Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

By 'French hooker', you mean Janick Tarrit who trained with Connacht during the summer. Seems he's not joining us and has started for Racing 92 in all four games of the season so far.

oh too bad… Victory then

No

Duggan Heffernan Aungier

Joyce D Murray

Prendergast sob jansen

Murphy carty

Jennings Forde Hawkshaw Gavin Naughton

Buckley, De Butlair, Illo, n Murray, J Murphy, Devine, Mullins

Saturday was a quite enjoyable first hit out of the new regime, from my perspective. I thought it was quite clear from the attitude and intensity on the pitch, the conditioning of each player, and the way Paul Boyle spoke after the game, that the squad have fully bought into the Lancaster project. The players look to have upheld their end of the bargain, and seem to have taken pre season extremely seriously, with many appearing noticeably leaner and more powerful.

I thought the first quarter or so set out the blueprint for our attack moving forward. Nothing revolutionary but we were doing the simple things well - forwards were carrying hard and hitting the line at pace, breakdown work was accurate and ruck speed seemed much faster than before, and running lines and distribution looked sharp. Ioane, Naughton, and Ralston were all stepping in at first receiver, and we did a good job of presenting multiple options to the defence and shifting the point of contact. I thought we played a tighter game once Carty came on, which probably made sense given the way we had to reshuffle the backline and the effectiveness of our pack carrying off 9.

I would need to watch it back to form on opinion on the detail of our defence, but our intensity in the tackle was ferocious, numbering and decision making seemed solid, and scramble was effective. Good to see us stand up to the physical test, but other teams will pose more questions of our decision making than a somewhat one dimensional Benetton. Also glad to see our high standards in the lineout continue, and the scrum hold up well with our 3rd and 4th choice tightheads.

On an individual level, I thought Illo put his hand up in a major way and will take the 18 jersey from Jack Aungier if he continues to bring the same controlled aggression from the weekend. He clearly plays with a lot of emotion and will need to ensure that he keeps himself from boiling over, he was clearly incensed after the Ralston injury. Love seeing a guy stick up for his teammates though, as long as he can refrain from giving away any silly penalties. Fiachna Barrett showed that he is a viable option at this level, which is great timing after the Lasisi injury.

Niall Murray had a solid return to first team action, seemed a bit more powerful while maintaining the same effectiveness as a defensive lineout jumper. Josh Murphy continues to be one of our best players week in, week out. The starting back row were excellent, particularly Paul Boyle, who's looking like the player who got capped in 2021 after being disrupted by niggly injuries in the preceding years.

Blade was excellent and showed that he is well able to play at the quicker tempo that it seems Lancaster will demand. Cathal Forde was the standout back for me, and I thought Ralston was having one of his better games before the injury. Encouraging to see both looking to add to their games - Forde goal kicking and Ralston operating as first receiver in a way he has not previously. Sean Naughton was solid on debut and showed no reason for concern should be called upon again.

On a slightly negative note, I thought it was conspicuous on a night where our forwards fronted up so effectively, that Dylan Tierney-Martin got completely dominated in contact on multiple occasions, including failing to even slightly slow Menoncello in the lead up to the first Benetton try. He is a good player and certainly has a part to play in our squad, but I don't think he has the size required to replace Heffernan as first choice.

It's only week 1 but I thought it was very positive.

I think Lancaster uses a very 'British Isles' mentality and I'm not surprised it didn't work in France but is perfect for Connacht. I think he makes the players focus and train hard so they believe they deserve to win because they trained so hard and prepared so thoroughly.

Connacht can be a bit like Scotland when they perform great one week so it's OK to not perform as well the next week, because they already exceeded expectations. Likewise they can be deflated by unlucky reffing decisions because they did enough and luck was against them. I think they'll be a lot more determined and ruthless because they'll believe they're entitled to win because they've worked harder and prepared harder than the opposition.

I love seeing Connacht doing well so I hope I'm right.

Firstly was at the game great win ,better defence, game management & great to get new players blooded etc.

Logistics - Very short sighted tbh- ok with 4K spectators being there but triple that to max @12K and see how the traffic is going to be when folks have no other way in or home in the evening.

Citylink could easily do it(team sponsor) - i have reached out to them.

Gonna chance the train from Craughwell/Athenry this Saturday - But be warned run Galway bay 10/21/42km is on up until noon at least- gonna be busy in Gallimh!

Connacht Abu!

Lindner was included on a post about academy players in AIL action on Connacht's Instagram, they only ever list full academy members so I assume that means he's been added at some point between the initial announcement and now. I saw that he played 12 for Germany u18 so was hoping that meant he was a Cormac Foley type in athletic terms.

Hard to know on Farthing, he obviously didn't make Irish u20s in a far from vintage year for scrum halves, and didn't get many minutes in the AIL last season, with Corinthians preferring a non-academy u20. They used to post decent highlights of their JP Fanagan side and from those I would say that he appears to be a nippy and lively 9 with an adequate pass, but I think you need to see scrumhalves live as highlights don't show enough to make a good assessment on decision making in particular.

I share your concern about our hookers. Neither DTM or De Buitlear would fill you with confidence. Not sure if there's anyone in the academy who we could promote to understudy Heff, but if we're to have a successful season we'll likely have to strengthen in this area.

Where do Connacht source housing for the new signings like Gilbert? Can't be easy in Galway these days!

I've heard a few mentions in interviews etc of guys moving in with other players when they come over. That's obviously easier with young single players. I wonder do they own or have an arrangement with a few houses for players. There's going to be some coming in and some leaving every year so it might be that it works out to keep a few places rented.

Does he have a family? There seems to be quite a few players sharing houses etc. And there are those who have left.

Speaking of which, is Jarrad Butler still in Galway

Did anyone hear an injury update for this week? Curious to know how long Ioane and Ralston will be out for, and to check on how Sam Illo is doing given that he went off in some discomfort.

And is there any news on Lasisi' injury?

That's great to hear, congratulations to him.