Connacht 2011/2012 YOUR year in review

justsomebloke

So the end of the Provincial season is nearly opoun us so it is time to look back at how Connacht did this season.

So how would you review Connacht's season this year, what were you highlights and what your lowlights. Who do you think preformed well and who do you think could have done better. Then looking forward to next season what would you like to see happen in the off season.

*MOD warning from the start. This isn't a bashing thread any unnesseary bashing of players, management, other poster views or dragging intero pro nonsense will result in infraction and bans. THIS IS YOUR WARNING.

Try and keep the chat to a minimum and any posts that seem to be derailing the thread will be removed.

phog

Well getting into the H/cup helped them build their supporter base and being involved again this year should be a further building block.

They were unlucky not to beat Quins in their very first cup game, would have been icing on the cake.

porterbelly

This Season

League: 8th in Pro12

A record high finish for us. Not bad considering we lost 15 players during the off season including the (in)famous 4, and went on a wretched run of 15 defeats on the spin at one stage during the season. Place kicking cost us a few games, particularly Leinster at home, scoring 2 tries to their 0, and missing 5 kicks at goal and an injury time drop goal. Still need more consistency in performances,but with less upheaval in squad terms that should help. 106% attendance increase is also worth a mention

Europe: 4th in group

As to be expected as it was our 1st season in the competition and all bar about 3 players in the squad had experienced it and we also have the smallest budget by a distance. Still though, very competitive which was particularly pleasing and could and maybe should have posted a couple of more wins. Playing Toulouse at home was an incredible occasion, 9,000 in the Sportsground, something that will live long in the memory. Our performances and the effort and respect for the competition right til the last group game in terms of team selections and focus deserved the 1 victory,and hopefully we can build on that next season.

Player of the Season

A few candidates here, Gavin Duffy had an excellent season and showed why he's the no2 irish full back despite what Kidney thinks, Mike McCarthy enhanced his international credentials with another stellar campaign,Ronan Loughney has shown massive improvement, but John Muldoon stood out all season with his consistency and his attitude each week and some memorable performances in playing Robshaw off the park home and away v Quins to name 2.

Young Player of the Season

No doubt about this one, with 7 tries in his first season including 2 in the Heineken Cup, Tiernan O Halloran has made a massive impact this season. He has great talent, has shown an eye for the try line and has vastly improved on weaker parts of his game. Great to have him signed on for 2 more seasons.

Moment of the season

Beating Quins in the last group game of the Heineken. Unbelievable night in the Sportsground, on the filthiest night I've ever witnessed there ( and I've seen some filthy ones), we turned around in the second half into a gale of wind and rain only 4 points up and did the impossible by holding out and everyone tackled themselves to a standstill.


Next Season

Players in
Willie Faloon (Ulster)
Nathan White (Leinster)
Dan Parks (Cardiff)
Jason Harris Wright (Bristol)
Brian Murphy (Galwegians)

Players Out
Niall O' Connor (Ulster)
Henry Fa'afili
Dermot Murphy
Jamie Stephens
Ray Ofisa
Dylan Rogers
Brian Tuohy

Staff Changes

New Chief Executive in Tom Sears, former Kenyan Cricket CEO

Expectations

With more departures than arrivals, the squad is still fairly thin and we haven't exactly signed any superstars. That being said,if Parks can kick his goals and White locks the scrum week in week out with help from Loughney, we should be looking up rather than down. Glasgow won't have the season they had again, and Cardiff will struggle so hopefully they both can come back to us a bit. 7th would be a realistic target, as without any more investment in the squad, gradual improvement is all that's really possible. As we are 3rd seeds in the Heineken, 2 wins should be achievable.

Most looking forward to seeing

The Heineken Cup back in the Sportsround. It has really transformed things off the pitch with season ticket sales breaking records 2 seasons on the spin, ground improvements, and a great atmosphere every week. Lets hope a second season in it can further enhance our fortunes.

irishbucsfan

Niall O'Connor deal is on hold isn't it?

porterbelly

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Niall O'Connor deal is on hold isn't it?

It's done, just yet to be announced officially

Think Ulster are trying to get a back row signing sorted before they announce both together so O Connor's return can fly under the radar a bit and all the talk will be about the new back rower

Zzippy

Great post from porterbelly, agree with everything about last season. The increase in support and improvements in the match day experience were also very welcome.

