Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

A half time substitute gets MOTM. Sort of sums it up.

To be fair that was a class drop off

Connacht have had a good season on paper. 2nd in their conference. Would be in the play offs in a normal year. Qualified for Champions Cup.

But they've thrown away at least 4 games this season that they really should have won. Robbed one from Benetton alright.

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Connacht have had a good season on paper. 2nd in their conference. Would be in the play offs in a normal year. Qualified for Champions Cup.

But they've thrown away at least 3 and probably 4 games this season that they really should have won.

Scarlets Home
Edinburgh Home
Ospreys Home
Scarlets Away

How did we throw them away?

Absolutely shameful 2nd half. Leicester will enjoy their run out against us I think.

Wow, what a game. Choose your cliché. Going into this I would have tolerated a loss, hard to expect us to beat a team who have something to play for when we do not. The nature of the second half implosion, and the fact that it is not the first time this year, is very concerning and hints at severe mental fragility within the squad. Obviously the first half was encouraging and we played some lovely rugby, but our defence was frankly atrocious. Even when up a man we looked all at sea. Every phase there is a frantic scramble to get in position. We constantly overfold around the ruck, spacing was all over the place around the guard position, caught narrow consistently, tackling was woeful. Peter Wilkins has been with us a long time now but has shown no signs that he can implement a top class defence. Seems a decent bloke and I’m sure there’s a role for him within the club but would like to see us make a change there.

The result was obviously very disappointing, but my main focus coming into this game was the performance of the young and fringe players.

Jordan Duggan: Another really good performance. Solid if not destructive in the scrum, and robust in the loose. Has had a very impressive season especially given he missed all of 19/20 through injury.

Niall Murray: Looking really promising. I had him down as potentially a slow burner given his frame but he has surpassed my expectations so far. Nice to see he hasn’t lost the pace as he has bulked up. Reminds me of James Ryan in how despite not being the heaviest he knows exactly how to take contact on his terms to win collisions. Interestingly, he scrummaged at tighthead too when Thornbury went off. Looks like a future international.

Abraham Papali’i: Exactly what you’d want from him. Loads of hard carries and worked hard on both sides of the ball. Understand that he is probably a divisive figure but I personally would love to see him stay.

Conor Fitzgerald: After some struggles earlier in the year, looking more like the player who kept Jack Carty out of the team at times last season. Has a lovely range of passing, he loves that flat ball right on the gainline.

Sean O’Brien: His best performance so far, though still tends to slip off a few tackles and makes his fair share of handling errors. In normal circumstances I think he would get a dev deal for next year, but if the provinces are under pressure to cut costs it could be hard to justify contracting 6 centres. In actuality Peter Robb is basically a non-factor but I don’t know if the IRFU will see it that way.

Ben O’Donnell: Not good. I’m sure the attacking side of the game will come to him once he notches a try or two and gets his confidence up. Made some awful reads in defence.

Subs were thrown onto a sinking ship so wouldn’t be too harsh on them.

The non-red card was a shambolic call and if it happened in a consequential game we would all be up in arms. Think the game needs specialist TMOs rather than shoehorning in refs that they have removed from the pool for being ****e (Ian Williams was the second worst ref I have ever seen, Leighton Hodges takes the gold for those curious).

realhorrorshow wrote: »

Wow, what a game. Choose your cliché. Going into this I would have tolerated a loss, hard to expect us to beat a team who have something to play for when we do not. The nature of the second half implosion, and the fact that it is not the first time this year, is very concerning and hints at severe mental fragility within the squad. Obviously the first half was encouraging and we played some lovely rugby, but our defence was frankly atrocious. Even when up a man we looked all at sea. Every phase there is a frantic scramble to get in position. We constantly overfold around the ruck, spacing was all over the place around the guard position, caught narrow consistently, tackling was woeful. Peter Wilkins has been with us a long time now but has shown no signs that he can implement a top class defence. Seems a decent bloke and I’m sure there’s a role for him within the club but would like to see us make a change there.

The result was obviously very disappointing, but my main focus coming into this game was the performance of the young and fringe players.

Jordan Duggan: Another really good performance. Solid if not destructive in the scrum, and robust in the loose. Has had a very impressive season especially given he missed all of 19/20 through injury.

Niall Murray: Looking really promising. I had him down as potentially a slow burner given his frame but he has surpassed my expectations so far. Nice to see he hasn’t lost the pace as he has bulked up. Reminds me of James Ryan in how despite not being the heaviest he knows exactly how to take contact on his terms to win collisions. Interestingly, he scrummaged at tighthead too when Thornbury went off. Looks like a future international.

Abraham Papali’i: Exactly what you’d want from him. Loads of hard carries and worked hard on both sides of the ball. Understand that he is probably a divisive figure but I personally would love to see him stay.

Conor Fitzgerald: After some struggles earlier in the year, looking more like the player who kept Jack Carty out of the team at times last season. Has a lovely range of passing, he loves that flat ball right on the gainline.

Sean O’Brien: His best performance so far, though still tends to slip off a few tackles and makes his fair share of handling errors. In normal circumstances I think he would get a dev deal for next year, but if the provinces are under pressure to cut costs it could be hard to justify contracting 6 centres. In actuality Peter Robb is basically a non-factor but I don’t know if the IRFU will see it that way.

Ben O’Donnell: Not good. I’m sure the attacking side of the game will come to him once he notches a try or two and gets his confidence up. Made some awful reads in defence.

Subs were thrown onto a sinking ship so wouldn’t be too harsh on them.

The non-red card was a shambolic call and if it happened in a consequential game we would all be up in arms. Think the game needs specialist TMOs rather than shoehorning in refs that they have removed from the pool for being ****e (Ian Williams was the second worst ref I have ever seen, Leighton Hodges takes the gold for those curious).

Ah Hodges. I will never forgive him for that Cardiff game.

Loads of bonus points this season. So well capable of scoring lots of tries and when they lose it's very often close games they lose.

Some individuals from the Connacht squad can feel hard done by not getting more international recognition but either the collective attitude and defensive systems are as bad as last night, it’s no wonder why so little get called up. Big changes need defensively next season

the story of our season wrapped up in one game. Capable of absolute brilliance in attack and set piece play. Defense an absolute shambles: go wide on us and you are guaranteed a try

You would have got very good odds on Connacht losing both the Edinburgh and Scarlets games from the positions they were in. Not sure how they managed it. Been a good season but it definitely leaves a stinky taste in the mouth to blow games like that. Hopefully can rebound against Leicester but those were two bad games to lose heading into that one.

Thats harsh.

Larbre34 wrote: »

Thats harsh.

It was literally the shortest suspension he could have got, unless they overturned the red completely.

Former Former Former wrote: »

It was literally the shortest suspension he could have got, unless they overturned the red completely.

Yeah well they should've.

I don't see how Aki could've made that belly-to-belly tackle any safer at full tilt. Billy V dipped into him as Aki himself dipped and BV caught a bell ringer for himself as Aki moved to wrap him. It wasn't reckless or malicious and a ban does precisely nothing to avoid such similar occurrences from the same player or any other player in the game. It was accidental and in a full contact sport, accidents will happen, despite all parties' best efforts to minimise them.