Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

I thought facilities inside were poor. First time there but I didn’t expect space to be so tight.

I was in the stand and a few people with me left their seats at half time to go to the toilet. Queue was so bad they missed 5 minutes of the second half.

After the game we couldn’t leave our seats for a while. There seems to be very few exits down to the back of the stand. When we got moving and got down behind the stand everyone was leaving by the same exit. Room was tight and at the end of the stand a food truck was parked which tightened the space even more.
Great to have a big crowd but it felt everyone was packed in with little concern about how fans could move around once inside

Im not really sure how we missed Wilkins. I wish him well if there is any illness and wish him well in any future career but the sooner he is out the door the better as far as I'm concerned.

The garbage we have witnessed in the last two games is the same as we've seen throughout his tenure.

The template for any reasonable team to beat Connacht has been well established before he went on leave. Really teams just let Connacht make a rod for their own back.

Munster kept it simple, pinned us back, let us make the mistakes and they knew with their forwards and our complete lack of any defensive structure that we'd cave in without much resistance.

Wilkins is ultimately responsible for the mess we saw yesterday and throughout the season. He has built a team on the pitch that is ridiculously one dimensional and what money he's had to strengthen the squad he's wasted it in bringing in unnecessary players when we had glaring weaknesses elsewhere and his coaching appointments have been uninspiring to put it mildly.

Its not going to be a quick fix to sort this team out but we need to stop going down this insane route before the route back becomes twice as long.

We have won 5/14 this season. Max we get 7 wins out of 18 and I wouldn't hold my breath on that. We've got a tonne of bonus points this year but 9/18 is the bare minimum you have to expect in terms of wins.

We started last season with 3 wins in a row post WC but since then it's 11 wins from 29 in the league. That'll probably be 11 from 31 in a few weeks. A very favourable set of games in the challenge cup is papering over the cracks to some extent but I'd expect our interest to end their soon with the way we are playing.

Between the new stand, the interest in rugby and the number of players in Irish contention we should be excited but if we leave Wilkins and co. in charge for next season we might as well just ring the contractors and tell them theres no need to finish the stand because supporters eventually run out of patience when they see a team with potential being let down by what's going on behind the scenes.

Alcohol consumption equals huge queues at toilets.

27,800 people leaving at the same time equates to having a bit of patience.

I've absolutely no idea what you expected (I'm not saying that in a mean way either).

For a first time effort and introducing thingslike bars/food which wouldn't be there normally it was a massive success.

The ground was nearly full,that means queues for toilets,bars etc.A 28k crowd is a different prospect to 5 or 6k at Sportsground.

I thought MacHale Park looked amazing and the occasion couldn't have gone any better.

We are not a good team, which is made apparent by our URC win/loss record (the same as Zebre's), and by watching our games, which is a particularly cruel breed of torture.

I think we have a good squad which could peak to have a run at URC and European knockout stages in a couple of years. The below will all be in or approaching their prime in 2028:

Tierney-Martin, de Buitléar, Aungier, Illo, Barrett, Murray, Murray, Prendergast, Hurley-Langton, Jansen, O'Brien, Flynn, Murphy, Devine, Naughton, Forde, Hawkshaw, Gavin, Hansen, Bolton, Mullins, Jennings, Treacy, Ralston.

That could be a very strong core of a squad, if supplemented by some quality NIQs and older squad members.

Seems to be rumours of Millard returning as a kinda DOR but for non-matchday ops in both mens and womens sides. That would be a great move imo.

I don't think you can blame Hansen defence…

There were some horrendous missed tackles before he was involved… It is the full curse as being the last man, a lot of time with bad defences you look weak when there just isn't much you can do…

The Connacht Defence is just very poor, it's attack is looking alright… We shipped 70 points in two games and got two bonus points from both…

The Ospreys defence was would make a grown man cry at one point…

Connacht let two tries in on first phase ball in Castlebar…

You can't kick the ball in the west of Ireland against the wind… You have to drive the ball into the wind…. Really disappointed that was not coached into him… Just simply give him an O'Neils on the 22 against the wind in the sportsground and tell him to put it over the bar…

What kind of coaching do we have that can't show him that…

Well this is exactly the issue. People are blaming players for poor defense but it's the coaching. Defense is a team effort and everybody looks lost like they don't know what their job is.

Our out-halfs have been terrible for a fair while now so clearly the coaching is poor there as well.

If Wilkins current role is reduced by Millard arriving then this makes it easier for Wilkins to pick up the defence part. Could probably still do with a skills coach still though.

You'd have to think that Millard will be given permission to bring in his own man to lead the coaching staff.

Looks like Sean Walsh confirmed as an academy player next year. Connacht officially announced some academy signings in May last year. Interested to see who and how many come into the academy.

Season Ticket sales for next season seem to be very late this year. Dont remember ever not renewing in March.

I wonder are they just tight on the deadlines with the new stand, and need to be sure it's available before selling tickets.

Or are they trying to think how to charge fans for a full season ticket before moving games away from Dexcom?

I had suspected they were hoping for a win at the weekend to announce the renewals off the back of it but that didnt really work out :)