Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Logically, why would any of those players you just named want to go to Connacht? Clarkson, Baird, Deegan, Frawley are in and around the 23 playing in European and domestic knock out games and getting into Irish squads. Byrne is going to be number 2 outhalf next year and will play lots of games. Connacht finished 13th last season and are unlikely to win anything for the foreseeable.

If you named players like Tector, Foley, Russell fine, but why would any of those 5 players named above have any interest in leaving Leinster for Connacht?

seating after that ideally?

I would say Penny, Sorka, Deeny, Mc Kee…

From Academy: Henry MCERLEAN (needs gametime massively), Alan SPICER, Conor O'TIGHEARNAIGH, Liam MOLONY

Leinster seems a little heavy in Locks and Wingers… Little light in Centers…

https://all.rugby/club/leinster/squad

Because they are not first choice. They might feel, and realistically so, that starting every week would improve them and give them a better opportunity and in some cases of making the first 15 for Ireland.

As for Connacht. I fully believe that our squad right now, outside of out-half, is strong enough to qualify for the knockout stages of the URC and have a realistic chance at winning the Challenge cup.

We have a much better head coach and we lost by 3 points to Racing in the QFs a couple of months ago.

Lancaster developed all these players when they came through from the youth ranks at Leinster and I'm sure they all like him a lot.

I gotta laugh at your prediction that we aren't going to do anything this upcoming season.

Clarkson is third choice behind Furlong and Slimami despite the fact he's starting ahead of Slimami which seems to be a common theme of late with the foreigners there.

Baird is playing in the backrow because of injuries. He's been messed about there for a long time. He's a lock and a very good one but he's fourth choice now because they brought in Snyman.

So the fact that Leinster decided it was necessary to bring in reinforcements in their respective positions doesn't augur well for their futures there, they are clearly not that well thought of.

I would say we need:

Outhalf or Carty find his Mojo… Probably need both…

Winger… Just a little shy considering how long Hansen is normally away.. Love it when he is around but have given a two to Munster alone..

We need an enforcer in the pack… Joe Joyce is doing it as much as he can but he can't do it every week and you can see him fading after a few games…

We need to be looking out for a hooker as well, Heffo is getting on..

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We also need to be very aware that we can't keep Blade, Murphy and Devine in the one club… It is too much… Any of those three would be number one in Ulster… One will go, probably Devine considering contracts and age…

Would we be better to try and create some kind of trade arrangement and get something in return? And I know, this is not done because it was never done before…

Had a quick look out of curiosity, and the seats seem to be selling pretty well (link → https://www.connachtrugby.ie/tickets/season-tickets/ ). It'll be very interesting to see how many they manage to sign up in total (and if they run into problems housing them all in the first half of the season, because very few will want to be down the ends I suspect).

I'm hoping the same. Surely the terrace could be used while they're still finishing off other bits too? Probably insurance/health and safety aspects to be figured out there, but where there's a will. And yes, the sportsground was pretty uncomfortable this season, for lots of reasons.

By the way, I hadn't seen it earlier, but Connacht had a graphic on their instagram story this morning saying there's only 500 season tickets left.

Unless Fintan Gunne turns out to be the second coming, I'd see Ben Murphy returning to Leinster to take over from JPG (33) after this World cup cycle.

Exactly, the Connacht future has to be Devine and Reilly.

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He has looked like a decent player the few times I have seen him. Very hard for him to get chances with the three ahead of him.

Blade, Devine, and Reilly is a balanced selection of scrumhalves. Murphy is an excellent player but very hard to make sense of the long term strategy they had when signing him.

It was unfortunate the loan deal couldn't have been signed off for Devine, it would have been a perfect solution to the current bottle neck.

With all due respect, those players moving to Connacht won't get them into an Ireland team. Clarkson and Baird are playing knockout games regularly. You can say they're not first choice if you'd like but that doesn't change the fact both are starting this weekend. Furlong is regularly injured and Clarkson is getting a great run of games. He is probably paid well, already in Ireland camps and I would expect his friends and family are living in Dublin. And in any case, if he did move then he would still have to contend with Finlay Bealham. Be somewhat realistic if you're going to throw out names of lads that would move.

Someone mentioned the likes of Soroka, Mangan, McKee etc - these are the guys that can't get into the Leinster 23. They're the guys that Connacht should look at.

Put himself in the shop window for what?

You say he doesn’t start big games for Leinster, what big games do Connacht actually play? If it’s a URC quarter final, he already does that, in a far stronger team. He started in Champions Cup final last year with a fully fit back row.

Your posts make no sense to understand why any of those players and particularly Baird would move. It’s just made up fantasy stuff.

I see you never mentioned the fact that I said that Aki, Bealham and Hansen have all been selected for Ireland's first 15.

The way you are talking no player from Connacht should be playing for Ireland unless they move to Leinster to become bench fodder.

As as regards last year's CC final. Weren't Conan and JVDF only back from injury and both were on the bench?