Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

These players and coaches get such an easy ride. That was embarrassing stuff for about 50 minutes and they'll probably still get the "brave but unlucky Connacht narrative".

Once again when the pressure comes on they crumble and when they have a glimmer of hope they close the door on themselves.

We gave that a great go and were closer at the end than we deserved. Racing managed the ball in the second half and just strangled us.

I really don't think this is like the Munster game when we made a bucket load of mistakes. Going down to 14 narrowed Racings game and we weren't able to deal with their bulk, this led to penalties, that they either kicked or went to the corner and mauled us over.....that was the game and we just don't have the cattle to deal with that.

Add in the changes to the backline making us less effective with ball in hand and we were cooked.

Definitely a chance missed but this wasn't an effort or attitude thing, sometimes size matters.

.......and we NEED to develop a kicking game!

The end of the games was annoying. There was no need to throw a wild pass. Just work your way up the field slowly and carefully. You'd have won penalties and put yourself in position to tie it up and get to extra time with two extra men.

Pretty sick. The talent is there now to be successful, just need proper coaching.

Every big game they just get battered up front. I don't know how you fix that apart from signing bigger players. I think the only time the past few years when we've had a decent maul defence was when Dewald Senekal was over the forwards.

The last few games Connacht have conceded 30, 43, 30, 20 & 43 points. It's actually insane how bad they are defensively.

Once Racing got a head of steam up front the tide was only going one way. However the issue is how we gave them the platform to play to their strengths. Even if we had double our current budget we are unlikely to ever be able to build a monster pack to compete with the likes of Racing. Taking that as a given, the way you negate size is move them around the field, vary the play, don't give them easy targets to hit and don't give them the platform to attack through brain-dead discipline. Easier said than done but once again we failed on all those elements.

Playing against 14 any balanced team should be able to manage the game but at this id say video analysts of opposition teams don't need to do much work to get a summary of what's needed to beat Connacht. Every team knows that we have no kicking game and that if they push the boundaries defensively we will dig our own grave.

Also you have to question the mental side of Connacht's game. Teams cam be 15-20 points down against Connacht and you know the word coming through from the opposition is don't panic they'll let us back into it and 9 times out of 10 we do.

There have been so many times against a variety of teams and styles where the game has followed a similar pattern. We start ok, then concede an avalanche of scores before making another burst at the end.

The alarm bells should be ringing loudly within Connacht at this stage. There is good work going on below the senior team identifying players but aside from that there's very little positive within the Connacht setup at the moment.

I don't know did the game sell out in the end but the fact they were begging people to buy tickets to a reduced capacity European quarter final on a decent Saturday night weather wise is probably the most telling indicator that we are in big trouble if we keep heading down this road.

They need to be careful how they price season tickets. It's going to be tricky for them.

I think the branch know they're in trouble when it comes to renewals next season. Unless they've a big name they're holding off on announcing the only selling point is the new stand really. I've been surprised at the amount of regulars that told me they'll pick and choose games in 25/26 rather than renewing the season ticket.

Recruitment.

Ben Murphy was a success, but Ioane while exciting going forward can't kick consistently either from hand or from the tee and if he is to thrive for us for the remainder of his two year deal may have to move to 15. JJ and Carty will not be here next season, so unless Millard/Seib intend to give Naughton, Forde, or Hawkshaw extended time at 10 next season then we have to sign a game-managing,kicking 10 for next season. Frawley is the answer either in full or on a season's loan. Persisting with Cordero when it was clear from his awful performance against the Dragons that he was a shot player was perhaps the most egregious error from this coaching team. Porch and Smith are gone with Mullins and Jennings having received very little time and us having to play Mack (a winger) and O'Conor (a 13) at full back.

Other than a 10, the other key signing for next year is a brute of a lock and if we have to go to Fiji or South Africa to get one then that's what we have to do. Neither Josh Murphy or Joyce (decent players and committed both) are big enough carriers.

This season and particularly the last 5/6 weeks have been the worst for Connacht rugby since the days we had Niall O'Connor at 10 and lost 17 games in a row. We have some seriously promising talent (SHL, Jansen, Prenergast, Ben Murphy, Devine, Forde, Ioane, Gavin, Finn Treacy, Mullins, Bolton) and international quality (Bundee, Mack, Bealham) and yet…….It's the coaching as well as the selection. It's not all down to Wilkins, Sexton, and Fardy. Muldoon shouldn't be getting a free pass either just because he's a local playing legend. Final word is that we should never have left Dewald Senekal go.

Interesting half back selections.

Only 4 back rows?

At least Naughton will get some badly needed game time. Dowling and Murphy can rotate to back row but it does look a little tight.

Yep injured

https://www.connachtrugby.ie/news/squad-update-and-sa-touring-squad-announced/bp3389/

You'd think they could bring Oisin McCormack as well. They've just re-signed him and next year will be his fourth season with a senior contract. So far he's had a total of two caps and 33 minutes, now he had lengthy injuries etc, but why aren't they using him now that he's fit?

Ah OK thanks for that info. Hard to see us getting much from the trip to SA either way I am afraid

My thoughts exactly on McCormack.

Niall Murray played the A game during the week I think so unless hes injured you'd think he should be going as well.