Connacht vs Cardiff Sept 1st 17:00

Nikora took the kick from 40 metres because the ref had said if we kicked to touch it was half time.

We were our own worst enemies, plenty of huffing and puffing with little reward. Knock ons, silly errors, very little structure. A mess really.

Positives for me were Johnny o Connor had a big 50 minutes and I'm still bemused as to why he was taken off, Duffy was excellent, Mata Fifita had a good first half, Marmion did ok and Denis Buckley was man of the match. He is way fitter than last year, scrummed really well against the vastly experienced Fi'ise and did some great work around the park.

Lineouts were shocking, Vainikolo under the high ball is a disgrace, Nikora stood 10 yards off the gainline for the whole game and his tactical kicking was awful. Hope Eric wields the axe next week. This was a very callow Cardiff side that we should be beating

The pre-season optimism didn't last long. Woeful stuff. Mistakes at this early stage of the season you can handle but really it was difficult to see what Connacht were trying to do for long stages of the game this evening. We made a lot of our own problems.

Bluesboy wasn't lying that wasn't a great Cardiff side but they played a lot smarter and with a lot more structure than we did, took the few chances that came their way and defended our one-dimensional approach well.

If there is a defence for Connacht its that its the first game with a number of key players missing and the likes of McCarthy, Loughney, Duffy hadn't got a run out in pre-season.

I don't know what others saw in Marmion that I missed but for me he was well off the pace. (He's a young lad and it was a tough evening weatherwise to play at scrum half but far too ponderous for my liking) I was hugely dissapointed Moore didn't get on.

Connacht started fairly well, got the edge in the scrums and should have had at least 1 score to show for a strong opening 15 minutes but weren't clinical enough.

Vainikolo needs to take a good look at himself at this stage, he has had enough time to settle in Connacht and his performance tonight was woeful. I know he's a dry weather player but if you're not prepared to put your body on the line, there can't be a place in the starting lineup. Directly or Indirectly he has major questions to answer for at least 10 of the 13 points conceded and missed a number of tackles in 2nd half that allowed Cardiff out of the danger zone.

To go in 13 down at half time was dissapointing but Cardiff were still there to be beaten but we failed to put together phases and engaged in some awful aimless kicking. Cardiff had the better of the kicking with their half back combination definitely being the more accomplished. Again in the 2nd half we failed to capitalise at a key stage when on the Cardiff line.

Lineouts were very poor, regardless of conditions, Cardiff had a much higher lineout success rate and they wouldn't be as used to those conditions as our lads, Reynekce managed to regain two lineouts through hard work but the number lost were criminal and ruined any momentum.

Denis Buckley was a positive and is turning into a genuine option, thought Ronan Loughney did well for the hour too and made some decent carries, Fa'fita showed some good signs in the 1st half, Johnny O'Connor was busy as always, Flavin added a bit of impetus but overall that performance was way below the levels required if Connacht hope to do anything this season.

Crowd was a bit down but it was a rotten evening, hard to entice people into a poor game in those conditions.

Its game 1 of 22 in the league, no time to dwell on this one. Next week is a good chance to get back on track. We know the lads are better than that but really players and management need to settle on some sort of a gameplan next week or we'll be beaten again.

Porterbelly wrote: Vainikolo under the high ball is a disgrace

Didn't witness todays performance, but was it as bad as the match down in Thomand? Can still remember the Munster giggles by his mistakes (especially their try) that evening. Was really hoping that he turned a corner (end of last season and Exeter), but as Borders mentioned, he is a dry weather player... is that the excuse?

Funk It wrote:

Porterbelly wrote: Vainikolo under the high ball is a disgrace

Didn't witness todays performance, but was it as bad as the match down in Thomand? Can still remember the Munster giggles by his mistakes (especially their try) that evening. Was really hoping that he turned a corner (end of last season and Exeter), but as Borders mentioned, he is a dry weather player... is that the excuse?

"dry weather player", what a load of short sighted bollocks. Fetu is by far our best back, power pace and huge eagerness to get involved. The other winger yesterday afternoon was a disgrace, uninterested, lazy, total unawareness of his position no interest in getting back into position and could not tackle an under 7 if he tried to tackle an under 7 as he preferred pretending to tackle and miss. Fetu dropped two high balls, disappointing but it happens, Muldoon dropped four in one game last season lets call him a dry weather player. In the last 15 minutes Mata knocked on everything that was given to him, Griffin needlessy kicked the ball away when on two decent attacks and as for the age old Elwood tactic(that never worked) lets kick the ball up in the air to see how high we can get it, did not work as predicted. Some individuals performed yesterday and some didn't perform due to not been given the opportunity or bad luck but that rubbish about Fetu has to have a look at himself is just that pure rubbish. Every one of the backs on duty yesterday have to look at themselves it was a disgraceful performance.

