Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

AccidentallyOnside · 01-04-2023 3:55pm

Think a lot of the comments are unfair on treviso who have played really well.

Umanga really running the show for them with Watson, Devanaga (sp?) and Smith ably helping him.

Some choons being played there at half time!! Commentator much better versed than the last guy too.

testtech05 · 01-04-2023 4:06pm

This is not the start to the half I had hoped for. Looking very disjointed

Tommybojangles · 01-04-2023 4:07pm

Jesus lads this is pathetic. No one expects miracles from connacht but the standard of player is there to put up a better showing

SqueakyKneecap · 01-04-2023 4:07pm

No need to worry about Sale at home anyways. Woeful defending.

testtech05 · 01-04-2023 4:07pm

So so easy again. We had defended that attack 3 times and messed up each clearance and they eventually punished us.

Looks like a long way back now

BrokenMan · 01-04-2023 4:14pm

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. That's all.

testtech05 · 01-04-2023 4:14pm

Turnover again very well done by Oliver and then a bad knock on again to give the ball straight back 5m from our line....

And an easy walk in again all it takes each time is one long pass.

To think I was quite optimistic about this game when I saw our team named

Tommybojangles · 01-04-2023 4:17pm

How any one of this coaching staff jas a job next year is beyond me. 4 or 5 years of this shite now. Absolutely fall to pieces when a big game comes up. Living off the odd URC win over the other provinces in October/ November most years

UAEguy2020 · 01-04-2023 4:26pm

It’s got to the point where these collapses aren’t a surprise anymore…

BrokenMan · 01-04-2023 4:28pm

Can't believe I paid good money to watch this rubbish, should have learned my lesson after the Newcastle game.

testtech05 · 01-04-2023 4:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120428099#Comment_120428099

Ditto pretty pathetic showing really

ClanofLams · 01-04-2023 4:36pm

Was only able to hear a bit of Galway bay commentary. Sounds like the hammering Connacht deserved for their treatment of the competition in Newcastle. Unreal that complete collapses away have been happening regularly for so long now.

AccidentallyOnside · 01-04-2023 4:38pm

Take back what I said, this half has been a shocker.

Real pity.

UAEguy2020 · 01-04-2023 4:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120427951#Comment_120427951

Yeah like this collapse is just a once off…

Tommybojangles · 01-04-2023 4:45pm

The soft ride Friend and Connacht in general get in the media is unreal. Sure aren't they great lads to be at it at all. Shite like today has become normal, up by 12 early and lose by 30.

Absolutely no accountability. The only thing that's not making me totally dismiss next year is maybe Muldoon will give a few bollockings because it's sorely needed.

tintedgreenglasses2016 · 01-04-2023 4:52pm

I'm only going to focus on positives. Management made all the changes needed in good time in the hope that the changes may have had the desired effect.

Connacht now has its full focus on the URC.

No noticable injuries but I do wonder by the way Caolin walked off whether it was a hamstring issue. If so that wouldn't be good

Tommybojangles · 01-04-2023 4:59pm

Definitely think this team as its currently constructed needs Butler and Marmion starting. The lack of leadership and cool heads is so clear to see. Very harsh on Blade I know who's been playing great but when your main men are Bundee who is totally heart on the sleeve and Hansen who is a maverick you need leaders to keep things on track.

tintedgreenglasses2016 · 01-04-2023 5:12pm

Another positive is after the Munster loss to Sharks and with Munster to finish up it's URC with two serious SA games, a good finish in the URC could see us ahead of Munster

tintedgreenglasses2016 · 01-04-2023 5:21pm

Negative Bundee Farrell partnership didn't work and I think that probably was a big reason for poor defense. That said Benetton were at full strength and very good

Wegians89 · 01-04-2023 5:23pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120428323#Comment_120428323

Think Forde will push Bundee for that 12 jersey against Cardiff

Borders no.2 · 01-04-2023 5:25pm

Can't even bother being angry. Friend and Wilkins ruined our chances in this competition in Newcastle. Our mentality away from home is generally weak and treviso at home are a good side when they have their full deck.

