Connacht Team Talk Thread V - The Friend Zone

Wegians89 · 08-07-2020 12:47pm

The Friend Zone

O donnell was nominated for 7s player of the year in 2018, hope he can bring that to 15s. Papalii looks powerful and pacy

Former Former · 08-07-2020 12:54pm

You've got a Friend in me

I'd say Papali'i is squad depth and not much more based on his track record.

Sevens players are always an unknown quantity but Porch has worked out well, and if Friend has coached O'Donnell before then that's grounds for optimism.

Lucas44 · 08-07-2020 1:36pm

Bridge93 wrote: »

Was there not talk of Dalton Papali’i signing? Or did I get that wrong and it was always this Abraham Papali’i? I suppose given Dalton was capped I’m probably totally wrong

Dalton is a 7 so wouldn’t really have made too much sense and as thing stands he’s probably going to be in the next abs extended squad, only 22/23 too be hard to convince him to pick up and leave

Lucas44 · 08-07-2020 1:41pm

Bit torn on the decision to sign Odonnell, he’s a decent player but you’d have to wonder when looking at the 7s is he better than Jordan conroy? Probably not.. have to remember the season conroy was in with Connacht Kieran Keane was in charge and think it’s safe to say no1 improved under him.. just think if we’re going to be gambling on a 7s player let’s not choose an Aussie player when there’s Irish ones such as conroy or jack Kelly or terry Kennedy available

macslash · 08-07-2020 1:57pm

Mul, it's over

Lucas44 wrote: »

Bit torn on the decision to sign Odonnell, he’s a decent player but you’d have to wonder when looking at the 7s is he better than Jordan conroy? Probably not.. have to remember the season conroy was in with Connacht Kieran Keane was in charge and think it’s safe to say no1 improved under him.. just think if we’re going to be gambling on a 7s player let’s not choose an Aussie player when there’s Irish ones such as conroy or jack Kelly or terry Kennedy available

I hear you, but who says they are available? Those lads mentioned might not be interested in signing with a province. I'd have loved Jack Kelly but I haven't heard anything from any of them about wanting to change over. Any idea when the sevens will be restarted? After Xmas or before?

realhorrorshow · 08-07-2020 2:08pm

Lucas44 wrote: »

Bit torn on the decision to sign Odonnell, he’s a decent player but you’d have to wonder when looking at the 7s is he better than Jordan conroy? Probably not.. have to remember the season conroy was in with Connacht Kieran Keane was in charge and think it’s safe to say no1 improved under him.. just think if we’re going to be gambling on a 7s player let’s not choose an Aussie player when there’s Irish ones such as conroy or jack Kelly or terry Kennedy available

If I was Jordan Conroy I'd be prefer travelling the world as an elite 7s player over coming back to Ireland to battle it out for Pro14 minutes. Maybe he doesn't want to play 15s? Nigel Carolan would be more than familiar with him and I'm sure could make a case for his signing if he rated him.

08-07-2020 3:15pm

Lucas44 wrote: »

Bit torn on the decision to sign Odonnell, he’s a decent player but you’d have to wonder when looking at the 7s is he better than Jordan conroy? Probably not.. have to remember the season conroy was in with Connacht Kieran Keane was in charge and think it’s safe to say no1 improved under him.. just think if we’re going to be gambling on a 7s player let’s not choose an Aussie player when there’s Irish ones such as conroy or jack Kelly or terry Kennedy available

Jack Carty disagrees

realhorrorshow · 08-07-2020 3:39pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Jack Carty disagrees

Shane Delahunt went really well that season too and was on Joe Schmidt's radar.

macslash · 08-07-2020 3:39pm

Mul, it's over

He's a big man. Most of the footage seems to have been from wet conditions so hopefully he'll be okay in Galway!
Some hit about the 2.20 mark

**That link worked for me, hopefully it does for ye too.

connachta · 08-07-2020 6:06pm

giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47923298252894b884b75a2fdea8d21fb5f74f3dcd&rid=giphy.gif

I'm a happy man.
Kiwi n°8 is exactly what I wanted
Not a name, but an effective ball-carrier, who runs fast and offloads. I'm deeplly convinced he will be a starter, and crowd-favorite with fend-offs. Naoupu 2.0, finally!

