Borders no.2 wrote: For me the basics haven't been good enough especially last Saturday, restarts, set scrums etc. have been too messy and scrappy all season. We have taken the wrong option in too many games and I think its decision making and knowing how to win that has prevented us from notching up at least another couple of wins.

Exactly. There's nothing we can do about the injury list and obviously there will be a transition period with the new coaching setup but this kind of thing is killing us at the moment.

Since Lam was appointed did not expect much from this season,would write this season off iand give him a chance to build for the future!
I like what he is trying to acheive and hope he succeds.

We deserve better than our present position, we must learn to finish!

Mixed feelings to date. I am very frustrated to see us at the bottom of the table as I think we are better than that (even allowing for injuries) but its a new coaching setup and injuries and various other issues haven't helped. Also as has been noted I think a few teams have taken a forward step this season, most notably Dragons and I think Cardiff too even if they are a bit inconsistent.

However as we get closer to our full strength 15 the performance levels have to improve. We have the pieces of the jigsaw I believe if we can put them together but at the moment its frustrating with injuries and a lack of continuity. I think Lam has to be given the season to put his stamp on the team. I'd reassess after year 1 and again at the end of the group stages in Europe (if its in place) in 2014/15.

Provided a European competition is cobbled together for 2014/15 I have already accepted we are unlikely to qualify (given it'd be just 6 or 7 teams and each country needs a representative) which is tough to take given its only the start of November but a place in the Challenge (insert name) Cup isn't the end of the world if we use it as a springboard:

Like others I feel we aren't a million miles away but there are too many ifs, buts and maybes at the moment. For me the basics haven't been good enough especially last Saturday, restarts, set scrums etc. have been too messy and scrappy all season. We have taken the wrong option in too many games and I think its decision making and knowing how to win that has prevented us from notching up at least another couple of wins. However, from talking to people the last night, everyone is a bit fed up at the moment, we need a home win next up to get a bit of positivity around the place again.

In terms of the positives, the lineout I think is our starting point, we are in general comfortable enough now on our own ball and can challenge the opposition. If we get the other basics up to this level, we have a starting point. Turning over 5 or 6 scrums through messing around on your own ball is inexcusable at a professional level no excuses.

To date my view from having either attended or watched the games on TV:
Zebre (home) Played well in a couple of patches which was enough to get us the win. Unlike last season we were never in trouble but didn't push for a potential bonus point. Job done.

Cardiff (away) I know there have been question marks about the ref since but that shouldn't deflect from a poor performance. Cardiff were nowhere close to full strength and were there to be taken as Zebre demonstrated the following week.

Ulster (home) Hugely disappointing. Started positively but were comfortably beaten by a weakened Ulster side.

Ospreys (home) A real mixed bag. Scored a couple of excellent tries but conceded scores you wouldn't expect to witness at a schoolboy level.

Treviso (away) An absolute shambles. Enough said.

Saracens (home) After giving them an 11 point headstart we could and probably should have robbed it against one of the favourites for the HC.

Zebre (away) Professional away job

Leinster (away) A lot done right but failed to close it out when the opportunity arose.

Glasgow (home) Had our chances but were always chasing our tail after a sloppy start. Wasn't great but wasn't terrible either.

Agree with most here. Give him time. Takes time, and thus patience on our part, to improve. So far I am still happy and excited by what I am seeing.

i said it before but the league is getting stronger...teams are taking the piss less and being more competitive.

standards are always going higher.

i think pat has 2-3 yrs to do something here. we got to be realistic.

it aint going to happen overnight. not with the amount of injuries and chopping and changing.

have we even named the same starting 15 twice this year? i doubt it.

salmson wrote: Comparing results to last year:

Ospreys (home): 4/0 to 0/5 => big disappointment

When you look at the team they sent over here last year (who were on the back of an away win in Ravenhill the week before they played us) and compare that to the Lions infused team they picked this term it really is like comparing apples and oranges especially the packs.

