Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

moneyball was far too kind. it was a **** signing and i said it from day dot. imagine if one of the 8s had gone there instead. all that time wasted. infuriating when you really think about it.

nah i mean he didn´t even mutter a word unlike a few other players, Cooney included. nothing to do with them saying they have to. it actually shows great character, so yeah wrong end of stick from you as usual. clearly the opposite happens. Any player who has spoken out hasn´t really got selected. so of course thats not the way.

yeah he lacks a bit of oomph but so do a number of our locks and we´ve clearly pivoted away from the big bruisers of the past. we went for a NZ style athletic 15, and somehow Dillane doesn´t fit the bill. smartest sytem in the world and all that. moneyballesque indeed.

Dillane, like Cooney and a number of other players past and present has been clearly dicked over. Media bullshit, contracts, poor NIQ signings, **** players like Kleyn and the rest.

Anyway i get it whatever i say you´ll say the opposite. got it.

Its maddening that we lose a player like Dillane who ticks a load of boxes beyond the actual field, and the general gist is a shoulder shug imo.

irish rugby as usual, daft.

this is the future for Ireland i´d imagine. we will lose a load of players this way.

Dillane and Connacht in a sense were dicked over by the way Dillane was basically taken for granted.

But sure lets just get a Kleyn mark ii and we´ll be grand.

This is a lot like the james ryan not getting picked for the lions. Both are too slim for a modern day lock

yeah nobody is entitled to a jersey. however we´ve clearly had a system for decades where certain players get free passes despite form. so you can pick and choose. plenty of players were harshly treated by the system despite their form. i mean its not even up for debate really. if you don´t think Cooney or Dillane were fobbed off by current management and Schmidt, well then i´m not going to bother with this.

its not outrage. and i´m not arguing that he was owed caps or something. he´s not going to be starting for Ireland currently but he was better than Kleyn when he was culled from the WC squad. look he was dicked over in that sense. constantly called up to squads without being given any minutes whatsoever, even in dead rubber matches. look if you think thats right grand. as i´ve said he´s just one player in a long long list of talented enough players weirdly treated by Ireland, coaches and media, weirdly nitpicked for some flaw, that exists in incumbents. lack of oomph in Dillanes case. as if he´s solely responsible for maul defence. its laughable really.

But anyway Ireland´s and ultimately Connachts loss. it will be the first of many i´d imagine.

Robb is another example of what we´re about. always moaning that we don´t produce big phsyical men yet here we cut another. it was the same when somebody was asking about Sexton on one of the other threads, saying he should play 7s full time. as if we don´t need physical athletic players.

Dillane was a hard hitting athletic second row, that brought diversity and new pastures to Irish rugby. losing him to France shouldn´t be a shrug shoulders kind of event.

anyway id expect it to start an avalanche of talent leaving when they get caught in the system. I was wrong when i thought it would happen a while ago, but now we really do have good depth. Probably see the same thing with Hume, when he can´t dislodge Ringrose.

Its hardly encouraging for a Penny or a Deegan to see what happens. I think COnnacht might struggle to shake the perception of the ceiling. Only Aki has really managed it. its such a short sighted blight on Irish rugby. we have enough talent to have 4 strong provinces.

anyhoo..