ClanofLams · 08-07-2020 6:31pm

Mul, it's over

O’Donnell is currently injured according to twitter? Aussie 7s journos and fans seem to think he will be very good at 15s fwiw.

Second signing looks like a punt. Sometimes the gamble pays off (Fox Matamua, even if injury kind of halted his progress) sometimes not (Api Pewhairangi).

Squidgy Black · 08-07-2020 7:36pm

ClanofLams wrote: »

O’Donnell is currently injured according to twitter? Aussie 7s journos and fans seem to think he will be very good at 15s fwiw.

Second signing looks like a punt. Sometimes the gamble pays off (Fox Matamua, even if injury kind of halted his progress) sometimes not (Api Pewhairangi).

He did his ACL back in January, supposed to be a year of rehab (at least from what he was saying in interviews), so it'll be into 2021 before he gets any game time you'd imagine unless he flies through his rehab.

sydthebeat · 08-07-2020 7:44pm

The Friend Zone

Papali'i looks like a strong runner with an offloading game..... however he'd want to learn quickly about tackling lower from the clip ive just watched. pretty much all of the clips of him owning the tackle would see him getting red these days.

Bazzo · 08-07-2020 8:40pm

Mul, it's over

Murray Kinsella mentioned conditioning could be an issue for him, only managed 50 mins in his 3 starts apparently.

Nothing a few months of Johnny O'Connor scaring the everliving **** out of him can't solve hopefully.

Lucas44 · 08-07-2020 9:09pm

macslash wrote: »

He's a big man. Most of the footage seems to have been from wet conditions so hopefully he'll be okay in Galway!
Some hit about the 2.20 mark

**That link worked for me, hopefully it does for ye too.

Not convinced looks like he’s playing equivalent to ail 2b in them videos, standing out but the standard doesn’t look great

connachta · 08-07-2020 9:49pm

Are they joining (as I predicted) only for new season ?

Burkie1203 · 08-07-2020 9:52pm

Mul, it's over

Bazzo wrote: »

Murray Kinsella mentioned conditioning could be an issue for him, only managed 50 mins in his 3 starts apparently.

Nothing a few months of Johnny O'Connor scaring the everliving **** out of him can't solve hopefully.

They have to do 14 day quarantine when they arrive too? So how likely are they to arrive before the interpros next month?

connemara man · 08-07-2020 10:00pm

The Friend Zone

Burkie1203 wrote: »

They have to do 14 day quarantine when they arrive too? So how likely are they to arrive before the interpros next month?

They're joining for the 20/21 season so that'll be fine

macslash · 08-07-2020 10:32pm

Mul, it's over

Lucas44 wrote: »

Not convinced looks like he’s playing equivalent to ail 2b in them videos, standing out but the standard doesn’t look great

Ya that's true but that video is from about a year ago so the footage is old. He is a punt as many have said so hopefully he works out. Didn't realise that BOD (ya he goes by that apparently!) was injured. Hopefully nothing too long term. It'll be Oct I'm guessing before the new season hopefully* starts?

Lebute · 08-07-2020 11:09pm

macslash wrote: »

Ya that's true but that video is from about a year ago so the footage is old. He is a punt as many have said so hopefully he works out. Didn't realise that BOD (ya he goes by that apparently!) was injured. Hopefully nothing too long term. It'll be Oct I'm guessing before the new season hopefully* starts?

https://www.rugby.com.au/news/2020/01/30/sevens-bod-injury

Link above to his injury

Evil_g · 09-07-2020 8:36am

Mul, it's over

Squidgy Black wrote: »

He did his ACL back in January, supposed to be a year of rehab (at least from what he was saying in interviews), so it'll be into 2021 before he gets any game time you'd imagine unless he flies through his rehab.

