Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

I had thought it looked like might be Harry West, good to know. Some nice tries in fairness but obviously pre season is a different animal.

In fairness to Ralston he was injured for a large part of last season.

A post aboutgoals for the season on the Leinster thread has descended into a wider debate about what it means to be a fan and whether it is even worth following sport if it is all about winning, so maybe we can make a better fist of it? For me this year there are 3 main things I want:

1. No more than 1-2 home losses. I think we lost 5 times in Galway/Mayo last year which is completely unaccetable.
2. Top 4 seed in the challenge cup- High enough to avoid a dropping down team from the top level and there is absoultely nothing to fear in our group.
3. URC- 10 wins. 10 Tends to get you in and any year we have our act together we tend to be around 8-10. Wiht the fixtures we have and the disaster that is welsh rugby atm 10 is a tough but achieveable goal.
4. Added bonus- Win a knockout game.

On a wider note things I'd like:

1. To be confident in our first choice 10 going into 2026-2027
2. Hugh Gavin, Forde, Devin/Murphy, Jennings and Treacy start to make another step up and be nailed on first choice. (Forde already is I suppose!)

I think having a bit of hope is the main thing. Any notions of hope last year had little basis behind them.

Not saying this season will be dramatically different points wise but i expect us to at least look like a more cohesive unit than previously.

Not blaming anyone in particular and it's an almost impossible thing to measure but it definitely felt to me like we lost our soul in the last few years. The connection between the team and the crowd seemed to be drifting and we looked like an organisation going nowhere. Lancasters appointment is a huge satement of intent and along with Millard coming in shows that hopefully we have learned the lessons from the last few years.

I'm kind of glad we haven't made many signings for once. It'll be good to let him see what we have and don't have and build the setup accordingly.

Did the players under-perform last season is the question i ask myself and I'm really not sure we should or could have placed much higher in the table based on the players we have. The problem is there are a few mid- table teams showing signs of improvement which leaves us treading water going into this season and in my opinion not reaching higher than 10th spot come the end ofvthe season. I just dont see any big improvements from the players or the new coaching setup.

One thing that has me slightly nervous is the first group of games. Benetton at home, Scarletts at home and Cardiff away are three games that give me the "ah we should have won that" feeling. Having them up first when bedding in a new coach with whatever changes he's introducing could be tricky.

Then there's the Bulls at home, which is tougher, and then Munster away. Hopefully by then some of the teething issues should be improving

Worth adding the bench as well:

Replacements from: Eoin de Buitléar, Jordan Duggan, Sam Illo, Niall Murray, David O’Connor, Paul Boyle, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Ben Murphy, Josh Ioane, Sean Walsh, Byron Ralston, Shane Jennings, Colm Reilly, Daniel Ryan, Matthew Victory

Cool to see Seán Walsh and Daniel Ryan involved. They must be impressing in training.

There certainly should be an uplift in performance. I’m hoping for the best. It is still a squad with some weaknesses but they do seem to be looking at youth closely.

I think the game plan will be interesting. Can we exert greater control? Can we stop conceding really soft tries?

I look across the squad and it’s a big season for quite a chunk of players.

I heard Lancaster is already establishing connections with clubs around the province, which is fantastic. From all accounts Wilkins dropped the ball/wasn't arsed to make the effort to sustain it once things went back to normal post-Covid. I could see Lancaster being a Lam/Friendy type, obviously not to their high levels of people skills, but still eager to establish networks with the grassroots side of things. That alone would make a huge difference.

Does anybody know if senior players are still assigned to specific youth teams since Friendy left btw? That would be another great initiative to get going but I know in my local club they stopped.

There was a bit more to it than that (at least at our club). In fairness Colm was always about but Fitzy and Finlay were around a few times that year. I know some other clubs had ambassadors around for a couple of sessions and maybe a medals presentation at the end of the season but still brought the rugby community closer.

https://www.connachtrugby.ie/news/connacht-player-club-ambassador-programme-launched-for-2019-20/bp1499/

Gilbert is captain for Otago this morning in the NPC v Northland