Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

That's a terrifying prospect

Maybe after seeing how things are done in the international set-up Wilkins will be attempting to implement Farrell's defensive philosophies/structures. If he could do that it would be helpful for Connacht players' chances with Ireland.

Pretty sure this will be Friend's final season at Connacht so the Wilkins move definitely seems to be a move with one eye on succession planning. For whatever reason, Wilkins seems to be highly thought of in IRFU circles. A move that might be scuppered if we have a bad season which is a definite possibility. Very difficult start and it's easy for things to snowball from there.

Every year is a crisis of some sort at Connacht, I wouldn't be so pessimistic. Mysterious as it may be, Wilkins was presumably recruited by Farrell into the Irish set up, and that involvement should be a good thing for us. Give him a chance. If the season goes badly, nobody will be able to hide from their responsibilities behind the departing AF. Our defence was a shambles last season, Wilkins has to do something about it, or else people will be calling for his head.

Secondly, given how mean the IRFU appear have been to the province (no money for a TH, departing internationals not replaced on a like for like basis), I think we've done very well in recruitment, especially the four arrivals from Leinster. I hope that they will add ambition and resilience to our squad, which we all know contains a lot of talent.

Thirdly, isn't it the case that the rules for the Europe were for two years and this will be the second, thus there is some chance that the stucture which currently disadvantages the province will change? That's my recollection.

In addition to Oliver, I would be happy to go to war with people like Thornbury and Prendergast, among others. In Murray and Dowling we have two strong emerging second rows, Paul Boyle, Bealham, Mathew Burke (who showed great character in stepping up last year at LH). Add in Dooley and Murphy, and I think we have the bones of a solid pack, even if I'm concerned about the front row. Maybe Aungier and Illo will lay that concern to rest this year, and I did like what I saw of DTM towards the end of the season.

The hike in the ticket prices is mad - 32 euros for the terrace is a joke. Who is responsible for the commercial side of Connacht's operations? I hope that if indeed ticket sales fall, the province will look for creative ways to keep attendance up by offering special deals via schools, kids in clubs etc.

Lastly, it would be nice if some of the media around Connacht - Twitter, podcasts, but also newspaper coverage - was to take a more critical position and get behind the demand for accountability. This doesn't mean a constant chorus of bellyaching, but simply not swallowing all the marketing waffle which is now par for the course in professional sports. Much of the media native to the net is letting us down in this regard, apparently more interested in good vibes and growing their number of followers.

I cansee Connacht being as poor as last year. The imports should help. But a line has to be drawn on some lads! TOH should not be starting! He's just been a passenger and he's not getting any younger. Aki should be captain. He's very valuable to Connacht. Tierney-Martin needs to grab any opportunities by the sac. Boyle needs to re-establish himself and get over an average season.

If Wooten continues to be jelly in defense, he should be benched. I think Hawkshaw could be a gem and I would try him at 10 or fb. Friend has been very poor. He should have been shown the door.

Quite unusual to change up the coaching team so close to the start of the season. I wonder if Connacht identified issues in pre season and took measures accordingly, or if Wilkins impressed Farrell/the IRFU to the extent that they saw fit to increase his responsibilities almost immediately. To be fair, Farrell was right to appoint and back Mike Catt and literally the entire Irish rugby public was proven wrong, so I trust his judgement. As for the actual changes:

Andy Friend - Head Coach to Director of Rugby

I like this move. Allows Andy to focus on culture, media, community outreach, player development, squad management, etc. All of which I think he is very good at. Very hard to know how much of a loss he will be in terms of coaching, as we don't know how active he was in that regard over the past few seasons.

Pete Wilkins - Senior Coach with responsibility for attack to Head Coach with primary responsibility for defence

Not as sure on this. Would always rather a specialised defence coach, seems like he will have a lot on his plate. Obviously quite a reductive take, but the attack last year was much better than the defence had been under Wilkins prior, so seems like a counterintuitive move from the outside looking in.

Dewald Senekal - Forwards Coach to Forwards Coach (Lineout & Maul)

Think he did a good job last year. Assume his remit coming in was to sort maul d, which he did IMO. Not sure if he had any involvement with coaching the scrum last year, so unsure if much has changed in that regard.

