Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

https://www.the42.ie/connacht-depth-chart-2022-5865871-Sep2022/

Think Mullins in particular could be a big winner from the emerging Ireland series. If he puts in a couple of decent showings there he could find himself moving up the pecking order at Connacht quickly.

https://youtu.be/-MF6Zq3hpm0 here Ralston makes it pretty clear he’s coming over to play mainly at 13. So back three depth would look something like:

11) Hansen wootton

14) Byrne Killgallen

15) Porch Toh McNulty

I’d expect Jennings and Mullins to get decent time on the wings, considering Macks time will be limited

Team named

CONNACHT RUGBY MATCHDAY SQUAD VS ULSTER RUGBY

Saturday 17th September 2022, 19:35 @ Kingspan Stadium

Number/Name/Caps ( * denotes uncapped)

15. Tiernan O’Halloran (206)

14. Byron Ralston *

13. Tom Farrell (79)

12. Tom Daly (61)

11. John Porch (59)

10. Conor Fitzgerald (53)

9. Kieran Marmion (209)

1. Peter Dooley *

2. Dave Heffernan (165)

3. Jack Aungier (31)

4. Gavin Thornbury (63) (C)

5. Leva Fifita (15)

6. Josh Murphy *

7. Conor Oliver (41)

8. Paul Boyle (73)

16. Dylan Tierney-Martin (6)

17. Denis Buckley (208)

18. Sam Illo (2)

19. Niall Murray (35)

20. Shamus Hurley-Langton *

21. Caolin Blade (150)

22. David Hawkshaw *

23. Oran McNulty (9)

Hopefully TOH is having a revival but on the evidence of last season hard to understand him being first choice. Would rather Porch at 15. Ulster have a nice back line, their pack is far from their best though.

That emerging Ireland tour could really make a mess of the start of season. One injury to Dave Heffernan away from having Grant Stewart and Eoin De Buitléar as our only available hookers for four games against two league finalists last season and Munster and Leinster. Likewise a Marmion injury would leave Reilly and Devine as only two 9s available.

They will fly back together, there won’t be early releases and they won’t be available against Leinster unless there’s an injury crisis in Connacht.

Attendances were well down last season from previous years (based on what I saw, I haven’t checked the figures). Start of the season was already very difficult for Connacht without taking away 3/4 lads from first 23. Start the season with a few hammerings and it could be a long year.

They won’t be back in Ireland until the tenth so they won’t be available until Tuesday training at the earliest with the game on Friday and they won’t have trained with Connacht for a month.

Maybe Blade or Tierney Martin will be put on the bench if we’re struggling but they won’t be available for selection in the proper meaning of the term.

I’m surprised it was as high as 5k to be honest but still a 15% drop.

Looking match by match the big games seemed to more or less sell out while small games seemed to draw a lot of 3k crowds.

If you only have 8 home games and the three Irish derbies draw well all the drop is visible on the other games.

Nearly all sporting events have suffered a similar or bigger drop in attendance post Covid.

More would be better of course but the reality is that Connacht has less than 10% of the population on the island and doesn’t have a strong tradition of rugby. There’s some talented prospects now with the Murray brothers Oisin McCormack and Shane Jennings, hopefully they can break through. The likes of Kieran Marmion who has Galway heritage and been here since he was 18 I more or less count as indigenous.

As others have pointed out the small number of Connacht-born players is simply a reality of demographics. I see the province as being defined more by the style of rugby that it plays, open and attacking, than the heritage of its players. In fact the weak demographics have meant that the provionce plays the function of channeling players from the exile program and the overflow from other provinces bigger systems, especially Leinster. AF has also thickened the Australian influence.

As Clann of Lams mentioned, we have a strong cohort who represented Ireland at U20 in recent years and are now on senior contracts, lots to look forward to there. Unfortunately this is not the case with this years' U20s, U19s or U18s, which is a concern, as of course the objective is to grow the grassroots, and if there's no consistency it's difficult to really call it progress.

For me, they're considered as available (if they don't play on the 9th)

In case of injuries

So basically it's mainly about keeping Murphy, Marmion and Heffernan fit for tonight and the next 3 games.

If so, there's no drop in performance compared to Prend/Blade/DTM

1 injury in the 3 and it's indeed a weakening

Murphy is a very very decent blindside, Prendergast isn't fully made yet, so no, no massive gap. Dowling's there to play 6 if needed too

Marmion as any SH can play 70 minutes for 4 games, I don't worry about that position as long as he's fit.

And DTM at this stage is still barely 2nd choice, no bother to have Heff/Stewart experience

Not even talking about Illo (for now 3rd choice with Bealham there next weeks) or Mullins (not even in main squad)

N.Murray/Thornbury is a great pairing, Dowling very efficent too, Fifita'a has a final year in him, very happy Murphy is kept to 6 for now

Disagree with DTM too, if we want to get points in this horrible run of game, we have to get our more experience pairing who is made of both international guys Heffernan/Stewart

Agree re Blade but Marms is able to play 4X70 minutes + Reilly can do 10 min (very lively guy) without much harm I'd hope

It's never good to miss players but it's better now than mid december with 10-15 injuries in the squad

4) (without Murphy if he's busy as n°6)

Thornbury, Fifita'a, Dowling, Murray 1, Murray 2

6) (without Prendergast)

Murphy, Boyle, Booth, Dowling, Butler (next week), D.Byrne

9) (without Blade)

Marmion, C.Reilly, Devine (great prospect), W.Reilly, Gilvarry

3) (without Illo)

Bealham (next week), Aungier, Robertson-Mc Coy, Fiachna Barrett 

We're not in a horrible situation for now