sorry mate I ment to say Nathan White,

maybe Tiernan o h at full back or Darragh leader?

Rory McTiernan wrote: 15 Duffy 14 Carr 13 Henshaw 12 McSharry 11.Healy 10 Ronalson 9 Marmion 8 George 7 Heenan 6 Muldoon 4 swifty 5 Clarke 1 Wilkinson 2 Harris Wright 3 Hines need to go with this if we are to stand a chance Parks is finished

Duffy, on his form this season, is more finished than anyone

And who is this new signing Hines?

15 Duffy 14 Carr 13 Henshaw 12 McSharry 11.Healy 10 Ronalson 9 Marmion 8 George 7 Heenan 6 Muldoon 4 swifty 5 Clarke 1 Wilkinson 2 Harris Wright 3 Hines need to go with this if we are to stand a chance Parks is finished

Didn't get to game in blackrock. While it seems toh did the job again with another try scored from full back he came off injured with a knee injury and is a question mark. That said can't see his fitness relevant to next weeks team

fluffychickens wrote: Question Gavin selection, question Robbie needed replacing, question muldowney placement, question Marmion speed of ball and why frank is considered over pod. Question Mcsharry over ronaldson at 12. Question fionns ability to play as a team member. Other than these questions team last night looked fine???

Robbie was brought off most likely due to the IRFU player welfare scheme or a knock. Your questioning things there that you and no one here has a clue about unless they were there, listened to the game or read in reports. The Edinburgh backrow ripped us apart according to reports, so not exactly gonna be ideal quick ball for Marmion is it? You've no idea over Fionn either. You developed this notion over Fionn after last week against the Scarlets when he carried most our ball when he came on, even though he was a major part of the reason why we were in with a shout at the end.

McSharry over Ronaldson is completely justified, you only need to look at our try for that some lovely hands there and radio commentary saying he carried well. Bar put in brave defensive performances while playing there Ronaldson didn't offer much going forward. Ronaldson even said he hadn't played 12 for years. McSharry probably runs the smartest lines in our backline and our best tackler and a natural 12. Nothing against Ronaldson either, he is a 10 by nature. Why would <em>you</em> pick Ronaldson over McSharry?

Muldowney and Frank I can agree on. I thought POD got a rough deal the last couple weeks.

People calling for Lam's head need a reality check. Unless you fancy stumping up a nice juicy severance package when we are 400k in the hole, stop calling for it. I'd rather pay his severance towards a defence coach or recruiting another 10 for next year. Lam does need to settle on a style of play, but I think everyone here can agree that our ball handling skills have never been better which is just one positive to throw in there. We're also creating opportunities and just some suffering from major white line fever. I'm as frustrated as everyone because on paper we should be a lot higher in the league and I was massively embarrassed last night. I do think we'll turn it around and when it clicks there is a nice run of very winnable games between January and the end of March.

Lam not showing up to Buccs and Corinthians is shocking though.

Agree with the two I think get the basics right play mean and gradually bring in the new system. I think Lam might be guilty of trying to do to much to fast.

Question Gavin selection, question Robbie needed replacing, question muldowney placement, question Marmion speed of ball and why frank is considered over pod. Question Mcsharry over ronaldson at 12. Question fionns ability to play as a team member. Other than these questions team last night looked fine???

I saw that too and imo it was a team low on confidence going through the motions in a game they had quit on.
Frankie made a bit of a b**L's of it but but he was right. He didn't say anything we haven't been saying here.

Watched highlights (lowlights) of the Connacht game following the ulster game today. There was a level of insanity shown not seen for a while. Where did this type of play come from. No coach could have endorsed playing a ball across the back line when stuck on your goal line. It simply shows a huge lack of common sense. Don't agree with Frankie Sheehan as a rule but he suggested a going back to basics approach. Connacht have in the past been strongest as an impact team up front. We need to return to that. Back line will do what it does but we need to make the hard yards as we have done in the past. Let Dan or kieran release the back line when the opportunity occurs. The longer this season has gone on the clearer it has become that team selection is not the issue. Team strategy is the key failing

Agreed and I'd even have EOS who while is a terrible man manager is superb for putting the technical parts together. I think we need more ruthlessness ala Dave Humphries at Ulster. The players seem to be happy as their signing contract extensions but the fans aren't and Lam doesn't have the goodwill built up like EE did when things were bad last season.

I think you could be right colmoc.

I'm not sure how long lams contract is but he has made a big commitment coming here and would have to be compensated. That's why I have been advocating a DOR above him. I've suggested EOS and someone else the good doctor out in Corinthians.

The CEO thing doesn't appear to be a big issue. Players are signing on for extensions etc so the business side of things appears to be getting done. Sponsorship, hospitality etc won't be at a premium while results remain the same. That's why IMO the money saved from solialo heading home and some of the CEO money should be spent on an experienced DOR now.

