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Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

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Buer

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

Boscoirl

IngazZagni wrote: »

I rewound it and froze it. Looks like he was onside to me. Just serious line speed made him look offside.

A 14point swing then

its_phil

To be fair that was a class drop off

CMcsporty

Cripes! Friend must be tearing his hair out!

Utopia Parkway

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.

its_phil

The players and management owe the supporters an apology for that.

A nothing game but I’m mortified to support the team after that. Nothing to be proud of when you can be that arrogant.

One player in particular needs a good look at himself for the condition he showed up in tonight.

its_phil

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?

Bazzo

They had an absolute golden opportunity to take their first ever win in Parc Y Scarlets tonight and produced that ****show of a second half.

There should be some very hard questions asked after that.

WallyGUFC

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

CMcsporty

its_phil wrote: »

The players and management owe the supporters an apology for that.

A nothing game but I’m mortified to support the team after that. Nothing to be proud of when you can be that arrogant.

One player in particular needs a good look at himself for the condition he showed up in tonight.

Fitting that "The Crying Game" is on there after the game

realhorrorshow

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).

connachta

I'm not unhappy.

1) SOB 2.0 looks pretty good, I'm less worried to miss Bundee
2) Talking about Hodges, I remembered Cardiff and we s**** them again, ousting them from the 3rd place in the league by giving Scarlets the win
3) I'd have taken the 2 BP before K.O, and the result again does not matter. Roll on Leicester and Rainbow Cup!

freyners

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.

Tommybojangles

Hard to believe we finished second to Munster and managed to have the most frustrating season I can remember. (First went to games in 01 before anyone accuses me of a short memory.) I've lost count of the points thrown away. The last 2 games and Munster obviously stand out, ignoring the bonus point against Bristol. 12 points up at half time against Ospreys. Just thank God its over and who the hell knows what to expect from the Leicester game

Utopia Parkway

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.

its_phil

Tonight’s performance means we’re going to be brilliant against Leicester and lose by a score to a bad referee decision. It’s the way we do things in England when we have awful form. Gloucester QF, Gloucester playoff, Northampton Playoff.

[Deleted User]

That game just summed up the season.

Honestly I don't care if its a nothing game we should never lose that game. Before the game I wasn't overly bothered about the result but at 33-12 at half time you have to see that out. Some nice attacking play in the first half but the cracks were already appearing in defence. We came out in the 2nd half like it was a done deal. Scarlets were fighting for their lives and were always going to throw the kitchen sink at it.

We just needed to manage the game in the early part of the half and the longer it went on the more desperate they'd become but effectively the game was in their hands within 15 mins of the restart.

Even then we had our chances and messed them up. Scarlets and Edinburgh were both poor sides and we gifted them wins.

There needs to be big questions asked internally about the performance levels in certain games. Treviso was garbage too, we robbed that one.

Probably an unpopular opinion but I am unsure if we are moving forward. Thr squad is stronger and on our day we look a decent team but the wheels come off far too easily for my liking. I don't think the league this year was a proper league. We played 2nd string sides in pretty much 80-90% of games.

UAEguy2020

WallyGUFC wrote: »

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

Yeah I bet the Connacht team are ****ting themselves about playing Leicester all right...

Wegians89

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

ClanofLams

Wegians89 wrote: »

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

Game Intelligence or composure too. Presume that is worked and it's probably impossible to go through every scenario but things like McNulty not kicking deep into Edinburgh 22, not going through the backline with two man advantage against Munster in January, etc seem to happen a fair bit.

evil_seed

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

RonnieL

It's a real cliche, but we were seriously lacking in leadership last night I felt. As others have said, even when we went a good bit ahead in the first half, you felt we could still go on to lose. There's surely a huge mental aspect to the unbelievable inconsistency we've witnessed this year, which is worrying.

As a slight aside (but sticking with the theme of consistency), the current situation with regard to refereeing in the game is really taking away from my enjoyment. There's an uneasiness watching games as you know there's a pretty good chance a red card will be brandished. I actually feel sorry for the officials, because they're in a very difficult situation. But, all anyone wants in consistency, and we're not getting it. The fact we are likely to be without Bundee in the Leicester game because of an accidental (but dangerous) high tackle, and Genge will be free to play after admitting to elbowing someone repeatedly to the head makes the mind boggle.

Utopia Parkway

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.

freyners

Aki suspended for 4 games. Covers the rainbow cup and challenge cup. Don't think last night counts

Larbre34

Thats harsh.

Wegians89

Considering the red at the World Cup, 4 games isn’t too bad. Was expecting 6

Former Former Former

Larbre34 wrote: »

Thats harsh.

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

connachta

We fix the lineout issue, have a good scrum, these are basics
Mauls, offensive and defensive, are a work in progress
Defence is in shambles

There's also an explaination for the latter. Defence struggles because we have to resist to unending waves. And there are unending waves because NOONE in our squad is able to get turnovers. We need a Beirne, Jenkins, Cloete, VdF, even Heenan

Larbre34

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.

[Deleted User]

connachta wrote: »

We fix the lineout issue, have a good scrum, these are basics
Mauls, offensive and defensive, are a work in progress
Defence is in shambles

There's also an explaination for the latter. Defence struggles because we have to resist to unending waves. And there are unending waves because NOONE in our squad is able to get turnovers. We need a Beirne, Jenkins, Cloete, VdF, even Heenan

Had a look through the turnover stats and they back up your argument. Thornbury has most turnovers for us with 9 which is 5 behind leader Cloete. Bundee has 8, and then that's all we have in the squad with more than 5 turnovers for the season.

Cardiff, Ulster and Munster have several players each with over 5 turnovers.