Connacht Team Talk Thread V - The Friend Zone

connachta

https://www.the42.ie/munster-connacht-pro14-preview-5189880-Aug2020/?utm_source=shortlink

testtech05

Some Like It TOH

Healy out injured before the kick off again! Seems to have had to pull out a few times after being named to start this season. Terrible luck.
Diarmuid Killgallen in to start in his place.

Robb out aswell Bundee on the bench

BigRigsOnly

Besides the red card Papali’i looks like he’s gonna be a serious player for us.
This ref is also awful, 2 weeks in a row riding us

realhorrorshow

This is bizarre, I've never seen a team collectively lose the heads like this. Absolutely embarrassing and one of the worst performances I've ever seen from us, and there's been plenty of low points down through the years. Glad I'm not able to watch the second half.

testtech05

Some Like It TOH

Well that was a bit anticlimactic.... Papalii carrying looks very strong but even aside from the red he had a couple more tackles where he went in very upright too so might be something that he needs to work on.

He was already out on his feet by the time he got the red too so the rumours of his conditioning issues look well founded. Hopefully can improve it over the next few weeks.

Whatever chance we had of keeping the score down with 14 Shane's red was unforgivable

JohnniDrama

Am not too bothered about the end result. We rolled the dice to get squad game time.

I find it mildly funny that Munster couldn’t break 50 given that shambles.

Any team down to 13 would struggle but we were reasonably tenacious to the end.

I think the two red cards were correct and some fine tuning will erase those contact issues.

Whether it is ref or us but we are getting killed at the ruck. Killed.

Quinn Roux 4 penalties in first 6 mins was it for me. Madness. And captain.

Bundee was amazing but some other senior players too passive for me.

Hard to point any youngster out in that mess. Perhaps anybody really.

Everyone roll on the new season eh!

Utopia Parkway

Red card aside Papali’i showed early on that he'll be a hard man to put down. Had some great carries. Was hoping to see him play longer as I wanted to see what his gas tank was like. Commentators were saying he looked tired and that was only after 20 odd minutes. To be useful he'll have to be able to go hard for at least 60 minutes. He's so big that he'll really have to watch his tackling as his arms are at head height for most players he'll be tackling so he'll have to go even lower.

hirondelle

JohnniDrama wrote: »

Am not too bothered about the end result. We rolled the dice to get squad game time.

I find it mildly funny that Munster couldn’t break 50 given that shambles.

Any team down to 13 would struggle but we were reasonably tenacious to the end.

I think the two red cards were correct and some fine tuning will erase those contact issues.

Whether it is ref or us but we are getting killed at the ruck. Killed.

Quinn Roux 4 penalties in first 6 mins was it for me. Madness. And captain.

Bundee was amazing but some other senior players too passive for me.

Hard to point any youngster out in that mess. Perhaps anybody really.

Everyone roll on the new season eh!

I terms of Roux's penalties- Sam Carter played a similar captain's roll by being a big awkward penalty-conceding lock in the first few minutes of their game. My totally unscientific study of this indicates that locks are giving away a loads of penalties at the moment- anyone else notice this?

salmocab

hirondelle wrote: »

I terms of Roux's penalties- Sam Carter played a similar captain's roll by being a big awkward penalty-conceding lock in the first few minutes of their game. My totally unscientific study of this indicates that locks are giving away a loads of penalties at the moment- anyone else notice this?

Both Roux and Carter played for teams that lost so your totally non scientific study should probably indicate something else

connemara man

The Friend Zone

salmocab wrote: »

Both Roux and Carter played for teams that lost so your totally non scientific study should probably indicate something else

Dillane gave away the most penalties last week

freyners

The Friend Zone

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Red card aside Papali’i showed early on that he'll be a hard man to put down. Had some great carries. Was hoping to see him play longer as I wanted to see what his gas tank was like. Commentators were saying he looked tired and that was only after 20 odd minutes. To be useful he'll have to be able to go hard for at least 60 minutes. He's so big that he'll really have to watch his tackling as his arms are at head height for most players he'll be tackling so he'll have to go even lower.

testtech05 wrote: »

Well that was a bit anticlimactic.... Papalii carrying looks very strong but even aside from the red he had a couple more tackles where he went in very upright too so might be something that he needs to work on.

