I have a really - really - long piece on the likely Ireland squad up this week. I'm really excited for the new season, I hope that any bloggers here might start posting every now and again. Especially excited for Craggy Island, and hope that they do some world cup material as well as Connacht perhaps? I might not do as many blogs for the first half of the season as I'm no longer in Galway and most of the Connacht games won't be on tv due to the world cup.

phatguerilla wrote: Finally if anyone has a blog they want to promote or a third party blog they want to discuss let us know! If you're interested in starting your own connacht or local rugby blog post a link in this thread to any and all updates.

Also, if anyone wants to blog/write/report/whatever on connachtclan.com, let us know. We can post content and host blogs here.

There is a new weekly Connacht rugby podcast called Craggy Island Rugby being run by the voice of Connacht rugby, Rob Murphy.
The first episode is available on soundcloud

Thanks, I had a feeling he was injured and just not listed after someone here mentioned that Carty had an ankle problem that went unreported by the branch last season. Good for him if he can return quickly as he'll need to stake his claim for a loosehead/bench spot soon imo.

Thanks Phat,

Just to let you know. Was at the preseason game, the open session one.

Loughs pulled up in the warm up, was chatting to him. said it was his back. So good chance he was injured.

Greetings all, new season, new blog posts! I don't have a review of the Dragons game so this week I had a look at some players who have found themselves on the fringes of the connacht squad for whatever reasons and question what is holding them back for this season. I hope it is somewhat interesting, and as ever comments are always appreciated.

phatguerilla.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/where-in-the-world-is/

I also finished my reviews of the last season, and reviews of the other three provinces, which can be found lower down on the blog.

I enjoyed salmson's previews on their blog, www.honconnacht.wordpress.com and look forward to more material this season.

Whiffofcordite are doing their own season previews of each province, which means they may yet run the rule over Connacht. I expect numerous reference to new zealand imports and poor choices at 10, but we'll wait and see before being completely judgmental. Despite my criticisms I do genuinely like this blog.

Finally if anyone has a blog they want to promote or a third party blog they want to discuss let us know! If you're interested in starting your own connacht or local rugby blog post a link in this thread to any and all updates.

WOC usually has some good reads, as you say can be superficial at times which I would put down to laziness or padding if thet are stuck for material.

Up until now Connacht doesnt count with them, and while we may get a bit of lip service from time to time they simply dont rate us and we arent worth their time.

that said usually worth a read.

Harsh to judge him on 10 mins but hopefully it will give him a spur to improve further next season. Can only benifit connacht to have 3 current international s in the squad. Hopefully this will also drive others to improve.

phatguerilla wrote: Finally I think even the worst 10 minute cameo (which Rodney wasn't, he did his job in the scrum after all) is not enough of time to judge a player or write them off.

Fair point, but players are also judged by how they train in camp and so on, and we don't know anything about that (bar that Uncle Joe no likey, obviously).

Two guys write the WoC blog and one of them a lad called Egg can be very damming about Connacht players. I've upbraided him a few times about it. That said it still is s very good blog but writing a player off after ten minutes is ridiculous.

I've been asking myself that alright but can't come up with a satisfactory answer. Its fine to say that he was poor around the field or whatever but as you say McGrath was minced in the scrum. Perhaps its presumptuous to say but you have to imagine Rodney did better in training at th than McGrath - unless he didn't?
I just feel like we used to be up in arms about Deccie only giving players 2 minute run outs and now in a game that had far less meaning than those games, we have several players (mainly new caps but still) who have learned very little about international rugby and can't be considered prepared if an injury crisis hit in November for instance.
Finally I think even the worst 10 minute cameo (which Rodney wasn't, he did his job in the scrum after all) is not enough of time to judge a player or write them off.

phatguerilla wrote: A post about other blogs this time; whiffofcordite.com/2014/06/16/five-years-of-hurt/

Sometimes I like what WOC have to say, sometimes it seems painfully superficial. Any thoughts on this? 'Rodney Ah Here. Ah here.' is That's the only analysis of either Connacht player on tour.

No mention of how Dave Kilcoyne was just as bad in the scrum? Many bloggers often seem almost scared to criticize Munster players because of the potential backlash.

Rodney and Kilcoyne were fine in their 2? scrums in the first game, and Kilcoyne was the one at fault for the late try. So far so good on the can't-criticise-the-Munster-ometer.

But ask yourself why Schmidt would rather use McGrath, a loosehead (who got minced in the scrum when Cronin came on and he had to move across) as replacement tighthead than play Rodney again? We can only surmise that Uncle Joe was distinctly unimpressed, so I'm afraid the "Ah Here", while trite, probably isn't unfair.

A post about other blogs this time; whiffofcordite.com/2014/06/16/five-years-of-hurt/

Sometimes I like what WOC have to say, sometimes it seems painfully superficial. Any thoughts on this? 'Rodney Ah Here. Ah here.' is That's the only analysis of either Connacht player on tour.

No mention of how Dave Kilcoyne was just as bad in the scrum? Many bloggers often seem almost scared to criticize Munster players because of the potential backlash.

Hi phat,

congrats on your blog, really enjoyed both, just one point I only have Internet by phone so if you could make the hyperlinks work that would be great thanks

Thanks again to everyone who's been reading! A huge increase in the past week, much appreciated. I won't update this thread every post as I don't want to be spamming, but here are the two latest blogs, related to our neighbours and their current squad situations for the coming season.

phatguerilla.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/wh...e-part-one-leinster/


phatguerilla.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/cr...rt-two-ulsters-woes/

Hope you all continue to take a peek from time to time, comments always welcome.

First of all just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has clicked on my blog so far. We're closing on 200 views which is imo fantastic for a blog that's not been around two full months.

I feel a bit odd being a publicity whore but I know that every time someone has mentioned my blog I usually get a huge spike in traffic. I really appreciate people reading it and that is the whole point after all so I felt that starting a thread where I update with each post would be a good way to go.


Also just to remind people that there is a comment section at the bottom of each of my blog posts (I hope anyways) if they have any suggestions or helpful critique I'm all ears. Alternatively if this thread can be used for discussion that would be great too.


I also think it would be good if others posted their own blog links here, or even added links to other interesting blogs they've read. We could hopefully get some discussion going that would make things a bit livelier during the off season and promote some cross pollination and chat. Win win all round yeah?

Two of my recent blog posts: I wanted to celebrate Dan Parks' time at Connacht (I think hyperlinking is disabled so copy and paste if you want to see these)

phatguerilla.wordpress.com/2014/05/22/oh-parksy-my-parksy/

And I'm continuing my season review series, with a second post tonight
phatguerilla.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/la...in-review-part-deux/

Thanks again to everyone who's read the blog so far.