Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Dubinusa

They released the wrong hooker a while back. Delahunt should have been retained. Blade is very poor. I won't mention Carty. Terrible coaching brings this result.

FACECUTTR

Delahunt wouldn't move to galway due to wanting to stay farming at home and commuting daily. This seemed to be an issue for the coaching ticket and he wasn't re-signed. Blade has gone from being in the ireland setup to ail standard in the past 2 seasons. I really thought he was going to be top class but has just regressed. Carty has also regressed hugely over the years. We are going nowhere with our half backs except for Devine. The coaching setup has not worked and everything looks disjointed. Someone in the higher ups had the balls to cut Kieran Keane when it was needed andI believe that is what is needed now again.

bobo the clown

Any reference to the new stand in a negative light bemuses me. "How will we fill it" etc. This is huge for Connacht in so many ways and will only enhance our chances to compete in the future. It is much better to have it and not fill it than not have it and need it IMO. I personally have family members that don't go or go very rarely as there is no proper seated area for people to go to and just to add our accessibility seating currently is also definitely not fit for purpose and the new stand will ensure a better matchday experience for those that use them.

When looking through the squad I noticed that next years squad has no Connacht born players between Blade (age 30) to DTM (age 25). Of the squad of 43 next year 18 have either come through academy or are Connacht born. This is an area that hopefully improves over the coming years.

Wilkins just gets another year doesn't he? Just can't see them changing it now. Regardless in 3 months my negativity will have morphed into blind positivity.

AccidentallyOnside

Very few upsides last night but Mallon seemed to have a bit about him and the rare time we got Santiago the ball you could see his class.

The issue is that next seasons squad looks weaker than this ones. Maybe we can do more with less but it's very tough to see that happening.

Hopefully A good run in the challenge cup and some young lads coming through.

cson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210614#Comment_122210614

Agreed 100% on the stadium & facilities, that type of infrastructure should always be the focus for investment with Connacht, much prefer money spent there than on another Mils Muliania or the likes.

Zeugnis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210614#Comment_122210614

Connacht shouldn't mess about wasting time here: the performances have been appalling and Wilkins needs to go. I'd give Muldoon, Fardy, and Sexton another season, and if there isn't clear improvement in their respective areas, they should follow him. The province needs accountability.

If I was Sam Prendergast, I wouldn't touch Connacht with a barge pole ATM.

kita99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122210771#Comment_122210771

I think that Mallon may fit for 7's rugby because seeing his excellent agility yesterday. Anyway, Mullins and Smith were very good at 7's games in Spain. Both two maybe will come back after Olympics this summer and Hansen, Cordero, Bolton, Jennings and Ralston will be all available. In the academy , Treacy and Nicholson will be competitive, so his game time will be limited imo. So he should have the experience in 7's.

I don't think at next season Connacht will be weeker than Connacht in this season. players left from the province are Farrell, Daly, O'Harolan and Thornbury and come backing players are Hansen, Cordero and Josh Murphy and new comers are Devine, Gavin, O'Connor (cetre), Mullins etc. I don't give high value to Butler (add on Oliver) both FLs were not strong operaters imo. The current rugby emphasis power base game (mainly the maul and set peice contest). I'm sorry to say that they can't fit such a power fight. And Jansen and SOB must be injury free. they have some good ability but both were bothered with too many injury. At first they must resolve it by theirself in the early training term. Anyway Connacht FWs need an unprecedented hard work(or training) from earier this summer for their strenghning.

Many people in rugby circle weigh heavily to experience. It's almost right. But there are some people who show little progress after so many experience in the whole world. On the other hand, there are a few people like Devine who can almost all things from the first. I think Treacy and Farthing may follow after him quickly. They may be key players in Connacht very near future. And Do I expect Lasisi at LHP because of his heavy weight around 120kg?

Dubinusa

Does not look good for James O'CONNOR. Has he ever played senior? Mallon looked lively. I'm shocked that they didn't give Hawkshaw the outing at 10. Carty is done! Absolutely unreliable and error stricken. SeanO'Brien played well. He should be getting more looks. There's a decent team there, with bad management.

