He hasn’t had much game time at senior level but looks pretty exciting. There was a try towards the end of last season that he pretty much made out of nothing other then hard work.
Worked hard to get back into his 22, booted the ball down the field. Got up into the oppositions 22 and put pressure on to cause a turn over. A really impressive moment.
CONNACHT RUGBY MATCHDAY 23 VS ULSTER
19:35, Friday 22nd December 2023 @ Kingspan Stadium
15. Mack Hansen (30)
14. Shayne Bolton (6)
13. Tom Farrell (104)
12. Bundee Aki (129)
11. Byron Ralston (24)
10. Jack Carty (200) (C)
9. Caolin Blade (179)
1. Denis Buckley (236)
2. Tadgh McElroy (7)
3. Finlay Bealham (194)
4. Darragh Murray (16)
5. Joe Joyce (8)
6. Cian Prendergast (55)
7. Shamus Hurley-Langton (27)
8. Sean O'Brien (4)
16. Dave Heffernan (186)
17. Peter Dooley (25)
18. Jack Aungier (57)
19. Gavin Thornbury (72)
20. Conor Oliver (71)
21. Michael McDonald (2)
22. JJ Hanrahan (8)
23. Shane Jennings (5)
Very happy for O'Brien. Quality player.
Strong team, will be interesting in the set piece. Great to see Mack back.
Notable Omissions: Forde, Niall Murray, Kilgallen, DTM, would expect to see some of them against Munster.
Might have been 'helped' by Paul Boyle having to go off for a HIA against Saracens - he may be going through RTP protocols. That's speculation on my part, as i haven't seen an injury update this week, but I'm happy to see O'Brien get more opportunities.
Boyle had an eye injury after the game last week I believe and killgallen has a hamstring injury. Both were seeing specialist I think according to the update earlier in the week. So hopefully layoffs wont be for too long
At the match against Saracens, Connacht provided the empty area for some short kickking in front of own gall line at least twice, Sarasens easily tried. Maybe Ulster will aim such an atack..How Hansen and other players will deffend it. It will be one of the key factors. (maybe Connacht assume it.) Hansen may it a chance for counter atack. I think that Connacht back rows better (strong) than Ulsters' one especially in break down time.. There will be some chance to see a good game for Conncht. Please.please NO CARD.
would have preferred Jennings at fullback and Mack in his natural position. Mack is wasted at 15
Joyce out with illness. A big loss for the beef in the pack.
And Connacht concede a try after less than 2 minutes.
Connacht to win this. Ulster are truthfully rubbish when it comes to skills
Two pretty poor sides so far. Opportunity blown before half time although the penalty for ulster at the scrum was laughable.
Also would like to have seen Boltons grounding again. On first viewing looked clearly out but they never reviewed the third angle. For lads who spend an eternity making decisions why not have a look at the avail angles.
Connacht lineout has been abysmal. How many have they lost? 4 maybe 5?
Unforgivable to go for the corner with an easy 3 given the conditions and lineout travails
Carty had a good game today
Lost count of the knock ons lost lineouts and dumb penalties. Just amateurish school boy stuff time and again
You can see if a few things click this Connacht team could be a very strong URC team. Line out still a huge issue.
Would have won the game with even an average lineout display. It was absolutely abysmal.
Throw in the Bolton near try and Connacht knocking on a couple times close to the Ulster line and they’ll have regrets that they didn’t come away with all the points.
The lineout is beyond a joke at this stage. I know there was mention by Muldoon in a press conference a few weeks back that he was changing things with the lineout. It was one area that didn't need huge change in the main but now it's becoming very costly in every game at the moment.
Undoubtedly conditions looked very challenging but when there's no one at all jumping for a lineout and it isn't the first time it's happened there's something fundamentally wrong with whatever process they are trying to implement.
In isolation a losing bonus point away to Ulster isn't bad but we need a result to turn the tide and theres no easy game upcoming and truthfully I think even Ulster fans will admit they are a side going nowhere in a hurry either.
Well there's another one we left behind us.
Think we were the better team but if you don't take your chances you get what you deserve.
Niall Murray coming on and laying waste to their line out was nice to see.
If you told me I had to tackle either Bubdee or Bolton travelling at full pelt I think I'd opt for Aki, Boltons pace and power are really impressive. Could be a real threat for us if we can keep him fit. Would like to see him tried at 13.
Connacht, as a team, is struggling. That game was there to be taken. But who could take it. I like Mack as a winger but he is definitely not a full back. I know TOH was unavailable so why not put porch in at fb
Agree that Mack is far better on the wing. Hope to see him back there next week. Disappointed Jennings didn’t get more game time too
In general, and recently, just a total lack of desire. From 1 to 15 that was just rubbish. it's really hard to be honest about a performance that is not an honest performance.
