Keatley had a fine game. It was his territorial kicking in the 2nd half which was excellent and kept Munster on the front foot as well as kicking his goals. Pleased for him after the kicking he received coming off against Leicester. Jackson missed 2 kicks into the wind. The 2nd of which at the end he should never have taken on. Munster's defence was very good on the day but Ulster made a lot of unforced errors on the day.

Did not see the game at all, but it looks like the Ulster Munster game was decided by the outhalves with Keatley making his kicks and Jackson not. As tomsauce2000 said outhalf is not just a Connacht question but one for all of Ireland really.

Very disappointing result tonight but I thought Carty played very well. AJ just seems to go into contact too much and he also doesn't have any real distance in his kicks.

For me AJ is the most complete of the 3 and he should be playing more regardless of whether he's staying or going. The 'Jack needs more exposure' argument doesn't wash with me. He got plenty of exposure last season, he is undoubtedly talented but his consistency has not improved much. We've gotten ourselves into a good position in the league and we need to take advantage of that by playing the best players available at all times (rest and rotation etc.. allowing). That goes for potential departees like Robbie and Rodney also.

Had a quick look at the kicking stats.

Craig has 70%

Jack has 68%

Interestingly Craig is 72% from conversions 67% from pens

Jack is 50% from conversions and 81% from pens.

It doesnt quiet give the true picture as if doesnt take into consideration the difficulty of the kick or the pressure with the kick either.

With the conversion the kicker has no say in whether to kick or not or where its taken from, from memory only we seem to get a lot of tries in the corner so that might explain the low % there. His pen kick rate is pretty good though.

Outhalf is probably the most difficult position to play in rugby. If you look at the other provinces, Munster are struggling badly there, Ulster have been very patient with Paddy Jackson and Leinster never trusted Madigan at 10. Sexton is by a mile the best in Ireland. Good outhalfs are very rare. In O'Gara's time there was nobody to cover him if he got injured for years. Paddy Wallace was a 12.

My point is that whoever plays outhalf for Connacht is going to make mistakes and have bad games. Carty has loads of talent though and I definitely think we should stick with him. My biggest concern is his place kicking to be honest. I don't know his percentages but I guess they aren't great.

I also think that players who aren't playing can sometimes see their reputation rise when another player is struggling. JJ Hanrahan is a world beater in Munster fans' minds now that Keatley is struggling. In reality he's still second choice in Northampton. I was at Munster away and I was delighted when Carty got brought on. I think when he wasn't there we missed him. AJ could improve too but he wasn't great that night. To be fair, I remember Ronaldson playing outhalf in one of his first games and got intercepted in really amateurish fashion against the Ospreys. He was an amateur a few months before that and now he's a serious player.

I also wonder if our gameplan includes a 'controlling' outhalf. Genuinely not sure on this point but with all players expected to play, pass etc and given that we don't kick too often how much is our outhalf expected to control things? O'Gara was a master at it but often Munster were playing a 10 man game.

Fly half is possibly the most confusing of Lam's selectorial decisions in his time here. He brought in Parks as an old head to bring on the younger guys but Parks never seemed fully comfortable playing the running game that's required to make Lam's gameplan work. That's not to say he couldn't or didn't do it, but it wasn't perhaps his default.

[eta forgot that Parks was signed in Elwood's last season I think - but Lam asked him to play a style few expected him to be able to do perhaps]

Watching Carty is to me a lot like watching Parks at the minute, albeit with a weaker kicking game. We can see that he is trying his best and he did get a Motm award just a few weeks ago so its not like he's been consistently poor this season, but his form is still up and down, which should be expected of a young fly half but this was perhaps the season to start ironing out those inconsistencies.

There's been times last season why Lam seemed to back Carty, then as soon as Ronaldson was fit he dropped Carty, but due to injuries had to recall him just as quick. He seems to have picked Carty as first choice 10 as much because he has been fit more often than any other factor, which probably isn't a confidence booster. We haven't even seen our league convert play yet to find out if he is in the mix at 10 or if his being fit frees up Ronaldson to play 10 again.

RogueXV not suggesting for a second that any of your comments are even close to the line and no comments have been removed.

It's just a gentle reminder to all that may post on the subject.

Shelflife, not sure if any posters comments have been entirely removed on this topic, but I don't think mine, Eagle's nor Oranmoron's are anywhere near to crossing any line. We've stirred clear of any personal attacks on any player and IMO have not even been particularly harsh with our opinions.

Lads and lassies , just be aware that many of the players and their families frequent this forum, so please be mindful of this when posting. By all means discuss and argue the merits of the players but do so in a fair and civil manner as is the norm on this forum !

Thought I would have seen some comments on this in the Leinster thread after a few were calling for AJ to start after the Ulster game. I'm not completely sold on Carty myself. Yes, he is still young and shows signs of improvement but he doesn't strike me as a player who is going to take control of a game on a consistent basis. I'd like to see what AJ can do in a game like this, but the question then becomes is he going to be around next season? If not, than Carty needs to keep getting the experience in these big time games to continue with his development process since he'll be the one around next season. Flyhalf is definitely a position Connacht could do with an upgrade at. Unfortunately there is not a lot of quality available out there so they're forced to develop it themselves.

Completely agree. If the decision has been made that Ronaldson is better at centre then I think AJ gives us a bit more composure at 10. The fact that he is only on a 1 year deal may be a factor though with a view to giving Jack more game time as he'll still be here next year and AJ may not. it is an approach which is costing us points though IMO.

Just looking to start a new topic about the fly-half position at connacht. In my opinion AJ bring more confidence and better decision making to the field, although i am a fan of Carty, i must say AJ definitely brings more experience, and is not as lateral as Carty. what are your opinions.