The run of wins was good but papered over the cracks. We beat some poor or out of form teams at home, brought Zebre into a game we were cruising during 6n and we can thank Dragons incompetence for ensuring we scraped past them with 14 men.

We need to regather ourselves for Cardiff but long term this performance today highlights once again that we are going nowhere fast.

tintedgreenglasses2016 · 01-04-2023 9:15pm

It's my honest opinion we are no longer a team with Bundee. Others would say we have just done basic achievement recently. Edinburgh was a darn good win would be my response. So I say farewell to Bundee. You were fantastic in your day. But let's move on. He breaks the structure of our team

Tommybojangles · 01-04-2023 10:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120429126#Comment_120429126

I agree he hasn't had a really good game for us in a long time.

but imo when you sit down amd tey to figure out how to improve on the sh!te we saw today then you start with figuring out why your one genuinely top class player isn't playing well, rather than blaming him and saying the answer is to give him the boot

Wegians89 · 01-04-2023 10:17pm

If we can turn anything into a positive Cardiff have an away quarter final next weekend, which means they could be weakened the following week in Galway…

tintedgreenglasses2016 · 01-04-2023 10:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120429283#Comment_120429283

I have no inside information and as such no clue what happened with Bundee just prior to Christmas. But I stood there and watched him vs Ulster in the New Year and he was no addition to the team. And his reappearance today was like he didn't want to be there and the rest of the team didn't want him there either

Tommybojangles · 01-04-2023 10:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120429345#Comment_120429345

Definitely possible and if that's the case you're right.

But I've seen it countless times in every sport where there's rumours about the reason behind a big players bad form and at the end of the day it's just that -bad form. The best case scenario is a coaching shake up gets Bundee back starring for us, but hard to be confident atm

02-04-2023 12:54am

There's a lot of negativity and blame casting on here today.

We were outplayed today - plain and simple. The Bennetton pack were more agressive, more powerful, and they pushed us onto the back foot. A consistent theme for me was us just having too many numbers pulled into contact to compete leaving space for Bennetton. Even when we were ahead on the scoreboard we'd been scrambling to keep them out. They got on top of us in other areas too but it was all built on them winning more contests.

Last week we made 200+ tackles in a hard fought game where we had 40% possession and 40% territory. This week we may have paid the price for it by not bringing the same intensity to the ptich and not having many reinforcements to introduce. By comparsion Bennetton were responding to a loss and strengthened their team considerably.

As for Bundee, he didn't have a great game, he didn't have an awful game, but he also had very little to work with for most of it. At least he has minutes now and a Monday review to help him play better in our structures against Cardiff.

ClanofLams · 02-04-2023 2:06am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120429733#Comment_120429733

Any day Treviso (despite improving from years gone by) put 40 on you and hammer you out the gate is a day that warrants a fair bit of negativity.

Nonetheless, it is not about one result, it is about Connacht repeatedly failing to show up for away games and frequently having 40 or 50 on them by sides they should at least be competitive with.

As another poster noted, these cracks were slightly papered over by scraping by Zebre seconds and 14 man Dragons but once again showed up today.

02-04-2023 2:40am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120429823#Comment_120429823

Oh we definitely still have lots of issues to work on but as far as I'm concerned today's problems really originate from Newcastle away in January. Bennetton are a strong team if they turn up with their best squad at home. I wanted to win but I'm going to look at the positive of two weeks to prepare for a Cardiff side that will need to give everything away to Bennetton. I'm also very glad that Oliver's high shot was just low enough to avoid a red.

I don't actually think the scoreline is really that awful in modern rugby. The way the game's being refereed and the attacking intent most teams show mean you're really put to the sword if your opponent gets on top of you on a dry day like we had today.

02-04-2023 3:02am

The lack of consistency, mental toughness and leadeship is definitely something I think we need to address during the Summer. We had a mental skills/performance coach for a while and I think it's something Wilkins needs to revisit.

Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

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