Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

wow. I listened to that start to finish with Lancaster. it's an amazing listen. I suspect he will be Galways hurling coach next. The guy is inspirational. No wonder the team love him

One difference I have noticed between Andy Farrell and Stuart Lancaster is how they react to positives and negatives. Andy is hopping around the place in both scenarios while Stuart is taking it in

In his 42 interview I think Lancaster hinted that Devine might be regretting his decision to go. Saying that these contracts are usually decided mid season in November, December and January. Devine probably wasn't getting the game time he wanted then and was frustrated. But the last few months of the season he was getting lots of game time but by then the decision had been made. Doesn't sound like there is any bad blood anyway.

As an Ulster fan, I'm very, very excited that Devine is coming. Great player.

If I were an Ulster fan who knew for a fact that Devine regretted his move and was looking forward to getting back to Connacht, I'd rather just play McKee. This season is all about the young bucks creating a shared vision and identity. If Devine has already decided he has no interest in being part of that long-term, make him carry the water bottles. He might also be realising off the back half of this season that he's not passing Doak out any time soon.

But that would be entirely predicated on the idea that Devin is rocking up in July regretting it.

All he knows is connacht rugby so its understandable he is doing a bit of soul searching if he made the right decision. Just like someone going off to college in 1st year nervous thinking the worse then realising it was a good decision. If he fits in at ulster then I reckon he will be there for a few years.

I would like to think so.

And in fairness, it's more incumbent on Ulster to make him feel part of the team, that his stake in the team is a vital one, that he's an Ulsterman. Ulster has to envelope him. It’s not a one-way-system by any measure. Every team – including Ulster – has to try and make all other time with other teams seem like a faraway waste of time.

Such a good player.

It's purely stats based (given it's Opta selected), so almost every year throws up a few very strange inclusions. I actually thought this year's team was stronger than you usually see for these efforts.

Any update on Ultan Dillane's plans for nest season, seems to be listed as departing LR on ALL.RUGBY but no destination. Retirement or waiting to be announced somewhere. Munster maybe?

Not sure that Ultan is the style of lock we need but a good player if fit.

On other matters I was so impressed with Glasgow for the first 30 minutes of the URC semi. aIt seems to be a Scottish thing where you start fast and finish lame

The thing is with Matt Devine - he looks brilliantly suited to that role coming off the bench, when the game is a bit more broken up.

He scored 7 tries this season, and 4 of those were after the 70th minute. Doak (and Ben Murphy) still have better fundamentals than Devine right now IMO, but Devine is more of a gamebreaker. It's a role I could Devine potentially pushing onto in the Irish side too.

Ulster will have the best combination at scrum half of the 4 provinces IMO with Doak & Devine.

Ulster announced 3 in-take players including Chay Mullins. On the other hand, there is no one into Connacht although they (or someone) spent meaningless money for Will Connors who has had long- term injury.