Strand1970

Really hope Sam plays for connacht next season. Carty's confidence is gone and blade is a no show for most of the season. Sam and Devine would be my starting outhalfs next season. I would be very happy to let them have a few consecutive games regardless of the results. Nothing about connacht excites me t the moment, ijust get the feeling everyone going through the motions and collecting their wages.

realhorrorshow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122213164#Comment_122213164

Conventional wisdom dictates that competition is good and gets the best out of players, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to apply to Jack. He has played the worst rugby of his career when under the most pressure for his place in the team imo. We got to the URC semis last year with him playing 80 minutes pretty much every week, and playing very well. It doesn't help him that we've completely nullified his main attribute (tactical kicking) by kicking the second least in the URC.

Blade hasn't become a bad player over the last 12 months. Andy Farrell is no mug and he doesn't hand out caps easily. He is dreadfully out of form however, and has some really frustrating habits that have been discussed on here before. I wonder if the captaincy placed too high a burden on him - he wasn't good at it and it didn't suit him (at least in terms of dealing with referees, the main metric we fans have to judge a captain).

I don't agree that players are going through the motions, I have seen plenty of heart and desire this season. I don't think they are being given the structure or framework to deliver on the pitch. Can you think of many who have appreciably improved over the past year?

I'm confident the players don't choose to not kick, and constantly play in the wrong areas of the pitch. They don't choose to play a low risk physical style in the opposition 22. They don't choose to be aggressive in defence even when losing the gainline. They didn't design power plays that frequently see us running out of options on the second or third phase. They didn't design a bizarre attacking shape that revolves around flat runners and three metre passes. They don't pick themselves in positions they're not suited to.

I don't like calling for heads but it's hard to watch this coaching staff destroy my love for the team I've loved for as long as I can remember. I have never enjoyed watching us less, and I'm worried for our medium term future with our three best players out of contract in 2025. Bundee I can see leaving and think we are prepared for but losing Hansen or Prendergast would be a disaster. And why would they stay? They, and the rest of the players, deserve better.

Strand1970

Good post, fair enough about just collecting wages, your right and it's not correct to mention that. Just made the comment out of frustration. Seen 2 articles in the last few days on John Cooney and Kieran Marmion. Both are having top seasons, up to yesterday Kieran had not missed 1 pass the full season and John is up in the high 80% for kicking. I honestly believe if Blade was playing in England he would be flying and everyone would be commenting it was a huge error to let him go. Seriously a lot of top GAA clubs in connacht are ran with more clarity and focus.

FACECUTTR

https://www.balls.ie/rugby/connacht-head-coach-claims-no-move-has-been-made-for-sam-prendergast-600098

CowboyTed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122208441#Comment_122208441

It is very hard for a team to play when they don't know what they are doing….

There seems to be a lack of structure and in the URC that is a must.

These players know they aren't going to beat anyone worthwhile, that just eats into a team cohesion..

CowboyTed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122208993#Comment_122208993

Jack has always been a player that lives on confidence, consistency has been his achilles heal, he needs to know where players are around him.

This setup is killing that…

CowboyTed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122209005#Comment_122209005

With the way contracts are on coaching I think we need a Director of Rugby (DOR) to come in on top.

Pete is a good coach, but he struggles at other areas. Maybe someone on top.

The DOR can look from above and hopefully fix things.

This is just asuggestion that could come by next year, we aren't getting a whole coaching ticket changed this late.

CowboyTed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122213599#Comment_122213599

I agree with everything you said there…

What was obvious during the Stormers game is they played up inline and left a gap over the top in midfiled.

Jack would normally dink one over the top and run on to it. Stormers knew that wasn't going to happen. Connacht coaching must have said no to that, it doesn't make sense that Jack doesn't try that considering it was a major part of his arsnel for years.