He was already out on his feet by the time he got the red too so the rumours of his conditioning issues look well founded. Hopefully can improve it over the next few weeks.

Whatever chance we had of keeping the score down with 14 Shane's red was unforgivable

I think there is an element of confirmation bias on the conditioning. He was puffing during one shot (after making a massive carry and then rucking well to clear out Ryan (i think)) but it wasn't sucking in air to me as if he was gassed, at least to me. TBH I cannot see Connacht starting him if they didn't think he was able for 60 mins that early. Boyle Masterson and Butler were all available even if the stated goal was to spread the minutes.

Encouraging first outing. Another 6 weeks to get more fitness and more high level union techniques but carried effectively (needs to scan the line better though), rucked well and had a good defensive shift. 2 inches lower in the tackle and it would have been just a big hit.

Also Niall Murray has come on a bit. Notably bigger but still has work to do. Keeps this rate of development and we are going to have a selection headache at 4/5

JohnniDrama

Sound assessment. 👍

I agree re Murray. Very technical and uses his power very well.

I have high hopes, and for his brother Darragh who is already 6.7 I believe.

connachta

freyners wrote: »

I think there is an element of confirmation bias on the conditioning. He was puffing during one shot (after making a massive carry and then rucking well to clear out Ryan (i think)) but it wasn't sucking in air to me as if he was gassed, at least to me. TBH I cannot see Connacht starting him if they didn't think he was able for 60 mins that early. Boyle Masterson and Butler were all available even if the stated goal was to spread the minutes.

Encouraging first outing. Another 6 weeks to get more fitness and more high level union techniques but carried effectively (needs to scan the line better though), rucked well and had a good defensive shift. 2 inches lower in the tackle and it would have been just a big hit.

Also Niall Murray has come on a bit. Notably bigger but still has work to do. Keeps this rate of development and we are going to have a selection headache at 4/5

Sadly, Roux confirms being a penalty machine, so if Murray goes well, we should keep Thornbury/Dillane, Murray on the bench + Gallagher/Dowling as backups...

Correction have to be brought. You can't conceed 4 pens in 10 minutes

Bazzo

Mul, it's over

I'm sorry, you want to drop Roux completely from the squad...? :pac:

realhorrorshow

freyners wrote: »

I think there is an element of confirmation bias on the conditioning. He was puffing during one shot (after making a massive carry and then rucking well to clear out Ryan (i think)) but it wasn't sucking in air to me as if he was gassed, at least to me. TBH I cannot see Connacht starting him if they didn't think he was able for 60 mins that early. Boyle Masterson and Butler were all available even if the stated goal was to spread the minutes.

Encouraging first outing. Another 6 weeks to get more fitness and more high level union techniques but carried effectively (needs to scan the line better though), rucked well and had a good defensive shift. 2 inches lower in the tackle and it would have been just a big hit.

Also Niall Murray has come on a bit. Notably bigger but still has work to do. Keeps this rate of development and we are going to have a selection headache at 4/5

Ah he was walking around after 20 minutes, maybe he would have gotten a second wind and played 60, who knows. He’ll have plenty of time to work on his conditioning anyway, he’s going to be out of action for a bit.

macslash

Mul, it's over

Will the lads get bans now?

Dog Botherer

You've got a Friend in me

Jonny O’Connor and Papali’i for the next month

Richie_Rich89

Mul, it's over

I wonder how next season will go for Connacht now. It's a useful place to be - having time to prepare for 2020/2021 with what they have to work on having been highlighted for them in these two fixtures. On the other hand, how can senior players have faith in Friend after the betrayal of sending out his team to lose? He's obviously more interested in ingratiating himself with the IRFU than doing what's best for Connacht. It'll be interesting to see how things develop.

