Looking ahead to the season I can't help but get excited about the amount of young talent at the province, doubt we've ever been so stacked before. Reckon we could put out a very decent 23-and-under side:
1. Jordan Duggan (23)
2. Dylan Tierney-Martin (22)
3. Jack Aungier (22)
4. Cian Prendergast (21)
5. Niall Murray (21)
6. Donnacha Byrne* (20)
7. Oisin McCormack* (20)
8. Sean Masterson (23)
9. Colm Reilly (22)
10. Conor Fitzgerald (23)
11. Mack Hansen (23)
12. Shayne Bolton (21)
13. Shane Jennings* (20)
14. Peter Sullivan (23)
15. Oran McNulty (21)
16. Declan Adamson* (22)
17. Charlie Ward* (21)
18. Sam Illo (20)
19. Darragh Murray* (20)
20. Conor Booth* (21)
21. Will Reilly* (21)
22. Cathal Forde* (19)
23. Diarmuid Kilgallen* (21)
24. Eoin de Buitléar* (19)
25. Josh O'Connor* (20)
10 indigenous, 10 from Leinster, 2 exiles, 2 IQ from SH, 1 Munster
Connacht u-19 highlights from game against Leinster, after losing by three to Ulster weekend before, missed a last minute conversion here to draw.
Hard to tell too much from four minute highlights but Harry West from Ballina looks a real prospect at 10.
Did I hear we're playing a pre season game this coming weekend? I know we've got London Irish on the 10th.
Ya away to Worcester. Friday 7.45 K.O. Doubt it will be on TV tho!
That's a very very interesting point, even if 1 out of 2 succeeds, that makes 12 players, ie a full team for the next 10 years with very few imports
Future is bright
I thought it was Worcester I heard alright, but I went on their site and couldn't see any mention of it. Anyway, it's good that they have a couple of pre season games lined up because we'll want to hit the ground running against Cardiff in the league.
Ya I only found the kick off time through the Worcester announcement back in July.
The communication coming from Connacht has been shockingly bad!
Yeah, the comms has been very quiet the last few months. Did they lose the social media person or something?
They advertised for a few social media staff a while back as think the main person who was running the communications side of things left sometime during end of last season
Tom Farrell is back, three academy players on bench, Booth, McCormack & Kilgallen. Greg McGrath & Shayne Bolton set for debuts off bench.
1. Jordan Duggan
2. Shane Delahunt
3. Dominic Robertson-McCoy
4. Oisin Dowling
5. Niall Murray
6. Cian Prendergast
7. Conor Oliver
8. Jarrad Butler
9. Kieran Marmion
10. Jack Carty
11. Matt Healy
12. Sammy Arnold
13. Tom Farrell
14. John Porch
15. Tiernan O’Halloran
16. Jonny Murphy
17. Matthew Burke
18. Greg McGrath
19. Eoghan Masterson
20. Ciaran Booth
21. Oisin McCormack
22. Colm Reilly
23. Conor Fitzgerald
24. Shayne Bolton
25. Ben O’Donnell
26. Diarmuid Kilgallen
Excited to see Oisin McCormack getting some senior team action, thought he was great for the irish U20s. Curious about Greg McGrath, and looking forward to Dowling and Murray in the row.
Surprised not to see Jack Aungier on the sheet.
Latest "Master of None" podcast is well worth a listen - Tom Daly was on, and he spoke a few times about a new attacking philosophy, which he described as being a lot faster, and more "heads up".
What's very interesting is the fact that both McCoy and McGrath are listed as TH, leaving wiiiide open (though not proven) my theory : Bealham will switch to LH!
McCoy/McGrath/Aungier/Illo, 4 TH with only 2 LH, in all logic Bealham will be the 3rd LH (waiting for Buckley)
Some may say it's friendly experimental team, but I can't see the point not to try McGrath or McCoy as converted LH if it was the chosen solution
That’s interesting but attack has been pretty decent. A proper defensive structure would be a big plus. Even maul defence and sorting out restarts from defending perspective would make a major difference.
The last time we played heads / less structured Rugby , was the year KK was in charge and that season went t!ts up . Hopefully the coaches are better communicators .
Heads up doesn't mean less structured.
The structure will be there to give choices. It means that when someone skips a pass out it means they saw something or something bwas called even if the play called was something tighter or a kick etc...
We've been progressing this way for a few seasons
And by all accounts KK wasn't great at putting across what he wanted. But Andy is and he's better at giving the right autonomy to his coaches
Jordan Duggan off early in friendly. Hopefully nothing serious if an injury but not great to be one injury away from disaster in the front row either way.
Full time: Worcester 52 - 39 Connacht
I know it's first game of season and wasn't a full strength team by any means, but looks like Connacht defensively as porous as ever!
Good to see we’ve improved in defense 😂
From watcher of Worcester
"the second half was massively fragmented with changes and stoppages. Connachts bench was emptied by about 60 minutes long before ours and their depth (or lack of it) really showed IMO."
We have to look mainly at the HT score, 17-10, which isn't bad.
Depth will be there with Boyle, Bealham, Heff, Daly, Dillane, Thornbury, Papali'i, Aungier, Blade, and players fitting in after coming or coming back (Bolton, Hansen, Farrell, Robb, McGrath, Fifita'a, Illo, McCormack,Tierney-Martin)
Any news about Duggan off early?
Yeah I don't think you can read much into a pre season friendly scoreline
Id agree, in general you would prefer to win but there are too many oddities in selection in matches like this to read much into the scoreline.
Like these are tries conceded you won't see in a competitive match
https://twitter.com/connachtrugby/status/1434090262993715202?s=19
Great to see Farrell with the set up Oliver's try. Rest of it is fairly standard preseason stuff. Reilly fond of a quick tap
At least Connacht didn't concede any tries off mauls. That's one thing I'm hoping to see a lot less of this season. Curious to hear a prop report as well (an an update regarding Duggan).
I'd like to see Daly, Bolton, Hansen, Thornbury (if fit), Dillane, Aungier (if fit), S.Masterson starting vs London Irish
No Botham, Navidi and Adams (mainly), vs us
Hope some of our internationals will be available, at least Dillane and Bealham.
I'd be ok without Boyle (Prendergast 6/Masterson 8), Blade (Marmion) or Heff (Delahunt)
More worried about a second row without any of Thornbury/Ultan, and LH of course...
BTW Wootton has to play too. And Sullivan
For London Irish, with Jamie Dever back to the Sportsground, i'd test
1) Bealham
2) Delahunt
3) Aungier
4) Dillane
5) Fifita'a
6) S.Masterson
7) Butler
8) E.Masterson
9) Marmion
10) Carty
11) Wootton
12) Daly
13) Bolton
14) BOD
15) TOH
16) Tierney-Martinn
17) Burke
18) McCoy
19) Murray
20) Oliver
21) C.Reilly
22) C.Fitz
23) Hansen
24) Arnold
25) Dowling
26) Sullivan
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