13/14 12/13
Richard Fussell 15 Richard Fussell
Jeff Hassler 14 Tom Habberfield
Ben John 13 Tom Isaacs
Jonathan Spratt 12 Jonathan Spratt
Eli Walker 11 Ben John
Dan Biggar 10 Matthew Morgan
Tito Tebaldi 9 Kahn Fotuali'i
Duncan Jones 1 Duncan Jones
Scott Baldwin 2 Scott Baldwin
Adam Jones 3 Cai Griffiths
Alun-Wyn Jones 4 Alun-Wyn Jones
Ian Evans 5 James King
James King 6 Joe Bearman
Justin Tipuric 7 Sam Lewis
Morgan Allen 8 Morgan Allen

Richard Hibbard 16 Matt Dwyer
Ryan Bevington 17 Marc Thomas
Aaron Jarvis 18 Dimitri Arhip
Tyler Ardron 19 Jonathan Thomas
Joe Bearman 20 Lloyd Peers
Tom Habberfield 21 Sam Davies
Matthew Morgan 22 Ross Jones
Andrew Bishop 23 Rhys Webb

26-43 22-10

For me the teams that are being sent over to the Sportsground are also improving year on year. One of the drawbacks to our relative success over the last couple of seasons has seen a change in emphasis from away teams in terms of squad strength. Watch when Leinster come over in the new year they know full well they can't afford to bring their B team and expect to win anymore. All of these things factor in.

Of all the teams we have played so far this year Ospreys, Leinster, Glasgow and Ulster do we really expect that EOS could have got a result given he would not have had Heenan or Clarke in his squad? Let alone he freely admitted on Off the Ball the other week he doesn't even watch Connacht games.

Ok Treviso and Cardiff loses were not what we wanted but away from home it's certainly not sacking discussion time just yet!!!

Diom wrote: I have no problem with the way things were going at the start. Lam was obviously looking to up the basic skill levels of the players and forcing them to play through the hands. I hope he sticks with it, Rabo be damned this year.
Connacht cannot accept that we must play a kicking game and if we are going to really improve our abilities and our brand of rugby then we have to look to put it into practise on the pitch, in competitive games. Given the level of injuries I think he has reverted to a safer gameplan than he would have liked, but even still we have yet to embarrass ourselves. Think of the 14 match streak two seasons ago... no one was calling for Eric's head.
I am more than happy for Pat to stay as long as he is willing to try new things with Connacht. What we wanted, and still need IMO, is outside perspective and from what I hear and from the opening matches of the season Pat has brought that. We have to give him some time to get his ideas crystallised... especially given the injury list that we have.
Credit him with getting Rodney to come good, building Ronaldson as a centre option, and making Henshaw a lad who may start at 13 for Ireland. For all the injuries we've had he has kept bringing in players who are motivated, and capable.

+1 my thoughts exactly

Lads and Lassies we need to take a moment here,

Yes its a poor start and yes its frustrating and yes we have let slip games we could/should have won.

one of those games was against Saracens leaders of the premiership and lets be honest here, most of us were expecting a beating yet we could/should have won.

Next game was Zebre Away which we won easily

Next game was Leinster away, one of the forces of Europe and with 15 or so international players in their game day squad. Again we could /should have won

Then we had Glasgow 2nd in the rabo and going well the last two years again had the winning of it but just fell short.

Now add in the fact that we have a limited squad, a horrendous injury list and the fact that players are not in a position to be rested and we have all the excuses in the world.

But the team have battled on in spite of this and have come close to winning games that on paper we had no reason to expect to win.

We need to keep the faith, I personally feel that we are not too far away from clicking and getting good results.

We need a bit of luck as well, esp with injuries. We of all teams really cant afford to be without any players.

