Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Zeugnis

What's the point?

The attack was pathetic.

We need a 10 that can consistently kick well out of the hand so as to put us in the opponent's half. Either approach Harry Byrne again, his career has gone down the toilet at Leinster, or give Hawkshaw a run of games. Let's not waste large salaries on foreign internationals like Santi who can't transform our back line. This management team are so poor.

We need passing that creates space and manipulates defences - where are the line breaks? I return to the release Tom Farrell, our only specialist 13. We now get to torture ourselves watching him play out of his skin almost every week for Munster while we try 12s and wingers in the hope that they'll become something they're not.

What a joke. Who is going to replace Wilkins?

SqueakyKneecap

We'll do well to have 3k season tickets by the time this new stand is ready.

What an embarrassing coaching ticket we have.

lavrenti

Well at least now there's clarity. That's the URC gone for this season and Wilkins and all of that coaching team are dead men walking and hopefully will be gone by the end of the season if not before. Their only prayer is the extremely long shot of winning the ECC.

Where has it all gone wrong? On paper it looks like a decent squad, but then you take a second look and we have no 10 who can kick. No 10 who can make more than 20 metres with a touchline kick or who you can feel confidence in when taking a kick at goal. FFS - we knew that JJ would be out till 2025 and we replace him with a journeyman Kiwi who cannot kick. Carty has been a shot player for at least three seasons now and couldn't kick consistently even in his prime back around 2018. Forde is a 12 who Wilkins consistently selects at 13 and who also can't kick and Hawkshaw (who might've been the alternative to JJ) can't buy a selection at 10. With the URC gone we may as well give the gametime at 10 now to Hawkshaw and young Naughton.

(Mis)Selection is at the heart of our problems. Niall Murray hasn't trained on and has gone from being on the fringes of Irish selection to also-ran status, contributing only in the line-out. Why was he selected last night? Dowling or even David O'Connor might've at least brought some aggression. It was also a pity that Josh Murphy had one of his quietest nights for us.

Why wasn't young Devine in the 23? It's only taken us half a season to knock the good out of young Ben Murphy. He's gone from being sensational against Munster to being very poor last night.

We've let the excellent Tom Farrell go and his direct replacement Piers O'Conor is not being played at 13 while we try to make 13's out of Forde and Ralston neither of whom are made for that position. Again this is a selection issue, and that's down to Wilkins and his coaching team.

And finally the continued selection of Cordero in order to somehow justify the money spent on him to the exclusion of Mullins, Smith, Porch, and Ralston is ridiculous. I said it after the Dragons game that Cordero is a shot player since his injury and none of his performances since have changed my mind.

What a waste of what could've been a promising season. Wilkins must go, and now - not at the end of the season.

ShineyShiney

I view us in two parts.

Squad: we have a good squad of players with a couple of major challenges at 10 and 15 and to a slightly lesser extent 2.

I think Wilkins has done well in the area of player recruitment. We have cover in every position and often a 3rd choice that's not far off the standard. He is not a good selector though.

There aren't many players that I would like to see leave at the end of the season, maybe 4 which is a pretty low number compared to most seasons. We have the players to compete for top 8. I'm not arguing that we are potential winners or anything but considering budget etc. Id give us a 7 out of 10.

Performance: I hate our game plan, I hate our attack. I can't stand anything I've seen from Sextons attack structure. I hate our kicking. Like wtf surely these coaches know that Forde can't kick down the line. He's like a golfer that can't hit a fairway and unfortunately for us the fairway is the opposition 22. We are going to take a seriously good 12 and kill every bit of confidence he has by missing him. God help us when JJ is back fit because he's the absolute worst of our options. He would be fine if we wanted 10 man rugby but we haven't the size to play that style.

Bottom line, Wilkins needs to go but far more importantly so does Sexton in a serious hurry.

Yesterday we had Scrum, lineout, possession and territorial dominance but never looked like winning. That's a coach issue.

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122997871#Comment_122997871

What's a "shot player"?

You've said it twice in that post, it's a term I've never heard used to describe a player before.

