Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Why would he go to Munster? With Bealham being 34, he's never going to be short on minutes at Connacht. Losing players to Munster is getting annoying.

Elsewhere, there was an interview with Muldoon today in the IT. Prendergast is injured, Dooley not back, Reilly/Blade still out, and Devine a doubt for this weekend. Sounds like the pups are being sent to Montpellier to get thumped.

I think he has lost the luxury of resting this Christmas due to injuries…

We don't have the largest squad and injuries ask players to play a few weeks in a row… Recovery time is seriously effected…

This can make you look gassed especially late in games…

Its funny I was just thinking the same myself. So at loose head we have Finlay Bealham, Jack Aungier and Sam Illo. So I said that Finlay is coming to end of career but that's still not shabby loose heads ( I know realhorrorshow says Illo looks somewhat unfit but he has potential).

At hooker you have Heffernan, De Buitlear and DTM. Now Dave has struggled through much of his career at lineout but his saving grace was his ability to break contact lines in the past. Not so these days and the other two options have really done anything to suggest why their contracts should be renewed. In fact I believe none of the hookers should be renewed.

And at tight head we are really down to bare bones. When Denis is our first choice tight head then you get to understand how we simply have nothing at tight head. I do remember Denis as one of the jackellers in his day but his day is well done now.

Of the second row I can't begin to understand how Oisin Dowling is so constantly injured in a role that tends to not very injury related. And while I like Joe Joyce he just has proven time and again that he is living on the very boundary of his capabilities.

Back row is grand. Lots of quality options. I know I picked on Cian but he needs to stand up better if he is to lead that row and the team overall.

9 and 10 is interesting. 9 is Murphy, Blade, Devine in that order as per selections. Many say Devine deserves a break which he got last week but he was simply unfortunate. Hopefully that position will work itself out without Devine leaving. From a 10 perspective I'm happy with Ioane but would like Naughton on the bench to cover 10 and back row. Indeed I would like to see Naughton get a number of starts at 10 before the end of the season. One particular reason for that is his penalty kicking is exceptional. We just need to find out if his out half capabilities are exceptional. Gilbert and Jennings are perfectly capable of working the fullback position.

Obviously we have to deal with the centre issue. As MarinerBlues said Bundee has lost a lot of pace and is becoming a liability. Again we have lots of good options at centre so hopefully sense will eventually prevail.

And one last request would be to see a lot more of Harry West. He looks likely to go places

Where did you see that? EPCR website hasn't been updated yet.

Heffernan is having a great season.

DTM is the only hooker out of contract next season.

Oh I have a sneaking suspicion as to where Connacht might look to get some new players from…

I expect all our props will be resigned. Including Aungier.

No info just think it's the most likely outcome.

Rumours are that the IRFU will be looking for a realignment end of season with more balance in all the teams…

Example: we could loose a scrum half and gain large second row.. More what do you need and what do you have…

Our Shopping list will be looked at, as will everyone else… Leinster probably need a Scrum Half too… Maybe a back up Full Back…

We need coaches that Lancaster wants to hand pick…

Our top performing Coach at the moment is Elwood… He has made huge strides in the Academy… One one Academy back has no played for the pro team this year… Treacy, Naughton and Ryan were brilliant grabs… Add that to Gavin, Devine (still to play but great rumours) and West…

We are developing our own squads now, not begging from others… Elwood is a real option to the best Leinster Schools players, come to Galway and study and play pro-rugby before you turn 20… Be a senior player with experience by the time you are 23. Finn Treacy (21) has 13 appearances for Connacht, the other winger U20 Ireland Hugo MCLAUGHLIN has played 1 game. In October against Zebra at home.

Other option is to sit in the academy in Leinster tracksuit and wait your turn…

You're being a bit selective with your data there. Leinster don't have, and have never had, issues in giving opportunities to young players.

