Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Excellent 2nd half display last night to be fair. Really tidied things up after making some basic errors in the first half. Important to get a win over the Dragons next weekend now as after that Connacht probably have their toughest run of fixtures of the entire season.

Munster A

Ulster H

Ospreys H

Leinster A

Ulster A

Munster H

Hopefully the impressive performances of Duggan & Burke don’t stop a loose head signing. Can’t go through a season with two senior loose heads.

New Prop

https://www.rte.ie/sport/united-rugby-championship/2021/1005/1250825-connacht-to-sign-samoan-international-prop/

Lovely stuff. We'd have been fecked otherwise.

If he can scrummage as well as he can pass that’ll do.

I didn’t realise visa etc would take five weeks, probably be into December before he is available so, not ideal but at least a signing was made.

A wave of optimism has hit me after the last week. A bonus point win this weekend and finally show a bit of consistency will be huge for the rest of the season

Article from June

A few weeks ago the Turbos' front row looked to be coming together only for Feilding loosehead prop Tietie Tuimauga to suffer a nerve impingement neck injury in a tackle. He had just been picked for Samoa who are to play the All Blacks, but is out of that now.

Tuimauga was good value at loosehead last year after Feilding brought him from Wellington, and the Yellows will miss him when it comes to the club playoffs. Without him last Saturday the Feilding scrum uncharacteristically creaked against College Old Boys.

Picked as TH in August

https://www.turbosrugby.co.nz/news/two-changes-on-turbos-bench

In my defense all I say is that I really don't believe that flinging the ball around at a hectic pace will win rugby union games against Tier 1 opponents. Forget about the lineout or blocked down kicks, I just don't get this mental structure in what is really a structured game.

You win the lineouts, you get to pressure the gain line. You are snappy across the line you may see an opening, you play an unexpected inside ball an opening may occur, you play positional rugby with the wind, you play defensive rugby against the wind.

Or am I just being too traditional in my thought process. Because what I witnessed last weekend really made me concerned.

I don't want to aggravate the boards community, but I was absolutely at a loss watching the game last weekend. Maybe it is the new way of playing rugby but it looked crazy to me. No offense meant. It's just my version of what I saw

Remember folks

well, I mean, like , they have a valid opinion, least we forget that the important 1/2 of athlone is, in fact, in Leinster.....

If Connacht develop a player through their academy, it hardly matters where they grew up. Even the likes of Daly who went through the Leinster academy. Leinster barely developed due to his injury profile and lack of game time. He has only really flourished since moving west. I doubt many Leinster fans have any issue with young players moving west. Even the likes of Aungier who potentially would have made it at Leinster.

I don't think anyone's saying what Connacht are doing is bad. Who could be against a Tom Daly getting minutes and grabbing the opportunity with both hands? I just thought Friend's comments were a bit lame. In response to White saying they had a lot of ex-Leinster players, his reaction was to highlight 3 Connacht-origin players who started. Three out of 15. How does that disprove what White said?

White was asked pre-game what he knew about Connacht and answered the question. They seem like fairly reasonable and accurate remarks to me:

"A lot of Leinster guys, who come down from Leinster because they didn't get contracts up there; they come down here.

"It's very similar to a couple of franchises we have in South Africa. When they don't get contracted by the big unions, they go down to the small provinces and try and find a way to get noticed by the bigger provinces.

"As I said, we're used to playing that sort of opposition and it will be nothing different. They'll be looking to front up, especially after last week when they lost against Cardiff."

As opposed to the glorious living conditions in South Africa huh? Sure they all live in mansions there. Fijian me hole you spelt work in afrikaans. Image how sad you life is making an account on here to try rile people up because you can't handle how sh1te your team's are.

Anyways back to the rugby 3 changes for the Dragons tomorrow

CONNACHT RUGBY MATCHDAY 23 VS DRAGONS RUGBY

Saturday 9th October, The Sportsground @ 17:15

Number/Name/Caps

15. Tiernan O’Halloran (192)

14. Ben O’Donnell (6)

13. Tom Farrell (64)

12. Tom Daly (51)

11. Mack Hansen (2)

10. Jack Carty (161)

9. Kieran Marmion (189)

1. Matthew Burke (25)

2. Dave Heffernan (146)

3. Finlay Bealham (161)

4. Oisin Dowling (9)

5. Ultan Dillane (116)

6. Cian Prendergast (12)

7. Jarrad Butler (75) (C)

8. Paul Boyle (59)

16. Shane Delahunt (102)

17. Jordan Duggan (15)

18. Jack Aungier (15)

19. Leva Fifita (1)

20. Conor Oliver (22)

21. Caolin Blade (132)

22. Conor Fitzgerald (37)

23. Sammy Arnold (18)