Comparing results to last year:

Zebre (home):
Last year we got 4 points, they got 1, this year it was 4/0 => improvement

Cardiff (away): 4/1 to 0/4 => worse result, but with the ref getting demoted I think we can write this one off

Ulster (home): 0/5 to 0/4 => I'd hesitate to call this an improvement, but certainly no worse.

Ospreys (home): 4/0 to 0/5 => big disappointment

Treviso (away): 2/2 to 0/4 => worse result

Saracens (home) (compared with Quins home): 0/4 to 1/4 => improvement

Zebre (away) no change

Leinster (away) bonus point this year, improvement

Glasgow (home) 0/5 to 1/4, improvement.


Leaving out the Cardiff match (which is only fair) we've got 3 fewer league points this year than last (11 vs. 14) and conceded 4 more (21 vs. 25) than last year, so yes we're struggling, but we're not on the Titanic yet.

The performance level for the last 4 games has been excellent, the next third of the season is far easier, with 5 winnable games: Scarlets (home), Edinburgh (away), Dragons (home), Leinster (home), and Zebre (home).

I have no problem with the way things were going at the start. Lam was obviously looking to up the basic skill levels of the players and forcing them to play through the hands. I hope he sticks with it, Rabo be damned this year.
Connacht cannot accept that we must play a kicking game and if we are going to really improve our abilities and our brand of rugby then we have to look to put it into practise on the pitch, in competitive games. Given the level of injuries I think he has reverted to a safer gameplan than he would have liked, but even still we have yet to embarrass ourselves. Think of the 14 match streak two seasons ago... no one was calling for Eric's head.
I am more than happy for Pat to stay as long as he is willing to try new things with Connacht. What we wanted, and still need IMO, is outside perspective and from what I hear and from the opening matches of the season Pat has brought that. We have to give him some time to get his ideas crystallised... especially given the injury list that we have.
Credit him with getting Rodney to come good, building Ronaldson as a centre option, and making Henshaw a lad who may start at 13 for Ireland. For all the injuries we've had he has kept bringing in players who are motivated, and capable.

columoc wrote: Right now, I honestly can't see how we beat any of them. I'm sure Lam is as frustrated as the mowi, but maybe a SH coach cannot work for Connacht; maybe they want a game that we cannot play, unless you have top top players who can adapt? Do we just need to play within the structures players grew up with, and do it well, like Glasgow.
At the risk of being called a troll; would we have been this patient with say, EOS; or more to the point would we be where we are now if he was coach. I know he is divisive, but could we be any worse. I hope Pat turns it around like Joe Schmidt did, but if not Connacht need to move quickly at the end of the season before we lose another few years.

Have you been remotely paying attention to our injury list from week one? There isn't a coach currently in this or any other country that with the issues and time frame Lam has faced that would do very much better...

Let's keep a firm grip on reality here, despite all the issues there have been some excellent performances. Maybe with the break coming up a tired injury ravaged squad just let fatigue get the better of them.

As for getting rid of Lam after twelve months especially given all the sh*t, injury list/ So'oialo / CEO Departure, what decent coach is going to remotely want in?

We've been down this road before and come through it under Eric, and if we get a break with our injury list and can keep our nerve on and off the pitch we'll be absolutely fine.....

I understand and share your frustration but realistically what games did we lose that we should have won based on historical form? We bet Blues away last year but that was an aberration. Leinster away we were nilled. Ulster and Ospreys regularly take points off Munster/Leinster at home never mind Connacht. Until fairly recently Glasgow were muck but they are a top rabo team the last two seasons at least. Munster lost away to Treviso this season, a good few bigger teams have faltered there.

If you were to target a game there you'd probably say Ulster as a derby game but they are heineken and rabo finalists hardly a pushover regardless of home advantage.

I'd 100% agree that points have been dropped that shouldn't have and that's very disappointing. We've gone from being nilled last year to not scoring for 60-70 minutes in a number of games and while its an improvement its not one that would give anyone a warm fuzzy feeling.

