'trending unbelievably well' ? clearly doing his social media work in the interim.
Wilkins is an idiot. and suggesting Carty for the weekend when every point matters for a team like Connacht just boggles the mind
The idea of Carty starting a game for Connacht now fills me with dread.
I hope he proves me wrong, but we've 10 years of his inconsistent play to reference.
Let Forde start with Hawkshaw backing him up
Conncht needConncht need 4 try win at the next match. I think that they shouldn't stick to the rotation.
What Rotation are you referring to exactly?
I assume he's referring to last season when we'd make loads of changes for each game.
CONNACHT RUGBY MATCHDAY 23 VS SCARLETS 19:35, Friday 4th October 2024 @ Parc y Scarlets
Number/Name/Caps (* denotes uncapped)
15. Santiago Cordero (4) 14. Mack Hansen (34) 13. Cathal Forde (33) 12. Bundee Aki (138) 11. Piers O'Conor (2) 10. Jack Carty (212) 9. Ben Murphy (2) 1. Denis Buckley (250) 2. Dave Heffernan (20) 3. Finlay Bealham (205) 4. Niall Murray (76) 5. David O’Connor (1) 6. Josh Murphy (20) 7. Conor Oliver (87) 8. Cian Prendergast (70) (C)
16. Dylan Tierney-Martin (38) 17. Peter Dooley (39) 18. Temi Lasisi * 19. Oisín Dowling (61) 20. Paul Boyle (94) 21. Caolin Blade (194) 22. David Hawkshaw (32) 23. Shayne Bolton (14)
Carty back. Not surprised Forde kept in the centre but not sure about #13.
Interested to see how Lasisi goes when introduced and it's great to have Bundee back. Hopefully we get a good few matches from him before November.
Interesting that O'Conor is kept on the wing. A little worried for Porchy that we haven't seen him yet this year. Good to see Shayne on the bench though. Said hello to him on Saturday, lovely lad.
I hope Cathal goes well at 13 - I can't remember if he's played there before and if so, how he did?
I also hope he takes the penalties and conversions. If so, he could take a huge amount of pressure off Jack who could then do well in the playmaker role.
Note that we are now three matches in and Blade hasn't started yet, with Devine due to return from EI. I wonder if this season will mark his transition to substitute appearances only? And while Farrell has included him in Ireland panels previously, you'd have to wonder if not starting will hurt his chances this year. IMO he needed a bit of competition at scrum-half, and he certainly has it now.
Regarding Blade, I think he is excellent generally, but one thing that Ben Murphy has been doing noticeably better than him is kicking to touch - something we've struggled with for a while (Marmion was also average in that regard). For that reason alone, I'd be sticking with Murphy as our starting 9.
I personally think Devine is going to come back and put real pressure on Murphy. Think Blade will sip down to 3rd choice by the end of the year
Competition brings the best out of him. Ioane looks excellent but will be gone next season.
Carty has just turned 32. I don't recall him ever having serious hamstring, knee, ankle or shoulder injury. Ruptured his spleen alright…but fingers crossed another couple of seasons in him at least. Last season was not a good from him.
So yes needs to play allot better this season when given the chance. He's not going to get many.
I think from hearing an interview with Jack Carty after the Leinster game last season he's accepting that this will be his last season. Whether that's because he doesn't back himself to get a new contract and would look elsewhere or whether his body is telling him he's had enough I don't know.
He's given a lot of good years to Connacht and hopefully he can contribute this season but unfortunately he's been on the downward trajectory for a number of years now and we need a long term solution at 10. I feel bad for Carty because there seemed to be no real plan for the position behind the scenes only to put all the eggs in one basket and it's cost us.
Scarlets collapsed from 15-0 after 10 mins to a 15-24 defeat at home to Cardiff. This is a test of the professionalism of the squad really. If we mean business we need to win a and ideally we need to win without it becoming a basketball game.
I don't agree with the idea that Jack has been on a consistent downward trajectory over the past few years. In my opinion he had a very decent 22/23 campaign, and led us to the URC semis while playing 80 minutes week in, week out.
He was bad last season though, which I find symptomatic of what I believe is a pattern of poor form when faced with competition for the jersey. I'm not sure if it's because he needs very consistent match time to maintain form, or if he struggles with the pressure brought by competition. Either way, the conventional wisdom that competition gets the best out of players does not seem to hold true for him.
There are no excuses available tonight. We are playing against a weak team, our attack has been firing thus far, and he's surrounded by loads of talent in a reasonably settled team. He needs to perform. He also has the best kicking scrum half I've ever seen at Connacht inside him to relieve some of the burden on exits.
While Jack will not get another three year contract (or even a two year one) I wouldn't rule out him getting a one-year extension to be used as cover, and for that to be rolled over depnding on whether we get/decide on a permanent 10.
the conventional wisdom that competition gets the best out of players does not seem to hold true for him.
I'd agree with this. But if Jack was on a one year extension, the idea that his career is coming to an end and the concept of relishing whatever opportunities you get to play towards the end of the career, might free him up to do some of the great stuff that he's done for us over the years. One aspect of Jack's play that never gets talked about, for instance, is his defensive work, which, IMO is always good.
I think Murphy is also much faster at getting the ball away from the ruck. The attack is much more fluid. Blade tends to mess around with the ball too much and slows momentum.
While I'd guess that some of the time Blade is trying to induce a penalty from the opposition, he does it far too much, IMO.
We have all been there on that one. We also have seen Jack miss touch just once too much. And we no longer see Denis turning a ball over or Finlay offloading. These things matter. It's important. These days they are nothing other than bog standard
Those are 4 quality players who’ve given a huge amount to Connacht over their careers, and tbqh deserve a bit more respect than how you’re speaking about them here.
It’s one thing criticising guys after they make some errors or mistakes, but the pre-criticism is surely a bit much even for Boards.
pre criticism is important. post criticism is I told you so which is much easier
Lets see how this plays out
Poor positioning from Van der Westhuizen there missing two obvious Scarlet penalties on their own try line.
If ever there is such thing as an “own try” in rugby that’s pretty much it right there.
Jack has started well.
YC is great call.should he compulsory
That's a YC
Connacht shooting themselves in the foot here
Murphy could have gotten a yellow if they didn't score there.
its hard to explain how rubbish the Connacht defense is. The try just now and the Coombes try when we played Munster.
Cordero makes some daft decisions
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