Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

Bit of perspective needed people. We had two academy props in the 23. Finished with 3 debutants and others with less than 10 caps.
Most people thought they were going to get hammered and would have been delighted with two points before the game.

The way the game panned out is disappointing but I’m a lot more optimistic after that performance than some of the performances recently.

Totally agree…

They gave there all to get a 17 point lead… We could see that the players were exhausted playing a pretty physical outfit… Our bench had three debuts on it..

We have to look to the performance rather than the result… We were expecting a good beating from a top French side in their backyard… These guys are ahead of La Rochelle in the French league, look what Leinster had to go through to get a home win…

This is an improvement… This is better… We are an improving side and looking miles ahead of last year considering injuries and our expanding playing pool… If we had a stronger bench we might have been our day…

Treacy's Try being brought back that much on a small technicality which I never seen pulled on teams inside the 22 on this… A little bit much..

We are at a stage where we are meeting opposition like Leinster and Montpellier who play in a different league, different budgets, large squads with huge quality depth… We are nuturing 19 yr olds and trying to find diamonds…

Harry West was very good today… Josh open running is a joy to watch, leave the kicking to Sam or Sean… Cathal is looking better and better, he is our No. 1 inside Center IMHO… Pack were great in first half, I know those defensive sets is why ye gassed a little at the end…

We got 2 pts where I thought 1 would have been a bit of a bonus… We again put valuable minutes into young lads… Lancaster isn't Jesus, he needs time…

Whats point in playing game if your happy with losing before it starts. Bad mentality for all young players

No one is happy with it but it is where we are; we are a team in transition, we've have major coaching changes in recent years and we have a squad full of young lads with promise but also a raft of stalwarts that have seen a lot more yesterdays than tomorrow. We know we're going to see big transitions over the next year. Should we be happy losing? No, but we're a small team looking to get better and there was enough out there to think that things can get better.

Look at the sports headlines, all same another connacht collapse. Its not right. You can dress it up as you like. Happens too many times

Rolling over and getting our belly's tickled on a regular basis....... yeah, sure that's grand, sing the fields of Athenry and everything will be ok 🤬

If you been connacht fan for more than a while, losing is very common apart from 2016. I can see development in the team and young players getting exposure. Stuart is not a magician, he has to deal with the current squad, culture and existing coaching staff. It will be maybe 2 seasons before we are consistent and holes have been filled within the squad. I don't get the negativaty on here, yes some terrible results recently but that's a result of mismanagement over the years.

Some bizarre commentary on the game here I think.

Before the game you would have said 2 points is a good result. Yes of course it is a huge disappointment to blow a 17 point lead but it was still a very young side out there. Look at the age profile of the team that finished the game. They will take serious learnings from the game.

I was impressed with the three debutants, Victory seems like a very physical player.

We were 21-0 up against a poor ospreys side a few weeks ago and lost. Whats excuse there? Lessons not been learned

I think he hasn't done that bad so far…

He still has defensive issues but it not from hard work… They really throw their bodies on the line for this team… They just seem have lapses or mistakes…

In fairness today, they gave a herculean effort in the first half and the first 15 min of the second… We know that there was a lot of tanks empty and we were bringing on little experience to finish off the game…

I'd have taken 2 points this morning.

Winning is a habit and so is losing, we need a bit of luck.

With that amount of negativity in all your post game comments I’d imagine you can see where we went wrong in the last 15mins?
What I saw was a very impressive and gutsy performance that went bad due to a bit of fatigue and Montpellier having the quality to hang in and expose our lack of depth, a correct but v.pinickety overruling on our try and a charge down of a fatigued player led to two of their try’s, there was no collapse today even if the raw stats make it look like that. I thought it was one of our best performances of the season so far. So many players stood up to be counted especially some of the younger guys, I’m much happier that the direction of travel is in the right direction than I was last week.

I wouldn't say that people are happy with how things are going, but they're realistic. Lancaster didn't get to select a squad, he inherited one. Same goes for the coaching staff. Stuart can't just sprinkle pixie dust and make everything right.

Others have made the comparison with Ulster's performance after Richie Murphy took over, and although the circumstances of the two provinces are very different, the lesson is that the path of improvement goes through the vale of suffering ;)

Connacht are playing in an extremely competitive environment where if a team stands still they'll be passed out. Look at the progress of Zebre and the Welsh teams. We have never had the money to buy transformational talent which means that our improvement can only be incremental.

I'm pretty sure that Lancaster has already fielded more players than Connacht ever did under Wilkins. We're getting a good look at the quality that's available and an insight into the gaps that can't be filled from the squad as is (hooker, lock). Around two thirds of the current player contracts are up at the end of the season, so the squad is going to be rebuilt.

Barrett and Bohan look like real prospects in the front row. illo was excellent and brings real physicality. Harry West was very good. Jennings had his best game in a long time and showed that he has a very high ceiling. Naughton was good until his injury before Christmas and showed that he solve the place kicking problem that has plagued us in recent years. Add these guys to the known talent - Treacy, Gavin, Mattie Devine etc - and we are teeming with potential, and that's with the likes of Sean Walsh and John Devine still needing more exposure.

With Frawley's arrival next season, we'll have better options at outhalf and the luxury of potentially deploying Ioane in another capacity. I honestly think that with the additions of a trucking TH lock and a big physical hooker, we'll be good to go. Hopefully Temi Lasisi will be a further reinforcement at prop when he recovers from his injury.

Lastly, we lost today because of an unlucky ref call and a couple of errors. It was a long way from the type of capitulations that we have witnessed in previous seasons. Our attack looked sharp, and our defense was improved with a notably higher level of physicality. In sum, we look like we're getting better.

For these reasons, many of us remain upbeat despite the disappointment of another narrow defeat.

I'll believe that when I see it, seems like a lot of nonsense rumours are floating about this year.