Parks always misses a few tackles tbh that's just what you have to deal with when you pick him. Glasgow would have known that better than anyone though.

the conditions were'nt that bad, I think more opportunities should have been made to run the ball through our backline. Especially against a very well drilled Glasgow forward pack where we were unable to make much of any headway and the gameplan should have changed during the first-half, Glasgow just had that knack\skill of timing hitting the rucks and mauls both attacking and defensively by getting very low body position.

I don't know if anyone else noticed that Parks missed more than a couple of tackles, he was'nt the only one but I think Glasgow targetted him.

Fifita might be a big man but he doesnt appear to have the power to match it.

What is also a major worry is that we are still unable to make any turnovers, defintley a trend this season.

salmson wrote:

connachtexile wrote: How did Leader do?

Leader did fine - couple half breaks, some good tackling, and one superb clearance kick under pressure. Wasn't a night for a back line though, McSharry and himself had hardly any ball through the hands. And hopefully he wasn't too annoyed by the guy in the Clan terrace who kept yelling "Well done Griffin" at him.

absolute baloney, it was tailor made for mcsharry and leader but my o my they did not trust them to send it wide when the gameplan wasn't working.....healy or carr didnt get a sniff...only time we attempted to line break was when ronaldson came on...

we lost it upfront...fifta was exposed and had a very poor game

on the plus side...clarke and lineouts = unreal even knew when to delegate to big george

connachtexile wrote: How did Leader do?

Leader did fine - couple half breaks, some good tackling, and one superb clearance kick under pressure. Wasn't a night for a back line though, McSharry and himself had hardly any ball through the hands. And hopefully he wasn't too annoyed by the guy in the Clan terrace who kept yelling "Well done Griffin" at him.

How did Leader do?

At least under Bradley we occasionally won!

Glasgow were very effective when in possession. They attacked in pods of 3, one carrying and the other two clearing out, 2nd phase quick ball to 2nd pod at pace, over the gain line, then out to backs with often the winger entering the line at pace with centres clearing out next ruck for quick ball. Everyone knew what to do and what to do next, lovely to watch ( except for us). They made yards on every carry, never losing in contact as they ran low. Sign of a well coached side with a clear way of playing. They may never get medals for a Baa Baa game, but they are effective.

In contrast, we attacked in ones or twos, no clear out giving defenders time to compete or slow the play. Slow ball to stagnant runners, no yards, little involvement of backs, handling errors, mainly through carrying the ball in one hand and running too high (especially George and Fifita). No real plan or understanding what would happen next, so no real plan to score a try, juts hit and hope! Sorry, but this is about coaching and having a proper game plan. It's-like Ireland in the 80s. Pat needs to step up.

Disappointing again, 3 points gone a begging, we had enough chances with both kicks and territory to win the game. Im not sure what the plan is at the base of the scrum but we seem to be making a balls of it. we basically win good ball and then screw it up between 8 and 9.

Camped on the line in the first half and when we do spread the ball we pass it left where they have 5 defenders and we have two attackers, in the second half we are banging away on their line for ages and come away with nothing.

I think that its simply that we don't know how to win, not been smart but the better teams are used top winning these games and believe that they will.its a habit that we need to acquire. we need to win a few games in a row to get a belief in ourselves.

getting closer but its very frustrating.

Biggest mistake tonight was just before half time when we didn't trust ourselves in the pack to continue through the phases ( a la Munster!) and ended up firing the pass to the backs to the left of the posts- we had an extra man on the right hand side at the time but I'd still have left it with the pack,. We need to be more patient in these situations and eventually the gap will appear....it may not be pretty but I'd take it!
Had two decent penalty chances in the second half but I'm always loath to blame kickers, especially with Sportsground wind and rain! Ronaldson was very good (fantastic break) when he came on.
This was a match we undoubtedly should have won, especially with Glasgow missing so many with international duty & injuries.

The Glasgow B-team argument doesn't hold much water - they had 9 internationals starting with 165 caps, we had 2 / 77.

As for the kicking, I'd let off Ronaldson's miss, not far wide from distance on his "wrong" side. But Parks shouldn't have gone for the first missed kick and shouldn't have missed the second.

