Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

munsterlegend

Beirne definitely keeping us in this. Don't know how Munster are still level as been very poor.

realhorrorshow

Think Buckley was scrummaging illegally there to be honest.

FrancieBrady

Fair play to Connacht taking full advantage of a woeful second half from Munster

Utopia Parkway

Well a badly needed win but a really terrible game of rugby with quite a few injuries out of it. Tough conditions though. Torrential rain literally never stopped all day. Hope O’Donoghue’s injury isn’t as bad as feared. Hansen looked like he picked up a knock near the end as well.

oppiuy

Woeful for weeks now.. yes injurys play a role but everything looks laboured. We will lose to Toulon and then Northampton and with all the Injury's the season will Peter out.

ShineyShiney

Congratulations lads well done, never doubted ye 😏

Wegians89

Not a pretty win but a win nonetheless. Prendergast once again standing up. Carty and JJ big factors in that win.

SqueakyKneecap

Christ I'm overly delighted at that. We were rotten against the breeze but you can't question the fantastic attitude after the last Butler penalty because they dominated the collisions and defending brilliantly.

Hanrahan was vital. He might do nothing but pass laterally in play but his boot tonight ensured we have a bit more comfort going into the final 5.

McDonald impressed me btw. Blade can be that second too slow and McDonald was shoveling the ball out promptly.

Fingers crossed Hansen's injury isn't too bad.

AccidentallyOnside

Not pretty but a win is a win and giving them nothing is always a plus.

End score is about right but we laboured to it as I thought we the better team by a distance owing largely to so many injuries to Munster.

Commentary was annoying- this was no worse than the Munster Leinster game as a spectacle but they didn't constantly slag off the quality in that game. Weather was biblical so we had to tough it out which we did.

ElisaAtWar

Conditions were awful. Thoughts go out to Oli Jager and his folks. He simply wasn't moving. The Ralston tackle on O'Donoghue was definitely related to the conditions but he came in from the side and he simply took the leg. I know it was unintentional and related to the conditions but that was a red card all day.

As a game both Connacht and Munster were shocking bad. Munsters lineout was a joke and at the same time JJ, Jack and Caolin couldn't stop making mistakes.

Anyway glad to have the points.

Concerns are Forde (he seemed ok) and also Hansen (looked like a potential broken wrist?).

And kudos to Bundee Aki. How the hell did you manage to take that ball after the block down and keep Munster from crossing the line.

Now to see Frank Murphy in action in the next inter-pro,,,😟

mr_edge_to_you

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121557859#Comment_121557859

In fairness to the commentating team, this was an appalling match. Both teams were shockingly bad.

flazio

Which commentating team are you taking about? TG4? Premier Sports? RTÉ radio or GBFM?

AccidentallyOnside

Premier Sport, Ryle and Quinlan.

I'm not saying it was a good game or anything like it, just that if Munster won it would be a "battle" but because Connacht won it was a bad game.

SqueakyKneecap

Jesus I'd sooner try to listen to Swahili commentary than Ryle Nugent and Quinny. TG4 commentary was grand as per usual anyways.

ElisaAtWar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121558013#Comment_121558013

Are they told not to have an opinion. Busby is a terrible referee but it's like they are in situ to justify his absolute horrible decisions

Zeugnis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121558573#Comment_121558573

Either TG4, or mute the TV and listen to GBFM. This is the way, the truth, and the light.

Thank F* we got the win today, it meant a lot and will be important to our season. Fingers crossed for Mack and Forde, thought Shayne Bolton was impressive, really warming to him as a player.

Caolin trying to milk the ref again today, I'm really sick of it, he needs to play the whistle and can the bs. Otherwise I'd prefer a service-focused 9, and McDonald has been fine i that regard. Half the time when CB breaks he has no support and I'm always concerned he'll be isolated and turned over. Play for the team, Caolin, even if today wasn't the day for it, we have a wide game that can work but it requires the halfbacks to enable it.

Neil3030

Good win lads, well done.

Billy_the_Kid

Great to slog out a win in that weather.

phog

Good win, ye deserved it, I thought we deserved the LBP but it wasn't to be, our own making which is more difficult to accept.

Hopefully the injured players make a speedy return

Wegians89

Didnt get to see the Mack injury, was it a reckless entry?

FACECUTTR

Ya it looked quite like the Ralston yellow. Looked to me in from the side and no wrap/leading with the shoulder. I thought lt was a possible shoulder injury the way he was carrying it after.

Borders no.2

That was a tough watch but we got there in the end.

Even by Galway standards the level of consistent rain throughout the afternoon was crazy.

In those conditions it was always going to be a slog.

For me the key elements were that the lineout was at least functional and munsters was in chaos from the off and eventually the scrum got dominance.

Huge credit to Bolton. When Munster were trying to box kick for territory he handled it with ease and got us on the front foot again.

Munster were effectively an A side as the game wore on so anything less than a win would have been a huge disappointment.

It wasn't exactly a performance that suggests we have turned the corner especially in the first half but we needed those 4 points.

Wegians89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121560479#Comment_121560479

Agree with all this but also worth noting that the next 5/6 games in the URC are against the so called easier teams, Benatton aside.

