Accidentally Onside wrote: Rodney is not a backrow or a centre, he's a tighthead prop whose job is to lock down the scrum, anything else is the icing on the case, and in Rodney's case there is a fair bit of icing.

It's probably fair to point out that when Mike Ross was Rodney's age - 26 and a half - he was just starting preseason with Quins on his first full professional contract. He had one substitute appearance for Munster to his name, as opposed to Rodney's 40 starts and 57 substitute appearances.

That said I think Rodney and Buckley were left on too long at the weekend; it's not like their replacements weren't up to the job against Glasgow's Australian-style front row.

Agree that connacht have come a long way over the last 10 year's. But we have not improved during the 80 (90) minutes on the pitch in the last two year's.

We are trying to play running rugby without building the platform.

It's time to go back to basics, stay competitive in game's and put the opposite team under pressure espically at the sports ground.

When we are doing the basics correct then bring in the backs and run the ball.

Old saying is forwards win games the back by how much.

If Carty is a kicking 10 then let him kick, worked for O'Gara

Connacht are the only team running the ball out of their 22, everyone else kick chase defend and force turnovers

Another season of costly mistakes and poor tactics.

Hopefully will not be writing a similar post this time next year

I'm normally happy enough to let things go but that is quite frankly nonsense. If you can find a tighthead that scrums, runs, passes, tackles, hit rucks, "takes part in the game", picks winning lotto numbers, cures hunger, etc, then feel free to suggest him. Rodney is not a backrow or a centre, he's a tighthead prop whose job is to lock down the scrum, anything else is the icing on the case, and in Rodney's case there is a fair bit of icing. He's our most destructive tackler, he carries a load of ball for a th (compare him to Ross who's is Ireland's number starting th and never carries or puts in big hits) and whilst I agree he has been lacking fitness at times now is not one of those- he played 80 mins against Gloucester for the first time I can remember and whilst he may slow down you find me someone who weighs 125kg that can run for 80 mins without slowing and I'll be more than happy for him to take rodders place in the team. All of this whilst he has to play almost every game due to White's injury.

We may have a problem with some of our players but Rodney is definitely not one of them, you won't see Glasgow's packed pushed around in the scrum the way they were by us very often and the kudos for that lies squarely with the guys with 1-3 on their back. For me he's been brilliant for us since White has been out.

Agree with most of your post, Ronan, but since November, we've been a forward light. We need a new no.3. Some one who will tackle, scum, run with the ball, but who also takes part in the game. I've lost count of the number of times, I've looked at rucks to find Rodney standing completely in active at the side of the ruck. He seems to have gone back so far, in terms of fitness and game skills since he got that run out for Ireland against Georgia. He seems jaded in the warm-ups.
It must be disheartening for the likes of Buckley and McCartney to be putting their body into rucks and tackles to see see Rodney saunter, not even stroll around. We've been really missing Nathan in that position since La Rochelle game.

Also, do we need to take the pressure of captain of Muldoon? His game seems to have dipped recently, and I think his interactions with Ref's is becoming a bit too aggressive, maybe a mix some frustration with himself and the officials. Ally or Tom would be my suggestions, to take on captain, and let John be John again.

To say we're all disappointed is an understatement, but I'm happy to see some posts highlighting how far we've come (and where we've come from). Champions Cup qualification is still possible, albeit unlikely at this point. In truth, if we do qualify it'll probably be a bit early in terms of our improvement because we aren't playing well consistently enough in my view.

For me, the last two games have highlighted a couple of key issues with the squad. The first is well documented - we need a better 10. Miah has been a good servant, and Jack still has potential, but we need someone better for the next couple of years at least, to give Jack some breathing space. However, I really believe our bigger issue is a lack of grunt, particularly ball carrying grunt. When teams get into our 22, if they simply go through the phases they make yards at will and invariably go over for a try. However, when we are in the opposition 22, we struggle to make yards. It's at this point that we are forced to rely on the backline, and they end up throwing speculative passes, which sometimes work, and are sometimes intercepted. I think we'll all agree that there's nothing quite as demoralizing as seeing the lads go from opposition 22, to under their own posts in 30 seconds.

In the last couple of games we seem to have been making a huge number of individual errors. Kieran letting the Glasgow scrum half nick a ball from the base of our scrum for example. Missed tackles are happening way too often. I can't offer an explanation for most of the errors. But on the missed tackle front, I noticed Tom and Rodney were at fault for one of the late tries Glasgow got the last day. Could that be down to tiredness? We do seem a bit slow to make substitutions at times, particularly in the front row, where teams routinely make changes after 50 minutes.

Finally, I questioned some of the calls we made on Saturday. We were very quick to kick to the corner from penalties. Perhaps that's down to the fact we had a poor kicker on the field at 10, but it just seemed like we were in panic mode very early. We seem to have lost some of the composure we appeared to have found earlier in the season.

Anyway, I just renewed my season ticket, so fingers crossed for some luck in the remaining games, and perhaps some playoff excitement. Toes crossed for some big (in every sense) signings to give us an even better chance of qualification next season.

