Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

A point from this game is a good result in isolation. Unfortunately the damage was done last week.

The lads never gave up on a TBP but they absolutely gave up defensively again. Was it better than last week? Yes. Did they concede probably 35+ points that were avoidable? Yes.

Scott Fardy, in particular, is doing very poorly as a defense coach so far. That's maybe harsh to some as he's only just out of retirement as a player but some of our attempts to rush out of the line or cover space would be laughed at by first time tag rugby players. Once again you're probably only looking at Cian Prendergast as somebody who stood out today.

The pattern of these defeats is a big, big concern and with the fixtures to come over the festive period it's not looking any easier.

Funny thing but I don't think the reactions are really that bad. I thought Bundee did good and I think that will only help him settle into the team. I thought Bolton did well. But Caolin has to speed up a bit. He has wrecked my head for ages

was delighted for Jack. and again and again Caolin how much time do you need to move a ball. you crack me up

It's a tough run of fixtures to be trying to find some form.

It's obvious for competing teams to see lineout as a weakness. It's obvious that competing teams see slow distribution as a weakness. It's obvious that our maul can be overturned.

So we are targeted in these areas. No rocket science from our opposition.

Maybe it's about time we got our **** together

To be honest munster results have nothing at all to do with Connacht. Comparing teams like this makes no sense, connacht or munster could have lost the same if fixtures switched round or maybe not.

But yes both have being very poor in Heineken cup this year, maybe the cup improved but Id say its just poor performances more than quality of other teams.

Personally think it’s shows that the English and french teams are taking the tournament more serious this year ( in general, I know there have been a few fully rotated teams).

Seems the French teams are travelling too this year

The idea is that although they traveled, they couldn't be arsed about winning, because home record is the absolute priority for a lot of French teams.

It's obvious to me what's missing and that's the nuts and bolts of the game, I think we've got this tag now of being a team that can play off the cuff and score from anywhere to get a result, that seems to be at the cost of doing the basics well which includes set pieces, defending mauls and protecting the ball and the player, basically we're just not fronting up.

I think the break around six nations time will be huge for the coaching team. While a lot of the new coaches are light on experience, there is a lot of potential. There has been some great defensive sets so far this season under Fardy and some of the transition attack under Sexton has been class.

At the minute they’re going game to game each week, so won’t have too much time to fine tune the game plan. Unfortunately a lot of the issues this season are just continuation from previous years. I hope the new coaches can do something with this issues.

was at the match, great entertaining match, unfortunately didn't go the way would have hoped, side note,the Stone x stadium is one of the best I've been in. was in top section of 1876 stand. their supporters were bang on too 👍

It's funny but going into this season I really thought things were going to be different. All aspects of our game seemed to be improved. And here is the thing that bothers me the most is Finlay. Now over the years Finlay has been our outstanding performer. For Ireland he has been immense. But since his return this year something is different. It's like he is going through the motions. And if he is going through the motions it's a first time ever as far as I'm concerned. And something is causing that.

Having watched the Connacht and Munster games last weekend. Munster blew it in the end but for 60 minutes they were excellent. There was nothing excellent about the Connacht performance.

I think there is some disconnect going on at Connacht these days.

I'm enjoying all the talk of needing to more equitably spreading the central contracts, obviously this has only just become an issue now that it's a problem for Munster!

Wasn't a problem when we went 20 years without one but if this outrage leads to some change we might get a few more scraps from the table.