Bridge93

That’s poor bait. Usually better than that

Richie_Rich89

Mul, it's over

Bridge93 wrote: »

That’s poor bait. Usually better than that

Bait?

Just calling it as I see it. What do you call starting 11 first choice players versus Ulster and only four against Munster?

Leinstertomas

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

Bait?

Just calling it as I see it. What do you call starting 11 first choice players versus Ulster and only four against Munster?

Squad rotation? The games were effectively friendlies for Connacht so would have been stranger to have same xv for both

serfboard

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

What do you call starting 11 first choice players versus Ulster and only four against Munster?

Squad rotation for a game of no consequence.

I call that good coaching.

Richie_Rich89

Mul, it's over

Leinstertomas wrote: »

Squad rotation? The games were effectively friendlies for Connacht so would have been stranger to have same xv for both

Why not go for a more even spread of first choice players across the two games, is what I'm saying. The Ulster selection had way more first choice picks, and, crucially, first choice players in the most infuential positions.

KBurke85

The Friend Zone

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

Why not go for a more even spread of first choice players across the two games, is what I'm saying. The Ulster selection had way more first choice picks, and, crucially, first choice players in the most infuential positions.

To be fair it's your opinion that there was more first choice players picked against Ulster. No of us knows how lads have been training or has been performing well etc. Maybe the coaches opinions of a first XV is different to yours.

As for Friend losing the players because he made changes what a load of rubbish. Players would be more disillusioned if they felt they weren't getting chances to play.

Richie_Rich89

Mul, it's over

KBurke85 wrote: »

To be fair it's your opinion that there was more first choice players picked against Ulster. No of us knows how lads have been training or has been performing well etc. Maybe the coaches opinions of a first XV is different to yours.

As for Friend losing the players because he made changes what a load of rubbish. Players would be more disillusioned if they felt they weren't getting chances to play.

Fair point. I put a post up before highlighting the players I considered first choice:

v Ulster
1. Denis Buckley
2. Dave Heffernan
3. Finlay Bealham
4. Ultan Dillane
5. Gavin Thornbury
6. Eoghan Masterson
7. Jarrad Butler
8. Paul Boyle
9. Kieran Marmion
10. Jack Carty
11. Alex Wootton
12. Bundee Aki
13. Tom Farrell
14. Peter Sullivan
15. John Porch (at 14)

v Munster
1. McAllister
2. Delahunt
3. Robertson-McCoy
4. Murray
5. Roux
6. E Masterson
7. Oliver
8. Papali'i
9. Blade
10. Fitzgerald
11. Kilgallen
12. Daly
13. Arnold
14. De Buitlear
15. TOH

Marmion/Blade, Dillane/Thornbury and MacAllister/Buckley arguable. I thought Blade was impressive against Munster; very combative. Fitzgerald was good as well earlier in the season but if it came to it I suspect they'd plump for Carty in a must win situation.

On your second point, I was more talking about the senior players getting frustrated if they felt the coach wasn't doing everything possible so the team could put their best foot forward on the pitch. Of course newer players would be excited to get a shot.

I'm labouring the point at this stage, so I'll leave it at that.

b.gud

Seriously folks no need to reply just listen to Mad Max

Wegians89

The Friend Zone

If you looked at the two fixtures you’d easily see the Ulster match was the one out of the two to target a win in. Ulster had a number of injuries while Munster had two World Cup winners joining their side

Henry Ford III

The Friend Zone

Friend has much to do on the discipline side of things anyhow. I've never seen 2 red cards for a team in a single half of rugby before.

connachta

Bazzo wrote: »

I'm sorry, you want to drop Roux completely from the squad...? :pac:

Yes. He didn't have a good game since his injury last year.
Maybe he'll come better

KBurke85

The Friend Zone

connachta wrote: »

Yes. He didn't have a good game since his injury last year.
Maybe he'll come better

It was only game since his injury