Now now sligsup this is getting to be a pet hate of mine. Do we want to go back to days when three men and a dog attended games or should we welcome the new fans and allow them their opinions?

I'm not saying this guy is a new fan or not but if he is then he needs to be respected as a valued member of the connacht family if we are to have any hope of continuing our progress.

This is not an attack on you btw more a call out to all the longstanding fans (of which I count myself as one even though I never had a season ticket) to not allow the negativity and dissapintment of the current campaign to drive a wedge between us and the new fans that the team needs so badly. If those new fans stop turning up and buying merchandise then the gig will really be up.

RoadRunnerR1 wrote: O'Connor and his motives and those of all other journo's are irrelevant here. What's important is the continued success of Connacht Rugby. Forget the small man mentality that we're always being picked on. This club had to fight like dogs in the street to get to the top but that was easy compared to the fight it'll take to stay there. Surely the aim was to get success and then stay successful. Like all of you I was in the Clan stand in the dark days. I remember only too well the feeling on the way home after being well beaten by Treviso, let alone those at the top of the league. But success is only true success when those high standards we set last year are maintained or bettered and we can go on to challenge for the league every year and eventually qualify for ECP QF's and SF's and one day even the final and champions. Munster may be up to their necks in debt but the debt is owed to the IRFU who in turn need Munster to be successful to raise future revenue for the IRFU. It's like borrowing from your parents, you know you still owe the money but what happens when you can't make the repayments ? Nothing. They still have Thomond and Independent park's and now a €15m euro state of the art facility in UIL. Not too shabby when you're trying to attract top talent to your club to help bring success back on the field. Professional Rugby is now a business, and if you doubt this just remember how our very own Robbie went scurrying for the bright lights of Dublin at the first time if asking. First Connacht player ever on a central contract or likely to be in the foreseeable future. That's a world class player at the club effectively for free and thereby freeing up money for more players and he packed his bags and brought it all to the wealthy cousins up the road. At the very least, Connacht deserved the next three years from the player they developed from nothing to worldwide success. But sentiment never came into it with him. We had to listen to bulls**T excuses like "I want to play with Johnny Sexton" to "I want to be with my girlfriend" and that was nothing compared to the smug putdowns from the late great BOD. So sentiment be screwed the truth is If the business model is not right then the business will not be successful. If we're prepared to wait another lifetime for another piece of silverware and watch more and more raw talent develop into top class players and immediately head for the hills then let's just keep going from day to day. Now is the time we Connacht are league champions and as such now is when we are truly relevant to the IRFU. If we slip back into the darkness of the bad old days then we'll be forgotten about quicker than it took Henshaw to find an apartment in Dublin and that happened a long time before he announced his agonising decision to go walkabout.

Roadrunner 4 posts all negative .... Probably only 4 times at the sports ground .... Don't strike me as a man who's struggled through the tougher times!!!

O'Connor and his motives and those of all other journo's are irrelevant here. What's important is the continued success of Connacht Rugby. Forget the small man mentality that we're always being picked on. This club had to fight like dogs in the street to get to the top but that was easy compared to the fight it'll take to stay there. Surely the aim was to get success and then stay successful. Like all of you I was in the Clan stand in the dark days. I remember only too well the feeling on the way home after being well beaten by Treviso, let alone those at the top of the league. But success is only true success when those high standards we set last year are maintained or bettered and we can go on to challenge for the league every year and eventually qualify for ECP QF's and SF's and one day even the final and champions. Munster may be up to their necks in debt but the debt is owed to the IRFU who in turn need Munster to be successful to raise future revenue for the IRFU. It's like borrowing from your parents, you know you still owe the money but what happens when you can't make the repayments ? Nothing. They still have Thomond and Independent park's and now a €15m euro state of the art facility in UIL. Not too shabby when you're trying to attract top talent to your club to help bring success back on the field. Professional Rugby is now a business, and if you doubt this just remember how our very own Robbie went scurrying for the bright lights of Dublin at the first time if asking. First Connacht player ever on a central contract or likely to be in the foreseeable future. That's a world class player at the club effectively for free and thereby freeing up money for more players and he packed his bags and brought it all to the wealthy cousins up the road. At the very least, Connacht deserved the next three years from the player they developed from nothing to worldwide success. But sentiment never came into it with him. We had to listen to bulls**T excuses like "I want to play with Johnny Sexton" to "I want to be with my girlfriend" and that was nothing compared to the smug putdowns from the late great BOD. So sentiment be screwed the truth is If the business model is not right then the business will not be successful. If we're prepared to wait another lifetime for another piece of silverware and watch more and more raw talent develop into top class players and immediately head for the hills then let's just keep going from day to day. Now is the time we Connacht are league champions and as such now is when we are truly relevant to the IRFU. If we slip back into the darkness of the bad old days then we'll be forgotten about quicker than it took Henshaw to find an apartment in Dublin and that happened a long time before he announced his agonising decision to go walkabout.

