Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Disappointment in the end. Was hard to see what was going wrong with the Connacht scrum in the first half but they were continually being pinged. As for the Jack and JJ selection, why would you not start Jennings. It was said before the game that the selections are simply puzzling and more to the point they tend to work out exactly as we might expect.

On other matters the French fans are good fun. Shouting 'allez les garcons Connacht' brought a good laugh from the locals😂

Selection issues have to get sorted out. Bristol next week is a real chance to ring the changes and see what we might potentially have as compared to what we already know we have. Losing to Bristol would not be a disaster if we learn something from the game. Team selection today ensured little was learnt

You complain there’s no consistency in selection and now you’re calling for us to ring the changes?

Connacht are done for the champions cup. I'd experiment v Bristol. Hawkshaw at 15. Jennings 13. Illo to start and MacDonald to retain his Jersey.

Niall Murray is a mystery. Fantastic line out operator. At this stage you'd wonder what Wilkins is thinking.

Not a great complaint if players are not picked on ability. It all goes back to what Borders has said. You pick poorly, they play poorly

Lot of hyperbole in here.

We lost in France without any of our Irish internationals, that's not a selection decision beyond having prioritised their minutes for urc fixtures, which I agree with.

With no recognised first team fb we've been experimenting with two outhalfs, which I think has shown mixed results.

We're the weakest team in our hc group and it looks like we'll finish bottom, that is regrettable but not totally unexpected. We can always hope and strive for better, but it's very difficult to compete against teams with bigger budgets.

Our attack is suffering because our back three stocks have been decimated. Cordero, Hansen, Kilgallen all out long term. TOH has been injured. Porch has missed games. Ralston suspended. No threat in our back three at the moment at all apart from maybe Bolton when we can manage to get him some ball. JJ playing 15 where he’s zero threat to run shows how stuck they are.

The Bundee decision is even stranger when you have Forde possibly back next week.

Surely they wouldn't have made this decision of that was the case? That would be seriously shooting themselves in the foot.

I'd like to hear Rob Murphy or someone else with access ask for an explanation about Niall Murray lack of starts And where was Hurley Langton last weekend?

Three, really, seeing as you'd drop JJ as well as Carty and Blade.

You want Forde to take the kicks? JJ has had a good conversion rate.

Yes, JJs exits are poor. I'm surprised they didn't make any use of Tom Daly for kicking out of the hands, he has a big boot on him. Still, don't think I've seen enough of Forde to want him to be shooting on goal for us, so there's an issue of we don't have JJ on the pitch.

Elsewhere, lot of missed tackles on Saturday.

I want to know some issues. If anyone (very kindly) will give any answers, I would appreciate you from the heart. 1.Why Connacht changed Jansen (who didn't look get injury) to (light-class) Oliver? 2.Why Connacht didn't use Devine at more early time.(McDonald looked a middle lebel SH in Ireland) 3.Why Connacht don't try the pair by N.Murray and Thornbury who worked very impressive last season(especially stealing and charging down and field running) 4.Why Aki didn't attend the game. ( was he too busy many events?) 5.Is Carty will be gotten many teammates despite of such big mistakes (at first 5min. he kicked no touch penalty and then Knocked-on for opponent return kickking. And at 2nd half He failed to kick for passing to Smith. It looked so easy for veteran OH. 6.Why Connacht select a PG when the chance came 4th try in front of opppnent gall at 4th quarter? Then Hanrahan added 3 points and the margin went to 20-27 but Connacht missed any chance to get 4th try. Who selected that PG decision? (Then the game time has remained enough.) At last, Hanrahan was easily overtaked by opponent player and gave Lyon's last try. I watched that he did the same defending mistake at his Munster era. I think that it's caused slow reactionand the lack of speed.

I'm sorry my poor English.

1. Jansen substitution

There's very little point in making all three back rows play 80 mins. One of the three was always going to be replaced my a fresh man.

Also, Jansen defended really badly for the try on 51 mins that gave Lyon control of the second half. He bought a dummy at pillar when he should never have left his defensive role. Lyon would probably have scored anyway but you need to make them pass it.

2. Matthew Devine

It was Devine's first ever professional start. He's got lots of promise but he was an emergency sub who got a few minutes at the end. It's great to see him finally get on the pitch but there was no point in risking a young academy guy getting overwhelmed by an enormous French team on debut. He's not even a full member of the professional squad yet.

I thout McDonald did reasonably well. He picked the wrong option a few times but did pretty well given his inexperience too.

3. Thornbury and Niall Murray

I'm not sure about Thornbury. He's just back from a year out injured so his body may have taken a beating over the Christmas fixtures. It does take a while to build match resilience.

Unfortunately for Niall Murray the coaching team seem to want power and size in the starting pack. It's not obvious from a distance but Niall is a far lighter guy than Darragh. Darragh could potentially add another 10Kg with good conditioning over a couple of seasons. Right now Niall seems to be an impact substitute.

4. Bundee

As you noted above Bundee is IRFU minutes managed. He's played 80 minutes in our last four games so I guess we'll see 50-60 minutes of him against Bristol. This was probably pre-agreed with the Ireland coaching team. He could end up playing 300+ minutes in the Six Nations.

5. Carty

That compounded error was a very Carty thing to do. I don't join in some of the harsh criticism of him you see online, but simple concentration errors like this kill us sometimes.

If it's the crossfield kick I remember, he'll be disappointed not to execute it but I think it was off his weaker foot while slightly off balance, and we had a penalty advantage. He did have lots of space to kick into but that's not what you expect on the turn.

6. The Penalty

I think this was brain-dead too. Realistically we needed a bonus point win to progress in the Champions Cup. Kicking the penalty changed this from a two score objective to a three score objective. The players might have thought that a draw was worth bringing into play. I didn't agree.

7. Hanrahan's pace

I agree. I don't think either of Carty or Hanrahan have enough pace to play as a 10 / 15 combination unless we're forced to. In this case we probably were but I'm not sure if the coaches have done enough to get extra back three options with pace into the game squad.

His kick distance from hand is also a concern when he covers full-back. At least Carty can punt the ball 50+ metres down the field consistently.

Seeing a lot of rumours and announcements for the other provinces ins and outs For next season lately, just wondering what people think is needed and who would you want for Connacht?

I think a loosehead and ten are needed. Ideally an NIQ loosehead and a Leinster ten, realistically Harry Byrne or Tector.

Depending on SHL’s contract situation I’d look at Will Connors or Penny.

And potentially a full back depending on Cordero’s recovery.

If you could convince Gus McCarthy from Leinster, I’d be all for that.