Gavin Duffy is on the Against the Head panel this evening so presumably they'll be discussing Connacht later.

Evil_g wrote: This week's Craggy Island podcast is up to number 20 in the Itunes Sports Podcasts charts (in Ireland).

It'd be great if Rob or one of the lads (or Linley) were asked onto national radio to discuss Connacht rather than spoofers who haven't watched them since the last interproo.

Alot of non-Connacht fans are giving it alot of praise, it is a very enjoyable podcast

This week's Craggy Island podcast is up to number 20 in the Itunes Sports Podcasts charts (in Ireland).

It'd be great if Rob or one of the lads (or Linley) were asked onto national radio to discuss Connacht rather than spoofers who haven't watched them since the last interpro.

I agree that it's his least coherent article to date, but at least it's about rugby!

Decadence wrote: Gordon D'arcy is already leagues ahead of both of them.

Normally I'd agree with you, but D'arcy's article this week was all over the place too:

Gordon D’Arcy: Expanding our player base the name of the game

It's like he had written something semi coherent about keeping players in Ireland, but then his editor roars "we need you to stick something in about Connacht!".

So he tags something on about Connacht Punching above their weight.

But the editor, still not satisfied, roars "We need more Henshaw!", so he just tags on some more blather completely unrelated to the two preceding topics and he ends up miles from where he started.

Magpie wrote: So don't be taken in by that pr1ck's flattery...

And very faint praise it was to begin with! Two very badly written, rambling articles that don't really have anything of worth to say, more a case of filling up their word count with absolute guff. Franno has always done it, and I've never been convinced by Toland's pseudo-intellectual technical waffle. Gordon D'arcy is already leagues ahead of both of them.

Remember this, if you want to knife someone in the back, you have to get right behind them first.

So don't be taken in by that pr1ck's flattery, past transgressions are not forgotten, he will revert to type when it suits.

Wow, Franno's article and metaphor actually starts to look reasonable in comparison to Toland's, which reads like someone took out 3 paragraphs of vital information at various points. The second last paragraph in particular is just garbled.

I don't really blame them for going over the top on this as it would be considered a good win for Leinster or Ulster or even a European opponent to go down there and beat Munster. But apart from the obvious issues with poaching our skills and knowledge, why would they not want to nurture their own coaches and skills, put their own spin on new development? If I were a Connacht player I wouldn't want to hear my coach saying 'lets copy Munster' for instance.

Semi-related point but even though all Irish journos were aware of the budget inequalities prior to a year or two ago, I don't think many realized how Connacht were run more as an AIL club than a full province. Bringing in full time S&C staff, video analysis, skills and kicking coaches (stuff the others had for years) under Pat has helped towards leveling the playing field. I don't think anyone is going to be looking to hand that sort of advantage back to the other three provinces any time soon.

A week ago last Wednesday Thornley said on off the ball that Henshaw to Leinster was "99% a done deal and has been for a year now" and "I don't know what all the fuss is about".

A week ago today, Franno said that Munster wouldn't take any of Connacht's "guff" and dismissed our league position by stating that we hadn't beaten anyone of consequence.

If Connacht lose tonight (which isn't unthinkable) they'll want us disbanded again.

Also please don't refer to Franno as a Journalist. No need to sully the whole profession

Toland was on off the ball this week saying that Connacht fans shouldn't be upset about Henshaw going as it was 'fair'. And now he thinks Pat should share his coaching techniques with the other provinces so they can also benefit from that on top of the asset-stripping. Is there anything else he'd like I wonder?

More insane gibberish:

Liam Toland: Irish rugby can learn a lot from Pat Lam and Connacht

Are they having some sort of collective nervous breakdown or something?

The media coverage of Connacht this week is beyond ridiculous. I hope the players aren't reading it.

Yes Connacht are deservedly top of the league, and players and coach deserve huge credit.

But they are not the finished article yet, the point that they were not as affected by the world cup as pretty much every other team in the league remains valid; and the performance against Munster was by a mile their best league performance, since...well....their performance against Munster at home last year.

Any journalist who claims (or implies) that they've been doing this week in week out is talking horseshit because even if they had been doing it (they've been good but last Saturday was another level) the journalists (Franno, Thornley, Ward,, etc.) couldn't have seen it because up until last weekend the only league game that was televised in Ireland was the Glasgow game...and Connacht were pretty rubbish for most of that game.

I nearly preferred it when they were ignoring us.

Accidentally Onside wrote: Normally Franno annoys me.....I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that article other than shocked at how something so poorly written can appear in a national broadsheet

"Broadsheet" is pushing the term in fairness. A mate of mine used to say the Independent was the previous night's Heddild soaked in a rubber solution, stretched to broadsheet proportions, and re-badged. That was 20 years ago and it's gone sharpy downhill since then. My thinking on Franno's article - assuming he wasn't drunk when he wrote it - is that it's a case of hedging his bets. He said loads of nice things about us in case we keep steaming onwards and upwards, but the whimsical tone/content covers him if we have indeed reached "Peak Connacht" (thanks to Twitter for that one) and regress towards the mean.

The Dublin mejia have got badly caught out - what with the World Cup they've understandably seen even less of us than usual - as they had entirely missed (or dismissed) our story until last Saturday. Hence the media love-in this week, the Jesuitical equivocation of the likes of Franno, and the attempts of others to hide the fact that they completely missed the story ("Can the Lions!").

Normally Franno annoys me.....I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that article other than shocked at how something so poorly written can appear in a national broadsheet

In fairness he was complementary about the skills levels. It's just there is always a general air of superiority about him.

It's Neil Francis, does anyone really care or expect any less?