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Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

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connachta

Thrashssacre wrote: »

Only a couple of months ago you were raving about the guy in nearly every post, doesn't take much to turn you around does it.

Took me a 12-weeks ban.

Half of a season.

I love Papa but he won't play again.

The bet on him was lost because of captain challenge adding to new law interpretation.

He would have been a serious addition 3 years ago.

Burkie1203

connachta wrote: »

The bet on him was lost because of captain challenge adding to new law interpretation.

What has the captains challenge got to do with it

connachta

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Connacht beat Munster and Ulster.

Blew a 14-0 (?) Lead v Leinster

You really can't complain.

Hell yes I can, Connacht, Leinster, Munster, Ulster, Glasgow, Edinburgh can.

They'd like to get 10 points vs Zebre offered 90% of the times too in a 5-games competition
(I'm really kind imagining Zebre winning 10% of the time vs Irish provinces)

Ospreys, Scarlets, Cardiff, to a lesser extent as they have Dragons sometimes

Paul Smeenus

It's almost as if the Rainbow Cup is a lop-sided, poorly-thought-out hot mess.

Burkie1203

connachta wrote: »

Hell yes I can, Connacht, Leinster, Munster, Ulster, Glasgow, Edinburgh can.

They'd like to get 10 points vs Zebre offered 90% of the times too in a 5-games competition
(I'm really really kind imagining Zebre winning 10% of the time vs Irish)

Ospreys, Scarlets, Cardiff, to a lesser extent as they have Dragons sometimes

Benetton hammered Glasgow. What can Glasgow whinge about.

thomond2006

Why. Why engage.

connachta

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

It's almost as if the Rainbow Cup is a lop-sided, poorly-thought-out hot mess.

And that's why Treviso don't deserve a final on the basis of this "competition".

Still a poor though solid team.

That is and always have been my point here, nothing scornful, look at my several posts on Pro14 thread when I pointed during the season theu did not deserve to finish without any win, they're not poorer than Dragons, I've nothing against Treviso, but against them leading an unfair table (more than ever unfair)

sydthebeat

connachta wrote: »

Tweet I agree with

That is grossly unfair on Papali'i. Something has to be done about the high tackle and how it is being refereed. Players are going lower and lower so that it looks like they are being hit high. Players are being targeted now. Especially those who might have a "Reputation".

The man is just put under the radar and Captain challenge is the end of his carreer

Horrifically embarrassing

Former Former Former

That must be a record for red cards per minutes played.

Absolutely terrible call to extend his contract.

Dubinusa

Connacht are not a very good side. They are poorly coached and they have Neverending issues defending mauls. Friend should be dismissed. They are going nowhere with him. To think that this team can't defend a maul this late into the season is beyond a joke.
Nucifora will not fire his pal, so Connacht will serve up more of the same going forward.

sydthebeat

Dubinusa wrote: »

Connacht are not a very good side. They are poorly coached and they have Neverending issues defending mauls. Friend should be dismissed. They are going nowhere with him. To think that this team can't defend a maul this late into the season is beyond a joke.
Nucifora will not fire his pal, so Connacht will serve up more of the same going forward.

Friend is and never was a forwards coach.
Friends ethos is good and he plays a good positive style of rugby. They need to get a decent forwards coach and some "hard" players in there though, especially in the tight five... And by "hard" I don't mean 'stands on my head' McCoy

Bazzo

sydthebeat wrote: »

Friend is and never was a forwards coach.
Friends ethos is good and he plays a good positive style of rugby. They need to get a decent forwards coach and some "hard" players in there though, especially in the tight five... And by "hard" I don't mean 'stands on my head' McCoy

Lol, you've been holding on to that one for a while Syd. Maybe they should be looking for a proper hard man like Cian Healy?

sydthebeat

Bazzo wrote: »

Lol, you've been holding on to that one for a while Syd. Maybe they should be looking for a proper hard man like Cian Healy?

Healy is exactly the type of player you need ironically.

Fortunately he's unique

Zzippy

Dubinusa wrote: »

Connacht are not a very good side. They are poorly coached and they have Neverending issues defending mauls. Friend should be dismissed. They are going nowhere with him. To think that this team can't defend a maul this late into the season is beyond a joke.
Nucifora will not fire his pal, so Connacht will serve up more of the same going forward.

Connacht just finished second in their conference, best result since 2016. Any other year that would have been a home quarter final. Beat all 3 other provinces. Played some fantastic attacking rugby, scored most tries in their conference. Maul defence is down to forwards and defence coaches, not Friend.

connachta

He's signed now. He will have 1 preseason + 3 months to improve, one last try, no other choice, so let's make the best of it

Dubinusa

Friend is the top coach. So it falls on him.

Burkie1203

Dubinusa wrote: »

Friend is the top coach. So it falls on him.

Is the new guy coming in a new forwards coach?

Zeugnis

I have no issue with the red, but that doesn't stop me from feeling very sorry for Papall'il. He walked off the field like a condemned man, and indeed one feels that it might be effectively the end of his rugby career. He has ability but it's apparently very difficult to reform his tackle technique. Given his record, he just has to be safe every time, and that was not the case yesterday. I presume it will be appealed, but i think it's a case of hope against hope.

Hopefully Connacht have thought through a programme to keep him occupied during the extended suspension to come. At least with the loosening of restrictions he'll be able to explore the country. He will now have a long time to work on technique, although I'm not sure how keen Friend will be to risk selecting him again.