Quick summary:

The good:

1 Loughs and especially Buckley had excellent games in the scrum and round the field, as did Rodney when he came on. Scrum and maul - whether from lineout or holding up players - were excellent.

2 Marmion and Fifata did well enough for their debuts.

3 Nikora's garryowens were the right tactic for the day and very productive thanks to a good hang and a good chase.

The bad:

1 All the other kicking. Duffy caught everything but kicked a lot of ball aimlessly downfield that should have gone into touch, Griffin and Fetu also.

2 McCarthy showed his rustiness, I've never seen him so anonymous

3 the backrow mixed the good with the very bad.

The ugly:

1 Griffin pulled up - again - with an injury. when's the last time he made it through a game? How long will he be out for this time?

2 Fetu. Knocked on 3 high balls in the first half, all of which allowed Cardiff out of their 22 or into ours, and then started to let the ball bounce. You know you're having a nightmare as a winger when you're replaced with the sub outhalf

3 The lineout. Coughed up the try that cost us the game, a joke until Flav started throwing to Muldoon and Gannon, at which points it ascended the heights of "messy but somewhat functional".

Next week?

From a systems POV the lineout and the kicking from the back 3.

From a personnel POV, I don't like the "hang Fetu" thing but a marker has to be set down for what happens when performance is unacceptable. I'd like to see JOC and Macca on the bench, Faloon and Gannon did enough when they came on to deserve a start. And I'd like to see Griffin off the team until such time as he's fixed. Properly.

salmson wrote:
From a personnel POV, I don't like the "hang Fetu" thing but a marker has to be set down for what happens when performance is unacceptable.

I think that everyone knows what a dangerous player Fetu is, in the same sense that we knew what an outstanding player Fionn Carr was when his defense used to get called into question (rightly or wrongly). As mentioned, I didn't see the game and I don't think for one second that an under par performance came down to one player.

clan clover wrote:

Funk It wrote:

Porterbelly wrote: Vainikolo under the high ball is a disgrace

Didn't witness todays performance, but was it as bad as the match down in Thomand? Can still remember the Munster giggles by his mistakes (especially their try) that evening. Was really hoping that he turned a corner (end of last season and Exeter), but as Borders mentioned, he is a dry weather player... is that the excuse?

"dry weather player", what a load of short sighted bollocks. Fetu is by far our best back, power pace and huge eagerness to get involved.

I was trying to make some excuse for him (when there is none) but to me I don't mind if a player makes mistakes if he's willing to keep going and putting himself in position to rectify the mistakes but by not trying to catch the 2nd of his 3 missed catches, allowing the ball to bounce he put us at sixes and sevens which led to the scrum which half a minute later lead to the try. If he had committed himself to the catch, he mightn't have got it but once you make no effort to catch and allow the ball to bounce you are in trouble. I don't care how talented a player is, if your winger isn't prepared to commit to doing what is part of his bread and butter he is no use to you.

Fets did indeed have a howler of a game but at least he tried, TOH was anonymous for virtually all the game, didn't really chase anything. its said a lot in the 2nd half when the only person chasing a garryowen was Denis Buckley even thought he started from the same pitch position as all the Connacht back line were standing.

There is a lot of love for Nikora on this site but i quiet frankly can't see why, he was dire last night, aimless kicks into the Cardiff half which put them straight on the attack again, overall his decision making was very poor. First time i have ever heard people in the clan stand shouting for a Connacht player to be taken off, which i don't think is right but it does sum up Nikora's performance.

The positives of the night were Denis Buckley, he was fantastic, Brett will have a job on his hands getting back in the team. Loughney also played well & Rodney is looking fitter than i have ever seen him. our scrum is one area where we look to have strength in depth.

Mata, for a first ever Pro12 game did well, he is a tank of a man, huge strength and was a major factor in us winning 3 turnovers from choke tackles in the first half.

Impressed by the young guys attitude through out the team, some of the older heads could learn from them.

An u10 player would be berated for what Fets did. It was inexcusable, if we're not going to set standards then we're going nowhere. He's a winger, wingers need to be able to catch a high ball or at least make a decent attempt. He had 2 chances with nobody within a square mile of him and both times it hopped off his chest, dreadful technique. The 3rd time he saw a Cardiff player coming and cowardly backed out of it and let it bounce. That ball could have gone anywhere.

He cost us any chance in Thomond last year when he made an absolute howler from an innocuous kick. I was there that day, had to listen to Munster fans pissing themselves while I cried into my pint

He made another howler when brought on against Gloucester when he had acres of room to claim a high ball with open space in front of him when we needed a score and he dropped it. It just isn't good enough

I'm a big fan of Fetu'u, I've met him before he's a nice lad, he's eager to do well this season but he has to sort it out. He is electric on the ball, has pace to burn and is deceptively strong in contact. However, he has now become a liability because every team is going to bomb garryowens on top of him and we're going to be in big trouble if he doesn't pull the finger out

Every game has its basic skill sets or minimum requirements and catching the high ball is one of them. Fetus inability to do this led to 10 pts yesterday. People are right to be annoyed and yes there were other poor performances but you have to do the basics right. Fetu didnt yesterday and accountability has to come into play.

