Connacht Team Talk Thread V - The Friend Zone

connachta wrote: »

“We are going to appeal that and hopefully common sense prevails on Thursday and it’s thrown out.”

Andy Friend with the exact good words in this article "hope to get a disciplinary panel “who understand collision sports and that things like that do happen, that there was no malice or intent in it.”

https://www.the42.ie/connacht-appeal-abraham-papalii-5277157-Nov2020/

I think this is optimistic to be honest; the gif in that article seems to be pretty damning;



Looks to me like Papali'i had plenty of time to go low or get his arm around the Zebre guy.

RonnieL wrote: »

He's definitely too upright. The Zebre player does change direction at the last second though, so I'm sure they'll work that angle. Lots of players tackle upright to try and stop the attacking player throwing an offload, or to potentially hold the player up and force a turnover. Maybe if they outlawed that style of tackle altogether, it would actually improve the game as there would be way more offloads. Anyway, we'll just have to wait and see what the panel say.

He's trying to tackle far too high. He had more than enough time to drop himself to make a smashing tackle


Better suited to laws thread but what tackle do you want to outlaw?


Anyway his hearing for the red is tomorrow.

Is the team announcement today ?

Zzippy wrote: »

Johnny Sexton is lucky they weren't reffing upright tackles like that a few years ago, or he would have seen red for headbutting Bastareaud and a few others. Still think it's harsh, the Zebre player changes his direction at the last second for me, hard to expect AP to react in time. Anyway, we'll see tomorrow.

Papaili wasn't upright.

Sexton usually was.

connachta wrote: »

Bealham as LH again with Ireland

Buckley and McAllister have both only one or two seasons left, so could/should we prepare a Finlay move for Connacht too?

Aungier can only get better and be first choice TH in 2 seasons, with McCoy/Kenny there. Thoughts?

Buckley is 30 just 1 year older than Bealham, even McAllister at 31 could have a few more seasons in him yet injury permitting.

For me Finlay is still our established 1st choice TH for the foreseeable future and I don't understand why you would change that?
Aungier has looked very promising but don't see him overtaking Finlay just yet..... Also you can never have too many good TH props in a squad!!

I never understand Irish rugby fans who advocate for moving good tightheads elsewhere. We were all there for the Michael Bent and Tom Court years!

Finlay will not be changed to a loose head. He is an international quality tighthead. There are far less international quality tightheads around than there are loose heads

He was picked by Farrell in the squad as a tighthead has been selected by Farrell as a tightead in all the squads up to today as a tighthead. The only reason he moved to loose head was because of injury. The only reason he is starting at loose head at the weekend is because of injury. If Byrne was fit he would definitely be starting at loosehead this weekend and Finlay would likely be starting at loose head to give Porter a break

ElisaAtWar wrote: »

In the Joe Schmidt era it was no different. All changes were injury related. What might be interesting here is a player playing out of position to solve an injury issue rather than looking an alternative name that fits into that position. But it seems we are visually impaired on that choice. If your in your in, if your out your out

At least it's a good sign for Finlay's chances to make the 31 for RWC 2023..

honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see a resurgence in ambi-props over the next couple of years. with the potential of covid outbreaks to derail squads with ease, having a single player cover two very specialist positions would be incredibly valuable.

connemara man wrote: »

5 week's for Papali'i

https://twitter.com/the2ndRow/status/1332262795212181505?s=19

So he'll be out for the Ospreys, Benetton and the Ulster matches, back in time for Leinster just after the New Year.

connemara man wrote: »

5 week's for Papali'i

It could have been worse than 5 - hard to see how it could have been better.

In fairness, he was probably going to need at least 3 weeks of a focused tackling technique course anyway.

Hopefully he gets it sorted - he seems a really popular guy and has huge potential for us.
His disciplinary record is an issue now, he cannot afford any more mistakes for the next two years.

Available | Very soon available | For Champions Cup / Interpros | Before 6 Nations | Long-Term (3-6 months out) | Emergency cover |

Buckley/McAlister/Duggan/Burke|--|--|--|--|--|1

Delahunt/Murphy|--|Heffernan|--|--|Tierney-Martin/Adamson|2

Aungier/Kenny/McCoy|--|Bealham|--|--|--|3

Dillane|--|Roux|--|--|C.Daly|4

Thornbury|--|--|Murray/Gallagher (TBC)|--|SOB/E.Masterson|5

E.Masterson/SOB|--|Dowling|--|--|Boyle|6

Butler/Oliver|--|--|--|--|Booth|7

Boyle/S.Masterson|--|Papali'i|--|--|--|8

Marmion/Reilly/Kerrins|--|Blade (TBC)|--|--|--|9

Carty/C.Fitz|--|--|Dean|--|T.Daly|10

Healy/Sullivan|--|--|--|--|Kilgallen/Porch|11

T.Daly|--|Aki/Robb|--|--|--|12

Arnold|--|--|Farrell|--|SOB|13

Wootton|S.Fitz|O'Donnell (TBC)|--|--|DeBuitlear/Arnold|14

Porch|--|TOH|--|--|S.Fitz/O'Donnell|15

https://twitter.com/connachtrugby/status/1332292337431666692/photo/1

Original bench...

Weak 2nd row
Great otherwise

KBurke85 wrote: »

CONNACHT MATCHDAY 23 VS OSPREYS RUGBY
Saturday 28th November, The Sportsground, Kick-Off 7.35pm

Number/Name/Caps (* denotes uncapped)
15. John Porch (23)
14. Peter Sullivan (4)
13. Sammy Arnold (6)
12. Tom Daly (30)
11. Alex Wootton (6)
10. Conor Fitzgerald (27)
9. Colm Reilly (3)
1. Denis Buckley (184)
2. Shane Delahunt (82)
3. Jack Aungier (6)
4. Eoghan Masterson (96)
5. Gavin Thornbury (44)
6. Sean O’Brien (58)
7. Conor Oliver (6)
8. Paul Boyle (C) (44)

Replacements
16. Jonny Murphy (9)
17. Paddy McAllister (14)
18. Dominic Robertson-McCoy (56)
19. Cian Prendergast (1)
20. Jarrad Butler (61)
21. Stephen Kerins (11)
22. Sean O’Brien (Acad) *
23. Colm de Buitlear (5)

E.Masterson should finish 2020 with 100 caps