connachtexile wrote:

Did Connacht get a single penalty tonight? Genuinely.

They did and I for one didn't have any problem with the ref who I thought had a good game. Some good individual performances but overall we were so bad in the first half we didn't give ourselves a chance.

Apparently we were right official stats say 0 penalty..

There is little I can add that has not been written on this thread, so I am going to focus on the positives.

1. I thought Andrew Trimble demonstrated the most complete wing display that I can ever remember in the league, every aspect of his game was top class. He seems to have a confidence now that he did not have before.

2. Tommy Bowe was excellent at 13, I would love to see him there against top class opposition.

3. Two excellent 9's as a back up to Murray.

4. There is a time and a place for everything, Paddy Jackson got territory when required, and ran when required, especially in the first half. Pat Lam must take note, even the ABs mix it up.

5. Ravenhill looks great, a proper rugby ground.

Naughty boy!

Duly edited.

connachtexile wrote: Ummm wrote:

I also thing Denis Buckley and Eoin McKeon were very poor last night, and while they're young, they have alot of games under their belt now and need to perform better than that.

I thought Buckley did ok myself and Ah You put in a good shift. Harris-Wright tried but it just wasn't happening shame Heffernan wasn't put on I think he could have helped with the breakdown. For me Buckley, Ah You and Muldoon played well in the pack, as for the rest...

Ahem, why am I being quoted as saying something I didn't say?

Porterbelly wrote:

I also thing Denis Buckley and Eoin McKeon were very poor last night, and while they're young, they have alot of games under their belt now and need to perform better than that.

I thought Buckley did ok myself and Ah You put in a good shift. Harris-Wright tried but it just wasn't happening shame Heffernan wasn't put on I think he could have helped with the breakdown. For me Buckley, Ah You and Muldoon played well in the pack, as for the rest...

There is merit playing as we are. We have been playing well in the last two months. We still have a chance for our best ever finish and our skill levels have improved.

This idea that "we need this and we need that" is right. If we want to challenge the likes of Ulster, we do need a squad of world class players but it's not going to happen in the near future. Quality no.10s, for example, are extremely rare. Munster don't have one, Leinster are trying to figure out what they have and Ulster had to be very patient with Jackson. Saying we need a quality out-half is obvious but you might as well be saying we need to treble our budget. The reality is Connacht have no real world class players and if we do produce one it will be difficult to hold on to him.

Our ambition at the moment is to improve and next season it will be to finish in the top half of the table and qualify for the European Cup. I was a big critic of Lam in the beginning but I have been impressed lately in our skill levels and from what I heard, as soon as he came in his aim was to improve in this area. His positive influence can be seen whereas at the beginning we were a shambles.

Judging Connacht on games like last night is a waste of time. Our rivals are Dragons, Edinburgh, Treviso etc. The like of Ulster and Leinster might as well be in a different league. We are not anywhere near competing with them.

One final point, I hope this new centre becomes is great and I look forward to seeing him in the Sportsground but youtube is no place to judge a rugby player in my opinion. I could make Fionn Carr look like a superstar in a youtube video.

I'd have to agree with the Outlaw. Some of the rugby Connacht have played has been good but the thing with that style of rugby is its high risk and turnovers prove hugely costly. Ulster away isn't the type of game to be trying outrageous cross field kicks in our own 22 in the first 5 minutes, similarly a few minutes later we went through some good phases but failed to protect at the breakdown leading to an Ulster turnover and they kicked it into our 22 which resulted in a try, a similar thing happened minutes later so for all our attempted good play the game was over at that stage. All these things have to be inch perfect if you are going to play that way.

What we are trying to do is admirable and sometimes hard lessons have to be learned but I think we need to get a bit more realistic about our game plan in certain matches. Not even the top teams go to places like Ravenhill with the approach Connacht had yesterday.

Porterbelly wrote:

The Outlaw wrote:

tomsauce2000 wrote: We were prepared. We had structure. We were committed. We were simply destroyed by a far superior team.

We always get hammered in Ravenhill. That doesn't mean we have to accept it beforehand but there's no point thinking it's a disaster afterwards.

Our style of rugby has been great to watch over the past few weeks. This is the downside. When we play superior teams, we're more likely to get hammered. I still prefer how we play now though.

No point in trying to play like the AB's when we haven't the players to do it.

We haven't as good as players as other provinces bar 2 or 3 but we could play a structured game that would eradicate the hidings.

Does nothing for us shipping a beating like that- players just won't want to come here and who could blame them.

Need to get a backline that can actually tackle as well. Outside Robbie I'm not sure the rest can. LI to be the 4th Irish province next year?

Our forwards are too slow for a game like that. Harris Wright, Mul, Muldowney all too one paced to play that high tempo stuff and not good enough carriers to punch holes around the fringes.

We need a big ball carrying back row to make hard yards when we're going nowhere.

Bundee Aki is one player who would have made a big difference last night in terms of being able to make easy metres over the gainline when we needed rather than flinging ball over and back and getting caught. That's what we lack, someone to just get us on the front foot with ease, like Henshaw can do but at 15 was too far away from the gainline to be able to have that consistent impact last night.

It's admirable the way we're trying to play but the players aren't there to do it. Parks can't play like that, neither can most of our forwards so we're struggling. Anytime we made a break there was nobody on the shoulder to make the most of it. Maybe someone like Heenan would have done better in this facet.

It's also worth noting that the physicality of the Ulster backs completely took us apart. Bowe and Trimble holding up Griffin at will in the tackle is the prime example. They along with Marshall at 12 are big powerful men with pace and skills and better all round players.