Every game has its basic skill sets or minimum requirements and catching the high ball is one of them. Fetus inability to do this led to 10 pts yesterday. People are right to be annoyed and yes there were other poor performances but you have to do the basics right. Fetu didnt yesterday and accountability has to come into play.

Borders no.2 wrote:

clan clover wrote:

Funk It wrote:

Porterbelly wrote: Vainikolo under the high ball is a disgrace

Didn't witness todays performance, but was it as bad as the match down in Thomand? Can still remember the Munster giggles by his mistakes (especially their try) that evening. Was really hoping that he turned a corner (end of last season and Exeter), but as Borders mentioned, he is a dry weather player... is that the excuse?

"dry weather player", what a load of short sighted bollocks. Fetu is by far our best back, power pace and huge eagerness to get involved.

I was trying to make some excuse for him (when there is none) but to me I don't mind if a player makes mistakes if he's willing to keep going and putting himself in position to rectify the mistakes but by not trying to catch the 2nd of his 3 missed catches, allowing the ball to bounce he put us at sixes and sevens which led to the scrum which half a minute later lead to the try. If he had committed himself to the catch, he mightn't have got it but once you make no effort to catch and allow the ball to bounce you are in trouble. I
don't care how talented a player is, if your winger isn't prepared to commit to doing what is part of his bread and butter he is no use to you.

There is no excuse for him missing the high balls, it shouldn't happen but it does no matter who you are or what position you play in, you will make a mistake.Hopefully he will put in the effort in to make sure we do not see it happen again. The rest of his work rate was excellent, the other winger should have stayed in the dressing room.
As for Rossie saying Fetu'smistake cost us ten points how do you figure that out, they caused a few scrums that is all, did he throw the line out no, did he fail to catch the throw in at the line out no, did he fail to dive on the ball no. If this what we are going on, I blame Niall O Connor because if he had not left us he would have played and the first penalty would have hit the post and fell into Muldoons arms and he would have scored under the posts.

The guys work rate and all round play was excellent, he made mistakes at least he tried unlike some of the others, Griffin looked like he was carrying an injury the new centre knocked on more times in one game then most people do in a season, the line out was a shambles, decision making a shambles the weather was crap. Some positives, Buckley looking much more like an all round player, Rodney was storming, O Connor and Faloon excellent.

While directly he didn't cost us 10 points, and you are right to highlight the other sloppy mistakes made in the lead up to the penalty and the extremely sloppy try (where 3 or 4 players should be helping with enquiries), Cardiffs attacks that lead to scores ultimately had their starting point with the mistakes from Vainikolo giving them the field position to launch their attacks.

However, I'm not going to row for the sake of it, only a handful of players performed to anything approaching an acceptable level yesterday while the display doesn't reflect too well on our management either.

Big improvement required from everyone in Italy next week or we'll come home with our tails between our legs.

It gave them field position without earnin it at a time when we were on top. Field position which they turned into 10 pts against the run of play. Yes others were also accountable but if fetu did the basics right there wouldnt have been the opportunity.
Its not the first time hes been shown up. Last season i highlighted this weakness.and was shot down. Its abasic but vital skill that he is missing and he will be targetted by teams now. The dropping was bad enogh but not even contesting for it is very poor. He left one ball bounce and that in itself means he should be dropped.

By the way for those fellow anoraks out there we knocked on 14 times in first half . Guy keepin track left before end so didnt get final total.

rossie wrote: It gave them field position without earnin it at a time when we were on top. Field position which they turned into 10 pts against the run of play. Yes others were also accountable but if fetu did the basics right there wouldnt have been the opportunity.
Its not the first time hes been shown up. Last season i highlighted this weakness.and was shot down. Its abasic but vital skill that he is missing and he will be targetted by teams now. The dropping was bad enogh but not even contesting for it is very poor. He left one ball bounce and that in itself means he should be dropped.

If they drop anyone it should be O Halloran, he made no effort in the whole 80 minutes, apologies he did make one effort at a tackle and was sent back three yards on his arse for his troubles, it's a good job the other winger was not running at him at the time or he would have landed in Bohermore.

Borders no2 , i agree the mistakes had there starting points at Fetu's knock on's ,but they should never have led to any points as they were both in harmless enough areas and there were a hell of a lot more guys culpable . They were certainly not opportunities for Cardiff but the team our team turned them into opportunities all by themselves. Your right though only a few held there hands up.