Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

You do appreciate that we moved from the Wilkins era to the Lancaster era just last Summer. And the Wilkins era was not a good era.

No that isn't the case. The evening of the Scarlets game he hadn't been offered a contract. I would hope following his very impressive display last Saturday on return from injury that he will now be offered a contract. Will be neglectful of Willie Ruane if he isn't.

The only thing that I could think of that could be a genuine reason to not offer him a contract, and even at that I'd still offer him one, is that rule about about number of player from certain countries in the matchday squad.

I can't remember the details of it exactly, someone may have more info on it than me, but I remember it severely limited thee amount of game time that Ben O'Donnell got when he was here

Unavailable this weekend:

Temi Lasisi, Oisin Dowling, Sean Jansen, Oisin McCormack, Caolin Blade, Hugh Gavin, David Hawkshaw, Byron Ralston, Mack Hansen, Finn Treacy, Harry West.

https://www.connachtrugby.ie/news/squad-update/bp3689/

I was looking yesterday and it showed no availability in the main stand at all and plenty everywhere else.

I presume they are looking at a different ticket provider for next year, and that is the delay on renewals.

It has been an absolute joke this year. In passing conversation loads of people have expressed a want to see the new stand, but it constantly shows no availability when that patently is not the case.

There are 10 seats adjacent to where we are located that have been empty every week . I definitely could have brought 5 or 6 in with us to each game if they were made available.

It is as you say MarinerBlues. I checked yesterday and there were about 20 seats available with none available side by side. And today over half the stand is available. It's a total joke. I emailed them on Monday to say there were seats available both left and right and behind and in front of us at the Ospreys game and yet there were no tickets available

I think it might be an IRFU decision to bring him to Dublin… We got Frawley and Conors and they get SHL. If you were being cold eyed from IRFU, it makes sense…

you get a reply? radio silence in contacting them on any email or phone- at least that has been consistent last 20+ years!

stand as of 10:39 today.

cully mentioned it a few times on his interview about getting the stand full, get behind the team etc.

they must be worried!

jansen is a huge loss for this!

I saw it suggested elsewhere that the epcr are involved in setting ticket prices for the knock out stages. I've no idea if that's true or not, but the prices are definitely in line with other games (£48 for a seat for Exeter vs Munster on Saturday). That doesn't make them right obviously, and it's certainly looking like they've got it wrong on this occasion.

Not really. They are charging 35 for a clan stand ticket rather than 45 last week.

Does that mean season ticket holders were charged 10 more than anyone who buys a ticket this week.....

It might not make sense to you but is exactly what I and 2 other season ticket holders I have spoken to this evening have experienced.

We purchased using the advanced sale link for season ticket holders and were charged 45e per ticket.

This might not be the general consensus, but I'd personally prefer the seats around me to be occupied, than have them empty, so if dropping the price is what it takes then so be it. I don't think it's a good precedent to set though.

There's some other weirdness going on with the ticket system - most of the seats that are available around mine (section 203, row U) aren't giving the option to buy as an adult - only senior, student or under 16. I can't think why that would be. Anyway, while the number of unsold seats looks high, it's not as bad as it was a couple of days ago, and I'm hoping all the seats that are showing as unavailable will actually be occupied, since people have presumably purchased them specifically (unlike games covered by season tickets).

Yeah when I looked a little closer I noticed this too, its weird there are a block of 3-4 tickets beside mine and none of them have an option for an adult ticket only senior @ €35 when we paid €45 for ours. As you said not going to be checked but just seems silly and unnecessary.

I had actually raised it with the branch via email before i noticed there was no adult option and they actually came back to me with the below:

"

The difference you’re seeing relates to the ticket categories within the stand. Pricing can vary depending on the specific category and seat location, as well as the ticket type (e.g. senior, adult, etc.) selected at the time of purchase.For example, some tickets currently showing at €35 are senior tickets, which are priced differently from standard adult tickets. Season ticket pricing is calculated separately and covers the specific seat allocation and package for the season.Because of this, the pricing you may now see online will not always directly match what was charged under the season ticket structure.If you have any other questions, feel free to get back in touch.

"

I have replied asking why a lot of areas don't seem to have an Adult option available only Senior but I don't expect to be lucky enough to receive 2 replies :)

There are a lot of tickets showing as available still in the stand not a great sign for a knockout game, hopefully a lot of the seats are taken before kick off. Maybe people are waiting to see how the weather turns out tomorrow.

Interesting selection good to have Gilbert back as the back 3 was getting pretty threadbare, must have been a week too soon for Bolton to feature