I thought we were a bit overwhelmed in the back row at times. Heenan was only very good as opposed to outright brilliant, Fifita was only ok, and George made far too many Paul O'Connell carries - standing start, 3 metres sideways, 1 metre forward, slow ball from ruck.

With Newport losing last night I'd at least hoped we wouldn't lose any more ground on 6th place, but Ulster losing to Scarlets was a very bad result for us.

Dissapointing defeat and the league table makes for grim reading at this stage. As much as the kicks (which were poor at this level) its time we stopped f$$$ing around at the back of our scrum. There might be a time and place for the approach we are going with but its not the tactic for a wet windy Novembers night in Galway. Get the ball in and get it moving as soon as possible. The longer it stays in there the more of a lottery it becomes and tonight saw us turning over at least 4 or 5 in this manner. Also I think we played into Glasgow's hands in the 2nd half, it was far too stop start and each scrum was taking an age.

Restarts were sloppy also and while I thought Ronaldson did quite well, kicking the ball deep when we need possession with 15 seconds on the clock is madness. We weren't at the pace of the game from the off and you can't afford to give Glasgow the advantage we provided them with through our sloppiness early on.

People were talking us up on the back of Leinster last week but as usual with Connacht its one step forward and two back. The break is probably coming at a good time now. We need to bring a lot more to the table when we return if we want to even come close to matching last seasons finish.

I have to say that I agree with the Prez, if you take a kick it has to be because you believe that you are going to get it...... Our choices were wrong. I would love to know what Parks overall percentage is? Ronaldson looked to have more gas and made one great break, but the same rules apply, we need to get those kicks. We need to get them to get wins ! The chances have to be taken, the percentages need to be higher.

that was so poor that its hard to believe. thats a second string glasgow side. ill leave it to others to give there bit but ive one point id like to make.

kicking was piss poor. 2 from parks and 1 from ronaldson. they are paid to kick them. again an away team outhalf comes here and slot them over. i rememner 2 years ago isa newawa came here and kicked 18 i think for leinster and won. i think it was NOC and Nikora missed half dozen.

first half parks decided to kick into a strong wind and dropped short 5 or so metres. awful gamble.
second half parks kicked and went wide on the near post. same thing with ronaldson, wide on the near post. everyone knows with a bit of cross wind, put it to the far post or further and wide will carry it. its as if parks and ronaldson kicked it for middle of the posts and scratched there heads why it went wide.
if carr or heally dropped the ball over the line, we'd give out. missing kicks is not good enough at home. wind shuould not come as a surprise.

i know from a few people that as good a man eric was, he couldnt be telling parks the faults he had. i hope lam is bigger then that.

Composure lacking when it mattered, epitomised by Mata's sin binning at the end when we had them by the throat. Couldn't get a try despite spending so much time in their 5m. Missed pens killed us too and we couldn't get the restarts right. Honestly, we need to give someone else a chance at 8, I don't care if they never played there before. George is just simply not good enough for this level. He has one job at scrum time and he can't do it right for the life of him.

Really disappointing loss and performance in difficult conditions.

POD did well when he came on
As did Ronaldson

Heenan showed he is human by missing 2 tackles, but was good otherwise

Clarke showed his class tonight

Stupid try early on from our own scrum, and our inability to gather at restart cost us dearly

Looking at the table this evening I think this is one we really need to win. The gap up to Dragons in 6th is at 9 points which is a lot already. However, a win gets us back into striking distance of a number of teams and from a psychological viewpoint gets us off the bottom and puts us in the right mindset for the two games during the Autumn Internationals. Another defeat would knock us back a step and would really leave us an uphill task to reel in the sides above us in the coming months.

We are up against a good Glasgow side but we need to start winning these type of games if we are to make any progress this season. We've already got nothing from two home games and two of our away games which we got 6 points out of last year we got no return from this year. Head to head we are 9 points off last year already.

Great to see Dave McSharry back and Nathan White will be a good replacement to bring on in the front row. Hope things go well for Daragh Leader. Apart from that its along expected lines. Agree with wp_rathead its good to see Kearney back in the 23, good player.

The intensity of the Saracens match on and off the pitch must be brought to the table again. The crowd must play its part.