Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

While a run in the CC is great, we do need to be realistic and think it's only going until any of the other teams decide they are interested.

I'm still of the opinion that the squad is decent and better than the league position suggests but that tactically we are poor. Yesterday imo would support that, playing keep ball with a huge wind is not a great idea for a team that finds scoring difficult. I do accept that our skill levels are poor but again if you haven't got great skills then playing with the ball all the time passes advantage to the opposition. They just wait for our error, which unfortunately is about as certain as death and taxes.

Hawkshaw was good, as he always is when he gets a run at 12. The problem is that he is best as a hard running 12 but we have three others who can play that role and are a lot bigger than him. Not sure where his future lies with us, I don't think playing 13 is the answer and he doesn't seem to be viewed as a 10. You'd think with his background as an outhalf he could distinguish himself as more of a playmaking 12, but his distribution skills are not particularly good. There is the potential that he has it in the locker but the coaching staff just aren't focusing on those skills, as no-one in the squad seems capable of throwing a pass beyond five metres.

Devine is a livewire and lots of fun to watch but his passing concerns me. It seems like rather than simply having some execution issues, his technique is fundamentally flawed. He snatches at his passes, pulling his arms across his body rather than following through and finishing the motion with his hands pointed at the receiver. He threw two shockers yesterday, one at Dooley's ankles which forced a forward pass under pressure, and one so far above Hanrahan's head that it earned him a bollocking. Both were off his left hand, where he seems to struggle the most. Don't want to be too critical as I really admire the way he plays the game but he is a full time pro now and standards are high, especially for he who has the potential to be an international if he can nail the fundamentals of the position.

Thought Paul Boyle was very good as well, he's had a brilliant return to form this season and is one of the few capable of making a line break.

We can do it to CC final
Buckley B.Murphy, Aki, Hansen, D.Murray, Prendergast, Forde, Bealham, maybe Porch/Bolton, that's way enough to move from a decent team, winning in a very tricky away Cardiff game for exemple, to a really good team in April

If we were 8 points better or even 5 points better, it would have been a great run in…

We can't seem to breakdown defences anymore…

This won't happen for financial reasons, we'd be very limited trying to recruit coaches mid season anyway.

Id be of the view that if Wilkins DOES coach something it goes to crap. This year his primary focus is defence I believe which tells its own story.

I'm genuinely lost why people think Wilkins is a good technical coach but that could be just my bias. From memory Edinburgh were poor under him as defence coach and were keen to ditch him and since he's joined us he's jumped from role to role with very little if any discernable improvement and usually I see regression where he's involved.

I think where Wilkins must be good from what I've seen and heard is as a stats or video guru in the background.

The best technical coaches I could see with my untrained eye since Friend came in (where it was very obvious they improved what we were doing) were Nigel Carolan and Dewald Senekal.

Wilkins seems like a good person but ultimately he's out of his depth in terms of being a head coach who is ultimately responsible for the predictable frustrating game plan that we persist with. Everyone has to take a part of the responsibility for each area but ultimately it falls on him. For any half decent teams playing Connacht the recipe to win is pretty straightforward. A strong defensive line and play territory and we'll burn ourselves out going through multiple phases going nowhere and with no kicking option as an alternative.

In terms of man management and leadership of the organisation as a whole I've rarely seen anyone who is so ill fitting to the role.

The recruitment and departures at Connacht has at best frustrating with notable exceptions like Ben Murphy and the squad appears to be lopsided to me. He's had more than enough time to shape his own squad and even with a limited budget he's not done well. Lots of players who serve no purpose have been brought in while we have glaring issues in key areas that have persisted for years. Quality players being messed around and no idea of the makeup of his best backline.

Willie Ruane has dug this hole for himself. The stadium getting done and the success of the trip to Castlebar will allow him to spin the positives but he has made two disastrous appointments as head coach. With Keane we cut our losses early but Wilkins feels more death by a thousand cuts and this will really come to be a problem when his staff are given the task of getting a respectable crowd for run of the mill games in the new stadium. Connacht is a hard sell at the moment even though in theory we've never been more marketable.

Tram is not shabby. Hasn't been for years

A lot of coverage this last week about supporting Munster, Ulster and Connacht to bridge the gap to Leinster. Probably just means Munster with the other two tagged on to make it sound like it's for the good of Irish rugby but if it's a genuine aim then I would like to see the IRFU and Connacht go after a known quantity, with a successful track record, with experience of working with Irish players to lead Connacht towards new heights.

With a squad that has 3 current Irish international starters, another 2 squad members and an NI international winger and some great young talent that is way underperforming.m, surely we will make a decent coach look pretty good.

Stuart Lancaster looks like he will be available at the end of the season. Pay him what he needs and give him the back room needed.

Shayne Bolton called up to the Irish squad together with Tom Ahern.