Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Furlong Lucky to make the cut. But wouldn't be surprised if Finlay was involved at some stage

With 2 Lions Connacht have the same amount of Lions as Wales, and more than Munster (1) and Ulster (0)

If we get Finlay we have more players than Wales…. We are tied at the moment.

I'm surprised there has been no comms from the club confirming which players are leaving at the end of the season, I assume they will be having some sort of a presentation to them at the game tomorrow evening as they usually do.

Sounds like exactly the kind of addition we are crying out for.

Won't pretend to know anything about him but you don't get 50 super rugby caps for an NZ franchise without having something about you.

Says he's a utility back who kicks, if he can catch a high ball then we should start building his statue now as that will fill a lot of gaps for us.

Looks like a decent signing 👍

Team for Connacht v Edinburgh

15. Santiago Cordero (20)
14. Shayne Bolton (24)
13. Hugh Gavin (9)
12. Bundee Aki (149)
11. Finn Treacy (6)
10. JJ Hanrahan (27)
9. Ben Murphy (14)
1. Denis Buckley (263)
2. Dave Heffernan (217)
3. Finlay Bealham (217)
4. Josh Murphy (37)
5. Darragh Murray (37)
6. Cian Prendergast (85) Captain
7. Conor Oliver (95)
8. Sean Jansen (24)

16. Dylan Tierney-Martin (56)
17. Peter Dooley (52)
18. Jack Aungier (86)
19. Oisín Dowling (76)
20. Paul Boyle (114)
21. Caolin Blade (208)
22. Cathal Forde (50)
23. David Hawkshaw (42)

Thought there’d be more leaving to be honest. If Liam Turner was brought in to replace O’Conor and a couple of forwards came in, it’s a pretty decent squad. Need to get the coaching ticket right above all else.

Contracted until end of the 25/26 season.

Presume Gilbert will play 15 even though he seems to be able to play most positions along the backline. I like that he's quite big as well at 6 foot 2. We've been quite small in the back three recently. The goal kicking is an added bonus. Could easily see him taking over those duties as the other options are hit and miss there.

As for the departures nothing too unexpected. Bit surprised Oilver wasn't kept on as he's always had regular enough game time. Sounds like O'Conor would have been kept on but was his own decision to leave. Cordero just never got going. Doing the ACL in his first training session was a nightmare start. Never really recovered.

Hard to judge until we see who else arrives. Can't imagine there will be many incomings but hopefully we might see another 2 or 3 in the door.

Fair point RHS I was thinking the same thing but then I thought are we not in that position for every player on the 2nd year of a contract?

It could have been Olivers decision to leave with the lack of gametime this year. He is a quality 7 and hopefully has another club lined up.