Oisin McCormack was the best forward and Treacy the best back imo. Barrett and Naughton impressive too. Victory off the bench was an improvement on McBurney in the loose but his throwing is far from the required standard.
Harry West and Shane Mallon got injured, both seemed like hamstrings potentially.
I presume it'll have been written into Andrew Smith's loan contract that he can't face us in Castlebar?
How was James Nicholson?
Unfortunate time for those two to pick up an injury, given they're both in the last year of the Academy.
I thought the backs looked well drilled and cohesive as a collective and Nicholson played his part in that, looked sharp and had some nice touches. Mallon was good on the other wing too until his injury and West had just made a nice half break when he got injured. John Devine had a good outing too.
I just felt Treacy and Jennings stood out that extra bit from the others, the extra athleticism makes a big difference imo.
thought Hansen was incredible and deserved MOTM
love Hansen - he had a lot of good moments but he was culpable for 2 Italy try’s
In U20 team, I was impressed by Bobby Power (opensider). I think he will become 'Ireland' in the future time. I hope that Connacht have long-term point of view about young talented players like West, Mollan or Victory etc….. I think that the investment will surely get big return.
Interesting, I didn't see all the games but wouldn't have picked Power out as a major prospect. Max Flynn is only 4 months older and has a higher ceiling imo.
I think Mallon and West will leave at the end of the season. Victory is a tricky one, it would be good to see him supplant McBurney but he cannot play senior rugby with his throwing where it is currently.
Victory has another year in the Academy. Don't know what the purpose of McBurney is to the squad, he's played 18m this year. In the case of an injury crisis we'd be better off using Victory.
It's very easy to say that in March 2025 with hindsight. The coaches would have been making the same decision about Victory's development in April 2024 when he was just being retained for second year in the academy.
We have four senior contracted hookers in addition to Victory. Heffernan hasn't played for Ireland since 2022, so it would have required three injuries before we would be forced to call on MV. Yes, it's easy to say it in hindsight, but Connacht constantly have to make decisions under conditions of limited resources, so that was my call.
What further riles me about this is that we traded Tadhg McElroy for McBurney. Now I have nothing against the latter, but McElroy was second in terms of minutes at hooker last season and a regular starter. This was another squad decision that eroded my confidence in the coaching group and Wilkins in particular. There are a lot of unexplained decisions around selection and retention. Too many.
If we did not replace McElroy we would have been two injuries away from having Victory in the matchday 23. We've been lucky to have Heffernan and Tierney-Martin fit so consistently but you can't bank on that when assembling a squad. It's one thing leaning on the academy to cover injuries if you have a Gus McCarthy, but Victory is not ready yet.
I think we went 1/6 at the lineout when he came on for the Eagles (in perfect conditions), which probably cost us the game. We can't afford for that to happen in the URC, the margins are far too fine.
On the subject of the lineout, we have the best success rate (92%) across the three major European leagues. Our coaching team takes a lot of flak but I think Muldoon deserves credit for that.
I was surprised we let McElroy go too. I saw a lot of quality from him. When I asked some friends, I was given the impression there's might be a reason why he's switched club twelve times in eight years.
I've seen us down to two fit senior hookers often enough over the years to think it's not an area worth taking risks. We can agree to disagree in that. 😀
So, I'm open to persuasion on the 3/4 hookers question, and I was not aware that Victory's throws were as problematic as @realhorrorshow described above. DTM was carrying an injury (neck?) last season which kept him out for several periods and definitely explained some of the minutes that flowed McElroy's way. Eoin de Buitléar also picked up a hamstring injury late last season.
Victory just back from the guts of a year out with a significant hamstring tear. Throwing definitely requires a lot of work as he only converted to hooker after school but he's certainly a powerful athlete.
It's a good challenge for a young guy in the academy - improve a technical skill that he can put a lot of extra time into and and it could be 3 + 1 in a year with significant minutes potentially available.
If Connacht want to win against Ospreys, they need spcial (or tricky) tactics. I think that they should use Hansen, Prendergast. And they must use M.Devine as a starter. And they must have the strongest mind in especially aerial conbats.
Hansen won't be involved this week
Yes, I know it enough. But I think that Connacht cannot win without him.
New contract for Oisin McCormack. Slightly surprised due to his lack of game time but he has also been unlucky with injuries
Edit: Chay Mullins has been announced too
McCormack has been unlucky with injury but is also lucky that academy isn't heavily stocked with locks and back rows. Given the injury profile of some of our back row it makes sense to carry an extra spot there.
Can anyone explain why Prendergast can't play against Ospreys while Blade is available?
I assume some of it is down to Murphy being out injured.
It'll be minutes. Cian is on over 1000 already this season and played two full matches since the Ireland camp in Portugal. Blade's on less than 500 and has been a sub twice in the same period.
Either that or Farrell loaned Easterby his magic eight ball. 😁
Any spare tickets around for upcoming munster game. Have a 14 year old nephew looking for one? Will take any type of ticket if any available.
CONNACHT RUGBY MATCHDAY SQUAD VS OSPREYS
17:15, Saturday 22nd March 2025 @ Swansea.com Stadium
Number/Name/Caps
15. Piers O’Conor (14) 14. Finn Treacy (2) 13. Hugh Gavin (4) 12. Cathal Forde (45) 11. Shayne Bolton (21) 10. Josh Ioane (10) 9. Caolin Blade (205) 1. Denis Buckley (259) 2. Dave Heffernan (212) 3. Jack Aungier (80) 4. Darragh Murray (33) 5. Joe Joyce (31) Captain6. Josh Murphy (31) 7. Shamus Hurley-Langton (51) 8. Paul Boyle (108)
16. Dylan Tierney-Martin (50) 17. Temi Lasisi (3) 18. Sam Illo (29) 19. Oisín Dowling (71) 20. David O’Connor (7) 21. Matthew Devine (12) 22. JJ Hanrahan (23) 23. Sean Jansen (18)
Good team given the absence of our internationals and Ben Murphy. Look forward to seeing Illo and Lasisi together in the front row. Is Dooley injured or just on rotation?
Is Cordero injured or just cast adrift now that he's likely to be departing?
I rate Piers O'Connor but not at full back especially if we are under aerial bombardment. 15 is definitely an area we need to review again. Despite bringing in back 3 players like they are going out of fashion we seem to be no closer to a short or long term solution at 15 despite it being a glaring weakness for years at this stage.
The 6-2 split is nearly standard these days but Hanrahan as the one back option outside of scrim half is a bit of a concern.
Love that Gavin and Forde are getting more time, praying that, in time, this centre partnership rivals the Henshaw-Aki halcyon days.
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