Connacht vs Ospreys, Sept 10th 7.35 pm on TG4 and S4C

Cathalthesmart

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Long long way to go yet. Don't think anything is clear cut after two games.

Dismal start from Connacht though to ship 73 points in two home games. Last season hangover and Injuries or not that is an awful way to start the season but plenty of twists and turns to come yet.

Trust me, I really hope your right and I agree there are twists and turns. If this was Munster/Ulster/Leinster I would be more confident of a turn around but Connacht have for most years been considered a filler team up until the last 2 seasons and my worry is with 2 humiliating defeats will the doubt get into the head of the players, the last 2 seasons here they did well they had an excellent start to build on, now not so much.

flogthebog

I'm left feeling hmmmm. So we taught an old Muldowney new tricks, so we need to teach it again. Certainly Qualter, if he is to be the new Muldowney, has much learning. Then you watch the Aki Henshaw combination and here I say defensively. Aki and Henshaw simply combined so well to repel attacks. There was nothing combined about Aki and Griffin. And then Jack and Kieran, well that didn't work. I see this is a year out to relearn stuff. Its not a disaster but you have to stand up and say that maybe there are players there that are not filling key positions very well

The Rape of Lucretia

Cathalthesmart wrote: »

Connacht won't be getting top 6 this season I'm afraid

I wouldnt discount it completely. 6th is possible. More likely 7th or 8th.

The Rape of Lucretia

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Long long way to go yet. Don't think anything is clear cut after two games.

Not really basing view that they will be 7th/8th on just two games though. Also basing it on last year.

Cathalthesmart

I wasn't as worried about the Glasgow defeat as despite how embarrassing it was I always felt Glasgow where going to be ahead of Connacht. Losing tonight though seriously worries me as Osperys where one of there serious rivals for top 6.

flogthebog

I will revert to the para-olympics for a bit. Do like the concept of winning in the face of adversity. Maybe connacht need to learn that hunger again?

BrokenMan

Most worrying thing for me was the way the heads seemed to drop after the second try. Game was still there to be won at that stage.
Hopefully I'm wrong but there did seem to be a noticeable drop off. Up to that point they were playing reasonably well in the second half.

Adbrowne

flogthebog wrote: »

I'm left feeling hmmmm. So we taught an old Muldowney new tricks, so we need to teach it again. Certainly Qualter, if he is to be the new Muldowney, has much learning. Then you watch the Aki Henshaw combination and here I say defensively. Aki and Henshaw simply combined so well to repel attacks. There was nothing combined about Aki and Griffin. And then Jack and Kieran, well that didn't work. I see this is a year out to relearn stuff. Its not a disaster but you have to stand up and say that maybe there are players there that are not filling key positions very well

Players energy levels falling off a cliff after an hour is a serious issue. Glasgow and Ospreys must have scored 5 (?) tries in the last 20 between them.

Tigerandahalf

Connacht haven't recruited enough it would appear. Their scrum is very reliant on a fit Buckley and he seems to be injured quite a bit.

I always thought Muldowney's loss would be huge and it is already showing. Ultan Dillane got a lot of hype last year but he has a lot to learn re the basics that Muldowney did so well.

Marmion looks to be on a downward curve from last year. Worrying that Griffin seems to be the only option at 13. Maybe more gametime will bring him on with Aki.
Carty isn't good enough at 10. His goalkicking is poor. McGinty was a solid more reliable player.

The positives are that Niyi and Healy look in good form again. They look threatening with the ball.

flogthebog

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

Connacht haven't recruited enough it would appear. Their scrum is very reliant on a fit Buckley and he seems to be injured quite a bit.

I always thought Muldowney's loss would be huge and it is already showing. Ultan Dillane got a lot of hype last year but he has a lot to learn re the basics that Muldowney did so well.

Marmion looks to be on a downward curve from last year. Worrying that Griffin seems to be the only option at 13. Maybe more gametime will bring him on with Aki.
Carty isn't good enough at 10. His goalkicking is poor. McGinty was a solid more reliable player.

The positives are that Niyi and Healy look in good form again. They look threatening with the ball.

This post is so wrong I don't know where to start. Dillane was always the impact player while muldowney was the playmaker. You cannot be both.

Marmion downward curve. On what planet. His performance is directly related to the outhalf outside him.

Niyi and Healy were good. Ospreys walked through our defense. And matt and niyi were good. I think not. Maybe going forward they were ok but defensively they were so poor. Totally out of position so many times it couldnt be classed even as adequate AIL stuff.

jam83

Ref was pretty biased for Ospreys I thought. He made some ridiculous calls.
He did it at a time when there was 1 score between the teams. But were we good enough over the 80? Probably not.

Jacks confidence is shot I think. That first penalty miss was critical. There is too much bread and butter stuff that is screwed up. Forget the great 40 yards kicks to touch for a second. They're into open space. It's the times where a penalty is won through blood and sweat, and the penalty is f***ed up and we are running across the pitch defending again. Happened last week too at a crucial point in the second half. I feel for the guy but I think coaching can only take you so far.

Id like to see o Leary in there until boshoff can take over.
Both games were lost for more reasons than the number 10. But other teams don't seem to miss out on 3 points half as often as we seem to do.

penybont exile

Taking the referee out of the equation ......[Personally I thought he was OK ..... and I wouldn't be a fan of his refereeing style] ..... there was a chasm between those two sides. The only real surprise was that it took about 70 minutes for this to reveal itself on the scoreboard.

Adbrowne

jam83 wrote: »

Ref was pretty biased for Ospreys I thought. He made some ridiculous calls.
He did it at a time when there was 1 score between the teams. But were we good enough over the 80? Probably not.

Ref was fine for the most part. Apart from the maul collapse scrum call which i felt was wrong nothing stood out that i can remember. If connachts defence was up to scratch they wouldn't be getting hammered

BrokenMan

Ah here lads let's not go back to blaming the ref. As in any game a few debatable decisions either way but to call him biased is just wrong.

Akrasia

For most of last season, Connacht had a porous defense. But they made up for it by scoring a lot of tries on the other end. They'll need to sort out their attack if they want to repeat what happened last year.

connachta

we just do need rain. It helps our defence and we have better handling to attack

Cathalthesmart

Zebre couldn't have come at a better time, I feel 1 thing Connacht a seriously lacking is confidence and hopefully a win over Zebre will revive some of it. They aren't a million miles away from where they need to be and if they make as much progress between now and next week as they did from last week and this week then they should beat Zebre comfortably and then hopefully they can build again for the next match vs a Scarlet side who will very likely still be on 0 points.