Colm Tucker – Defence & Forwards Technical Skills Coach to Scrum & Contact Coach

Maybe harsh to not give him time to fix the defence, but it was so abysmal last season that I'm happy to see some proactivity in making a change. Big fan of having a dedicated contact skills coach, think Leinster's focus on that area has been a major contributor to their success. Not sure if "technical skills" included the scrum, so unsure if that's a new remit for him.

Mossy Lawler – Assistant Attack & Skills Coach to Attack & Skills Coach

Seems more like a straightforward promotion, as opposed to the shuffling elsewhere. No complaints here, attack was good last year and hopefully we can build on that.

Team to play Castres:

• 15. Oran McNulty
• 14. Adam Byrne
• 13. Byron Ralston
• 12. Tom Daly (captain)
• 11. Alex Wootton
• 10. David Hawkshaw
• 9. Caolin Blade
• 1. Denis Buckley
• 2. Grant Stewart
• 3. Dominic Robertson-McCoy
• 4. Niall Murray
• 5. Oisín Dowling
• 6. Ciaran Booth
• 7. Shamus Hurley-Langton
• 8. Seán Masterson

Replacements:

• 16. Eoin de Buitléar
• 17. Matthew Burke
• 18. Sam Illo
• 19. Darragh Murray
• 20. Oisín McCormack
• 21. Colm Reilly
• 22. Shane Jennings
• 23. Josh O’Connor
• 24. Charlie Ward
• 25. Bart Vermeulen
• 26. Donnacha Byrne

The danger with writing off a season with the hope of the rules changing in our favour is that it mightnt necessarily be a positive change and you find yourself in the loop of challenge cup season upon season. All the while the key players we have are a year older and like you say we aren't realistically going to get through huge numbers of local players so trying to build a strong squad into the future will be even more difficult.

Even allowing for the changes our league season was effectively over by game 3 last season and even the most optimistic fan knew it was over after Glasgow at home.

The signings on paper look like decent business but it depends on the hunger of the leinster players. If they give full buy in, injury permitting you'd expect they'll improve us.

With the southern hemisphere players you never know. Friend has generally recruited reasonably well in that regard to be fair

If the start of the season goes as anticipated I'd be treating the challenge cup seriously. It's not a prestigious competition but European rugby is the only potential we have to showcase ourselves and to keep the crowd interested after Christmas. Whether we come 11th or 13th or whatever in the league is all the one really. Either we make Europe or we don't. If we are out of contention to make Europe we will inevitably lose our way in the league so may as well have Europe to throw our lot at.

I enjoy the style of rugby we play when it works but playing in an attacking fashion shouldn't negate the need to have some fundamentals to our game. Our lineout wouldn't look out of place in junior rugby at times.

Our defence is a joke. Sometimes you have to hold up your hands butof that we can do nothing about but some of it is due to systems failure and/or laziness of certain individuals. Players like doing the flashy attacking stuff but are either incapable or too lazy to perform basic defensive responsibilities. When a team grinds us down I expect that but as we have seen with defensive maul lineout in particular a lot of improvements can be made by everyone putting their shoulder to the wheel in a coordinated fashion.

Saw a few rumours that Friend is leaving at the end of the season and that the club is considering Wilkins as a new top man. Hence the promotion from senior coach to head coach under friend as director of Rugby.

Friend's contract is supposed to be up at the end of the year.

Carolan had spent his entire career at home in Connacht. Dont think he'll come back for a few years.

Muldoon. dont see him coming home for few years yet either

Great to see Hawkshaw straight in at 10, surprised that there are no outhalves on the bench, so Daly to cover if required. Presumably, that means Conor Fitzgerald and Cathal Forde will be selected against Sale. Any news of how Jack is doing after his operation?

Wouldn't read too much into a pre-season friendly, especially when we have a different 15 taking on Sale on Friday. Ulster away in the first round of the URC will give us a better idea of where we stand.

Plus Castres' season starts two weeks earlier than ours, so you'd imagine they are further along in their prep than us. That being said, our defence got utterly shredded last pre season by London Irish, and those issues continued throughout the regular season, so I am a little nervous.

I'm going to assume you're being sarcastic regarding defence ;)

Colm Tucker has been in charge of that area for the last year, Wilkins had defence for the four years prior to that.

I'm glad they made the change now rather than waiting until we've shipped 40+ in a URC game.

That team looks much stronger on paper than the one that lined out against Castres, it'll be interesting to see how they go