Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Thanks. Bit of a risk to let our best player in any position go, but if the budget is tight it makes sense to release higher earners and fill the gaps from the academy.

I think every centre at the club apart from Farrell is more of a 12, but we'll have to shift a couple to 13 to get everyone gametime. Hawkshaw has the headstart, Gavin has the athleticism, Devine has the defensive intelligence and handling. I wouldn't sleep on Devine, only two weeks older than Gavin, and arguably a more rounded footballer. Only downside is he's not a particularly standout athlete and it's hard to see how he's going to progress only playing AIL 2B.

Feel like Devine will be a slow burner given the size of him. Even the likes of Hawkshaw who would be a similar height looks a good bit more powerful. Can see Ralston, Gavin and Hawkshaw Battling it out for 13 next year.

I assumed he wasn’t included last weekend as they wanted to cap Jager and Finlay has a newborn. Made sense to let him home for the weekend last week. Then also made sense for him to get a bit of game time before being back on the bench for the England match.

Email there said there'll be 5.5k at the game (assuming based on sales so far) which would make it our biggest crowd of the year outside of Munster & Leinster.

5 points is definitely needed. Even though we got the 4 last week we still dropped a place. Very tight.

Would like to see Jansen come in at 8 this week with Prendergast and SHL. I'd start Carty too with maybe Reilly or McDonald and drop Blade. Would like to see Dowling and N Murray start in the row.

de Buitléar starting is a bit random, but always happy to see a young homegrown guy get a shot. Presume he's been training well. From what I've seen of him thus far, he's extremely powerful in contact but needs some work on his throwing. With that in mind, I wonder if we've gone with Thornbury over Joyce in order to shore up the lineout, with such a young hooker starting. Excited to get another look at Jansen, loads of impact to come off the bench too. Backline very much as expected, looks like we're succession planning at 13.

6-2 Split on the bench, I wonder which irish team will be first to do a 7-1

This Scarlets team is pathetic, gotta put them to the sword here.

Poor try to conceed. All came from whatever Ralston was trying to do with that pass in midfield. Brought them into the game needlessly.

Hopefully can get another score before half time

Would like to see that again surely inside ball to blade for a walk in try there was a difficult finish for smith but he's well capable of it. Pity