Out with a hairline fracture in the Skull they don't know how long for. Tough on the guy as he was hitting some sort of form. Will be interesting to see how Jarvis and Nikora do. I for one will be keeping an eye on Nikora as the forgotten man he needs to remind us of what he's capable of.

PODs passes were poor that night and in fact in other previous nights.
All the passes were up above face height and took an age to get there with a looping trajectory.
Very dangerous and very predictable.
Moores passes are faster and with a straghter trajectory. Almost Stringer like.
He is the man to be starting at 9 no question.
He really speeds up the game.

It's been said several times now, but I just want to echo the calls for Moore to start - I have never rated POD. He clearly tries his heart out, but his passing is brutal, and his box kicks are often poor. Moore is bound to make mistakes due to his inexperience, but he has a great pass, and (I suspect) he is quite a bit bigger than POD which should help defensively too.

agree wit lads on moore, his pass has so much more pace than pods and his decision making is considerably quicker aswell. Of course he is coming off bench atm which is that bit easier so will be interesting to see how he does as a starter. Imo he will be fine tho.

Agree it's time Dave Moore got an extended run at 9. He sped things up considerably when coming on for O'Donohue on Saturday.

RogueXV wrote: Wouldn't go that far just yet CC, you still only need one hand to count his better games, but hopefully it's a sign of things to come. Now he just has to string a number of good ones together and Connacht won't have to spend any money on getting in a decent 10 and instead focus on other areas of need. Two golden opportunities for him presenting themselves as the Scottish sides come to town.

Coughparkscough

Kudos to NOC for having a decent one against Glasgow. He didn't set the world alight but he got us points and thats something to be thankful for. I think he was hamstrung in alot of the game by POD who dithered. What I think he needs is a scrumhalf who can boxkick cleverly and make the odd sniping run thereby taking some of the decision making out of his hands. By the time he's getting the ball alot recently the only option he has is the up and under. Would really like to see Moore get a decent run of games.

Wouldn't go that far just yet CC, you still only need one hand to count his better games, but hopefully it's a sign of things to come. Now he just has to string a number of good ones together and Connacht won't have to spend any money on getting in a decent 10 and instead focus on other areas of need. Two golden opportunities for him presenting themselves as the Scottish sides come to town.

Can I start the "Niall O'Connor for Ireland" bangwagon?

Who's in?

I know he is not the most popular player on this page but from what I've seen of NOC in recent games and listening to the match at the weekend I think his kicking is starting to improve. Certainly when he does miss they are not a million miles away and he has got some . It was never going to be easy for him coming in after Keatley was so important for us last year.

Rossie from memory he took 3 kicks and missed one from just short of halfway which dropped a yard short of the posts but was "on target".

read on the game thread that noc landed a kick from the touchline in cardiff game. what were his stats for kicking overall does anyone know?
also saw that jarvis missed a convertion from in front of posts! he obviouusly wont supply the answer to kicking!

cud be as simple as that he is not a talented enuf goalkicker to be taking responsibility for it

Quite true. From what I've heard about him he's meant to be very conscientious when it comes to kicking practice and not one to fob it off.

interesting exile.

You would imagine that aim would be the starting point for any kick tho and the process would flow from there. So if noc is happy with the process/technique u wud have to assume that his aim is the problem. Leads to tne next question which is why is it taking so long to sort out.

cud be as simple as that he is not a talented enuf goalkicker to be taking responsibility for it. no shame in that if its the case, after all there are 14 others on team wit same issue. if thats the case tho it needs to be acknowledged and solution found elsewhere.

I think its clear that eric likes him at 10 in all other aspects of his game so a solution to goalkicking will have 2 be found elsewhere.
Thats why i think there may be some merit to the Parks rumours because when you think about it he is an older version of noc wit much better goalkicking returns.

To be honest this is something that is drilled into all kickers heads at top level. ROG talks about it in his book a good bit, trust the technique and treat all kicks the same regardless if there a match winner or your 50 points up. It's common sports psychology for kickers.

I think where his aiming point is the most important thing. Ian Humphries up in Ulster's stats went up a couple of percent when he switched his aim center-left when he aims at goal to compensate for body movement him been a southpaw and all. It could be something that simple.

swift4prez wrote: currently doing a Q&A on twitter and facebook

i promised myself to give him a chance after the quins game.
one guy asked him this question

Can Niall describe his Pre-kick routine and what he thinks about coming up to impact? #positivethoughts #16thMan

nialls answer

big believer in process not outcome. have 1 trigger for each kick,concentrate on that, dont worry about result. goodluck

to me that looks like, if he feels he is doing it right but not scoring the points, he shouldnt change or fault himself??

That could also be a case that he means, that he feels he has the right technique. It could be down to something as simple as his aim. If he feels he is hitting the ball correctly, and he can tell from the kicks that he is, he just needs to work on his accuracy (OK not a small thing).

He also admitted that he's been working on tweaking his kicks, as he has a natural high trajectory which isn't good in the Sportsground on windy days