They could point to 6 current members of our squad, all 24 of younger who have the following records:

• Paddy McCarthy (22) - 14 games, 5 starts, 450 mins, 4 Ireland caps
• Jack Boyle (23) - 36 games, 21 starts, 1,401 mins, 4 Ireland caps
• Gus McCarthy (22) - 21 games, 11 starts, 862 mins, 7 Ireland caps
• Joe McCarthy (24) - 55 games, 44 starts, 3,362 mins, 19 Ireland caps, 1 Lions Test cap
• Sam Prendergast (22) - 41 games, 27 starts, 2,094 mins, 13 Ireland caps
• Jamie Osborne (24) - 67 games, 56 starts, 4,602 mins - 10 Ireland caps, Lions tourist

Tom Clarkson is a year older than Sam Illo, but he's played 69 times for Leinster, 36 starts, 2,679 mins (and 10 Ireland caps, and a Lions tourist) while Illo has played 37 times, 6 starts, 1,099 mins for Connacht over the same period.

Temi Lasisi (24) played 4 times last year for Connacht for 76 mins. Eoin de Buitlear (24) has racked up half the minutes for Connacht over his career that Gus McCarthy (two years younger) has for Leinster. Darragh Murray is roughly the same age as Joe McCarthy (1 month younger), but he's amassed around 750 less minutes for Connacht than McCarthy has for Leinster. Chay Mullins is around 18 months older than Andrew Osborne but their minute counts are broadly the same (967 for Mullins, 916 for Osborne). Matthew Devine is 17 months older than Fintan Gunne (both Grand Slam winning U20 scrum halves), but has only amassed 153 mins more than Gunne (774 v 621, and played in 4 more games, 28 v 24). John Devine and Hugh Cooney were centre partners at U20s, Devine is 4 months older than Cooney - Devine hasn't played a minute for Connacht and Cooney has racked up 673 minutes (11 games, 8 starts) for Leinster. Oisin McCormack (24) has a senior contract and has played for a total of 33 minutes for Connacht across the last few years.

There are obviously some good success stories where youth has flourished too over the past few years, but do your homework next time you make a suggestion like young players are sitting in a tracksuit in Leinster and waiting for their turn.

Just looking at numbers we have a squad of 41 Senior players and 17 Academy players this year.

In terms of the senior team it looks like we will be reducing that number to 38 imo. Scrum half being 1 but the rest of the squad composition based of strength in year 2 and 3 of the academy.

If you look at the academy squads over the last 5 years we averaged between 12 and 15 players with this year being the exception that we now have 17 with an intake of 9 academy players. Elwood mentioned in an interview last year that they are allowed 22 contracted academy players. It looks like we will be closer to 22 in next few years with academy providing the depth to the squad. We will probably see intakes between 7 and 9 going forward where 6 was probably our biggest intake prior to that.

I wasn't comparing Pete Wilkins but more Lancaster…

Leinster do blood young players especially when they have gaps and they are good… The 6 players you highlighed are probably the best young players in the country, yes they use them, but if you are blocked it can be very hard.

Lancaster is taking far more risk at even younger age. Daniel Ryan was playing for St. Michaels last year… He is selecting players that haven't even played U20 for Ireland yet (Ryan and Walsh)… Bohan is still 20 and now is playing back to back games…

I probably should have been more clear that it is Lancaster… It was definitely not in our previous history to play them this young… You are right Oisin McCormack hasn't been given a chance… I was asking why we weren't blooding these guys towards the end of last season…

BTW, Murphy is going young as well in Ulster withe the Warde brothers…

I am saying that some really promising player in Leinster can be sidelined… Henry MCERLEAN, Andrew SPARROW, Stephen SMYTH… Come to mind… Not really Leinster fault really, it is just managing game time…

Alex SOROKA kept Cian Prendergast to 19min in Ireland U20s… Elwood did a masterclass in picking him out… Generally 7-8 players of a U20 Grand Slam team go on to become full pro rugby players (i.e. 8 year career), how he picked Cian was brilliant. He said he shocked to be asked into Connacht academy. Cian got a bit of luck with injuries to others but he got a chance and grabbed it…

Sean Naughton was similar, he was playing no.2 Jack Murphy. He I think was in our academy beforehand but he is showing very well…

I have looked at this before, through the lens of the percentage of available minutes given to "young" players (edit: by Connacht). I have defined young as a player aged 23 or younger at the start of the season (i.e. the 1st of September). I think that is more instructive than looking at academy players only as the latter misses guys like Hugh Gavin, Niall Smyth, etc. who graduate early. Obviously you could make a compelling case for changing the cut off in either direction. For the years I have been tracking:

• 23/24 - 36%
• 24/25 - 22%
• 25/26 - 23%

No idea how this compares to the other provinces.