Getting to 4,000 season tickets is a reasonable target this year, given the strong sales already. The new marketing guy seems to be doing a very good job. 4,000 ST holders would give an average attendance of 5-6,000+, going on last year's attendances. That's a huge leap in 2 years, from 2,269 average crowd, despite a relatively marginal improvement in results. With the new signings and hopefully more success on the pitch, plus hopefully a high profile team in the HEC, I'm hopeful next year (2013-14) we'll break the 5,000 ST mark, which would be a huge achievement in 3 years.

To put it in context, that would be about 35-40% of Leinster's ST holders in a city with ~7% of the population of Dublin*. Leinster went from 200 ST holders to over 12,000 in 6 years**, Connacht are going through a similar growth at the moment, even without the high profile team and success on the pitch. With a bit of investment, gradually improved facilities in the Sportsground, and building the experience for fans and families, I'm really optimistic about the future!

*rough figures off top of my head

** http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugb...e-2655183.html

CatFromHue

I was in the process of writing a harsher post than Porterbellys but I forgot that ye lost Carr, Hagan, Keatley, and Cronin.

The bonus point situation tells alot for me. 7 Losing BP's shows how close Connacht were for many games but the 0 try BP's show ye need to be more clinical in attack to turn the losing BP's in to wins. Only one team had a lower amount of tries scored this season and they won't be around next season.

Interestingly enough Tiernan O Halloran scored 5 of Connacht's 27 tries in the Rabo. That's 18.5% of your tries which is a pretty impressive strike rate! Add in the HEC too and he got 7 from 32 in total giving him a strike rate of 22% which is prob the best of any Irish winger.

I would disagree that Glasgow will not a have season like this again though. If anything that won't have a season like last season again. Edinburgh have brought in a few good recruits for next season which will help them when their international players are away. Treviso are getting better and better too so I don't see it getting any easier next season. Parks and White will help things next season but I'm not so sure about the other signings.

bamboozle

White, Parks & Faloon playing regulary along with the further development of Griffin, McSharry, TOH, Kearney and introduction to squad of Qualter, Layden should see a much more consistant Connacht team with far far better kicking stats and a steady scrum.

big season ahead.

Robbo

Highlights: Definitely the win over Quins. This was closely followed by the low of me making a point of getting Gavin Duffy to sign a program, which fell out of my jacket pocket in the pub, never to be seen again.

The other major was finally bagging the White Whale by not only beating Ulster but beating them well. Scoring 3 tries made it all the sweeter.

Matt Jarvis kick to steal the victory against Aironi was sweet as well. I believe that NASA have him contracted to send small payloads up to the ISS from a kicking tee.

The atmosphere for Toulouse in the Sportsground was electric. It's nice for there to be an *actual* smell of cordite in the air to justify the cliché, but the pre-match pyro made it so.

Lowlight: The losing streak was horrible. Not just for the result but for the fact that most of the losses were close and could have turned on a lucky bounce, generous reffing decision or whatever. Losing to an the usual understrength Munster side was just salt in the wounds.

Players of the Year: All the obvious ones (Duffy, Muldoon, O'Halloran, McCarthy) have been or will be mentioned here but I'll go a different direction. I have to admit that from last year, I thought Denis Buckley didn't look like he'd make it as a pro at all. This year, when he's had a go, he's been solid in the scrum and carried well. Definitely the surprise package of the year. Mick Kearney as well showed no problems at all in stepping up a level.

Expectations for next year: I reckon that with more consistency in the league, which Parks should bring, we should be looking at the mid-table scrap. To finish the league 6th or 7th, with a neutral or positive win/lose ratio and a positive points difference.

The Euro draw has us 3rd seeds, so I'd like to see a weak 4th seed so that we could get something out of the group and be close enough to ruin someone elses day on the last round again.

wp_rathead

HighLights:
Our packs performance in the Quins game
TOH stepping up to the plate to replace Carr
Vainkolo finding form- he started the season woefully (who can forget his Thomond Park debacle with the bounce)
George finding form from two seasons ago- started the season very unfit
The Free Pint at every game (you will be missed)
Atmosphere in the Clan all season
Finishing 8th
Mike McCarthy

Low-Lights:
Treviso at home / Aironi Away- two awful performances
The Losing Streak
Griffin keep getting injured
Our Scrum Half Situation
Blowing the lead away to Leinster in the RDS

Mixed year but will hopefully be looked back on in time as a good stepping stone season.

