Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Can't fault the heart shown by the end but that's a season-ender of a result in terms of the URC. Ospreys were there for the taking and we just conceded too many soft trys.

Thought the bench changed the game. Lads like Dowling, the two props settled us a lot and Devine loosened up the aggressive Osprey line. Bolton's injury was the losing of the game though. Completely lost our heads moving Ioane about. Do we really need a 6-2 split just to have Dave O'Connor on the bench?

I genuinely believe we have a top 8 team with a better coaching setup. I'd have been delighted to see the current ticket, especially a club legend like Mul, succeed but it's not gonna happen.

Chance to win Challenge Cup now, this team is able.

Forgot about the league our schedule made it nearly impossible till Ulster home loss (Saffers away)

Add Bealham/Aki/Hansen, J.Murphy for D.Murray (slow today), Prendergast for J.Murphy, Dooley probably, Devine/B.Murphy for Blade, Dowling and no D.O'Connor in a normal 5-3 split, with Gavin/Cordero on the bench and Forde covering 10 (no JJ)

Which means

1 Buck

2 Heff

3. Beal

4 J.Murphy

5 J.Joyce

6. Prendergast

7.SHL

8 Boyle

9. B.Murphy if back/Devine

10 Ioane

12. Aki

13 Forde

11. Bolton if back/Cordero

14 Hansen

15 P.O'Connor

16 DTMartin

17 Dooley

18 Aungier

19 Dowling

20 Jansen

21 Blade

22 Gavin

23 Cordero (Carty if Bolton is absent making Cordero start)

With those imputs we'll score 40 again brillantly and only conceed 30! 😜

I like your team but if we are going 5-3 then it'd be Mullins for me over Cordero.

Jennings offers more IMO. I like how Finn Tracy plays, lots of involvement, good basics, nose for the try line. Think he could do well.

What were people's impressions of Illo and Lasisi? I thought they did well, although the instability in the scrum meant that we got a couple of free kicks where I was more interested in how they would scrummage.

Himself and Murphy should be picked for the Irish tour this summer.

Interesting to hear the post match interview with Tucker. He seemed to take offence to the 5 minute spell before ht being criticised. Of course he wants to defend his players but this has happened numerous times with Connacht and 3 games in a row we have gone from a strong position to a complete capitulation in a short spell.

The interviewer William Davies is an inoffensive character. It's not like a Tony O'Donoghue style reporter prodding for a reaction. Disappointing response to say the least

Was out of the country for the weekend, should I even watch the highlights of that game or better off ignoring them?

Just caught up on the highlights myself, the defending for some of Ospreys scores was not fit for u14s. Criminal stuff. We wont win many games if we continue like that but then somehow managed to get themselves back into it with some nice scores and probably will be disappointed after getting back to 3pts down with 11 mins left that they couldn't push on.

1 thing i noticed was right at the end the ball was slapped back/out of the ruck by a Ospreys player and full time whistle blown after they kicked it dead. Id imagine in normal time it was something which the TMO would surely have to check and maybe lead to a chance at the draw.

The question for me here is, had the ruck formed before the player slapped the ball, and did the ref think the player had his hands on the ball before the ruck formed.
I think the player made the ref think he had latched onto the ball and when it squirted back on his side she believed he had just passed it back after winning it.
The player was the first to the ball so he was entitled to go for it with his hands until the ruck formed.

A TMO review may have said he missed the ball, the ruck then formed and then he reached for it, which is a penalty as I understand it.
It was a very quick piece of skill from the player to give him some credit. That probably would get missed by most refs.

Tucker steps up to lead Connacht with Wilkins on sick leave https://the42.ie/3309208

Hopefully it's not too serious, but it's pretty unusual to hear of a coach on sick leave.

I've been critical of Connacht's development under his tenure but wish him nothing but the best personally. Get well soon, Pete.

Tucker has been heavily linked with a move away so I think it's unlikely he'd be given the reigns of this was any more than a short term thing.

Must say I really didn't like the Comms from Tucker and Joyce after the game, a lot of mentions of "freak tries" when scores like that against us are basically the norm at this point so at some stage we need to accept that these are not anomalies, we just can't defend. Fiona Coughlan on RTE said we were lazy in defence and she was spot on. The obvious one was where no one bothered to fill in at fullback or chase the Ospreys kick through but there were a lot of times our positioning and scramble defence was not up to it.