Johnny is a strength and conditioning coach so I'd be surprised. As far as I know that's what he does and he has been working in that area since he retired from playing.

However, Jerry Flannery was at Arsenal with Johnny, working in strength and conditioning and he went back to Munster and is now their scrum coach. It's possible I suppose but it doesn't seem like an obvious fit to me.

Bit of a change in topic but I have a tenuous theory about Dave Ellis' replacement...
It was mentioned here recently that Jonny O'Connor is back in town, what if the was some movement of roles in the academy (not too sure of the academy set up), Jonny joined the academy staff and Nigel Carolan became skills coach?
It has been noted that his approach with the academy lads and Ireland U20's has been about developing a skills reliant game.
What say ye? Possible or BS?

RoadRunnerR1 wrote:
Like him or loath him, the following paragraph from O'Connor cannot be argued with:

Connacht's early-season form has made May's league win feel a long time ago, while the opening of Munster's state-of-the-art training facility has further emphasised the ground the western province must make up off the field despite their on-pitch success last year.

I think you can argue with almost every single syllable of what he said there.

This is a further example of the big nobs and arrogant journalists trying to put us back in our place. 'Ye may have won last year (ye feckers), but now ye are back where ye belong and as long as ye don't have the resources then ye'll always be behind us.' No mention as to how these resources are to be acquired.

Surely, the fact that Connacht Rugby achieved essentially what it is meant to achieve should count for something? i.e. win the league. Oh no! Ye still have loads to make up to catch up with Munster (who are millions in debt) and all the other basket cases.

O'Connor's article smacks of arrogance and zero research.

Ignore the article and who wrote it but we can't ignore the direct quotations from Pat here,

"And I am confident that they're here this year, and I am confident that the IRFU and our team are doing a great job."

Pat only says he's confident they'll be here this year, deliberately avoiding referring to next year and beyond. No team in the league could possibly loose two players of this caliber and hope to stay competitive.

"Dave was going to leave at the end of last season, because when I brought him over here it was always a short-term deal... At the end of the final, I pleaded with him to give me one more year and Dave agreed;"

Surely knowing from the beginning that this was only going to be short term, and given that his years notice in the summer was effectively a bonus, why then are Willie & Co, still scratching around in the dark for suitable replacements at this late stage. Dave Ellis will apparently be going back to NZ in January after the Munster game. If they have somebody in mind & are in negotiations then say so. They don't need to name names, just give the market a little confidence so to speak. That would stop all of the negative articles at least in the short term. Remember, Players read this shit too, especially the one's negotiating new contracts no matter how much they'll protest otherwise. Unfortunately professional Rugby nowadays is a business and no business can hope to survive and prosper when there is much uncertainty surrounding it's future plans.

Like him or loath him, the following paragraph from O'Connor cannot be argued with:

Connacht's early-season form has made May's league win feel a long time ago, while the opening of Munster's state-of-the-art training facility has further emphasised the ground the western province must make up off the field despite their on-pitch success last year.

Being held to ransom by Bord na gCon (Jesus how we all wish they were gone) is an understandable handicap in getting our new stadium up and running but Munster's facility is out in UIL not Thomond. I for one am willing to bet that a big chunk of the funding for this came from the dept of education in conjunction with UIL's sport sciences faculty. What's stopping Connacht from doing the same here in cooperation with UIG. Then they get some breathing room to negotiate the stadium deal properly while having a nice shiny new toy to help develop and also lure top players to Connacht. Devils own was spot on yesterday when he said that in any war, the last thing to get stormed is the big strong fortified castle. Right now Connacht have an army second to none but no castle. And an army without a castle is ripe for the picking.

Dave Ellis is a huge loss. Too many good guys are leaving. Whats going on?

We can't forget the girlfriend!

"Henshaw was offered a central contract to stay in Connacht though. He turned it down because he believed he could make more money endorsing products in Dublin. "
Harsh and I don't think it's true. He said he wanted to play next to more Ireland internationals week in and week out and you have to take him on his word on that.

Evil_g wrote: I must have missed Ruaidhri's "The wheels are falling off the Anthony Foley clown car" article last year.

I refuse to read this guy he should be writing for the sun .... Sure I suppose the independent is on par

Well that's egoistic, but if Buck is not back within 4 weeks, I'd hope Bealham won't go to the US... Will probably happen though

Ya O'Connor put as negative a spin on the interview as he could. Do not like that guy at all

I must have missed Ruaidhri's "The wheels are falling off the Anthony Foley clown car" article last year.

Thats a very negative slant on an interview !!

Wheels coming off and an exodus of players and staff wail wail wail !!!

Ellis was a short term project and actually stayed longer than the initial deal, Bundee and Ultan are currently in negotiations with Connacht and Pat is confident in both them and the Irfu will do the best they can.

Not sure why ROC has the knives out for us !

Looks like Bucks, Matt and Tom out for a while.

m.independent.ie/sport/rugby/internation...at-lam-35107973.html

Pat: "we've just lost three front-liners for what could be a long time."