Really if Leinster hadn't got us into the Heineken season 2011/2012 could have been depressing beyond belief on and off the pitch.

Once we got in the HC things took off in terms of off the pitch developments and that was the major positive to come from this season and already things are looking good for next season in that regard.

Being honest the quality of our squad took a major dip last summer with Keatley, Carr, Cronin, Hagan and other useful squad players leaving.

Coming in there wasn't a lot to inspire. Being a world cup year helped us nudge a few games early in the season but once things evened themselves out a bit we struggled badly culminating in an embarrasing showing away to Aironi.

The win over Harlequins was a great night and helped turn the season somewhat and the second half of the season showed good improvement apart from one or two blips.

A crucial part is a lot of players have been blooded and a lot of others will have settled in, O'Halloran looks like he's been there for years and has nailed a starting spot, McSharry proved he can do a good job for us in the coming seasons, Griffin, Tonetti, Vainikolo, Loughney has got considerable experience under his belt at tight head now, Reynecke will be in his 2nd season, Mick Kearney, George Naoupu should hopefully be ready to make an impact from the start of next season. Jarvis has potential to improve so there is a basis to work on.

Still lots to do, Parks at 10 will have a major role to play, White should be a success at tight head and Faloon gives a decent replacement for Ray Ofisa. The crucial thing is the lads we have brought in all things going to plan will certainly improve the 1st team and squad whereas last year we were just trying to patch together some kind of squad.

Still have concerns at certain areas like scrum half and if we have an injury or two in the centre but overall a lot happier with the direction
Connacht is heading in comparison to 13/14 months back.

Next season the aim should be to get close to or over 50 points (39 in 2010/11, 37 in 2011/12) in the league, need to see out a greater proportion of tight games at the Sportsground in particular and a try and get a couple of wins on the road and bonus points.

We'll have to wait and see the draw in the Heineken Cup but given we're third seeds I'd like to think we could get at least 3rd in the group and keep picking up ranking points to improve our seeding for future European campaigns.

profitius

Its been a season of progress for Connacht. Their best season in the professional era yet. Attendances have shot up and theres record season tickets sales for next season. All because they're not run more professionally.

Connacht are on the right path.

porterbelly wrote: »

Next Season

Players in
Willie Faloon (Ulster)
Nathan White (Leinster)
Dan Parks (Cardiff)
Jason Harris Wright (Bristol)
Brian Murphy (Galwegians)

Players Out
Niall O' Connor (Ulster)
Henry Fa'afili
Dermot Murphy
Jamie Stephens
Ray Ofisa
Dylan Rogers
Brian Tuohy

Massive step up in quality there compared to last seasons signings. Theres more players going out than coming in but there should be more younger players coming through.

While some Welsh teams have weakened, Treviso and Edinburgh have strengthened their squads, especially Edinburgh. Connacht have now passed the Dragons and should finish ahead of them, the new Italian team and maybe Treviso and another team. So an 8th place finish could be considered a better achievement next season.

wp_rathead

Borders no.2 wrote: »

Really if Leinster hadn't got us into the Heineken season 2011/2012 could have been depressing beyond belief on and off the pitch.

+1!

d-gal

profitius wrote: »

Its been a season of progress for Connacht. Their best season in the professional era yet. Attendances have shot up and theres record season tickets sales for next season. All because they're not run more professionally.

Connacht are on the right path.

porterbelly wrote: »

Next Season

Players in
Willie Faloon (Ulster)
Nathan White (Leinster)
Dan Parks (Cardiff)
Jason Harris Wright (Bristol)
Brian Murphy (Galwegians)

Players Out
Niall O' Connor (Ulster)
Henry Fa'afili
Dermot Murphy
Jamie Stephens
Ray Ofisa
Dylan Rogers
Brian Tuohy

Massive step up in quality there compared to last seasons signings. Theres more players going out than coming in but there should be more younger players coming through.

While some Welsh teams have weakened, Treviso and Edinburgh have strengthened their squads, especially Edinburgh. Connacht have now passed the Dragons and should finish ahead of them, the new Italian team and maybe Treviso and another team. So an 8th place finish could be considered a better achievement next season.

Can also add Dave Nolan, Andrew Browne and Loxton to new signings as they were all out for the year. Browne is a massive bonus to have back. Him and Kearney look the future for a classy lock partnership