ShineyShiney

Shot = done or finished.

I don't agree on Carty being shot. Thought he was decent yesterday considering the absolute shite in front of him. He made a cracking try saving tackle on mcnabbey that none of our other 10's would have even considered making and kicked pretty well. Creating our only unscripted play of the game which resulted in a fairly lucky try.

If he went to Munster we would be saying why did we let him go. He's not the future but he's more than good enough to bring through a new 10.

CuriousCucumber

Bealham, Oliver, Ben Murphy, Cathal Forde, Hugh Gavin, Mack Hansen, Bundee, Devine

That's the list of players with whom I'd be disappointed to lose.

We need players who are committed, and the right type of coaches.

Was the 2016 squad stronger that what we have now? Probably not, but the players were all seriously committed, and we had the right type of coaches. I think it's too often overlooked, but the skills coaches that Pat Lams brought with him, Andre Bell and Dave Ellis had a huge impact on our players

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122997871#Comment_122997871

I believe Finn Treacy was a 13 in school. He looks to have the tools. In general, I agree with you. The squad is good but the coaching is poor. I feel for Niall Murray as I think he's stagnated in recent times. He's a lad who could have been a capped international, imo. There is areas in the Connacht squad where there's weaknesses that put them on the back foot before the game starts. Specifically Carty, he's just not a good out half. Poor kicking from hand and constant errors. The kiwis import is not a 10 either. I can't believe that Smith is warming the training pads? Or Mullins hasn't been selected more. Connacht support are right to feel aggrieved. This coaching ticket is very poor. Unfortunately, Wilkins has a year left on his contract and I don't think Connacht can afford to buy him out.

I would have selected Forde at 12 and Aki at 13 yesterday, considering that Ulsters centers were inexperienced. Connacht had scrum dominance and yet they scored 1 flukey try. Painful stuff really. On Murphy, if he's on a 1 year deal he potentially could leave to go play with Ulsters. That would be a loss for Connacht.

Utopia Parkway

Thought the Connacht pack was an embarrassment last night. The first 30 minutes the young Ulster lads were running over them, running through them and generally spanking them. Connacht only had a bit of success at the scrum but they were being monstered in contact.

Forwards couldn't get anything going and the backs couldn't get over the gainline against an even younger Ulster back line. Every time they got possession they crabbed sideways across the pitch.

All I can think it for whatever reason they were complacent heading into the game thinking they only had to turn up to roll over a young Ulster side at home. And deservedly got their arses handed to them. Connacht are definitely not good enough to go into any game with that mindset.

lavrenti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122997988#Comment_122997988

Someone who's confidence is shot. Over the hill.

Former Coach

Bundee and Mack are going to be unavailable for a good number of matches now so I think that we should be using Cathal Forde in his best (and more than likely favourite) position at 12, Piers O’C at 13 and Shane Jennings at 15. They all need a run of games in those positions to get the backline flowing. We’re good at 9 with Bladey, Murphy, Devine, Reilly and can alternate Jack and Josh at 10 ( neither are perfect but each of them have lots of strengths). On the wings there are lots of options Cordero/Bolton/ Smith/ Mullins. There’s a decent backline there but we need to get a lot more creative than we’ve been - much too lateral even off quality ball and relatively easy to defend against.
We have good back- row options (SHL and Jansen have been excellent recruits). Our line out in generally is good both defensively and offensively but we definitely need to recruit urgently in our front row. Really missed Heff and Joe Joyce in the front 5 last night in what was one of our worst performances in quite a while.

AccidentallyOnside

We have a lot of issues but two really jump out at me:

Size- our front five is small almost across the board (Heff and Joyce the only two exceptions). We have some excellent skillful/quick players but we don't give them the ability to show that as we constantly lose contacts. Even a guy like Oliver, who I really rate, I don't think we can play as we are so short of size elsewhere that we can't afford another undersized player in our back row, where some combo of Prendergast, Murphy, Boyle, SHL and Jansen do bring a bit of umph.

