I thought it wasn't opening until the 15th from the email I received.....maybe I misread or something to do with the clan redevelopment
Nope, not yet
anyone renew their season tickets today?
True. I'd be inclined to try Hawkshaw out at fb.
I didn't mind the selection too much as he's such a talented footballer and had shown glimpses of potential at 13 in the previous few games, but he was dreadful at the weekend unfortunately. Based on what we've seen of the alternatives to date, letting Tom Farrell go at the end of the season would be madness.
Finlay and Bundee ruled out of the Benetton game.
To be reintegrated this week and made available for the Pau game.
https://www.the42.ie/connacht-treviso-aki-bealham-6336727-Mar2024/
The big concern is how much we've regressed in 12 months.
Who do you blame for that?
In fairness to Pete, he was probably in shock after the game. They just got destroyed, there was no positives from the game and they did it at home...
Everything he has been working on for months is mess on the floor...
While the screaming inside your head of where do you go from here, someone puts a microphone in front of you... At that point you go into survival mode and say it ain't that bad..
Lol, i'm not but i just subscribe to not going too much one way or the other to wins and losses.
What I meant to say about Blade is that he lacks other leaders to help on the field it seems and it effects his game.
Agreed...
We have bee progressively getting worse through the season... It seems we are getting found out and there seems to be not evolving... Lions had doen there homework and sniffed everything out.
The handling errors seemed to coming from being very indecisive. There is a definite lack of leadership on the team and this is not a slight on Blade, it all seems to be on him at times and it is very hard to be captain and Scrum Half. There seems to be no running of the back line like Carty gave us last year. Where Carty's form is right now is hard to tell, he was no.1 until Christmas and been very much the number 2 since.
Truth is we are steadily getting worse. we may have lost 5 in a row before Christmas but that wasn't really a panic... One was Bulls i Pretoria (no one does well there)and Saracans (just a bigger outfit), Tight games against Edinburg, Ulster and Leinster... Good sides we we competing and while hurtful losses the performances were very acceptable.
Since the the restart of URC after European Jan window, we seemed to have lost our way... Poor night in Cardiff against 14 had to dig deep to get the points there, Gave Scarlets a look back ina game that should have been snuffed out... We seemed to lack the killer backline that when gets the ball will score. That seems gone.
Add that to less dominative line out and some big lapses in defence... Last Night, we got the worst Connacht performance I think I have ever seen... It is worse than the bad times because back then we really knew we didn't have the players, we know these players are good enough.
If you are reading the vibe on this forum I absolutely doubt what you say. Think it will be one off carries, a lateral line, a crap game and someone will win
Connacht v Benetton will be a cracker next Saturday, both on 33 points and both sitting just off Top 8.
Is that you Pete?😂. To be fair to Wilkins he didn't issue a press release justifying that sad excuse for rugby that he has introduced into Connacht
I wouldn't read too much into first match back after a lengthy enough break.
It's funny but I watched Prendergast coming out of a ruck, turning his back on the play as he moved back into his allotted position in the line. It struck me that the symmetry of the line was perfect. But overall where are you going if that's what it's all about. From a defensive perspective it probably is fine but if you are in possession symmetry is simply stupid. How do you break an opposing line if you simply create a line yourself. It's just brainless
God be with the day we had Murray Kinsella marvelling at our pods of 3, how they formed and reformed.
Can anyone who's played/coached tell me why, with penalty advantage, we we're keeping it tight & going through phases with the forwards on their line? They we're down a man, I can't see why you wouldn't (with a free hit) start slinging that out wide and find some gaps? Feels like keeping it tight is far easier for 14 men to defend.
Yesterday isn't the first time we've done that either, we did the same thing versus Cardiff which leads me to believe its a coaching decision.
Wilkins has to take ownership of our performances for once. Its more politician energy than head coach in the media. Theres no accountability, same old rubbish and it's worn thin with fans.
