Connacht Team Talk Thread V - The Friend Zone

razorblunt

Racing offside at the end their, Barnes had the whistle in his mouth and decided against it saying ball was out, it wasn’t.

AbusesToilets

Disappointing that TOH got done for pace fresh off the bench. Might have been better to try and gather the ball. Ifs and buts tho

Dog Botherer

You've got a Friend in me

i think if you told Friend going into this game they’d pick up a match point he’d take it every time. lots to be pleased with in that performance.

Boyle a real standout again. they’re going to have to make space for him in that Irish back row.

Bazzo

Mul, it's over

Who ended up man of the match? Dillane was immense.

Buckley also put in another great shift, and I was really impressed with some of the young forwards off the bench: Duggan, Aungier, Prendergast all did very well, exciting for the future.

Edit: how could I forgot Paul Boyle? Hero

TRC10

Connacht are better coached than Ireland

Dog Botherer

You've got a Friend in me

Bazzo wrote: »

Who ended up man of the match? Dillane was immense.

Buckley also put in another great shift, and I was really impressed with some of the young forwards off the bench: Duggan, Aungier, Prendergast all did very well, exciting for the future.

Vakatawa i think

Cosmo Kramer

Great second half effort in fairness. I think TOH would have won that sprint a couple of years ago.

Would have been happy with the LBP before kick off though.

TRC10

TRC10 wrote: »

Connacht are better coached than Ireland

I genuinely think Friend will be in with a shout for Ireland job whenever that may be.

Cosmo Kramer

TRC10 wrote: »

Connacht are better coached than Ireland

Most teams are better coached than Ireland at the moment sadly. Hopefully that situation will change some time before the next world cup but that's for another thread.

Sabre0001

Comebacks like that really make me wonder why teams don't still kick points when they fall behind. Better than going down the line and coming away with nothing.

Racing were dangerous throughout and deserved the win, but impressed by Connacht

ElisaAtWar

That was a performance to treasure. A lot of young lads who just performed so well. Boyle again, Ultan, I thought Porch was defensively and attackingly excellent. If the lineout had worked the result could have been different but it still was some result. Go Connacht

connachta

We can and should be very proud of our boys

20 y-o Prendergast played 28m of pro rugby before this game. He was absolutely marvellous
E.Masterson played like he was a 2ndrow
Oliver played like our injured captain
Heffernan played like a man on the 23 of a RWC teamsheet
Porch played like our natural FB

This team was due to lose heavy. They don't. I'm just delightedly amazed :woohoo:

Wegians89

The Friend Zone

Wootton, Boyle, blade and Buckley should be in Farrell’s thought process for the six nations

connachta

Wegians89 wrote: »

Wootton, Boyle, blade and Buckley should be in Farrell’s thought process for the six nations

Wootton has defensive issues, and Buckley has not age for RWC 2023 TBF


But yeah Boyle and Blade are there for Ireland, so is Dillane, Aki and Heff
That would be my 5 in the 31-squad


When you looked how Prandergrast, and N.Murray play at 20, there's more to come next time!
I want to add Aungier. Didn't play enough to be noticed by most, but lord, he came in great in the contact zones, vs Racing beasts. I now fully get why he was considered our 2nd choice as soon as he came in the squad

Bazzo

Mul, it's over

connachta wrote: »

Wootton has defensive issues, and Buckley has not age for RWC 2023 TBF


But yeah Boyle and Blade are there for Ireland, so is Dillane, Aki and Heff
That would be my 5 in the 31-squad


When you looked how Prandergrast, and N.Murray play at 20, there's more to come next time!
I want to add Aungier. Didn't play enough to be noticed by most, but lord, he came in great in the contact zones, vs Racing beasts. I now fully get why he was considered our 2nd choice as soon as he came in the squad

Heff and Buckley are the same age, they played together in the same Blackrock team...