Wont have to travel to SA or play the Bulls, Sharks, Ulster and Glasgow again.

serfboard

Great win in absolutely atrocious conditions. Was at the game and the rain did not let up at all. I felt sorry for people in either end Terrace, they were drowned before the game even kicked off.

Because I didn't have the advantage of television coverage, and some of the time the ref didn't use signals, it was hard to see what some of the penalties were for. I thought the penalty count against us seemed high, but I've just looked at the stats, and Munster conceded more than we did (13-12).

On individual players, I thought that Bundee tackled like an absolute demon - his best performance for me in a Connacht jersey in a long time.

Bolton was fantastic under the high ball. Whenever the ball went up and he went for it, he caught it, which was a difficult thing to do under the circumstances.

I thought Niall Murray played really well when he came on.

While I was disappointed to see Cathal Forde go off, and I hope he's OK, I thought Jack and JJ worked fairly well. I was talking to a supporter beside me who was giving out about Jack, and I invited him to recant when it was Jack's kick that created our try!

I don't think that Mack Hansen worked well at full back at all. Never mind the two sliced kicks, there was one stage where Mack was stuck in the middle of the action making a great tackle on a Munster player, and I wondered who was minding the house. Turned out it was no-one and Munster spotted it and kicked a ball into the space, putting us under a lot of pressure. (I know that's not all Macks' fault, and other players should cover when the FB moves, but I don't think you'd see TOH doing the same thing). By contrast, Zebo looked far better at 15 to me.

Delighted for the win, and even happier that we denied Munster a losing bonus point, meaning that we're currently ahead of them in the table.

The result means that we're currently at a 55% win percentage in the league, which is exactly where we finished last season. Of the nine matches left this season, I think/hope that we will win 5 (Cardiff, Scarlets, Lions, Zebre, Dragons) and I don't think that we will win against Benetton (away), Munster (away), Stormers (home) and Leinster (away), meaning that we would finish with 10 wins out of 18 which would be the same as last year.

ElisaAtWar

Out of interest how come Crowley and Casey were under IRFU player management protocols yesterday and yet Hansen and Aki weren't?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121562244#Comment_121562244

Crowley and Casey had played virtually every game since the RWC.

Both Aki & Hansen were slower to return for Connacht as both came back from the RWC injured.

Shelflife

Shite game. Great Result. 4 points and deny Munster a losing bonus point was as good as Id hoped for.

Very good defensive effort and they left nothing behind them.

But lets be sensible about the win. Munster were down to the bare bones in some positions.

7 of their pack effectively played the full game.

All their backs effectively played the full game and they had one sub that they didn't use.

On a night that it was a torrid ball breaking game we had full use of our bench, they more or less played with 15 players.

Their lineout was terrible 10/16 and it gifted us a try to seal that win at the end.

We got lucky that Coombes picked the ball up instead of just applying downward pressure, had he done the latter the try would have stood regardless of where his was.

We got lucky when Jack was charged down and Beirne just got ahead of Jack to slap the ball back as Jack for some reason decided to try and slap the ball away (forward). Had he done so it would have been a Pen try and a YC, there was the width of a finger between them.

We got lucky that Ralstons YC wasnt a red, I wouldnt have had an issue if a red was shown.

The charge downs are unforgiveable at this level and pure luck that we didn't concede two tries.

Our game management at the end of the first half and especially at the end of the game.

First half end we had a man in the bin, time was up and we had a pen. Why didnt Jack take his time with it ? go over to the ref and confirm that the time is up and then slowly kick the ball out, thus running down the clock on the YC.

At the end of the game Jack kicked aimlessly down the pitch with 75 secs on the clock and then with less than 20secs on the clock Ralston played the ball quickly from a ruck to Jack who almost threw an intercept. Seriously thats u14 shite.

Blade still needs to stop trying to buy pens the refs have sussed him out at this stage, he also needs to engage properly with them.

Busby had an alright game, **** conditions in what was always going to be an arm wrestle. 25 pens , he probably could have gone to the pocket in order to try and tidy up the ruck area. watching the game again there were a few headshots (on both sides) that could have been looked at but werent.

Overall a good result but still a lot of work ons.

SqueakyKneecap

Anybody have a replay of the Loughman-Buckley head clash and the Hansen injury? I didn't get a clear view of them live unfortunately.

ElisaAtWar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121562414#Comment_121562414

Just an example on how shocking Connacht were I would suggest you look at the block down on Blade by Coombes on blade's kick at the very start of the game where there was zero blockers in front of him at the back of the ruck. So he was wide open for that particular blockdown. And that is pure out and out incompetence. One Blade should have called the blockers in or two he simply should have passed the ball to one of the heavies closeby. What he did beggars belief and is ... Ah how could I describe such rubbish

ElisaAtWar

Anyway with Kilgallen gone long term with hamstring, Bundee and Mack on player management (be it Mack injured or not), it looks like Bolton will continue to get his opportunity and he has looked good. It looks a bit like Tom Daly and Tom Farrell next weekend at centre. Maybe Bolton and Porch on the wings with TOH due to make a return (?) at full back.

And if somebody has an opinion on this, but why is it that the 11 to 15 jerseys always seem more injury prone than others when they tend not to be in the heat of battle