Fourdogs wrote:

mahick wrote: Well put Shelflife. Over the last few seasons our expectations have grown faster than the results.........................Not perfect but I'm proud to be a Connacht supporter..

Agree fully with you Mahick.
Having spent the last 4 years following the lads with yourself and Clan travelling crew through France, Italy and England (with some grest memories) we have certainly come a long way.
Problem that I see is that we neither have the financial or IRFU support to sustain the growth and continue improving to a level where we can compete week in, week out, with the top teams in the league
We bring on great young talent only for them eventually to move on.
We offer short term contracts to players who have probably seen better days and they too are gone / moved on in a few years.
All of these changes make it very difficult for any coach to build an effective system on the field.

In fairness Fourdogs the IRFU have at last woken up to the logic of having 4 strong provinces. After years of denying us a fair crack of the whip we are now getting a fairer share of the kitty. We are still playing catch up with the other provinces in getting what they consider basics,at least now we are getting there and the results are showing already.

We have also got off our own arses and sold tickets, got sponsorship and improved facilities for the fans. Even the fans have got better at supporting the team both home and away and your own efforts at enhancing the away supporters lot hasnt gone unnoticed.

We are getting there, just not there yet.

Fourdogs wrote:

mahick wrote: Well put Shelflife. Over the last few seasons our expectations have grown faster than the results.........................Not perfect but I'm proud to be a Connacht supporter..

Agree fully with you Mahick.
Having spent the last 4 years following the lads with yourself and Clan travelling crew through France, Italy and England (with some grest memories) we have certainly come a long way.
Problem that I see is that we neither have the financial or IRFU support to sustain the growth and continue improving to a level where we can compete week in, week out, with the top teams in the league
We bring on great young talent only for them eventually to move on.
We offer short term contracts to players who have probably seen better days and they too are gone / moved on in a few years.
All of these changes make it very difficult for any coach to build an effective system on the field.

I think a lot of progress has been made on this count though. Its not that long ago that we were in a ground with no proper stand, attendances barely or not hitting 4 figures for most games, only a couple of local players in the squad, a half baked academy, a coach imposed by the IRFU who was bringing us on a seemingly never ending downward spiral, who seemed unsackable and whose number one objective from the off was to move on to the Munster job, a very small off-field department, kick off times effectively making Connacht a Galway City team and the threat of extinction hanging over our head on a regular basis. The thought Connacht could be competing mid-table at that stage and providing a key player to a successful 6 nations campaign would have been laughable.

Right now, we have a stand of some description, not enough long term but for stage 1 its ok, attendances are rarely below 3-500-4,000 for any game, there are a good portion of local players in the squad, the academy is producing players for the future, we have a coach who wants to put Connacht on the map in our own right, off the field we are much more proactive, the kick off times can still be stupid but that is dictated by TV, the club is building stronger roots throughout the province, extinction is no longer talked about.

For me there is a long way to go but sometimes we need to take stock of how far we have come. The next step is going to be the most difficult one on and off the field. Off the field we have to try and expand the season ticket numbers towards 6,7,8 k which will be very difficult to achieve but if we can keep developing our own academy and can pick up the likes of Kieran Marmion, Eoghan Masterson, Dave McSharry before others snap them up and recruit wisely for our NIE players we can build on what we have done.

We will always have to be a bit creative in our transfer dealings as geography, population and finances mean we can't compete with other clubs in terms of some of the money they can throw around.

mahick wrote: Well put Shelflife. Over the last few seasons our expectations have grown faster than the results.........................Not perfect but I'm proud to be a Connacht supporter..

Agree fully with you Mahick.
Having spent the last 4 years following the lads with yourself and Clan travelling crew through France, Italy and England (with some grest memories) we have certainly come a long way.
Problem that I see is that we neither have the financial or IRFU support to sustain the growth and continue improving to a level where we can compete week in, week out, with the top teams in the league
We bring on great young talent only for them eventually to move on.
We offer short term contracts to players who have probably seen better days and they too are gone / moved on in a few years.
All of these changes make it very difficult for any coach to build an effective system on the field.

Well put Shelflife. Over the last few seasons our expectations have grown faster than the results and the results are a huge improvement on previous years. We're looking to get into the Heineken Cup under our own steam and now believe that we'll get there- just prob not this season. No harm in that as we're not quite there yet - experience growing and another step closer. I have great faith in Pat Lam- he's setting high targets and not making excuses when errors are made. Thought Jack Carty did ok- he reminds me of Paddy Jackson a few seasons back and he's come on pretty ok! Not perfect but I'm proud to be a Connacht supporter..

pinky wrote:
Of course as usual with EPCR, I can't find that written down anywhere, so they could change it again for this season, but I suspect that is how it will work.

There's nothing on their site of course, but Wikipedia has an article on the draw for this season and it's exactly as you say.

salmson wrote: With one of the 7th place teams from the Pro12, England, and France going through to the senior cup competition, the top seeds/tier for the draw will be the two remaining 7th place teams and the three 8th place teams.