What's more bothersome there is not one player on that team that is holding his hand up and saying how unacceptable that performance was. Which goes to show there is no leader in this team. God be with the days of Muldoon.
A few good thing. To see effective Bolton and SOB. I hope his injury is not so heavy. And Thornebury' fulltime attendance.
Ah don't know where to start from lastnights game. We are poor at the moment.
From picking the wrong players, to no game plan, simple errors and can't do the basics.
We've 1 win from the last 7 games. Edinburgh, Leinster and Ulster were all there for the taking.
Rested players in Edinburgh after only 3 games. If they need a rest that early in the season they aren't much of a professional.
For the Leinster game, we left out our best player so far this season Joe Joyce, he's a leader, experienced and a hard man to stop.
Kilgannon might be injured tonight? But he was on the bench at Saracens. I believe he's started 5 games this season and scored 5 trys. With Joyce, he's our best player. Play him.
Half of us here weren't to keen on Pete Wilkins getting the head coach job when Andy Friend stepped down a year early. Pete was the next man in line and the easy decision to make.
With Pete, there is no game plan, no imagination. Catching the ball, running towards the try line and knocking it On is as exciting as it gets. We need a head coach who eats, sleeps and drinks rugby. Someone like Pat Lam when he came here, who can direct his coaches and players in one direction. If our goal is to finish higher than 8th and better than last in champions cup we need an experienced coach. Not a rookie.
Blade is easily our best SH but God he needs to get on with it, speed things up and stop trying to milk a penalty everytime. Refs are smarter than that and only hurting the team.
Jack and JJ. Neither will bring us to the next step. If we had a good attacking coach, id play Forde at 10, pass and run everything.
Joyce needs to start every game he's fit, no arguments. Kilgannon and Hansen are our best wingers and also need to play when fit. ToH or JP fullback.
Stop experimenting with 7s players, it's not working at the expense of much better players.
Bit of a rant but another write off season.
I'm all for honest criticism but this is nonsense of the highest order. People can, rightly, criticise some of our application but not or effort or desire.
We always view the game from one side, but there's 23 guys the other side of the ball that have spent a week targeting 80mins of play and the reaction of the ulster players and fans would leave you in no doubt how pleased they were with that result.
Ulster at home are a difficult beast and we went toe to toe and, arguably, bettered their first team. Not the result we wanted but the days of seeing ravenhill as a graveyard are gone.
And in an unrelated rant: how a player can take the field in the shape marty Moore was in is beyond me. As a professional player you, surely, have a duty to stay in reasonable condition. I know props often carry extra weight as bulk is a plus but he looked like a junior player who was called out of retirement to fill a spot on the bench.
Bar the line out, which is ironically muldoons responsibility and a Few stupid knock ons, that was a pretty decent performance. Particularly in comparison to the last 5 or 6 weeks.
Was there for the taking, Lineout was terrible and has been at fault for two losses against Leinster and Ulster now. Massive games in the context of the league.
It's a hectic schedule of games and while the squad is better it is not nearly as deep as the othe provinces which is hard to overcome.
Losing O'Brien early and Joyce before the the game also impacted the game plan.
We have been competitive in nearly every game this season, have mostly played top 8 teans in the league and two juggernauts in Europe.
I dont think there was a lack of desire from too many players to be fair. Defensively we worked hard in the main I thought and a lot of things looked OK. I thought Carty took a step in the right direction. The restarts are always our killer but we seemed to take a common sense approach most of the time which is rare for us.
The scrum engagement was a mess all night mainly due to a ref who couldnt get a handle on it. Not sure I'd read anything good or bad into that. The lineout I've had my say but I think we need to focus on this area and try and get some cohesion in our setup. Some of the selection decisions make no sense to me. Most of the rotation by Wilkins doesn't seem to have any logic to it and the exclusion of a number of players has been very strange. Hopefully with the end of the week on week matches coming into sight he can look to try and establish a consistent team and build some minutes together for the various units within the team.
In reality though our attacking shape is very limited. Obviously the conditions prevent you being able to be too expansive but when we put a few phases together ulster folded but we were never cohesive enough to put them under the pump for an extended spell.
I'd say last night was a mixed bag but its hard to dig ourselves out of this hole and it's why the Edinburgh and Leinster matches are really killing us now.
I'm an Ulster supporter but I thought Connacht went toe to toe with them and if they had edged it at the death it wouldn't have been an unfair result. I wonder if that had happened would some of the above posters been saying what they have.
I do think that Ulster and Connacht are pretty much on a par at present and some way off Leinster and possibly Munster (though Ulster have beaten them) but methinks some on this thread are being a bit harsh re Connacht.
Much improved from us, really worked hard and left nothing out there. Better of the two teams in terms of attacking opportunities created.
There were good individual performances from lots of guys, jack SHL, Bolton, Prendergast, Bealham etc.
Attack shape and lineout still need some work but a step in the right direction.
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