Bundee as hooker. Now that's a highlight of the second half,😃
You always accept that Connacht will finally let the opposing team in when under pressure but they held their ground. Very impressed with that. Roll on second half
So didn't get to see the game this weekend so just looking back on tg4 player now and first half has come to an end. Two things that have impressed me so far is jacks intelligent kicking and the resilience of Connacht not to let Munster over the line at the end of the half.
Healy will retire IMO, Killgallen promoted
So we have Sullivan, TOH, and some said O'Donnell as NIQ tenant, who could be let go
I don't think we'll cause disruption by releasing 4
I think you are being very hard on Hanson. You could see from the beginning he was still struggling after his illness, probably should have waited for Europe in 2 weeks.
Will TOH be resigned? I cant say ive been too impressed with him and is very injury prone.
Good result but performance was a mixed bag. One try and a two point margin of victory from 63% possession and 67% territory is a very poor return. I'd be curious to see stats on our red zone efficiency, doubt they'd be pretty. Feel like we leave the 22 empty handed very frequently. Our phase play was very fractured today. Ruck accuracy and ball presentation weren't great, Marmion's passing was sloppy, pass accuracy and timing of runs was off in the outside backs. After the Leicester game I wondered if our new attacking game in its current form is going to allow us to unlock aggressive well-organised defences. On days like that, or today where the issue was more our own misfiring, we need to find other ways to score. Obviously we got one maul try today but it really should have been more. Senekaal has obviously done a great job on our defensive maul thus far, hopefully adding a consistent attacking maul threat is the next development.
Our defence was very good, we never looked in danger, apart from when Munster were camped on our line. We did get caught narrow defending at set piece a couple of times and a more clinical backline may have punished us. The way we controlled the game in the second half was very satisfying, from managing the period we were down to 13, and keeping Munster pinned in their half towards the end. Especially pleasing considering Conor Fitz was at ten, not Carty.
Plenty of good individual performances too. Finlay Bealham was excellent again, must be in the form of his career. Matthew Burke continued to impress me, improving week on week, and put in 72 good minutes today. Dowling was very good too, he's coming along very nicely. Not the biggest but he is a total workhorse. Dillane unfortunately was quite poor, I counted four really bad penalties conceded. Back row was excellent, Prendergast the obvious one but I thought Oliver could have easily been named MOTM either. Think Prendergast has flown under the radar a little thus far, despite my constant hyping of him on here, MOTM in an interpro should see him talked about a lot more.
Marmion was extremely sharp as usual, it's a shame his passing isn't top level because he has all the extras. There was one opportunity to throw a simple pass to put Fitzgerald through a half gap off a scrum but the pass was thrown at his inside shoulder and the chance was squandered. Fitzgerald was great in tricky circumstances. Bundee was Bundee, absolutely totemic. Mack Hansen pissed me off jogging back to retrieve that kick and jogging after he was charged down. Conway came from behind him and as he showed later in the game, he's faster than Conway when bothered. Hope he gets an absolute bollocking and that's the last we see of that sort of slackness, as he's absolutely quality.
thats a game We would useually loose, and to be Honest the pack won it,
Well impressed with Dowling, his best game yet,
but glad to get the win,
It was a clear Red. Once again proving how unlucky Papaili has been
Thought he really stood up once Carty went off. Took over the leadership role and helped Fitz. Casey is overrated and was outplayed yet again by a Connacht 9
Bealham was very good I thought. Was everywhere until he was taken off. Did a lot of hard carrying.
For once completely disagree about Kieran.
He was very slow tonight, and it was not only about smart game management. His passing wasn't accurate.
(our) Farrell brought some sparks, though Arnold wasn't bad either
The MOTM IMO was Bundee, not only try-scorer but game-regulator that gave us a game which would have been lost without him IMO
Thought Marmion was excellent tonight amongst a few others.
Munster very 1 dimensional overall
Connacht made the last 20 as ugly as Munster plan and footprint on the game
Tasty but not a classy game
YEEEAAA
That's a joke for me based on reds we have got.....
Lucky to get away with yellow there.
This looks red surely?
Munster makes it rotten, just rucks and kicks, and Connacht adds errors all oer
How this game has been so poor?
Munster absolutely no creativity there, bish bash up the middle every time. Then fair play to Connacht for lifting the siege.
Christ, all Connacht since the start and they cough up a try out of nowhere from a hoof downfield and a blocked Mack Hansen clearance kick.
Forde was in the warm up so assume so
Would be pretty happy if Connacht signed deegan and Kleyn in the summer. Would suit the irfu. Deegan would add to and battle with boyle and prendergast for the 6 and 8 jerseys. Kleyn would be a big brute, solid experienced lock who wouldn’t block Murray x2 and dowling breaking through
Chris Cloete usually plays well against Connacht surprised he not selected. I heard the friend had 2 players selected for their debuts against ulster i presume one is the 9 selected today? would the other have been Forde at 10? given Cartys injury
I agree that he would suit the style but the lack of bulk really is a issue for Connacht. He probably has a similar build to Masterson. Connacht lack of power for ruck defence shows up in most games. I think Leicester scored 4 tries from 4 visits to Connacht 20. This happens a lot against big teams, they dont have the physicality in defence to withstand waves against the line. Iam not saying Deegan isnt good but i think Connacht need at least one monster.
You could argue that from the point to view that the rules shouldn't be the way they are. But according to the rules, they were red cards. I remember i watched 2 of those games and was disappointed about them but they were fair and square red cards under the current rules.
I didn't think they were malicious and they were probably grand rugby league tackles.
I don't think any of Papali'i's reds should have been red.
In between red cards 2 and 3, he played 9 games scored 3 tries, and played some decent rugby which earned him a new contract. During that time it was clear he was working very hard on his tackle technique, which is why it was so disappointing when he was dismissed against Benetton. Since then it's pretty clear that we're done with him and would probably have let him go last summer if that was an option.
I agree that a Max Deegan would be much more suited to the way we're playing, but it was so much fun watching Papali'i run over people. His carrying is absolutely ferocious, even by the high standards of big Polynesian 8s. Not something we've ever had before or will likely have at our disposal again any time soon.
Is Papali'i a fan favourite? Like, it would have been a lovely story if it had worked out but in reality he's absolutely shyte.
He's the perfect 20. Impact player, carrying, not much time/harm if carded, not tiring if he plays less than 30 minutes
But Connacht can't allow on the long term an option "just" for the bench
When Boyle is out, we'd be better with a guy stepping up for starting opportunities
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