Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

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.

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

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.

We had Conor Fitzgerald as well

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.

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

Wouldn’t like it to be on the back of an injury but would be excited to see Devine start.

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.

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..

I believe Carty is injured.

BTW, Cian is on 1,430 mins for Connacht, your figure includes RWC warm ups.

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.

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..

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

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.