I wrote on another thread last night that I thought Lam should go. But on reflection, the reality is that he has a contract to he honoured, he has moved his family here, so it is unlikely we can afford to do that. Thus, we have to fix with the resources we have - probably. He is not going anywhere!

Thus, what to do.
1. Sort out captaincy, I say give it to Clarke. Make White and Mull as VPs.
2. Simplify gameplay, stick it up the jumper and play conservatively - like they did vs. Leinster
3. Forget the HEC, target the league games
4. ....I don't know what else we can do, given our budget.

Anyone know the CEO situation? Off the pitch turmoil usually has an impact on the pitch, Connacht seem to have lost their way there?

I was forecasting 7 to 8 home wins as achievable this season and being competitive in the winnable games on the road. O was expecting 10 wins this season + 4 lbps

I agree porter belly.

If Lam won't go out and watch a local club game with a heap of Connacht academy/development players playing then there's a problem

Porterbelly wrote: Haven't scored in the 2nd half in 6 of our 11 games I make out. Shocking

Parks at least would keep us ticking over with a DG here and there last season. Seems to be instructed not to do so this year? Haven't seen him attempt barely any.

Don't think he has the power any more, this also explains why we haven't kicked for the line as often as we perhaps should have. At the same time while playing Ronaldson as second 5/8th this shouldn't have mattered as much (although he probably wasn't being played in this capacity).

rossie wrote: A lot is being made of having no defence coach. I've had a look at the other 3 provincial websites and neither Munster or Leinster have a defence coach. In fact Penney doubles up as scrum coach at Munster and o Connor doubles up as backs coach at Leinster. Anscombe doubles up as forwards coach AFAIK.
Yes his backs coach arrived late but he hired him and did so knowing that he wouldn't arrive til now so IRS no excuse. Some of the old guard Connacht fans are not used to critisism at this level and struggle to accept that the new fan, who outnumber them, demands more for his/her money. That IMO is a good thing because accepting defeat as collateral damage of a new coach bedding in is ridiculous. This is pro sport and you are judged on results . At the start of the season we had a prediction thread and I said at that time that Connacht needed to win 2 out of the Munster, Leinster, ulster, Glasgow and ospreys home games as well as winning the other 6 home games. That had to be the level of results given the investment and progress made to date . The bulk of this team have fininshed 8th twice in a row in this league
Questions have to be asked of the coach.

There's no doubt that head coaches can double up, Schmidt was Leinster's defense coach last year afaik. However Lam doesn't have a good record in this regard - each head coach brings their own specialities, there's no harm in having Penney act as scrum coach but he would be the first to say he shouldn't coach the backs, hence Mannix is at Munster.

Think it was dempsey or hickie on second captains last week that said it takes a season for a new defensive system to bed in. Leinster had to accept their defeats at the start of Schmidt's time before it paid off and have been shaky implementing O'Connor's new system. The difference of course being they still continue to do well.

You're absolutely right that more is expected but at the same time last year Treviso finished ahead of Connacht with 10 wins and 10 losses, and you have to look at Munster in 6th before you see a team with a positive w/l ratio (11/10). Conn could finish 8th or even 7th and still have more losses than wins. So the question becomes how do you measure progress in a team that loses more than it wins? Was the game in Dublin progress over the nil result last year? Conn already have as many losing bonus points in the league this year as they had for the full season last year, is that an indication they're more competitive?

I think questions have to be asked everywhere.

It appears the IRFU have been supportive of Connacht. We were given money to go out and recruit some impressive players. We were given decent length of rope - to hang ourselves?!!!!

Lets look at the facts.

CEO failure - Still not resolved?

Coaching failures?
Shortfalls with defence and backs coaching.
I don't buy this skills coach who has just turned up. Fine for academy, not for front line professional team.

Recruitment failures?
Soialo being the obvious one, but has left a gap.

Player Management failures?
We seem to carry an unusually high injury profile.
Is our conditioning good enough for where the game is?
I have heard quite the opposite from ex players. Little or no faith in the conditioning staff and prefer to do their own thing.
Some players like Tonetti has offered little or nothing due to injury and unfortunately appears to me as baggage we can not carry?

Professional games Board failures?
Where does their line of responsibility start and stop and have they failed in delivering on expectations?

Coaching - Squad Leadership - Game plan strategy
This is probably where Lam has to accept some fault.
The captain thing was a disaster. He lays out the strategy for playing the game also.

Player failures in execution, skill levels, tackling, heart, professionalism....
Even Lam cant be blamed for 3 tries in 10 mins and getting properly walloped in games?


So I think multiple failure in many areas. For me, at the end of the day though, it is the player who misses a tackle, or a kick, or a throw, or a catch, etc.....for professionals, they come a long way short......?

They seem more interested in having fun on twitter.

As a collective set of failures, its a lot to fix though......