AbusesToilets

connachta wrote: »

Wootton has defensive issues, and Buckley has not age for RWC 2023 TBF


But yeah Boyle and Blade are there for Ireland, so is Dillane, Aki and Heff
That would be my 5 in the 31-squad


When you looked how Prandergrast, and N.Murray play at 20, there's more to come next time!
I want to add Aungier. Didn't play enough to be noticed by most, but lord, he came in great in the contact zones, vs Racing beasts. I now fully get why he was considered our 2nd choice as soon as he came in the squad

I noticed Aungier, very strong in contact. Threw a few RAcing players on their arses. Going to very interesting if Connacht can win their other games ahead of the rematch in the Sportsground

Wegians89

The Friend Zone

connachta wrote: »

Wootton has defensive issues, and Buckley has not age for RWC 2023 TBF


But yeah Boyle and Blade are there for Ireland, so is Dillane, Aki and Heff
That would be my 5 in the 31-squad


When you looked how Prandergrast, and N.Murray play at 20, there's more to come next time!
I want to add Aungier. Didn't play enough to be noticed by most, but lord, he came in great in the contact zones, vs Racing beasts. I now fully get why he was considered our 2nd choice as soon as he came in the squad

Stockdale and Lowe both have issues similarly to wootton, being involved in an Irish squad could help wootton improve his issues. He deserves a spot in the wider squad to see how he handles it.

With life after Cian Healy, I don’t see why Buckley shouldn’t get a chance. He’s deserved it for the guts of years now. I’d have Buckley, EOS and kilcoyne battling it out for loose head

connachta

Bazzo wrote: »

Heff and Buckley are the same age, they played together in the same Blackrock team...

Heff has been involved this autumn and 3 years ago
You usually don't introduce a 30y-o newcomer into a squad
White was an exception

Bazzo

Mul, it's over

connachta wrote: »

Heff has been involved this autumn and 3 years ago
You usually don't introduce a 30y-o newcomer into a squad
White was an exception

The point is he's not too old though if Heffernan isn't too old. If he was to earn his first cap in the 6 nations and be involved from there he'd be the same age as Heffernan with 2.5 years experience with the squad heading to the world cup

connachta

Bazzo wrote: »

The point is he's not too old though if Heffernan isn't too old. If he was to earn his first cap in the 6 nations and be involved from there he'd be the same age as Heffernan with 2.5 years experience with the squad heading to the world cup

I don't think Wootton is Lowe and should play international rugby. But for Buckley, i just think it's unlikely but can't hope for better, I think he deserves a cap sometimes.

realhorrorshow

Before the game I would have said that in order to beat Racing we would need a full strength team in top form, an excellent set piece, discipline, and a low error count (as well as a bit of luck). And yet despite a completely non-functioning lineout and the loss of two back rows early on, we still managed to come extremely close.

The negatives of course need to be addressed; the lineout was about as bad as you'll ever see at this level, and our maul defence was watery. These are usually areas of strength for us so I would reserve concern for a repeat occurrence. I would however be quite concerned about our defence, and have been for most of Pete Wilkins' tenure. While he definitely has brought an improved linespeed, we constantly get caught defending far too narrow. Pro14 teams are only generally good enough to expose us occasionally, but in Europe we will get caught out. Racing shredded us several times and could have run riot if they were more accurate. I'm not sure if the issue is the system, the way the system is communicated to the players, or the players' abilities to implement same. I see John Porch, amongst others, criticised on here but I think he is actually a good defender who is put in difficult situations so often he is bound to make errors.

I think what pleased me most was how aggressive we were in contact in phase play, on both sides of the ball. While defensively we were a bit shakey out wide, our first up tackles in tight areas were fantastic; forceful and technically excellent. Same could be said about our carrying, we were consistently able to make yards against much bigger men by dint of our running lines and use of footwork. I thought we were quite good in possession, caused a very good Racing defence some concern, resourced rucks effectively, and generally kicked quite well.