Lucas44

Zzippy wrote: »

Connacht just finished second in their conference, best result since 2016. Any other year that would have been a home quarter final. Beat all 3 other provinces. Played some fantastic attacking rugby, scored most tries in their conference. Maul defence is down to forwards and defence coaches, not Friend.

Connacht won 8 & lost 8 in the pro14 with a loosing record at home in what is regarded as the weakest league in Europe.. hardly a successful season

realhorrorshow

Lucas44 wrote: »

Connacht won 8 & lost 8 in the pro14 with a loosing record at home in what is regarded as the weakest league in Europe.. hardly a successful season

It was successful in that we qualified for the champions cup which I assume was the stated goal for the season. But I agree, we were largely very poor and were lucky that the non-irish pro 14 teams were shambolic this year. The positive for me is that we got a lot of minutes into young players which will hopefully stand to us going forward.

RonnieL

Can't wait for this season to just end now - so many infuriating displays from Connacht, mixed with some great moments to just f**k with our heads.

I feel for Abraham, as he has clearly put in a lot of effort to improve both his conditioning and his tackle technique, but you'd wonder if the branch might look to come to some agreement with him at this stage.

thomond2006

If Connacht can get out of that extension without too much of a sunk cost, they should do so.

FACECUTTR

thomond2006 wrote: »

If Connacht can get out of that extension without too much of a sunk cost, they should do so.

I think at this stage it would be best if they could get out of it in some way. He is no good to Connacht watching from the sidelines for 3 months of the new season. Then when he comes back he literally could be banned from the next game again and that would be ridiculous for both parties. I love what he brings and it is badly needed from a Connacht perspective bit he is too much of a liability now.

Burkie1203

https://twitter.com/connachtrugby/status/1399382257048162305?s=19

Bazzo

https://twitter.com/connachtrugby/status/1399382257048162305?s=19

Fifita signing official. I'd say the branch were desperate to drop any semblance of good news...

briandebum

Bazzo wrote: »

https://twitter.com/connachtrugby/status/1399382257048162305?s=19

Fifita signing official. I'd say the branch were desperate to drop any semblance of good news...

I mean its a second row from the 6th placed side in the French second division who's only recognisable due to his brother.

I'd take it as less good news & more as an indictment of our finances. I'm all for stats driven moneyballesque signings but it really seems as though we're scrapping the bottom of the barrel for any sort of big physical lad who can play rugby.

I recognise this is quite a negative take, hopefully he's a diamond in the rough!

Bazzo

briandebum wrote: »

I mean its a second row from the 6th placed side in the French second division who's only recognisable due to his brother.

I'd take it as less good news & more as an indictment of our finances. I'm all for stats driven moneyballesque signings but it really seems as though we're scrapping the bottom of the barrel for any sort of big physical lad who can play rugby.

I recognise this is quite a negative take, hopefully he's a diamond in the rough!

I mean I did say "any semblance of good news".

But yeah, that probably is an overly negative take at the same time. He's almost certainly a downgrade on Roux, but with finances this year we're very lucky that's the only hit we've taken. And the guy is still a Tongan international, and hopefully will be much more available than Roux has been at times.

Zeugnis

Bazzo wrote: »

I mean I did say "any semblance of good news".

But yeah, that probably is an overly negative take at the same time. He's almost certainly a downgrade on Roux, but with finances this year we're very lucky that's the only hit we've taken. And the guy is still a Tongan international, and hopefully will be much more available than Roux has been at times.

We all hope it goes well. Grenoble wanted to re-sign him, that in itself is a good sign. But it's obviously not a like for like replacement of Roux. If the rumours are confirmed and he goes to Toulon, well, you have everything you need to know. I am still baffled by the IRFU's thinking on Roux, it seems like a very wasteful attitude towards the whole project player concept and will ultimately deprive the Irish team of a selection option. But what's done is done.

If there is any fairness however, it will mean that there is money left to sign a loosehead prop. This was already an issue before Buckley got injured on Saturday. If the IRFU has the money to bring back Simon Zebo to Munster (despite it not being possible for that province to afford based on their own budget), then it can afford to provide Connacht with the basics.

macslash

He might be a good presence for Abe to have about. Similar sized man, maybe he can help him with technique going forward.

[Deleted User]

I only got to see the game today so avoided the score all weekend.

Very disappointing to see another abject performance.
For every good performance there has been two which were abysmal.

Considering they're professional athletes you'd kind of expect good performances, but certainly abject is never acceptable.

Why do we constantly turn down kickable penalties to go to the corner when our conversion is so poor?

How many kicks did we turn down?... I'd say it would have eclipsed the 12 points we scored had we taken them.

People can say we were going for the 5 in this game, but its happened in plenty of other games as well.
One stands out(Welsh side I'm thinking) where we were reeled in, had a kick to get back motoring, kicked the corner, lost it and they scored again and went two scores clear as a consequence.

Our decision making has just been poor.

There was a potential captain challenge about 20mins in that should have been taken considering we didnt use it(I could stand corrected).
It looked to me Benneton went off their feet at their line.

Up to this point I wasnt in favour of Friend leaving, but unless theres a rapid change something has to give.
Kieran Keane was ran for less than what we saw this year and I'd take the second in the conference with a pinch of salt.