You'd think it would work that way but it doesn't. Or at least didn't last season.
What they do is rank each team based on their finishing position in their league, so the highest placed team from each league is ranked 1, the second-highest 2, etc.
So if we finish 8th, our ranking depends on the outcome of the playoff. If the Pro12 team wins it, we'd be the top Pro12 team in the Challenge Cup and therefore guaranteed top seeding, but if the Pro12 team doesn't win, they'd be top and we'd be number 2, with only 2/3 chance of top seeding.

Of course as usual with EPCR, I can't find that written down anywhere, so they could change it again for this season, but I suspect that is how it will work.

Shelflife wrote: Perspective

...We made 3 mistakes in the first theseall three were ruthlessly taken by Glasgow and gave us a mountain to climb.3 Simplearrors that had they gone our way and Robbies pass wasnt interatted we could have gone in 13-0 up...

While there's no question we've improved, whether you measure that in points, position, skills or the 14 homegrown players in yesterday's squad, we have a long way to go.

A Kiwi friend of mine used to say Connacht's problem could be summed up in 3 words - Coulda Woulda Shoulda.

We coulda woulda shoulda gone in ahead at half time but we didn't.

Henshaw's getting intercepted brought me back to the Munster game last year; the last two results mirror exactly the thumpings we took at the tail end of Eric's regime. We've shipped 16 tries against teams in 2nd gear in our last 3 games. It's all a bit groundhog day.

On the subject of your hair, kiss it goodbye now. Assuming that Leinster, Scarlets, Edinburgh & Connacht whip the bunny teams next week, then Leinster will go into the last day knowing even a lbp would not be enough to finish ahead of Scarlets, and a bad beating could dump them in the playoffs. With Leinster kept honest a win against a likely disinterested Ospreys will see us 7th. So it looks like we might spin out non-qualification til the June bank holiday

Perspective

We were playing the league leader who are very good at what they do, not very sexy but efficient. We had two academy player in the pack (in fairness they didnt let us or themselves down at all). We have a raft of injuries that would normally start a game like this and we have a number of players who have played a lot of rugby this year because of these injuries.

We made 3 mistakes in the first half, all three were ruthlessly taken by Glasgow and gave us a mountain to climb.3 Simple errors that had they gone our way and Robbies pass wasnt intercepted we could have gone in 13-0 up.

Teams are just a bit cuter than us, we see our players taken out at rucks, our defence lines interfered with by ;lazy runners, players held back etc - all marginal things that disrupt our game all old dog tricks that show up our lack of maturity and experience in the dark art areas.

We have to work hard to make our chances, Ulster and Glasgow get a simple whiff of a chance and they are in, thats basically the difference. Thats the difference between an International player and a Pro 12 player. While the Pro 12 player is thinking I might have a chance here, the International player has already scored it or made the pass, run etc.

Lets step back a second. Last season the last few games were dead rubbers, this year we are still in the mix (just about) . We have gone from 10th place and 35 points to 8th place (at worst) and 44 points with 2 games to play. thats a huge huge improvement.

We have gone from being 20 points behind the 6th place team to within 5 points atm and still in the hunt.

We have gone from also rans and whipping dogs to mid table combatants for european qualification, which to be honest if we had a small bit of luck and a bit of cuteness in a few games we would be there.

We are not far away, We're just not there yet but we have taken a HUGE step forward, so much so that a small step forward next season will get us over the line.

Yes its frustrating watch a game like yesterday, what little hair I have was pulled out but we have to remember where we have come from and where we are now,.

We have come a long way in a short time, lets not lose sight of that.

Munster: jones, earls, smith, scannell, zebo
Leinster: Kearney, only other Irish back is Luke Fitzgerald who was dreadful
Ulster: ludik, bowe, Payne, cave, gilroy
Connacht: ohalloran, poolman, henshaw, aki, healy

Like to see them put side by side. You get a better grip

Lots to be positive about. For those who have short memories we have never been in contention at this time of the season. This is an absolute first. So screw your negativity. We have reached a new level and not even noticed.

Hard to take a huge amount of positives away from that, but I'll give it a go.

Scrum seemed dominant in the first half (although a thrice reset scrum getting turned over on their 5 meter was criminal). I think our front row was solid, Buckleys work rate was huge he seemed to be everywhere. Rodney put in some huge hits, both himself and Tom played well and did their job well at breakdown and setpiece time.

Jack had fewer unforced errors than previously. His game management wasn't stellar, but his missed kicks weren't exactly sitters. Not much option at that position at the moment. Obviously Pat sees him as a work in progress.

Tiernan did his basics well, Matt looked good whenever the ball came to him (not often enough). Unforced errors were down, we had a good turnover rate (in that we actually got some turnovers), and we showed some inventiveness with the few 'hail mary' crossfield kicks.

Should be higher than 8th, don't deserve to be based on a preformance like today. Hugely worried about next season and the lack of new talent coming in. Can't blame players for not wanting to come West, no HC rugby and no HC money.