Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Wegians89 wrote: »

Really thought they’d give him another year, has all the attributes to make a decent player, just needed time and effort. Hope that means there’s another 8 coming in

I would love to see Jack Conan arrive but with Doris suffering with recurrent concussion issues I doubt it.

FACECUTTR wrote: »

I would love to see Jack Conan arrive but with Doris suffering with recurrent concussion issues I doubt it.

So would I but really why would any of the Leinster players pick Connacht? Conan, ruddock, leavey, penny, vdf, Connors deegan could have their pick of teams to play for with lots more € than we could offer.

If we are shopping at Leinster it's guys who don't make it from their academy or who don't get into the academy. We have had plenty of success with that.

Martin Maloney, Sean o Brien or soroka

Are we heading for a team of Sean O Brien's

ShineyShiney wrote: »

I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't add a back row.

Neither would I with the amount in the academy. But don’t think any of them are ready to jump in next season.

Masterson Jn is heavy, he could well be moved back to n°8. Butler can too, sometimes, when Oliver/McCormack will play at openside

I do think Donnacha Byrne may be highly enough seen for the future, so Papa has been released, and it's a transition year for n°8...

On the whole Aki thing I agree it was a red card, but what frustrates me, and somebody alluded to it earlier, is the inconsistency.

In the Wales France match there was a leading elbow to the face of the French 10 from the Welsh 12 which resulted in a HIA, which was failed. The 12, granted is swerving to avoid the tackle, but his arm comes away from his body and makes contact with the head. Accidental, almost certainly, but the elbow has separated from the body and makes a hit to the head that should have been punished in my opinion. I have a screenshot of the video but can't upload it. At 34:30 ish you will see the incident in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlA7IGVasmg&ab_channel=EnglandRugbyNation

Sticking with Wales (not deliberately picking on them, just the most memorable incidents!), the tackle on Ringrose going unpunished, around
39.50 in this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUphPqPYbiQ&ab_channel=NZRugbyVidz

He has gone in high, head hits head and not even penalised. I would need to see more angles before jumping on the red card band wagon, but I think it was worth a look by the TMO.

For me it is hard to see how what lies on the spectrum between these incidents and the Sexton/Genge incident which are not even penalties or looked at by the Refs and TMOs during the games, to a red card and multi week ban for Aki.

lenny4545 wrote: »

https://www.connachtrugby.ie/attack-coach-nigel-carolan-to-leave-connacht-at-end-of-season/

Carolan leaving Connacht!

Big loss. It will be good for him to get experience elsewhere, and hopefully come back as head coach some day.

Letting the wrong coach go. Defence is where we need change.

It was mentioned a few weeks ago by Friend that some of the coaching ticket were moving on. I'm sad it is Carolan as out attack has been quite good. Best of luck to him he has been fantastic in all his appointments so far.

Bazzo wrote: »

Disagree on Boyle, think 8 has been far and away his most effective position (once his decision making improves, which it has and will continue to). He's absolutely terrorised some scrums off the base of the scrum

Feck on Carolan... That's a loss I think

Ya Carolan is a big loss. If our attack is blunted in any way next season we could well drop down the league standings as I dont see our defence improving with the current setup.

Shame about Carolan. I know there were rumours that Friend might be leaving and Carolan might have fancied the head coach job but reading the statement it seemed like he just wants to try something new and told them he was leaving before the season even started. In fairness he's been at Connacht his entire career so probably wants to expand his coaching CV. Think he might end up in England but who knows.

Would be surprised if he's not back as head coach in a few years time maybe.

Jesus Christ someone please explain the difference between that red for Russell and the yellow in the Scarlets game, I'm lost.

realhorrorshow wrote: »

Jesus Christ someone please explain the difference between that red for Russell and the yellow in the Scarlets game, I'm lost.

Russell's one could actually have arguably been deemed "upper chest", where as the one against Scarlets was stone wall neck/jaw...... As fantastic as rugby is for the clarity of quite technical laws, and respect of referees etc. it's not immune to frustratingly inconsistent refereeing

testtech05 wrote: »

I was just thinking the same. If anything I think porch was hit a bit higher near the chin

Is there a clip of this?

randomname2005 wrote: »

Is there a clip of this?

Sorry I don't have one but maybe one of the posters who are on Twitter or similar might be able to help you out.

Squidgy Black wrote: »

https://youtu.be/S3qzQJ2MGnY

The TMO reviews start around the 32 minute mark on that video, looks identical to Russell's incident and also the one called in the Leinster v Ulster game

Wow. As carbon copy as you are likely to get. Russell can argue that his offense was only a yellow card and he would be right.