Defensively we need serious work, but Poolman and Healy are streets ahead of TOH and Carr in defence so we need to see them back in. They are also arguably better in attack. Carr was a shambles last night, running down blind alleys and coughing up ball. I also thing Denis Buckley and Eoin McKeon were very poor last night, and while they're young, they have alot of games under their belt now and need to perform better than that. Muldowney in the 2nd row is watery, needs to put himself about.

Its a great signing but we need more then that. I just personally believe we need a bigger pack and a very 10, a good 12 and you play a structured game and become hard to beat. Thats your basics. and we build from there.
We're going nowhere with these hidings. And every hiding brings up the inevitable folding question and movement of our best players elsewhere.

The Outlaw wrote:

tomsauce2000 wrote: We were prepared. We had structure. We were committed. We were simply destroyed by a far superior team.

We always get hammered in Ravenhill. That doesn't mean we have to accept it beforehand but there's no point thinking it's a disaster afterwards.

Our style of rugby has been great to watch over the past few weeks. This is the downside. When we play superior teams, we're more likely to get hammered. I still prefer how we play now though.

No point in trying to play like the AB's when we haven't the players to do it.

We haven't as good as players as other provinces bar 2 or 3 but we could play a structured game that would eradicate the hidings.

Does nothing for us shipping a beating like that- players just won't want to come here and who could blame them.

Need to get a backline that can actually tackle as well. Outside Robbie I'm not sure the rest can. LI to be the 4th Irish province next year?

Our forwards are too slow for a game like that. Harris Wright, Mul, Muldowney all too one paced to play that high tempo stuff and not good enough carriers to punch holes around the fringes.

We need a big ball carrying back row to make hard yards when we're going nowhere.

Bundee Aki is one player who would have made a big difference last night in terms of being able to make easy metres over the gainline when we needed rather than flinging ball over and back and getting caught. That's what we lack, someone to just get us on the front foot with ease, like Henshaw can do but at 15 was too far away from the gainline to be able to have that consistent impact last night.

It's admirable the way we're trying to play but the players aren't there to do it. Parks can't play like that, neither can most of our forwards so we're struggling. Anytime we made a break there was nobody on the shoulder to make the most of it. Maybe someone like Heenan would have done better in this facet.

It's also worth noting that the physicality of the Ulster backs completely took us apart. Bowe and Trimble holding up Griffin at will in the tackle is the prime example. They along with Marshall at 12 are big powerful men with pace and skills and better all round players.

Defensively we need serious work, but Poolman and Healy are streets ahead of TOH and Carr in defence so we need to see them back in. They are also arguably better in attack. Carr was a shambles last night, running down blind alleys and coughing up ball. I also thing Denis Buckley and Eoin McKeon were very poor last night, and while they're young, they have alot of games under their belt now and need to perform better than that. Muldowney in the 2nd row is watery, needs to put himself about.

tomsauce2000 wrote: We were prepared. We had structure. We were committed. We were simply destroyed by a far superior team.

We always get hammered in Ravenhill. That doesn't mean we have to accept it beforehand but there's no point thinking it's a disaster afterwards.

Our style of rugby has been great to watch over the past few weeks. This is the downside. When we play superior teams, we're more likely to get hammered. I still prefer how we play now though.

No point in trying to play like the AB's when we haven't the players to do it.

We haven't as good as players as other provinces bar 2 or 3 but we could play a structured game that would eradicate the hidings.

Does nothing for us shipping a beating like that- players just won't want to come here and who could blame them.

Need to get a backline that can actually tackle as well. Outside Robbie I'm not sure the rest can. LI to be the 4th Irish province next year?

We were prepared. We had structure. We were committed. We were simply destroyed by a far superior team.

We always get hammered in Ravenhill. That doesn't mean we have to accept it beforehand but there's no point thinking it's a disaster afterwards.

Our style of rugby has been great to watch over the past few weeks. This is the downside. When we play superior teams, we're more likely to get hammered. I still prefer how we play now though.

clearly Ulster were fully wound-up for this game whereas we looked like a team that was'nt prepared for a game of this intensity, the mind-set was all wrong. Again we got hammered in the breakdown, timing and positioning of the clear-out was so inept. in the backline they played with power we couldn't handle, we tried to come up fast in the defensive line however that left us vulnerable if the first tackle was missed or the player not wrapped up. Someone didnt do their homework either that or they thought we could impose our game on them. Either way one of the worst performance I've seen from Connacht it pains me to say. In defense of the backrow the 3 of them are trying to compensate for us not having an out-and-out 7 available. Muldoon was the only one who tried to bring a physicality back in their faces and show a bit of fight but he could'nt do it all on his own. Marmion is starting to look like the real deal, in every game now he consistently makes sniping attacks, same for Henshaw although i think with both of them we are overhyping them, let's see where they are in the mid-twenties. One thing is for sure between the 2 of them it's Marmion that the other provinces would love to poach off us right now.

Outclassed In pretty much every way. I thought we played some relatively decent attacking rugby, but as others have stated, it was the defence that let us down. And let us down hugely.

I'm gonna focus on the positives, will leave the negatives to our bearded app developer. I think he needs the release:

Marmion and henshaw were massive, huge work rate from both.
Pack was generally ok.
Mul was able to carry over the game line on pretty much every tackle. He's having a great season.
Leader was solid when he came on.
We played a full eighty, even tho I'd given up by 60.
Fitness has generally improved.

Really scraping the bottom of the barrel there. Roll on next week?

8 tries .....that is simply unforgivable.

men against boys.

explains really why little or no one takes us seriously in ireland.

our peers hammer us consistently...

Heart wrenching performance. So disappointing. Always try to be positive, but struggling just now.