Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

I would expect 2 additional coaches to be appointed to stay at normal levels in Irish Provincial Rugby.

On the 16th of April when Wilkins was announced as departing David Humphries was quoted as saying "the club will now begin the process of recruiting a new head coach for the 2025/26" I am happy to take that at face value. Perhaps an existing coach will be appointed but then they will have to replace that assistant coach.

A coach that's big on club culture would be my preference.

I totally agree with you.. Neither those guys should be made head coach… They already have jobs, if Tucker becomes head coach, are we getting a new scrum coach…. Same with Rod….

We have two vacant roles and they need to ben filled…

Basically taking coaches that haven't done a job like Head coach and ask them to do while doing there own job, that is complete madness.

We should be looking at a short list of available candidates if even for 6 months…

Off the top of my head coaches:

Micheal Bradley is a possible. (UCC)

Wayne Pivac (Japan Second Tier)

Better start throwing out names…

Open to most suggestions but please not Michael Bradley. 🤣 He was working with very limited resources to be fair but first year or two aside that was still an extremely hard time to be a Connacht fan and personally I don't want to be reminded of it. As well as that he's a few years out of the pro game now and time has moved on.

If they were going down the route where Seib or Tucker weren't the nominal head coach but they hadn't appointed anyone as head coach I'd expect Millard to be plugged into that role in the interim until they find an option.

There's time available before pre season kicks off and you'd hope they have a plan for a head coach in the pipeline as it looks like the Wilkins situation was known since around January but my gut feeling is Seib was brought in with that head coach role in mind. They had to sort the Wilkins situation out so couldn't announce that at the time.

Bernard Jackman mentioning a rumour of Devine to La Rochelle.

Haven't they already signed Le Garrec? He's going to be their number one 9.

More details in the last two paragraphs… Devine generates a lot of interest since Murphy has contract…

That is why I was suggesting swaps with Leinster for Murphy… Murphy could be an heir apparent for JGP, he is from Leinster and Devine is from Connacht… It would seem more natural that players play for there home province… We have a shopping list…

We need a outhalf, bulk in our pack, Full Back(sourced this week),….

I don't think we would get Murphy for Frawley. Frawley would have gone by now…

Porch as well was completely frozen out.

More I think about it… The coaching team were under so much pressure they closed in and just picked with very little trust…

It makes more sense… Very stressed and going with what they know rather than any deviation or experiment…

It very quickly turns the team into a quagmire, competition is limited, gameplay becomes predictable… It maybe a possibility on what happened…

Jarad Payne seems a more solid choice… Has definitely got the experience…

He was in charge of Clermont halfway through the season (22/23) and he brought them from loosing record of (5 -8 -1) (under Gibbs) to a (6-6-0)… That is respectable and good considering he was handed the team mid season…

Got fair bit experience from various levels inside Leinster and Ireland…. I don't know them from Adam but I get a nicer feeling from Jarad, he has done reasonably well in every job and I could see him settling in Galway.

Na… They replaced him with Willie Faloon in Febuary….

Forgot that thanks

He is still at scarletts..

https://www.scarlets.wales/rugby-management/

I am growing towards him, he just makes a lot of sense… I would give him a free hand as much as possible… If we want to hold him to account , he has to be given the responsibility…

I never got the feeling that Pete had hire and fire abilities with the coaches… You do with Murphy in Ulster…