Ex Players in the News...

Still a big fan of Downey, hope he gets that call-up:

www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/vi...-knocks-3251212.html

when did shane monaghan play here?

he definately is one that got away. makes me wonder what was going on recruitment/retainment wise here over the years pre hec.
esp when you consider we now have an niq and project? player in this position.

he looked very good against bath at weekend and was apparently top scorer in championship last season.

He most certainly was not "one that got away" if your implication is that the coaching team somehow failed to see a shining star in their midst.

He signed summer 2010 with the starting wing slots for the season held by Fionn Carr (7 tries 2010/11) and Brian Touhy (10 tries 2010/11 - I'm including his try against Samoa). He arrived injured and appeared to be injured for most of the season.

He was finally fit for November and played a handful of games for us between then and Februrary (against Samoa he was very good, started one Amlin and one Magners match and had a couple sub appearances) without scoring. Played a couple of A game towards the end of the season that I didn't see, and wasn't kept on.

Fair play to him for bouncing back so well in the last 18 months.

that was my point.
its a pity he was let go so quickly. he is clearly a very talented winger and based on your post showed signs of that potential when here but was released.

At the time he was an injury prone if talented AIL player who looked like he couldn't score in Coppers with a fistful of All-Ireland tickets. Hindsight is great.

hindsight may be great but foresight is extremely important when operating within a limited budget. Rotherham showed foresight when they signed a talented injuryprone ail player who couldnt score for connacht shortly after his release and he went on to be top try scorer in championship afaik in his one season there. Gloucester took a punt on that player and are getting the rewards for that now.

My only point on this is given our resources its a pity we didnt see what others have in an obviously talented player. If we had we might have been able to keep players of the calibre of Razor or Henry.

I dont know how Healy compares to Monaghan at this stage of his development but he would appear to be a prolific try scorer at AIL level. Hopefully he is the real deal and gets a chance to prove it here.

I thought at the time we were a bit hasty letting Monahan go especially considering how many others were departing. He impressed me at underage and I thought he had shown enough promise when fit to deserve another season.

I won't claim I was up in arms over him leaving though. I saw him as a useful squad player who could do a job if called upon. To be honest though I didn't see him as a player for a side like Gloucester but so these things go. Fair play to him and hope he can continue to show his worth out there.

I think if we had B&I Cup last season we'd probably have held on to him. You'd wonder did we do any better with signing McCrea (on a bigger contract I'd imagine)? So the cookie crumbles I suppose.

In fairness we have made a lot bigger blunders than this on the transfer front.

I think both Shane Monaghan and Daragh Sweeney were both let go at the same time. Not sure what Sweeney is up to now, but I thought he was a handy player as well, (for a ginger...)

I think you're referring to two different players, Daragh Fanning (the ginger winger you refer to) and Rob Sweeney the prop.

Fanning was last mentioned in this thread as playing semi-pro for an Australian team (also doing marketing/PRO for them) while Sweeney is still playing AIL and was on the bench for our A team against Munster a few weeks ago.

Edit: Last month Fanning played for his team (Vikings) as they won the (unofficial) Australian club championship (representing ACT as champions).

think your getting darragh fanning and rob sweeney mixed together, fanning is a ginger. playing well for the vikings in oz.

vikingsrugby.com.au/teams/1st-xv-squad/p...les/darragh-fanning/

Thanks for that Salmson, twas the ginger I was on about. Thought he was a handy enough winger.

Liked Fanning, Sweeney and Monahan. Of the three the one I was most surprised we let go of though was Fanning. It happens though sometimes a player clicks at a club and moves on and sometimes it doesn't happen because of a myriad of reasons. Good on Monahan for making it. Glad to see another Irish option for the Internationals teams.

overstrander wrote: Still a big fan of Downey, hope he gets that call-up:

www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/vi...-knocks-3251212.html

James Downey ‏@jamesdowney23
Great documentary on @tg4tv about @connachtrugby !!! #TheWestsAwake right in time for Heineken Cup!!!

sea_point wrote:

swift4prez wrote:

overstrander wrote: Still a big fan of Downey, hope he gets that call-up:

www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/vi...-knocks-3251212.html

after reading the article about wanting revenge and the hurt about being shown the door, this tweet from him show maybe he changed his mind

James Downey ‏@jamesdowney23
Great documentary on @tg4tv about @connachtrugby !!! #TheWestsAwake right in time for Heineken Cup!!!

Jimmy has been back to Galway loads of times, he still has a soft spot for the place. What he was saying in the article was pretty much just that he wanted to show that it was a mistake to let him go. In fairness it was, I felt it at the time (and I wasn't alone) and think we've seen enough of him to know that he is a better player than he was allowed to show at Saints where he was just used as a bosher and target for the pack...