This is also true. A victim of our misshapen squad with a surplus of outside backs.
I'd never have dreamed ten years ago that we'd have ten players even in consideration for the Irish squad but here we are.
I feel for Cathal Forde not making the 23 for the A match against England. I thought there was more chance of seeing him than Hugh Gavin. They have Gavin at 12 which surprised me as I'd prefer him at 13.
Five Connacht players starting in that game, Gavin, Bolton, Aungier, Murray and Jansen.
Ireland were still playing Sevens in Paris two weeks after Connacht's pre-season started. The Sevens lads are incredibly fit athletes but missing the technical coaching in pre-season will have put them at a disadvantage. I'd have expected Smith to be ahead of Mullins for selection recently if he hadn't broken his thumb.
Just a personal opinion but for all Smith's exciting running in 23/24 he really needs to learn how to get the ball grounded over the line or securely to a team mate near it. It's a core skill at wing in fifteen man rugby. The coaches can't have been happy with the number of his flashy moments we failed to score from.
As for Ralston, I think it's no surprise we re-signed him. We started the season with only two experienced outside centres - O'Conor who was expected to play fullback until Cordero returned, and Ralston who was presumably a considerably cheaper contract than Tom Farrell. Hawkshaw did well there but he's a 12/10 for me. I hope that by next season we'll see Gavin make that position his own for years but he was just a very promising unknown quantity in the Summer.
I was about to talk about Smith and I was in agreement with you but then I remembered that this not finishing things off is a team thing and not just Smith.
It's a very Connacht thing! 😂😭😂
Tough on Forde, he's good enough to play international rugby for many teams but unfortunately Ireland potentially have more quality at 12 that we've ever had in any position ever.
Aki, Henshaw, McCloskey, Osborne, Gavin, Postlethwaite, Forde, Tector.
Absolutely absurd depth.
And our biggest underage prospect is a 12 also!
Forde's definitely of international quality at 12 but I think Connacht have mis-managed him this season. Switching him between 12 and 13 while still covering 10 and covering kicking felt like far too much workload to me. He looked like he was struggling to adapt to 13 and his kicking dropped off both from hand and the tee.
Think the Harlequins game will be the final time to see Denis. Denis, thanks a million, you have done well
And of course Jacks final game. It's nice to see they get the opportunity
wow that pass was miles forward but whatever
credit to Quins for a good stream. Time for Jack to be replaced.
And Hawkshaw is really looking good at 12
Score?
Quins 7 Connacht
Connacht 12
just go to Quins YouTube and it's there
commentary is fine and the game is as good as any other televized game
Watching the U20s
You are like a broken record with the disrespect towards Bucks and Jack.
Jack showed plenty in the hour he was on in pretty shocking conditions to suggest that if he is going to call time on his career with us that he will have plenty of interest if he wants to keep playing elsewhere.
I'm also still to be convinced that Duggan is a better LH than Denis currently either
Not seen a worse cameo off the bench from a rugby player as bad as Sean naughtans in a long time, bloody useless
Judging a young 10 in a pick and mix trial match is a small bit unfair in my opinion. Haven’t seen the match but judging by comment conditions were bad too. The couple of times I’ve seen Naughton there is 100% potential there.
standard connacht mediocrity mindset
So you're going to write off a young guy who will still be 20 at the start of next season and barely has any pro experience on the basis of a large squad friendly? Whatever you think your own mindset is, please take it elsewhere. You're not welcome here!
Jj Hanrahan signed to Munster for 2 seasons.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/rugby/arid-41579773.html
Jj, Jack and Josh all out of contract at end of year, would be surprised to see any stay on, maybe a year for Jack with one 10 being brought in on decent money and then groom Naughton over the next few years. His performance last night won't go on his highlights reel but any other time I've seen him he looks to have a lot about him so we should be looking to back him.
Best of luck to JJ, he bought into the place and did his best, can't ask for much more from a guy than that
I have a feeling that both JJ and Jack are very decent back up 10's with plenty left in the tank.
I also think that JJ was the best of our 10's at implementing the coaches game plan which is probably why I disliked when he was selected so much.
Best of luck and thanks for your efforts.
It really does look like major change of plans for next season. Perhaps we need to look at the organ grinder instead of the monkeys getting all the blame.
I agree with you but the way Jack has been non selected for most of this season even though he's done well any time he has played would lead me to think he might not be interested in another year with the same setup who don't seem to fancy him for whatever reason.
Unfortunately, it's been a major change of plan every season for quite a while. A quality starting out half getting to run the game in slowly evolving game structure for a settled group of coaches is a pipe dream of mine. 🤣
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