Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Fair enough. I don’t understand their view because they’re basically saying you can’t tackle Lowry in that scenario where’s he catching a ball which will happen a lot obviously as he is at 15. When a guy that small dips he’s gonna make 80% of tackles illegal by that criteria.

That’s it. Players are going to need to adjust. I’m not saying it is easy for the tackler when they are committed, it’s very hard when Lowry is in that position. But you can’t make excuses because of Lowry’s height.

Comfortable enough for Ulster. Connacht tackled their hearts out though. Oliver and Prendergast were fantastic.

When everyone is available Connacht have a very decent side but once they have to dip into their bench and beyond the bench there are lads there that are stuggling at that level.

On a bad run of results now.

You absolutely need to take into account Lowrys height for me - you can’t just give him a massive advantage where he drops his head and is getting a lad a yellow every week. He controls his movements.

Harsh or not there’s a difference between a 6’0 guy and a 5’7 guy dropping a head.

Sullivan was making a tackle four and a half feet high, that’s really reasonable. Irrelevant to the result but Lowry can’t just drop a foot and make that tackle illegal it’s ridiculous.

Really frustrating to be bringing in fifita, bringing in tupimatu etc when they’re clearly not up to this level.

Connacht need a lot of recruitment in the pack this summer.

Nope. There is a responsibility on Lowry too, he is in control of his movements, he is aware a tackle is immediately coming, he dips a foot at the last possible second and his actions make a perfectly legal tackle illegal. BBC Ulster commentator spot on - rugby incident move on.

Agreed, but which part of the pack. For me, it's the front row, not just because of the penalties conceded in the scrum, but the contribution in the loose. I had higher expectations of Aungier and Duggan, this season, although Jordan has carried a heavy burden. They gave illo a senior contract, let's see him play. but we need at least one high quality recruit there.

At second row, Dowling and Murray are great and getting better (we won the line out today), Thornbury will be back soon, but Leva hasn't contributed enough, so we need one more. In the back row, there's a clear gap now between Prendergast, Oliver and the rest. Boyle is of that standard but rusty right now, Murphy will bring a lot, but we need at least one or two more. There may be another recruit to be had from Leinster, and we have the boys who've just graduated from the academy.

That wrong. If Lowry wants to dip, in the act keeping his balance, he is perfectly entitled to. There is nothing in the laws of the game that makes this illegal. I’m sure you will agree that he is not deliberately dipping in the hope of getting a shoulder in the head? If you agree with this, then the onus is back on the tackling player to take account of a possible dip when tackling. Lowry is a joy to behold, we need to protect him at all costs. If that means a few lads getting yellow cards, till the coaches of the opposition team realise who they are playing against and that they need be ultra careful, then so be it. We have got to protect the head at all costs.

I just don't get why they're not going lower, waist to knees. It was frustrating watching the upper body tackles on McCloskey - he's too strong and just wades through them. I think it's an area where our backs need to do some work. Get Marmion to teach them, he tackled like a lion this evening.

World rugby are trying to outlaw these hits. The opposition coach has to be aware that there risks in tackling Lowry or any smaller player. I can almost guarantee that Connacht coach didn’t make any issue of this before match. But coaches absolutely must make sure their players aware of this. Once this gets established in the mindset of everyone, these incidences won’t happen and game will be safer for all.

Actually, I'm not down on Tuimauga (nor did i mention him). I just think Bealham, then Heff and Delahunt are several notches above the rest. Burke has made a lot of progress this year. The others have not really impressed, although it hasn't been for lack of honesty or effort.

There's still plenty left in this painful season, so we'll get to sift further for diamonds, but come the summer it will be time to behave like a professional outfit and cut those who aren't going to make it.

I can't believe people are still taking this jimdemp guy at face value and replying on that basis.

Cop on lads.

Telling how comfortable Bealham looked at scrumtime today with some power behind him in the row. We haven't really replaced roux yet, Fifita hasn't shown much yet