Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

The missed penalty was poor alright, its one kick not a common thing, drilled the penalty in last minute. The 50:22 bounced seven or eight yards from the try line, it takes a different bounce and it’s outstanding kick, just unlucky.

Carty was excellent today, on this form he’s well clear of most provincial rivals currently (Harry Byrne could change that but needs games) bar Sexton and Carbery at his best, but we haven’t seen Carbery’s best in two years.

He kicked straight down the middle because Connacht wanted to keep the ball in play and deny them the set piece platform they build of, particularly the maul given how much trouble Connacht had defending it against a lesser Stade pack last week and that it’s a massive weapon for Leicester. Maybe the tactics were wrong but it was clearly a tactic.

One of the two errors you are referencing comes down to bounce of rugby ball. I certainly thought he was excellent and that seems to be the widespread reaction if you look at match reporting, even Leicester/English.

That's great. But I'm giving my opinion.

And I never said he was sh*t or anything, I just think "excellent" is pushing it a bit.

It seems to be a big problem for Connacht that they can't manage tight games. It was the same story in Thomond park earlier on in the season. From 50 minutes on today they pretty much forgot how to rugby. The number of unforced handling errors was embarrassing and their accuracy at the breakdown was really poor. With Connacht, either they utterly demolish a team (Bulls, Ulster, Ospreys) or they lose. They can't grind out a result in a tight game.

I thought he was decent too

I agree and it's a testament to where Connacht are at, that after getting LBP away to the best team in England that there's a sense of "they should have got more from that"

A point is a good result but you can't deny that their error count and breakdown accuracy was poor regardless of who they were playing.

I feel like if Ford was playing Leicester would have been out of sight.

No, neither one was criminal but they were impactful errors at a time when the game was in the balance.

If you're looking at his overall performance, they have to be a factor. He may be the leading candidate behind Sexton and Carbery but there's always (IMO) enough on the other side of the ledger to explain why he might not be a favourite of Farrell.

We don’t agree obviously. If any ten of the other contenders for the ten spot behind Sexton & Carbery were playing for Connacht today, Connacht would have lost by 15. If Carty was getting game time behind a Leinster pack that routinely steam rolls opposition he would have been starting ten last six nations.

Give D.Murray a chance to pair wih his brother and try to enlist IQ J.Kleyn for Roux

Cameron Boon would be nice too

If he is leaving which I hope is not the case, I doubt it is because Connacht/Friend dont see him as 1st choice IMO.

Season ticket holders ok for the Munster game, and other games assuming the 50% capacity rules don't change further. Presumably other tickets sold will be cancelled and refunded. Will miss the banter with the Munster fans, but should be good for the team to have the crowd fully behind them.

Ultan confirmed to be moving abroad unfortunately. Big loss hopefully we can improve Thornbury and Dowling injury record to try and take some of the slack

Been a great player for us

Big loss but he owes Connacht nothing. Wish him the very best of luck .

Read on another forum talk of Tom Daly going South to replace DDA.