Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Shane Jennings as 15 and David Hawkshaw as 13, as interesting calls for Eagles

Sorry about that

Still fascinated by the idea of Jenning FB

The result won't suit you then.

With that Ulster backline we'll probably conceed 40+

But we're able to score 4 tries, mostly with forwards

I prefer something like 41-27 with a Try Bonus Point than 17-9 with no point at all

Going to be a long season on this evidence.

Haven't seen us look so bad with ball in hand in years.

Maul defense awful.

Discipline awful.

Handling awful.

Hard to see any positive tonight.

Only positive for me was I thought Murphy played pretty well, best of a bad lot maybe but definitely showed the most of the new signings.

Very poor performance overall though and could be a long 5 weeks for us.....

Find to hard to understand how winning or losing is irrelevant. Sounds like throwing in the towel before the match starts.

The penalty that led up to the first try was a strange decision by the Ref, usually it's offensive team that are penalised for off their feet or going in from side. Porch came down cleanly enough placed the ball and defenders got in position to protect the ball.

Very bad news coming before the end of the year if you, like myself, had skepticism about Wilkins being the guiding light of Connacht.

That was tough to sit through. Ulster away isn't a match you expect much from the best day ever but the nature of that performance was very worrying given the upcoming schedule.

As usual there was lots of positive vibes coming from the camp during the week about how the coaches have Bern empowered and all thus no sense. Also saying this is the start you want that Ulster wouldn't want to play us first up and it's the best time to catch the South Africans etc. I think it was the ideal game for ulster they didn't need to over extend themselves and picked up as easy a 5 points as will be offered all season.

After 1 game it looks almost certain we won't be anywhere near the play offs again. Call me negative if you want but its an uphill task for the play offs even with a strong well drilled team. This team is a mess. The internationals will improve us but other teams have far more ammunition to come back into the fold and getting close to the 50 or so points needed is very difficult. If this team reaches 30 that'll be about the height of it.

What frustrated me most was the period from just before half time til 60 mins or so. That 2nd try was shameful for a professional team to give away but at 14-3 just after half time you have to try dig in and keep yourself in the match. What followed after half time was absolutely shocking indiscipline that to me hints at there being zero leadership within that group. Indiscipline let us down so often last year and to come into our first game of the new season and start losing all control at the first sign of trouble says to me that nothing has changed. One losing BP in all of last season and its clear to see that in games where we aren't on top that's not going to change.

Looking at Cardiff earlier in the day they'll be significantly better this year. Treviso hammered Glasgow and Zebre gave Leinster a good scare. The teams above us are moving ahead and the teams behind excluding maybe Dragons are progressing too.

Seemed to be leaning that way with him brought on Ireland tour over the summer.

Would be a shocking appointment. I don’t think Nucifora/IRFU are overly concerned about provincial performances and they seem to take easy option all the time eg renewing Graan last summer. A shortsighted approach.

Very tough watch....few enough positives.

Thought the attitude in defence was good, score got so high as we had no attacking threat, could barely win a line-out and had awful discipline. You can't spend the whole game defending and expect much.

Murphy was excellent.

Like the look of Hawkshaw, should be ahead of fitzty.

I'm pretty sure the province's CEO and board have more to do with appointing the coaches than Nucifora and the irfu.

Not sure Wilkins being brought on the Summer tour means a whole lost. ROG went on one one time as a coach. Maybe he was there for coaching lessons (not that it would make a huge difference) or something.