Connacht v Munster Saturday 19th April KO: 18.15

Borders no.2 wrote:

phatguerilla wrote:

columoc wrote:

phatguerilla wrote: Dara o'briain just dropped the development province tag again!!!

Yes, but we give that sentiment plenty of ammunition. Is that only two BP from all Inter-pros this year? Then, you can only expect comments like that. If he says it often enough it will stick, only one way of stopping it!

I think after the good run, everyone thought that was the year done.

Perhaps but he came up with this line before the game kicked off!

Maybe I'm missing something but I didn't think defense was *that* bad today. To my eyes we seem to be playing a drift defense system and that requires giving up some yards to the opposition before they run out of space/into touch. I don't think its a great system however for the most part it worked. The first try I put down to rustiness from Faloon - the second and third came from individual mistakes and opportunism, 9 times out of 10 McKeon's knock on in the opposition 22 doesn't become a try but it did today.

eta: without doubt the worst linesman performance I've seen this season, perhaps ever.

True but the good teams punish these mistakes almost every time. In fairness Connacht's first try was inches away from an intercept and turned into a fine try so I suppose its part of the risk you take but if you make these individual errors you need to scramble better. The try from Williams chip ahead was just too easy.

Connacht had two similar chances, one Poolman turned over on our line and we had the numbers but didn't make it count, then Munster killed the ball to allow them to re-organise.

The 2nd one Munster managed to scramble from a ball that bounced into Poolman's hand and he knocked it on. Ultimately its the ability to scramble and take these sort of openings that can make the difference.

As against Ulster last week, we didn't get the balance right, playing the way Connacht are turnovers can't happen too often or you are at 6's and 7's and by not committing enough men at the breakdown we are always leaving ourselves open for such turnovers.

All of our problems stem from a lack of grunt up front. Plus we need a consistent 10.

Very disappointed over last night- same old problems all season. Basic individual errors coupled with a lack of power and grunt. That's it in a nutshell. Need a second row and a backrow and a 10

Need a second row and a backrow and a 10

and a defence coach!

P.S. Was nice to see St. Joe down chatting with EE at halftime and pose for a few pics. He's a classy guy.

The Outlaw wrote:
All of our problems stem from a lack of grunt up front. Plus we need a consistent 10.

Very disappointed over last night- same old problems all season. Basic individual errors coupled with a lack of power and grunt. That's it in a nutshell. Need a second row and a backrow and a 10

That's Exactly what I said in the last page!

Rob pennie said it all for me in his post-match interview decribing our match compared to munster's next match as 'Chalk and Cheese', a polite way of saying just what a lack of a challenge Connacht are these days, we are a push-over for the majority of teams. A very frustrating season which highlighted for me some of the major weaknesses in our game-plan and has been already said a lack of grunt, i was worried at the start of the season when Glasgow came to the Sportsground and grunted us off the field. We need some big men as it doesn't matter how good the team is at passing if you have'nt got the basic strength and power then we we're always going to suffer. We need to be looking to sign internationlas or ex-internationals as hard as that might be to attract that calibre of player to the West of Ireland.

It seemed to me the Conor Gilsenan had quite a good game when he came on, how long is he here for?

Have to say its hard to win rugby matches when you're doing a lot to beat yourself

I have to say I thought Jack Dineen did well also. For a lad in the sub-academy who only converted to Hooker this season he didn't embarrass himself.

clanman wrote: Rob pennie said it all for me in his post-match interview decribing our match compared to munster's next match as 'Chalk and Cheese', a polite way of saying just what a lack of a challenge Connacht are these days, we are a push-over for the majority of teams. A very frustrating season which highlighted for me some of the major weaknesses in our game-plan and has been already said a lack of grunt, i was worried at the start of the season when Glasgow came to the Sportsground and grunted us off the field. We need some big men as it doesn't matter how good the team is at passing if you have'nt got the basic strength and power then we we're always going to suffer. We need to be looking to sign internationlas or ex-internationals as hard as that might be to attract that calibre of player to the West of Ireland.

We aren't a pushover for the majority of teams. We've got six LBP's this year and we could have had another one if Miah had got those touchline conversions. We certainly weren't a pushover on Saturday either, Munster got more than a good game and were gifted three tries. Toulon are the best team in Europe, the majority of teams in Europe are chalk to their cheese. Toulon would beat most international sides.

The basic foundation of any good team in any code is defence and connacht have been poor in both structure and one on one basics in defence for the 3 to 4 seasons ive watched them. Every team ive ever been involved with make themselves as difficult as possible to beat first and foremost before working on the rest. Connacht have failed miserably in that regard in spite of their improvements in other areas.