Our opposition knows what we are going to better than we do at times… All the unpredictably in our play is gone and it just looks like paint by numbers.

kita99

I cannot understand why Connacht hired Ben Murphy although there are 4 SHs (Blade, Reilly, Devine, Farthing) in Connacht. I think that Farthing will follow Devine's way. He was the annual MVP at all Ireland minor football in 2022 and the SH of rugby Ireland U19 in 2023. This suggests his excellent adaptive ability.

And possible U20 Max Flynn is called 'beast' by some people. Is this praise ?

realhorrorshow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122217504#Comment_122217504

Farthing is probably 3-4 years away from senior rugby so not a factor really, but even without him it won't be possible to develop Reilly, Murphy, and Devine concurrently. Will be interesting to see how it plays out, I imagine Reilly will be the one to miss out.

That is praise yes, Flynn looks like a very good athlete. Bear in mind he's still a year underage for u20s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae4bqPBoLrw

CuriousCucumber

Just happy that the season is over.

I'm willing to give the coaching ticket one more season together. That was their first season working together, and things take time. All I want next season is to see progress, and some of the older guard given less minutes.

Unfortunately that means Buckley

It also means Heffernan, Blade, and Carty

Borders no.2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122217385#Comment_122217385

Is he a good coach though? I'm genuinely curious why people think this. I don't have a coaching background so obviously I'll bow to anyones superior knowledge.

Obviously Andy Farrell brought him in for the NZ tour before so he must see something and who am I to argue with that but with all the areas he coached at Connacht over the years I was never convinced he improved us. Again it might be my bias but to my untrained eye it was obvious that (for example) Nigel Carolan or Dewalt Senekal were good coaches in their areas. I never got the same impression with any area Pete Wilkins was involved in.

Obviously there's coaches for all elements of the team now but overall responsibility lies with the head coach and we look lost as a team in terms of what we are trying to do.

To me he seems like a good person and he speaks pretty well in media engagements. He's not going to lose the room in a dramatic way like Kieran Keane but this seems more of a death by a thousand cuts tenure.

kita99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122217747#Comment_122217747

Thank you very much. I understand what you said.

realhorrorshow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122218344#Comment_122218344

I thought our attack was very good when Wilkins was attack coach under Friend. He also took the defence off Colm Tucker after the latter was initially appointed as defence coach, and improved it a lot.

Evil_g

He also took the defence off Colm Tucker after the latter was initially appointed as defence coach, and improved it a lot.

That's not how I remember that at all. Our defense was an absolute shambles when Wilkins was in charge of it.

ShineyShiney

He's currently presiding over what appears to be a very poorly coached side with huge selection inconsistencies. He's had a year, we can't afford to write off next year as well. I don't care if he was good bad or middling in previous roles, this one isn't working out.

RonnieL

Listening to Jack speak in the Craggy post match pod, he acknowledged that this was his worst season ever. There was something about the tone of his voice that didn't really fill me with hope that he's particularly motivated to push on - despite him actually saying that he needs to focus on making next season his best. I've no doubt I'll head to our pre-season game(s) full of optimism, but right now my expectations are very low.

Hey_Ho_Lets_Go_3

interesting to see Jackman say coaching isnt an issue in Connacht.. not sure many would agree.

realhorrorshow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122222587#Comment_122222587

Where was this?

Hey_Ho_Lets_Go_3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122222689#Comment_122222689

rte rugby pod.

AccidentallyOnside

Jackman has been a vocal advocate of Irish coaches getting provincial jobs so he's not going to cast any aspersions on 3 Irish guys and a former Leinster captain in his first coaching gig when the man at the top is an English import.

Most of what we get through Irish press is provincial propaganda parading as analysis, normally Jackman is far from the worst at that but I don't think anyone can look at connacht, who seem barely able to catch a kickoff or win a line out on the opposition 22, and think they're well coached.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122223962#Comment_122223962

I would have doubts as to how much most rugby media in Ireland actually looks at Connacht.