Ultimately, much of the responsibility lies with the coaching staff for these performances, fair enough if we dont have the players to beat the very top sides. But, the game plan was completely wrong against 14 yesterday.
Why are we trying to outmuscle sides clearly more physcial than us? How many times this season are we in opp 22 and we pick and go repeatedly, or use one out runners with little or no success. There's been so many times where there's been basically walk-in scores there for the taking out wide, but if it comes, ball is so slow that the chance is wasted. That has to be a coaching issue IMO, the order appears to be to do just that. There's no confidence the backs can finish those chances, even when we have clear numbers there.
Phase play is so flat and lateral too, barely any go forward from the tight 5 and back rowers on the wing not able to impact that, they should be some of best carriers but we can't use them because were so flat to the line. We badly need to rethink our phase formation, we can't adapt at all once we're inevitably stifled up front by a physical side with linespeed. That style of play might work, IF we win the collisions, which we aren't showing any ability to do.
Yeah we haven't a top class first XV, but have reasonable squad depth, and we have the quality to win games like that.
Yep
I would love to see carolan back.
I watched half an hour... Wilkins was the wrong appointment, imo. Hawkshaw is not an outside center! He's a liability out there.
But the pack were so poor, it's mind boggling. Most of the match v 7 too.
Who knows what they work on in training but what we see on the pitch is about as rudimentary as it gets at this level. Find it hard to believe that Sexton is some sort of tactical genius but the players choose to resort to literal hands down the line, like an u12s team, when they get on the pitch. The Ralston intercept was certainly an individual error, but it was the fact that the players outside him were far too flat, with no decoys or deception, that put him in that position. That was phase play, but I can't recall much invention off first phase either. At one point, off an attacking scrum, we ran Forde on a crash ball then a one out carry off 9 on the second phase. Even the Jansen try against Saracens, one example of a successful strike move that comes to mind, was an extremely simple play that Galwegians used to run constantly 5 years ago, when Tiernan O'Halloran was coach.
That performance didn't deserve people waiting until the end. Of all the things to be critical of, people leaving early isn't one of them. Yesterday wasn't a one off it was obvious a day like this was around the corner if not yesterday then soon. As I saw someone write, eventually results catch up with performances.
Honestly it baffles me that as many people are turning up regularly to watch this rubbish as there are. Having been going to Connacht games for over 20 years it's the first time Im giving serious consideration to not renewing the season ticket and we had some god awful teams during that time.
I know people will say its year one of this coaching team etc but to me Wilkins is around long enough for us to judge him and its obvious he's not up to the job. The bounce at the end of last season was probably the worst thing that could happen to us long term.
I believe that was also Mark Sexton’s criticism at 20s level - he came up with these intrinsic and complicated moves in training and would call players out in front of the team for messing it up and damage their confidence yet in games run very simple moves
I don't know enough to criticise them individually. My feeling looking on is that Sextons attacking plans either are so intricate that no one on the pitch understands them or it's so basic that it doesn't work. But either way it doesn't work!!
Passes across the backline that fix no one are pointless.
I think the victory of Lions might bebecause of the effect of high altitude training. The altitude of their base Pretoria is about 1750m, so air is very thin. It's effectiveness cannot continues so long time. In Last season, they fought against Connacht 4 weeks after coming to europe, so they were not strong. This year, Connacht was unlucky at last night.
I noticed that also. I don't like to see that but today was a complete arse spanking.
I can’t remember when I saw so many people leaving with 15 minutes to go.
Very disappointing performance but I always feel that bailing out before the final whistle is poor form.
The timing of the season ticket renewals isn’t great….
I know my critiques can be harsh but I know that critique is purely out of frustration. Caolin was so slow again today it would drive you mental.
And you could see a bit of what the coaching staff were trying to do with JJ linking with a player and taking the return pass. But it was so obvious.
There is talent in this team but good God it is not been unlocked.
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