUTTR wrote: »

I was just thinking about when Buckley jumped into the air and hit the ball back to retain possession. It was something special from a prop and I doubt many of the backs would have been able to manage it. For anyone who didn't catch it it's a must see.

Ya I remember that. Brilliant agility.

connachta

FACECUTTR wrote: »

I was just thinking about when Buckley jumped into the air and hit the ball back to retain possession. It was something special from a prop and I doubt many of the backs would have been able to manage it. For anyone who didn't catch it it's a must see.

Redo91 wrote: »

FACECUTTR wrote: »

I was just thinking about when Buckley jumped into the air and hit the ball back to retain possession. It was something special from a prop and I doubt many of the backs would have been able to manage it. For anyone who didn't catch it it's a must see.

Ya I remember that. Brilliant agility.

He has to stop that. If he doesn"t Joe will be forced to give him the cap he deserves. And we would be scr*** for LH in Connacht

FACECUTTR

Any word on Nathan White guys ? I seen him in pre-season training but don't know to what level ? Would love to see him pull on the jersey again but at his age and the fact it was a serious concussion that has him still out I'd rather see him retire and not risk it.

evil_seed

Robb and Buckley out with concussion

wp_rathead

plus Fox out with Hamstring and Parata out for month with knee injury and Blade and Kelleher are injury doubts
foooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook

wp_rathead

I think this is the full Connacht injury list:
Front row: Denis Buckley, Nathan White,
Second Row: Browne, Roux, Marshall (Gallagher, Romaine, Claffery)
Backrow: Heenan, Fox, SOB, Masterson
Scrum half: Cooney, Blade
Outhalf: Ronaldson
Centre: Robb, Parata
Back Three: Kelleher, Leader

BrokenMan

Christ and I thought there were a lot of injuries last year. Serious issues in the back row now as well as the second row. Scrum half, who's going to bench. I assume TOH will be back in at full back anyway.

ClanofLams

Who's left in the back row? Mckeon, Connolly, Muldoon. Then? Rory Maloney fit at the moment?

GAA_PUNTER

Here is audio from todays press conference

http://sportsnewsireland.com/rugby/rugby_irish/connacht-rugby-news-pat-lam-discusses-squad-injuries-and-glasgow-defeat/