Regardless of the result, when you bring a young panel to a place like La Défense you are going to learn a lot about your players. Tonight, we learned that Paul Boyle is ready for top class rugby. We learned that, in addition to his work rate, energy, and communication, Conor Oliver has the physicality to be impactful against top teams. We saw enough to believe that Jack Aungier and Cian Prendergast can be important men for the province going forward. Sean Masterson and Jordan Duggan looked good too and deserve more time to prove themselves. Eoghan Masterson is playing his best rugby in years in the second row (although perhaps his relative lack of height has contributed to our issues around the lineout). A lot of our more established men played well too but the above are the ones that made the biggest impact on me personally.

All in all I'm feeling pretty good about the future of Connacht rugby at the moment. The trouble of the Andy Friend reign has been that we have been so inconsistent that I might be feeling exactly the opposite in a few weeks time.

Wegians89

The Friend Zone

connachta wrote: »

I don't think Wootton is Lowe and should play international rugby. But for Buckley, i just think it's unlikely but can't hope for better, I think he deserves a cap sometimes.

Not saying wootton is Lowe, just that his good firm should be rewarded even though he has issues similar to the players already in the squad

freyners

The Friend Zone

I think the lineout shored up a bit when prendergast came on. Was very impressed with him. Didn't looked overawed and had some good carried to boot.

Sean Masterson v unlucky to take himself out with that massive tackle. Was having a good game.

But my oh my dillane and Boyle. Easily in eachsntop five games for the club and personally for me the best we've seen from dillane since 2016 imo.

Bazzo

Mul, it's over

freyners wrote: »

I think the lineout shored up a bit when prendergast came on. Was very impressed with him. Didn't looked overawed and had some good carried to boot.

Sean Masterson v unlucky to take himself out with that massive tackle. Was having a good game.

But my oh my dillane and Boyle. Easily in eachsntop five games for the club and personally for me the best we've seen from dillane since 2016 imo.

Yeah, really feel for Masterson Jr. has looked very busy and like a solid pro in his appearances so far but that looked like a nasty enough knee injury... History repeats itself...

Edit: I notice our thread post cap is approaching. So the question is which Paul Boyle pun wins and by how much?

connachta

Wegians89 wrote: »

Not saying wootton is Lowe, just that his good firm should be rewarded even though he has issues similar to the players already in the squad

Today, I just want to tell you Wegians, I'm astononished. Forget about Alex.
The day is a celebration

Wegians89

The Friend Zone

connachta wrote: »

Today, I just want to tell you Wegians, I'm astononished. Forget about Alex.
The day is a celebration

A celebration? Surely can’t have that attitude. It was a good performance and encouraging for the future but it was a loss at the end of the day, the missed conversation and possibly going for the post rather than the corner, when the line out was clearly failing and you’d have enough points for a win. Shouldn’t be celebrating

Bazzo

Mul, it's over

Wegians89 wrote: »

A celebration? Surely can’t have that attitude. It was a good performance and encouraging for the future but it was a loss at the end of the day, the missed conversation and possibly going for the post rather than the corner, when the line out was clearly failing and you’d have enough points for a win. Shouldn’t be celebrating

The missed conversation can't be helped with covid :pac:

connachta

Wegians89 wrote: »

A celebration? Surely can’t have that attitude. It was a good performance and encouraging for the future but it was a loss at the end of the day, the missed conversation and possibly going for the post rather than the corner, when the line out was clearly failing and you’d have enough points for a win. Shouldn’t be celebrating

I do because I see where Friend's bringing us on the long-term, in a post-Lam era


In 5 years you have

(Duggan)
Aungier
Murray
Dillane
Prandergast
S.Masterson
Boyle
Blade+Reilly
Porch
(Sullivan)


Who all seem very very able to constitute a core bone of a team in 2025.
You don't play like they played vs Racing without being more than "expectations"



That's what I celebrate + yeah, a BP away vs European Vice champion

macslash

Mul, it's over

Anyone feel Arnold was lucky with the no arms tackle for their 3rd (maybe 2nd) try in the corner. When they were checking the grounding I was dead certain they'd have a look at it.

connachta

Bazzo wrote: »

Edit: I notice our thread post cap is approaching. So the question is which Paul Boyle pun wins and by how much?

Title proposition
Connacht Team Talk Thread VI -keep the pot Boyling