'as Wilkins says missing out on the Challenge Cup "means we can probably be a little more selective around the week-to-week use of players, we're not trying to balance across as many games and we get a clear idea of what we need to do."'
So reading a bit into that comment well it makes no sense whatsoever. Wilkins is completely full of shite. He is a total idiot and a rubbish coach.
So nice to have all our opinions on a starting 15, but if those starting 15s came to fruition they would completely undermine Wilkins and HIS team.
So I totally understand where Wilkins stands. I may not agree with his viewpoint but remember he is trying to save his ass and still has the possibility of doing so if Connacht can find the results in the last games of the year.
So I don't see him varying much from here to season end. He has lived with his rather confusing team selection ideas, he is unlikely to change.
Now folks know I am a big TOH fan. His defense and positioning is immense (not always but usually), and the concept of putting Jennings to start in there when even Hansen has failed to handle the position is a big ask. But I want Jennings to be the backup and brought on for that. And he gets to learn his trade.
And finally, AJ McGinty, please please please
I'm inclined to agree with you for once.
Wilkins going on about extra games is utter b0ll0x - we'd have had what, likely 1 more game, max 2? Wouldn't have mattered a jot to the players & nor should it.
I think Moore ended up moving to a team in the MLR.
Just on the number 10 recruitment issue.
Look at who we've had as our main 10s over the last 12 or 13 seasons
Keatley/Nikora/Nathan
Niall O'Connor
Parks
Carty - not recruited
McGinty
Shane O'Leary
Boschoff
JJ
Am I forgetting anyone?
None of these, when they came to Connacht were of any interest to any other teams.
McGinty showed promise, but it was a very small sample size really. Even then, his kicking distance range was very low.
Parks was towards the end of his career, and helped in his professionalism, but was never a long term solution
I'm love us to give someone like Forde a full season. Be told, "You're our number 10. It's your team."
Let him get comfortable in the spot, and build confidence.
That, or bring in a known commodity. Unfortunately, that's near on impossible
Miah Nikora was there with Keatley.
Good call. He was kicking, along with Troy Nathan from distance.
Am I missing anyone, or have we not recruited a potential starting 10, in between Boschoff (2016) and JJ (2023)?
Goes to show how much trust has been put in Carty over the last 7 seasons
And I'd argue that Carty only played at his best during the 2018/2019 season.
There was a couple of young Aussie kids, Deegan and Horwitz I think, that never made it at all.
We had Conor Fitzgerald as well
McNamara this year was a out half
Conor Fitzgearld (who we might be regreting right now)
But we have kissed a lot of frogs… Carty saw a fair few come and go… AJ was the one to really displace him.
I say we are going to get nothing for the position unless a rabbit is pulled out of nowhere from Suthern Hemisphere… e.g Noah Hotham turns out to be Irish Qualified. Just really need to look at Southern hemisphere sides and see what we could get..
So when that pulls a blan, Ideally I would like Carty to find a bit of form and lead out in games and give the reins more and more over to a Cathal and Jack becoming Number 2… And I would start this weekend… Try and give Cathal 20-30min at ten..
This could give us options going forward, Cathal can push to 12 if we get stuck injury wise.
Jack maybe a poor kicker from the ground, IMHO he is our best playmaker.. We Cathal to be that good of a playmaker too, attacking the line, forceing the descisions on the defence.. Sorry but JJ just doesn't that for me (does it better when off the bench), we ship it left and right and then we make a mistake..
Jack might look like he makes more mistakes but what he is doing is taking higher risks to create openings IMHO… Out Half is about assessing risk by instinct and if it doesn't work, to try something just as risky again because the odds were in your favour…
For reasons unknown, the coaching group haven't tried an alternative kicker (Forde, Daly) while keeping Jack as playmaker.
Such an obvious idea you'd have to wonder why it wasn't tried. Two international teams I can think of straight off the bat were/are Wales and France both of whom use(d) their fullbacks (Leigh Halfpenny and Thomas Ramos) as kickers. Leigh Halfpenny is still the third highest points scorer for Wales (after Neil Jenkins and Stephen Jones) despite not playing out half.
Ulster, for instance have no problem with this either, using their scrum halves as kickers (Pienaar, Cooney, Doak).
To me there are only two possible answers - it wasn't tried (unlikely) or it was tried (in training) and the kicking percentages for any other players weren't better than Jack's.
Both Jack and JJ have been on the pitch together this season but can anyone remember who kicked when they were? I have a notion that the outhalf in situ remained the kicker, but I could be wrong.