I wasn’t expecting a win in this fixture but the manner of the defeat was pretty galling. We might as well have gift-wrapped the points for them. That decision to turn down 3 and kick for the corner when we were 5 points down was insanity. That’s the sort of thing you try against Zebre, not a Munster team we’ve beaten once in the professional era. Ten minutes later they were out of touch and it was game over. Poor decision making and weak defence have haunted us for a long time. The weaknesses in our pack have been well-documented and discussed already and I hate singling anyone out but Falloon and McKeon were shocking and should have been called ashore far earlier than they were. I know Willie’s just back from injury and we have a tiny squad but he was a liability. McKeon lost the ball almost every time he took it into contact. The backs all looked pretty sharp, Poolman, Leader and Nikora particularly so, which is encouraging but I found myself wondering if I could be bothered renewing my season ticket as I left the ground which was the most depressing thing of the day for me. I am starting to get sick of the wild inconsistency produced by this team and the devastating lows and very occasional highs that come with being a Connacht supporter. Or maybe it’s the post-bank holiday/yet another defeat blues talking here

rossie wrote: The basic foundation of any good team in any code is defence and connacht have been poor in both structure and one on one basics in defence for the 3 to 4 seasons ive watched them. Every team ive ever been involved with make themselves as difficult as possible to beat first and foremost before working on the rest. Connacht have failed miserably in that regard in spite of their improvements in other areas.

Completely untrue with regards failed miserably. 09/10 (before Italians came in) we were bottom with most tries conceded and most points conceded in 18 games. The following seasons looked like this:

TA PA
2010/11: 6TH 7TH
2011/12: 6TH 7TH
2012/13: T5TH 7TH

That is a constant level of consistency and last year our main problem was coughing up cheap 3 point penalties. Your talking about being hard to beat first and foremost. I find it no coincidence that our steady rise up the table over 3 seasons was down to the defence more than anything else which made us hard to beat. The problem was being hard to beat doesn't always win matches as can be seen in our poor try scoring and points scoring.

If you want to criticise this years defence by all means, it is more than understandable. But the previous three years defensively to be termed "failed miserably" is simply unfounded and was actually the backbone of our rise because I know our attack wasn't.

its_phil wrote:

rossie wrote: The basic foundation of any good team in any code is defence and connacht have been poor in both structure and one on one basics in defence for the 3 to 4 seasons ive watched them. Every team ive ever been involved with make themselves as difficult as possible to beat first and foremost before working on the rest. Connacht have failed miserably in that regard in spite of their improvements in other areas.

Completely untrue with regards failed miserably. 09/10 (before Italians came in) we were bottom with most tries conceded and most points conceded in 18 games. The following seasons looked like this:

TA PA
2010/11: 6TH 7TH
2011/12: 6TH 7TH
2012/13: T5TH 7TH

That is a constant level of consistency and last year our main problem was coughing up cheap 3 point penalties. Your talking about being hard to beat first and foremost. I find it no coincidence that our steady rise up the table over 3 seasons was down to the defence more than anything else which made us hard to beat. The problem was being hard to beat doesn't always win matches as can be seen in our poor try scoring and points scoring.

If you want to criticise this years defence by all means, it is more than understandable. But the previous three years defensively to be termed "failed miserably" is simply unfounded and was actually the backbone of our rise because I know our attack wasn't.

Aka The Forshaw Years. Had we ever even had a specialist defence coach before Forshaw came in?

Looking at Sales defensive record from this season compared with last year will show you the impact of a decent defence coach. I think it was Will Greenwood a month of two back during one of Sales games touted Forshaw as the best signing in the Aviva given the impact he has had with Sale.

There are a lot of improvement in how Connacht are playing now compared to the start of the season.
Defence is a problem, IRFU need to send Les Kiss west during the summer to help out in this area.

Our front row needs to start learning a few tricks of the trade and fast, when Munster scrummaged fair we had the better of them. Munster pack used their experience all over the pitch and played the ref better than Connacht

10 is still an issue and a backup 9 is required, Marmion looked tired on Saturday

I think Lam has a lot to do, as the results show if you don't defend the ball against the top teams you will get hammered

a backup 9 is required,

Peter du Toit is back playing for Clontarf could be worth a punt or Caolin Blade.

OldSchool wrote: There are a lot of improvement in how Connacht are playing now compared to the start of the season.
Defence is a problem, IRFU need to send Les Kiss west during the summer to help out in this area.

Our front row needs to start learning a few tricks of the trade and fast, when Munster scrummaged fair we had the better of them. Munster pack used their experience all over the pitch and played the ref better than Connacht

10 is still an issue and a backup 9 is required, Marmion looked tired on Saturday

I think Lam has a lot to do, as the results show if you don't defend the ball against the top teams you will get hammered

Agree with pretty much all of this, the Munster tricks in particular. I'm not one to advocate dirty play but at the same time we can't be the only team playing to the strictest form of the rules, it won't do us any good.
The amount of times DOC managed to pull a Connacht player out of a ruck/out of attacking line, often by the neck, was probably worth a 3-6 point swing all on its own. Kilcoyne is a horrible prop tbh when forced to scrummage legally but the coaching staff are smart enough to have taught him how to put his opponent off, set up 'wrong' to give him an edge, bore in slyly, etc. In the earlier fixture (and throughout much of the season) Munster made very effective use of illegal pillars/blockers at the ruck.