Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Ignoring Leinster for a minute, but have any of the other Irish teams announced new signings for next season?

I wonder are we seeing the impact of the 2023 World Cup? The IRFU admitted that we lost money that season. Maybe the coffers are a little empty right now, and we need to persist with what we have currently.

Usually there would have been multiple signings announced at this stage

Not to single you out SqueakyKneecap. Lots of us fans are down on the team right now, but I'm going to try to be optimistic

"What a depressing couple of years it's been"

Since 2021, we've had

• A starting Lion
• More representation in the Irish 23 than Munster and Ulster
• A Heineken Cup knock-out match
• A sell out game in Castlebar
• Re-development of the Sportsground
• A player in the running for World Player Of the Year during a World Cup season
• A semi final in the URC

Go back 10 years, and all of that would be a pipe dream

I know you mentioned "couple of years" and I've gone back 4 years, but it's good to probably put some perspective on what we're going through

Unfortunately, our biggest issues have come down to coaching/attitude of the players

Fans (well, me at least) are frustrated, as the players dont seem to play anywhere near their potential when playing for us.

We need a restructure of our approach from top down. Hopefully that will come with the appointment of Millard. We need all the coaches having the same goals, and understanding of how we can get there. There is no point in one coach wanting players who play a physical, tight game, where as an other wants the ball thrown around, and our players relying on fitness.

We look disjointed these days, but hopefully we're near the end of a dark period, and there is light approaching

I'm fairly optimistic about this group of players generally.

I am a bit disappointed that it looks like we have very few new additions coming in especially in light of Porch, JJ, Cordero, O Connor all supposed to be leaving. Surely their collective wages would allow at least one medium quality addition in a key role?

Dunne could be a good signing, and God knows we need some oomph in the second row.

Don't Connacht have an interest to Jarlath Gleeson ? He plays currently in Lyon (maybe academy) He was ex -London Irish player and IQ (in my memory). age 20, Height 207cm, weight 111kg). If there is no LO at this age level, he seems to deserve to be researched.

Thank you very much for your good information.I remember Andrew Browne as a good LO player.

Also a player not getting a game at a team suffering record defeats isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.

We don't have any locks in the academy though?

It went into junk on a bank Holiday Saturday. That isn't a great start.

Only had a quick look at the pricing. However, if those prices include the discount, they are about to lose a lot of ST holders.

By all metrics we have underperformed for this season and last. That doesn't mean that there aren't occasional positives. Castlebar was a good event, the stadium is a huge investment in Connacht's future but on the field we have been underwhelming.

The appointment of a new coach of a reasonable calibre is absolutely essential.

The complete communication silence from Connacht Rugby since Wilkins departure is concerning. It appears as if they were totally blindsided by his departure which would be very surprising considering the long period of noise regarding his tenure.

On a positive, the lack of leaks under this management is to be commended 😀

New contract for Carty confirmed, no mention of length as of yet

I'm glad to see this, it would be a shame to see us lose his experience when there isn't any sign of an experienced 10 joining us.

You hear stories from ex-players who knew themselves that the game was passing them by before they even retired. Having watched Carty in a few games this season that's exactly what I could see. Maybe he had injury or wasn't fit but I think that would just be an excuse

Regarding the season ticket sale - like many previous Connacht rugby ticket sales, it was an absolute $hit $how (at least for anyone trying to by multiple tickets for a group, as the branch themselves suggested doing). The site would allow multiple seats to be selected, but only one was added to the basket. I was trying with a friend to buy 12 seats together. My next door neighbour was trying to buy 9. We all had the exact same experience. In the end, the only option was to buy tickets individually, and hope someone else didn't take the seats you were planning to buy in the meantime. Buying the tickets individually meant authenticating each time, filling out the forms, going through the checkout process etc. It was slow and error prone. To improve our chances of ending up beside each other, we chose a less popular area. My friend and I managed to get the 12 tickets, but not exactly together. My neighbour was the same - he bought 9, but not together. Oh, and to make the matter even more farcical, the confirmation emails for the tickets show a different section to the one selected (for example, selecting seats in section 104, resulted in email confirmation for seats in section 106).