I would hope that Lam uses the rest of this season to build for the next. Combining that with the possibility of being without Marmion and Henshaw and I will expect just 1 win from the 4. I'm not saying they should give up or cannot win with players like Carty or Leader in the side I'm just trying to keep my expectations in line after Saturday. At this stage I would be happy to see a string of 4 games where first up tackles are made, silly penalties are cut out, passes go to hand and they demonstrate some creativity in the backline or at least take the ball on at pace rather than standing still. In other words work on getting the basics right.

phatguerilla wrote:
Did Conn not win 4 in a row at the start of the 13 match losing streak season?

No. They SHOULD have...
Beat Treviso (A) 11-8
Beat Scarlets (H) 13-11
Lost to Edinburgh (A) 19-14
Beat Dragons (H) 17-13

And then the 14 match losing sequence began....

salmson wrote: We've not won 4 on the trot in the league since prior to Welsh regions and the home/away format.

Would bite yer hand off for any 3 of these.

Did Conn not win 4 in a row at the start of the 13 match losing streak season?
A lot of Edinburgh's improvement this year is attributable to new saffers, however with Fife in Scotland camp and Visser still out(?) they lose a lot of their edge on the wing.

I don't know how badly Healy is injured but if Marmion is unavailable I think it would be worth looking at him as a back up 9, he was ahead of Murray at u-20 level and could offer a significant breaking threat.

I said we shoudl have been looking at 3 from 3 over the November internationals period. I was out by, erm, three!

We've not won 4 on the trot in the league since prior to Welsh regions and the home/away format.

Would bite yer hand off for any 3 of these.

I think the fact that we are away to Glasgow could tell. However with the lads looking to exorcise their demons I think (hope) Connacht will be bringing their best game with them. Would we possibly be down Marmion/Henshaw?

Despite recent results and form we have a great opportunity to move a couple of places up the league as our next few fixtures coincide with 6 nations window. both scottish italian opposition will be weakened significantly.
Sun 9 Feb Glasgow Vs Connacht
Sat 15 Feb Connacht Vs Edinburgh
Sun 23 Feb Zebre Vs Connacht
Sat 1 March Connacht Vs Treviso

Relevant International fixtures:
Sat 25 Jan Saxons Vs Wolfhounds
Sun Feb 2 Ireland Vs Scotland
Sat Feb 8 Ireland Vs Wales
Sat Feb 8 Scotland Vs England
Sat Feb 22 Italy Vs Scotland
Sat Feb 22England Vs Ireland
Sat March 8 Ireland Vs Italy

Scotland 36 man squad has 16 Glasgow and 11 Edinburgh players
Italy 30 man squad has 15 Treviso and 9 Zebre players

A weakened Glasgow team will still be formidable opposition but we still should be - dare I say it- looking for 4 from 4.