My two concerns with Tierney-Martin are his discipline and skill levels. Two penalties already today, plus he constantly tackles with no arms but often gets away with it.
Great to see Illo - late withdrawal for Aungier?
That was pretty dire from about about 25 minutes on. Not sure it all deserves dissection, but Wooton needs to be held account for his defence work, which was abominable. There can be no free rides in defence next year. Leaving aside mistakes/weaknesses by individual players - and there has been plenty of that besides AW - it's actually a scandal that nobody in the coaching staff has been held responsible and this reflects badly on us in terms of culture.
Not a lot of positives in that game aside from a win, Masterson getting a try in his last game and illo getting some minutes and looking solid.
Biggest plus so far today for connacht is that murphy is absolutely killing lads in the Leinster game. Need more of that in the team.
Connacht should do whatever they can to entice Carolan back. Friend is beyond hope. He couldn't manage Leinster, he'd find a way to **** them up.
Thought Adam Byrne looked very hungry and accurate as well. The arrival of that Leinster quartet is an opportunity to change tone.
It really is! But the problem is Friend, imo. He's as useful as tits on a bull.
We've had a 50/50 season, 2016 is the only time a connacht team other than one coached by Andy Friend achieved that. Its a first year of a new coaching setup and there have been signs of improvement across the board, with the exception of defense which is a major issue. That said no system in the world can live with some of the missed first up tackles we see weekly.
You hear only good things about Tucker so you'd hope he can get it right next year.
We also need to be realistic: it will always be a struggle for us in the Irish pool, put us in the Welsh or scots/Italian shields and I think we qualify for Europe.
Picking order next season IMO
9 Caolin Blade -- Kieran Marmion -- Colm Reilly -- Matt Devine
10 Jack Carty -- David Hawkshaw -- Conor Fitzgerald -- Tom Daly
12 Bundee Aki -- Tom Daly -- Cathal Forde -- Shayne Bolton
13 Tom Farrell -- Shayne Bolton -- Shane Jennings -- Diarmuid Kilgallen/Byron Ralston
11 Mack Hansen -- Alex Wootton -- Byron Ralston -- Josh O'Connor
14 John Porch -- Adam Byrne -- Shane Jennings -- Diarmuid Kilgallen
15 Oran McNulty -- John Porch -- Tiernan O’Halloran -- Alex Wootton
1 Denis Buckley -- Peter Dooley -- Matthew Burke -- Jordan Duggan
2 Shane Delahunt -- Dave Heffernan -- Dylan Tierney-Martin -- Declan Adamson/another Ac
3 Finlay Bealham -- NIQ TH -- Jack Aungier -- Sam Illo
4 Niall Murray -- Oisin Dowling -- Leva Fifita -- Ciaran Booth
5 Gavin Thornbury -- Josh Murphy -- Darragh Murray -- Cian Prendergast
6 Cian Prendergast -- Paul Boyle -- Josh Murphy -- Ciaran Booth
7 Conor Oliver -- Jarrad Butler -- Seán Masterson -- Oisín McCormack
8 Shamus Hurley-Langton -- Paul Boyle -- Jarrad Butler -- Cian Prendergast/Seán Masterson
well thats a rap,
in the 15 16 season, Masterson wa son fire until he picked up that injury, Always gave his all and its a pity he has to move on,
Any whispers on any new signings?
They are actively looking for a tighthead. That looks like being the final signing
Tough to find a th this close to the world cup! It kind of makes the Illo signing look poor. The lad didn't get a sniff!
Adamson released. Would have booth and McCormack ahead of masterson at 7. Booth only 6’2 or so, forget about him playing in the row. Out of the academy lads moving up he’d be on the one that might push on the most in pre season like prendergast this year
2 out there, and 1 ex-all black needing gametime to play RWC for Samoa
Do not look inspiring! But, they'll be a benifit to Connacht.
JTA would be a class signing for connacht.
I wonder will the coaches be content with de Buitléar as fourth choice. I'd be a bit worried about our hooker depth in that case.
Good mix next season for Back-3
Light-Kolbe-like : Mack Hansen, Byron Ralston, Oran McNulty, John Porch
Heavy-Nadolo-like (not quite but close to 100Kg) : Adam Byrne, Shane Jennings, Diarmuid Kilgallen, Alex Wootton
Am I right in thinking Porch, Fefita and Hurley-Langton are the only NIQ's in the squad for next season? While I don't love having NIQ's as backup players I think tighthead is certainly a place we could do with it, especially as Finlay will be a way with Ireland quite a bit.
Yes and Butler will have completed 5 years on his residency so won't be counted from August/September. It has been mentioned that the search for a TH is ongoing but finances will dictate so I doubt we will sign anyone high profile.
Obviously if we couldn't keep Tietie I can't imagine finances are great. I'd take a prop who can old his own in the scrum and anything he does around the park is a bonus, at times this year our scrum was a liability.
If our defence and scrum is improved we'll be a much more formidable side next season.
Sounds like you want a new Rodney
Ralston at 13 scores try end of first half
Connacht were stripped of so many important players after the success of 2016, they never really replaced Nathen White. Someone of a similar style would be great.
Tietie like Papaili are big but wont have the fitness to play 60 mins. Connacht need back up like Leinster have for Furlong. Bealham will be rested a lot in a world cup year.
Sam Ilio looks good. It seems leinster didn't offer him a contract so Connacht stepped in, much like the Prendergast situation. But after his impressive 6 nations and the Connacht offer Leinster had a change of heart and offered him one. Financially it was better for him to stay at home then move to another City, so Connacht had to offer a pro contract to make financial sense.
Murphy is a super signing, he's a hard player, not an enforcer type but does all the dog work without being particularly skilled at anything. Very surprised Leinster let him go. We just need some beef now in the front row.
What's the story with the re-development next year, surely it would be an opportunity to move some if the bigger games to Pearse stadium
Ah here, that's putting words in my mouth. As tvpc said we never fully replaced White, and obviously there isn't an abundance of th props going around but if we could sign a solid prop even for a couple of seasons while continuing to develop Aungier and Illo I think we'd be well stocked there then. Aungier has shown some huge potential at times but obviously has some development to do yet.
Murphy is a really good signing, the other players from Leinster could go either way but Murphy is a quality player.
Pitch being replaced over the summer, the next phase will be to build the new training centre only after that I think the ground development will happen
Think Dooley will also be a huge signing. With consistent game time could force his way into Irish squads.
Actually very excited for next season. The likes of DTM, Reilly, Devine,Forde, D Murray, Jennings, Booth, McCormack and Illo could push on and add to the young crop in prendergast, Dowling, Duggan, Burke, Aungier and Murray already involved.
Challenge cup is an ideal platform for these lads to push on. Hopefully it’ll only be for one season and by the year after you could be looking at having 10 odd under 23 players ready to compete at champions cup leave
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wa.vanillicon.com/v2/ad289898c0c6dda7e667bf900ae26d0c.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wd.vanillicon.com/v2/d39f175469178884d38a12d0cdbdc52d.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wc.vanillicon.com/v2/c35e2064eebb340babc88df28d447168.svg)