I'm not saying things have gone well for us or that there aren't concerns but that was one of the hardest starts to a season you'll see. Our next three games are Scarlets at home, Edinburgh away and Dragons at home. Those are the games/teams where Connacht have picked up points in the past. If there isn't at least one win in three then perhaps it will be time to start questioning Lam but right now its a bit premature.

Its also worth noting that the skills coach only arrived this week, this should lead to an improvement in attack surely?

This must be one of the most frustrating years ever to follow Connacht. We have on paper the best squad we have had in a long time, but we are deservedly bottom of the league. I was going to reserve my own judgement on Pat Lam's performance until the New Year, on the basis that it takes a period for a new coach to embed new ways of working and playing structures. I noted also that Joe Schmidt's start with Leinster resulted in 6-7 losses or so.

But going into the first Rabo break, we have lost 6/7; 1/2 in HC and 3 in pre season friendlies. We have beaten Zebre twice that's it. We have lowest points scored in the league (96) a long way off 2nd last and the lowest number of tries.
Are we playing any better than under EE, I don't think so; in fact I cannot see a gameplan; defence is generally ok, but our attack is woeful. Credit we are not losing by huge scores, but we shouldn't just aspire to that. Craig Clarke will be out the door as fast as his contract allows.

The other "weaker" teams have progressed, certainly Dragons, Zebre and Edinburgh are gradually getting it together, Dragons have been very impressive, especially at home; only Connacht and Treviso seem to be going backwards, but us faster.
I think we are very patient as a fan base, but something positive results wise must happen soon. Realistically, of the 5 Rabo matches (our real bread and butter) up to Jan 4, we have to win at least two and in the others we must realistically get 2 losing bonus, otherwise we will be a long way on the bottom with over half the season gone.

Right now, I honestly can't see how we beat any of them. I'm sure Lam is as frustrated as the rest, but maybe a SH coach cannot work for Connacht; maybe they want a game that we cannot play, unless you have top top players who can adapt? Do we just need to play within the structures players grew up with, and do it well, like Glasgow.
At the risk of being called a troll; would we have been this patient with say, EOS; or more to the point would we be where we are now if he was coach. I know he is divisive, but could we be any worse. I hope Pat turns it around like Joe Schmidt did, but if not Connacht need to move quickly at the end of the season before we lose another few years.

swift4prez wrote: i guess this is the best place for this

"Connawht" :sick:

i guess this is the best place for this

Not to sure were to post this. This tells were Lam wants Robbie to stay

Connacht coach Pat Lam is adamant Ireland have a ready-made replacement to fill the sizeable boots of Brian O'Driscoll in the form of Robbie Henshaw.

With Leinster legend O'Driscoll set to retire at the end of this RaboDirect PRO12 season, the iconic Ireland No.13 shirt will be looking for a new home.
And Lam is urging Joe Schmidt to look no further than Henshaw, the 20-year-old having played the full 80 minutes of Connacht's four games so far this term.

Henshaw only left secondary school 18 months ago but already has two Ireland caps to his name, starting at full-back against USA in June before coming off the bench in the victory over Canada.

And while he will rotate between full-back and centre for Connacht this season, Lam insists his future lies in the No.13 shirt for club and country.

"I met Robbie for the first time just before he went on the summer tour with Ireland and I was impressed by him straight away," Lam told the Irish Independent.

"What strikes you first is that he's a real Connacht lad. He's down to earth, works hard on his game and he is keen to improve. He's forever looking to learn more and that's great to see in a young player.

"He has the basic skills and his decision-making is really good, especially for one so young.

"He's got all the talents for the centre and what is really good is that he's a great person off the field as well, with some really excellent people around him.

"Robbie is well grounded and even though he's only 20, he has shown he has the temperament and ability to handle the pressure.

"As a potential No 13, Robbie's right up there with the best coming through for Ireland. He's only going to get better."