Kicking- I don't think we have a single player in the squad able to kick sufficiently well, whether that be for touch, for goal or, most importantly, for position. Every time we coughed up the ball in Ulster's 22 doak was send us back to the halfway line, when we made defensive turnovers we often weren't even clearing our 22. I can't remember the last time we won a kicking duel either; it might look boring but when you cant kick for distance or kick to regather then you're left only being able to run which leaves you wide open to a quick blitz defence like Ulster used last night.

I'm not sure any of this is a systems fix either. We can look at our squad and see quality but when there are obvious glaring weaknesses professional teams will always exploit that.

If you win the lineout and scrum battles (we weren't perfect but clearly on top) and still don't win you know you have problems.

ElisaAtWar

The only reason I can fathom such a performance is a complete disconnect between coaching staff and players.

Macks outburst last week was unacceptable (fine in a forum but not on live TV) and Wilkins response was as lame as his tenure in Connacht has been.

And I think the players just summed up their frustration yesterday.

Wegians89

Bring in Nigel Carolan ASAP

ElisaAtWar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122999654#Comment_122999654

Bring in Graham Rowntree ASAP

ElisaAtWar

Remember coaching team for all provinces is paid for by IRFU and not locally. So think big

jim Dempsey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122999718#Comment_122999718

That can't be true how can Leinster have a world cup winning coach and Connacht got Scott fardy who coached at some low level Sydney league team ?

padre78

Felix Jones..........why not?

realhorrorshow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122999058#Comment_122999058

Don't disagree at all but if there are resources available I would commit them to coaches, rather than players. Our squad does have issues but is more than good enough for URC top 8, IMO we are underachieving relative to the talent available.

bingobango12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122999983#Comment_122999983

It is true but I'm sure there is nothing stopping a province adding an extra 100k on top. A previous coaches rent was also looked after by Leinster in a beautiful part of Dublin in a beautiful house. Would imagine 5/6k per month rent. So there are perks that the provinces can add in no doubt.

Dubinusa

Carolan would be great. But it's not just Wilkins. The Fardy/Sexton hires are not proving successful.

MarinersBlues

You would have to imagine getting Champions Cup for the new stadium was a major KPI for management this season, so they are under pressure. Will have to see how that unfolds.

From a fans perspective I would be happy enough to semi-write off the league now and make the Challenge Cup top priority. We are in a great spot for a top two seeding - and should chase that now. A home q-final and s-final would see us favorites to get to the final.

ElisaAtWar

Its hard to measure where Connacht is today and where Connacht were in 2016. But on a basic measure Pat Lam was a person who inspired. Keane was a disaster and today Wilkins is a disaster. So it's really not about the players but what inspires the players.

And this is the missing element. Wilkins is such a lame duck. Even Mack is starting to complain.

ElisaAtWar

We need to find a coach that inspires . That said I did say that some years ago. The team selection is irrelevant

ShineyShiney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123001420#Comment_123001420

Did you see us play at the weekend? I reckon you'd get 100-1 on us winning the CC

ElisaAtWar

At the end of the Stormers game in Galway last year I did say to Jarad that he was best served leaving because 2024/2025 was going to be the nightmare

AccidentallyOnside

Harry Byrne heading to Bristol on a short term deal.

Looks a good move for both parties but can't help but feel like a snub; wants to go somewhere for game time......but not Connacht 😞

ShineyShiney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123003685#Comment_123003685

Best of luck to him. I think its now or never for Harry. 3 months to add a playing record to go with all the hot air around him ( not of his creation) . Most over hyped and over rated player ever in my opinion. I really hope he plays injury free and shoots the lights out for them.

There may be a budget and an opening in Galway for next season.

AccidentallyOnside

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123003780#Comment_123003780

I agree- he needs game time as his fall down the pecking order has been rapid.

Whilst over hyped by the media theres a good player in there somewhere and I'd gladly have him at Connacht next year. Whether he'd join is another matter

MarinersBlues

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123001616#Comment_123001616

I'll take 33/1 if you're offering it 😁