rossie wrote: I don't think lam had gotten the Connacht job when the Clark signing was announced. I'm not sure about heenan either. Can anyone confirm?

Lam was appointed in January and Clark signed in February.

I don't think lam had gotten the Connacht job when the Clark signing was announced. I'm not sure about heenan either. Can anyone confirm?

lowlights vid.
Hard to gauge how the teams actually played from that short piece, doesn't even include missed kicks which is understandable but doesn't tell us much.

There is the most blatant block possible in the immediate lead up to Fife's try, I can only assume there was no video ref and/or McKeon did not make enough out of it to the ref. Not generally a fan of players being in the ref's face but he should have immediately been onto the ref about that one.

Intercept try was madness, don't think Griffin even looked where he was passing until it was leaving his hands and he realised too late the posts were in the way. mental.

De Luca steps inside a rusty Buckley for the final try. You'd hope with some more game time Buckley would be a bit more aware.

I think lam deserves more time, he has brought in some real quality players in Heenan and Clarke that I doubt others would have, however some of his decisions regarding selection were very poor and Im not sure he is ready for the top job perhaps him as an assistant alongside the more structured eos may have worked. However for me its an indictment when players are constantly kept on the payroll despite total failure to perform what does that say about the crest and the province.
As people on here have already stated for example frank murphy played like dross and like he didn't care one jot for a long time in our colours, he should have been booted out the door along with other non performers ages ago yet he has somehow replaced POD who has always given 100% on the bench.
Signals should be sent that Connacht is not a place for old elephants to die or any guys simply trying to sell themselves and if you try it you will be out damn quick.
Connacht coaching team and background people need to start grinding out win after ugly win if necessary and only then after that when the winning mentality and confidence is in place can they work on what they stand for.
The team is the probably the best we have every had, far far better than last place yet the same old total collapses, mental fragility and lack of pride are evident why?.

Agreed the Wallabies were fantastic (as were the Welsh) the yellow card on Cooper in the last 8 minutes was ridiculous and could have spoiled what up to that stage was a superb game.

Just watched the Wales v Australia game on bbcw. I saw their games v Ireland and Scotland also and its hard to believe that this is more or less the same group of players that were embarrassed by what many believe was a poor lions team in the summer.
They changed coach since. Neither deans or the new guy kicked a ball or made a tackle but the team is playing a lot better. Iwwouldn't rule them out for the world cup.

rossie wrote:

RogueXV wrote: What were Lam's stats from last night? How many missed shots at goal did he have, knocks ons, bad passes and missed tackles did he have? Muldoon is right, the players have to step it up before I start calling for Lam's head. They had their chances to win this game and didn't.

Pats stats are on the pro12 site for everyone to see. Its called the pro12 table and it makes grim reading

Exactly right Rossie

RogueXV wrote: What were Lam's stats from last night? How many missed shots at goal did he have, knocks ons, bad passes and missed tackles did he have? Muldoon is right, the players have to step it up before I start calling for Lam's head. They had their chances to win this game and didn't.

Pats stats are on the pro12 site for everyone to see. Its called the pro12 table and it makes grim reading

What were Lam's stats from last night? How many missed shots at goal did he have, knocks ons, bad passes and missed tackles did he have? Muldoon is right, the players have to step it up before I start calling for Lam's head. They had their chances to win this game and didn't.

Mul is hardly going to come out and say its the coach's fault is he? I'm sure the lads do feel that way but this is Lam's squad and they're playing his way, what is he going to do about it? Not impressed with his comments tbh, would have expected him to take the lead and not leave it to one of his many captains who wasn't even captain ....

Good honest piece from Muldoon here, worth reading. I hope the comments about the dressing room is true, they really need to look at themself. John very clearly pointing the blame at the players and seems to back Pat Lam!
ill post the comments but worth looking on the Connacht site for the article to see Muldoon's picture after the game. it says it all

Muldoon admits players need to step up
30th November 2013

Senior player John Muldoon made his return from injury last night, playing 33 minutes in the dismal 43 – 10 defeat at the hands of Edinburgh Rugby.

The influential forward said that all players need to take responsibility for this lack of performance and make a real turnaround for the upcoming game against Toulouse in just eight days’ time.

Speaking after last night’s PRO 12 game, Muldoon said:

“The nature of the display and result tonight is very disappointing and it’s hard to take. With the quality of players that we have in our squad today, it just isn’t anywhere near good enough. There were some tough words said in the changing room by the players. It’s all true and we all have to take it on board.

“No doubt players at home and fans will be wondering what happened tonight and it’s down to us to fix it. Noone else will fix it except the players that walk out on to the pitch.

“We can’t point the finger at anyone. We’ve all got to look in the mirror and say that this was down to a poor, poor performance. Players 1 – 23 have got to front up and admit that we didn’t perform tonight.

“We can’t doll it up any way. We let ourselves down, we let the jersey down and we let our fans down. There are no real excuses; we were in the game for long periods and our indiscipline cost us again. You can’t win rugby matches when you’re giving away multiple penalties one after the other.

“So we’ve a bit of soul searching to do this week. Our backs are to the wall and we’ve got to come back fighting. It’s a massive week for us with Heineken Cup is back and it doesn’t get any tougher than Toulouse away.

“But I know the quality of player we have and the quality of person inside the dressing room and we will work hard to fix it. There is a real passion there to do well for Connacht and to take pride in the jersey. It’s down to us; it’s down to the players. We can’t ask any more of the management. What they gave us is a good game plan and we just didn’t produce it tonight.

Commenting on the final stages of the game and the leaking of three tries in eight minutes, Muldoon said:

“The game was over at that stage and we went searching to try get back into it. We gave them an intercept on our own try line. We were playing to make the score line look better and when you’re doing that you get out of your game plan and structures.

“Other, silly errors cost us the game before those last ten minutes. But the scoreline hurts us badly and as I said, we have to get a reaction this week.”

Head Coach Pat Lam added:

“There’s disappointment and then there’s embarrassment. We started well and had opportunities to score but didn’t. That’s disappointing. But what happened in the last ten minutes, when we let in three soft tries; that’s embarrassing. We were playing catch up rugby at that stage and trying desperate things throwing the ball around. That shouldn’t have happened and we should have been real clear at half time.

“We have to apologise to the Connacht supporters because this isn’t what we’re about. Strong messages were said at half time and at the finish by our players.

“But at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what we say if we’re not putting in the performances and getting results.

Oh my! That was not good. Too slow to support runners. Braindead kicking. Stupid, stupid penalties given away. Very hard to take any positives away from tonight. Beer does not cure the pain!

Hardest part is seeing a team that year on year is a stronger unit. Last year we didn't do terribly badly. This year we have an even stronger set of players. So if the team, year on year, is stronger, thanks to sears, how is it that results are worse?

Really disappointed by that scoreline, other better teams have lost in Edinburgh but not by that type of margin. There has to be a place somewhere between random kicking game and intercept tries in your own 22 that Conn can settle into and actually be consistent.

This is incredibly upsetting, watch out for the brave performance against Toulouse.

This thread has actually cheered me up. There's no bullshit. Everyone agrees we have a good squad and that the performances are shambolic and it's Lam's fault. I don't see us changing coach though unfortunately.

There are a few things that have stank of disorganisation. The 3 captains policy makes no sense, especially when Clarke was leading out a team with Duffy in it. Our game plan is now non-existant. Firstly, we were running everything and now I don't know what is going on. Then there's our defense. I know we have no defensive coach but we aren't organised defensively at all. We're basically playing scramble defense from first phase.