Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

On Patchel, lovely player but would we be better off trying to get our hands on someone who might ask questions of our two elder lemons when contract renewal time comes around?

Patchel would fit the bill for 6 months though.

Otere Black

Ex blues and Māori All Black latest rumor to take the 10 spot

Does he quit current team? In the squads list of HP (24~25 season) of Urayasu D-Rocks (Japan), his name is still remaining. But in Japan, the contract is not so strict in many cases. So if there is mutual agreement, (I think) it's not impossible. And this team has been in low situation last season, so changed team by merge with other team. (new members by the merger involve Elton Jantjies) On the other hand, Urayasu city is well known by Tokyo Disney resort, but actually is not good for living or housing environment. So, it's no wonder that he or his family want to leave there.

He was unreal at U20s a few years ago. I think he was the same year as Aumua and Caleb Clarke when they absolutely obliterated Ireland.

draw complete

I believe we will play the two French teams, cheetahs and one of Cardiff or zebre

Seems you were right, Flynn is in to start against Georgia. Extremely excited to see him play live, can't remember us ever producing a player like him. Will be good to see Naughton from the start, he seems to have very good fundamentals but hasn't been charged with leading the team from the start yet, Italy were a bit of a beaten docket by the time he came on. Interested to see if he can make good decisions and put his team in the right areas, as Jack Murphy does so effectively.

Treacy was good in the centre against Italy and I believe it's his favoured position, although he looks very much like he'll be a wing at senior level to me. He shouldn't be too far away from senior rugby but it's hard to see where his minutes will come from. Gavin is just a cut above at this level, the sequence where he made a clean break around halfway, then chased down the counterattacking Italian wing with the space of about a minute, was absurd. He needs to be playing senior rugby from the off next season. I think he could easily be in position to replace Bundee at 12 for the 25/26 season (assuming Bundee leaves at the end of his current contract), but may need a bit more time to establish himself if we see him as more of a 13.

I thought the 20s ran a similar attacking shape to ours, with lots of intricate passing. However, it was much more effective because there was more depth and deception, and the quality of the defence was far below what we encounter in the URC. I think the latter may be the biggest factor to be honest.

https://www.connachtrugby.ie/news/shane-gaughan-to-officiate-at-the-womens-u20s-six-nations/bp3073/

I remember him reffing a good few of my games when he must have been 20/21. He was very good, glad to see it working out well for him.

Agreed, can't understand why more provinces aren't dipping into the SA talent pool.

6 women from Connacht was excellent in Palma. ( Kiripati who has not been named at first but appeared as substitute in missing player). Especially Faith Ovaiwe stood out. Connacht women will be more competitive at next inter province matches.

Assume he'll play Mitre 10? Wonder when he'll arrive, need him here for preseason ideally if he's to come in as first choice.

It says he has joined for the 24/25 season but doesn't mention anything else. I would hope he is here for pre-season as it really doesn't make sense if he is not.

Considering the timing this looks a good signing. I think his highlight reel would suggest that he would have been very well suited to previous Connacht playing styles. Hopefully we will have consigned last season's shovelball to the bin and we get to see his and jacks passing.

That is a big hope. We need the coaching ticket to improve massively on last year..

Challenge cup fixtures

Home Zebre 7/12/24 Away Perpignan 15/12/24

Home Lyon 11/1/25 Away Cardiff 17/1/25

It appears that they decided to go with three groupings of 2 teams in each pool.

Each pool has a French pair, a URC pair, and a mixed pair (Pool A’s mix is an Invitational team plus a URC team, Pool B’s is an English team plus a URC team, Pool C’s is an English team plus an Invitational team).

Connacht were drawn out of the hat to pair with Cheetahs.

Play all teams of the other groupings.

Pool A
Group 1 (URC) Cardiff, Zebre
Group 2 (Fra) Lyon, Perpignan
Group 3 (Invit&URC) Cheetahs, Connacht.

Pool B, like above but Emirates Lions paired with Newcastle Falcons.

Pool C, Black Lions paired with Gloucester to make three groupings.