Its awful to see such a list of talent and key player's banjaxed and the possibility of our winning ways going south.However there are young lads in the squad chomping at the bit to show what they are capable of and yearning for game time; with the newfound mental belief of been part of a squad of winner's ( just see the confident body language on the pitch,particularly when away) these lads will step up to the mark and continue our road to glory !

I think the S&C has improved if anything. You have to break down what the injuries are and whether they're avoidable or if they are clearly overuse related. I think three injuries from the weekend were concussion or head related - that can't be fixed by S&C (although possibly can continue to improve with improved tackling technique).

Roux's ankle injury was a freak unavoidable thing.

Api and Fox both did their cruciates - S&C can't do very much about that because the ACL is a tiny ligament hidden within the knee joint, you can try to strengthen it to an extent but it will always be vulnerable. I think Heenan had to go back for further surgery after the shoulder injury, unfortunate but it happens. Opensides are extremely at risk of this sort of thing, SOB and POM have obviously had similar injuries.

There's about 4 hand injuries in the list at the minute too.

If there was a repetitive injury across the squad (pulled hamstring/quad for instance) you might point to the S&C programme being imbalanced but this just seems really unlucky. The important thing from here is that the players return to play fit and healthy so that they don't get reinjured because they are off the pace.

It's hard to blame the S&C staff, this has been a recurring theme for years, and we've gone through several coaches in that time. I blame the demands of a full season on a limited squad, and bad luck!

After the disappointment in Cardiff, we are now down to Coalin Blade, at scrum half. We have 9 available backs for the Newcastle match, not enough for a backline and bench. Jack Carty is our only available fly half. James Conolly is our only Openside. George is our only Number. 8. Conan O'Donnell is our loosehead, Rodders is out dark arts master at tighthead. Delahunt and Heffernan are our hooker options. Peter Robb is big enough to cover both centre positions, but we still need 15 to make up the team, so Bundee may be there with a twisted ankle.

my question is, where are all these injuries coming from? Is it poor Strength & Conditioning on Connachts part? is it the increasingly ridiculous physical requirements? I mean, Connacht are playing champagne rugby, they are not trying to bulldoze up the field or be too physical, so what is going on? Fox is out for the rest of the season for gods sake, and Heenan is constantly injured. what is going on?