Outhalf is simple. Orchestrate the team. The team revolves about this one position. Penalty kicking is not so critical. Ramoz does this from full back. So Jack any day over JJ, but neither would be fine also. Jack is limited and JJ is very limited
I remember Friend once saying that Hansen was actually signed primarily as a 10, but they ended up playing him on the wing and that Hansen himself reckons his best position in FB
If I were to hazard a guess Blade will be injured and Devine will take 9 with McDonald on the bench. Don't know whether folks noticed but Caolin was holding his hamstring before he was replaced last weekend. Can't see anything else
Wouldn’t like it to be on the back of an injury but would be excited to see Devine start.
Is he playing any rugby nowadays? Had a quick Google and found nothing.
Have to say I always wanted Fitzgerald to be our starter. He looked a very good prospect to me and he flourished for a while and looked ready to take over from Carthy. I'd much rather him to either of our current starters.
Anyway I'm already convinced we need a new coaching staff. These players were much better for the last couple of years. There's no chance they all fell off a cliff a the same time.
CONNACHT RUGBY MATCHDAY 23 VS ZEBRE PARMA 19:35, Saturday 20th April 2024 @ Dexcom Stadium
Number/name/caps
15. Shane Jennings (10) 14. John Porch (84) 13. Tom Farrell (109) 12. Bundee Aki (134) 11. Andrew Smith (12) 10. JJ Hanrahan (17) 9. Matthew Devine (2) 1. Jordan Duggan (46) 2. Dave Heffernan (195) (C) 3. Finlay Bealham (199) 4. Joe Joyce (16) 5. Niall Murray (72) 6. Shamus Hurley-Langton (36) 7. Conor Oliver (80) 8. Seán O’Brien (7)
16. Tadgh McElroy (12) 17. Peter Dooley (32) 18. Sam Illo (20) 19. Oisín Dowling (55) 20. Jarrad Butler (125) 21. Caolin Blade (187) 22. Cathal Forde (26) 23. Paul Boyle (90)
I like this team a lot. Putting Porch on the wing to provide some experience in the back 3 for Jennings' first start at 15 makes a lot of sense to me. Devine at 9 is great and happy we're not messing around at 13. Good opportunity for a rest for Prendergast too, he's only missed 10 mins of rugby (due to a yellow card) since November.
Well holy God. About time
Generally have to like that team…
I would have Carty over JJ but I think using Forde for as many minutes as we can at 10 is what we should be doing…
Hard to complain about anything else… Cian was going for (and probably win) the most minutes played in a season (Irish Province). We think the record is Billy Burns at 1760 min… Cian is on 1555min right now..
Bundee played 2051 in the 2015/2016 season
I believe Carty is injured.
BTW, Cian is on 1,430 mins for Connacht, your figure includes RWC warm ups.
It's not like it's an alien concept here either, Craig Ronaldson's goalkicking from 12 was an important part of the greatest season in our history.
If you are taking that from All Rugby, it's not correct as the final isn't included for some reason. So it was actually 2,131 mins.
On present form, Fitzgearld would have been No. 1….
Saying that Carty has only started two games since recently and we have played better with him on the field… Carty I think tries more and thus makes more mistakes while JJ is more conservative.
Both are suffering under what seems to be poor coaching, Jack doesn't seem to know where everyone is as much as he used to… He can't trust the no look pass as much as he did and in fairness JJ must be feeling the same way..
What I am saying is that the 10 gets a lot of blame when the coaching can be root problem..
Yes it does…
https://all.rugby/player/cian-prendergast
Billy doesn't have that… Fair call
https://all.rugby/player/billy-burns
So we would have to get into the last 8 for Cian to beat him…
Billy had a URC Quarter and Semi and two extra rounds of ERC…
Cian could still do it..
Absolutely didn't see that one…
Stand corrected…
That is massive number… Record as we know stands at 2131 mins…
Crazy high… 10 games higher than Cian is right now.. So apart from playing every minute you need runs in the competitions as well…
There was less protocaols back then… Robbie has big numbers too from those season 1700+ …
In terms of run of games played I doubt anyone will beat Marmion who,unless I am misremembering,played in every game for his first 2 seasons at Connacht. He was capped during the summer tour of his second season so he had to miss the start of the 3rd season for IRFU rest protocols. He had actually toured on his first season as well but because he didn't actually play he didn't have to miss any game time at the start of the 2nd season
Darragh Murray got a 3 week ban.
It is utter crap… Darragh was on his knees and soaked in the tackle.
Meanwhile stamping on Belham's head gets rescinded..
It is utter crap the leniency some teams are getting in European rugby.
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