Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

💯 Agree. He wasn't even offered a contract. Would almost certainly have stayed had he been offered one...

What a poor performance.

I’ll put it down to the missed game last week and a first run out for quite a few of the lads.

Pack were very poor. Halfbacks didn’t over a lot of control. Strange kicking strategy.

Thought myself Devine looked proper good when he came on and SHL too.

So we take a point but I wonder about Lancasters thoughts.

didnt deserve anything out of that shambolic performance

Couldn't agree more. Both were comically bad.

It was a tight affair away from home… Ref was blowing us off the pitch in first half and we were helping him.

Murphy seemed to run out of ideas pretty early on and started taking time on the ball so Carty and Naughton had very little to play with… It seemed like it wasn't his night… Devine was a revelation when he came on, Connacht attacked… Were a bit unlucky on the intercept try, Gavin's pass was great but wasn't awful either, Cian just juggled with it and Bowen picked his pocket…

Let's be clear, last season we would have lost this game in the first half… We have at least got a defence that keeps us in games, we just need the attack to come together… Attacks usually take months to come right, Sexton took about 6 months putting things together when he came…

Rod is getting dealt a better hand and I can see it coming together. What we learnt last night, Matt Devine is very good, Naughton is looking like a real option at 10 and has siege gun boot. SHL is becoming close to starts if fit… IT is just our second game but we are definately progressing, we are getting better…

That game on Saturday was one of the worst I've watched in a long time - both teams looked very poor. On the Connacht front, I felt our starting back 3 showed a worrying inability to catch a ball, which made the relentless kicking even more puzzling. I thought Chay Mullins was particularly poor in that regard. Ben Murphy was clearly having an off night, so I was surprised we didn't see Devine earlier. We can't focus on referee performances, but I thought he let them away with murder when it came to lazy runners and not rolling away - that resulted in a lot of very slow ball. On the plus side, you couldn't fault the effort in defense - and that's a solid foundation to build upon.

Thought the defence in the first half was very good, other areas of the game were as bad if not worse than last season. Dont think Naughton is the answer at 15. Still think we're a bit off the top 8 not even a very good coach can fix everything if we're a couple of players short in quality in a few positions

Gilbert will play 15 (or even better maybe 10) when he arrives, and we also possibly have the Jennings option at 15. Naughton may be worth a look at at 10. Worried about Loose Head and Hooker. Buckley and Duggan not up to standard and we'll have t hope for Lasisi to return quickly or repurpose Illo or Barrett as loose heads.

Yes he did

so now I saw the first half of the game. The usual crap. Where Heff used to be interesting in breaking lines his lineouts are awful. And Denis is just a penalty machine these days. Jack was awful. Isn't it time to call it quits. I couldn't see what Ben Murphy did so badly but the other lads I mentioned are past it

In fairness lineouts were was won well by Connacht came… Cardiff had way more problems…

I think it might be unfair on Buckley, Ref just took a notion for 15 mins on scrums against us… Then he did the same to Cardiff.. Boith lost 3 scrums each…

Murphy hadn't his best game and I am a fan… He seemed slow to the base and could secure ball quickly… Not all his fault but the result was Carty getting criminally slow ball for phase after phase… Jack was left with little choice but to kick, Cardiff had set defences for most of the night due to this slow ball..

Matt Devine came on and sped up the ball delivery considerably… This is when Cardiff started to feel it… Cardiff really struggled when we were getting the ruck time down. This is one of our lessons from the game, get that ruck time down and our backline will ask questions..

so I listed all the players I have an issue with within one match,,,

on a positive side Connacht is better defensively than they have been in 10 years

I think it’s just down to strong competition. Blade is an international. Murphy took his chance last season and he played very well so was hard to justify dropping.

That said, I do like Devine. There is something different about him. The rumour of Ronan O’Gara looking to take him on loan at La Rochelle this season lends support to this feeling.

I’ve also read some say his pass is poor but I’m not good enough to speak on it personally.

I think he is proper.

Thought his passing was good at the weekend, seemed to have changed passing style from last season.