Hang on. We signed a back three player who's done his cruciate and is out for the foreseeable?

That doesn't sound like a good idea.

connachta · 09-07-2020 9:04am

Evil_g wrote: »

Hang on. We signed a back three player who's done his cruciate and is out for the foreseeable?

That doesn't sound like a good idea.

He should be fit in October, 9 months rehab

connachta · 09-07-2020 9:29am

"I had a bit of a run of injuries at the back-end of my league career and I thought I would try something different. I wasn't enjoying [league] when you have injuries. So, I needed a change and to have some fun again," Papali'i said.

He struggled at first with the transition to rugby, but it wasn't because of the differences between the two codes.

Source: nzherald.co.nz

Squidgy Black · 09-07-2020 9:39am

connachta wrote: »

He should be fit in October, 9 months rehab

Interview with him at the end of March said he still had 9 months of rehab left to go

https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/sevens/tokyo-2021-olympics-ben-odonnell-australian-rugby-sevens/news-story/b9b7a6c157b94fc3f5dbfe3fd6f4db76

connachta · 09-07-2020 9:45am

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Interview with him at the end of March said he still had 9 months of rehab left to go

https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/sevens/tokyo-2021-olympics-ben-odonnell-australian-rugby-sevens/news-story/b9b7a6c157b94fc3f5dbfe3fd6f4db76

FFS, hope it's just based on the "theorical maximum" (12 months)

connachta · 09-07-2020 9:50am

Lucas44 wrote: »

Not convinced looks like he’s playing equivalent to ail 2b in them videos, standing out but the standard doesn’t look great

That was indeed "club" games.
But Mitre 10 is another kind of level

Stats vs Southland last October

9 runs
97 meters gained!
3 clean breaks
9 defenders beaten
2 offloads

Wow

Former Former · 09-07-2020 9:58am

You've got a Friend in me

Ah this Papali'i guy is a squad player and little else. He'll have been very cheap so it's a low risk signing but Pro14 will be a big step up for him. This is basically his first time as a pro rugby player at age 27.

But no harm, a bit more depth and he might surprise us.

Diabhal Beag · 09-07-2020 10:20am

He certainly won't be intimdated by the shadow of Copeland's massive contribution. Probably a quarter of the cost too.

connachta · 09-07-2020 11:09am

evil_seed · 09-07-2020 11:30am

The Friend Zone

connachta wrote: »

Position |1st |2nd|3rd| 4th
LH Prop|Buckley|McAllister|M.Burke|Duggan
Hooker|Heffernan|Delahunt|Murphy|Tierney-Martin
TH Prop|Bealham|McCoy|Aungier| Kenny
n°4 2nd Row|Dillane|Roux| Dowling | Thornbury
n°5 2nd Row|Thornbury| Gallagher| Murray| Roux
Blindside Flanker|Boyle|E.Masterson | Dowling| Gallagher
Openside Flanker|Butler|Oliver| S.Masterson | Boyle
n°8 | SOB|Papali'i | E.Masterson| Butler
SH | Marmion | Blade | Kerrins | Reilly
OH |Carty|Fitzgerald|Dean| Daly
11 | Healy | Porsh | O'Donnell | Sullivan
Inside Centre|Aki|Robb|Daly| Arnold
Outside Centre|Farrell|Arnold|SOB 2.0 | Aki
14 | S.Fitzgerald | Wootton | Porsh | De Buitlear
15 | TOH|Wootton | McNulty | S.Fitz

We're all-right.

Daly has to be prepared to play 10 as he did when young.
2 injuries and he will be used here as utility 22.

You're back row is all mixed up IMO

Connacht Team Talk Thread V - The Friend Zone

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