Darragh wrote: Concerning if Boshoff is out with concussion. Got to look after the players though.

We will see much more of this impacting on new signings for teams.

Hopefully he gets up here soon.

I am not sure we will hear of anymore signings at this stage. I appreciate we have not yet heard an official squad release and conclusion of recruitment.

Still feel ideally we need a good second row and a marquee 8. but we all have our own pet wants with the team!!!

Personally very doubtful we'll sign an 8 any time soon given the number of young Irish backrowers queuing up behind Muldoon for that spot. I've started to resign myself to the fact that we will always be short of options at second row given the difficulty of producing players who are over 6'5'' while also being strong, physical, athletic, etc. Its one of the reasons Connacht have hung onto Qualter for so long despite so few senior appearances.

Shelflife wrote: Just saw on twitter that Boshoff will be out until Oct with concussion, not confirmed officially.

Don't sweat it.... he's rehabbing a knee injury....

Super Rugby
Whiteley to feature before end of season?
2016-07-11 16:50

Cape Town - When Warren Whiteley was ruled out for six weeks after the final Test between the Springboks and Ireland in Port Elizabeth, it appeared his season was over.

But now, with two of those weeks over, the Lions skipper is back on the training field.

He is not ready to take any contact yet, but the Lions confirmed in their injury report on Monday that Whiteley would start running this week.

They could not confirm when he was expected to be fit, but with the Lions set to have home-ground advantage throughout the playoffs there appears to be a slight chance that Whiteley could play some part in the season yet.

An MRI has also revealed that flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff has bone bruising on his knee as well as a mild strain to one of his knee ligaments.

He is expected to be out for a few weeks, but that is unlikely to have much of an impact on the Lions given how out of favour Boshoff has been this season.

The Lions can secure top spot on the overall log with victory over the Jaguares in Argentina this weekend

Take a look at @marnitzbos's Tweet: Invalid consumer key/secret in configuration

Concerning if Boshoff is out with concussion. Got to look after the players though.

We will see much more of this impacting on new signings for teams.

Hopefully he gets up here soon.

I am not sure we will hear of anymore signings at this stage. I appreciate we have not yet heard an official squad release and conclusion of recruitment.

Still feel ideally we need a good second row and a marquee 8. but we all have our own pet wants with the team!!!

Was given the opportunity to watch sky sports 30 minutes before the 30 minutes before sa final game . It was hilarious. Sadly I can't post it because some of the comments were so off centre you couldn't even go there.

Carty/O'Leary and? Medical joker for a month? Mckeon back from SH conversion?
Probably more Ronaldson back to 10/22, which I'm not unhappy with TBH

Just saw on twitter that Boshoff will be out until Oct with concussion, not confirmed officially.

Darragh wrote: It's going off topic, but I think that what showed through performances during the World Cup and through the Six Nations and domestic competitions are how poor the coaching standards have been across the Northern hemisphere over the past 10 years. Coaches favoured conservatism and the will of power to win games.

The fallout from the World Cup (e.g. post Argentina hammering) had a lot of media demanding that the game here had to change in order for us to grow. But once the domestic and european games got back on track, all that talk died away until Connacht started the run in to becoming Pro 12 champions. It is no coincidence that a well coached. skills focused team was as successful as they were.

I continue to be shocked that the New Zealand philosophy of playing heads up, open, positive rugby seems to be some kind of unicorn when it is spoken about up here. Graham Henry shouldn't really have to be quoted as saying once Leinster start to be able to run straight while passing left and right, things will improve for them. That statement alone says a lot about many teams and many players in Europe. And it comes back to lazy and poor coaching over years.

We are blessed to have the coaching structure we have. Having said that, I do think if Schmidt does finish up at the end of his current contract, Lam will be one of two favourites imho for the coaching role, along with Les Kiss. Whether Lam will want the role though is another point.

We are indeed, Lam has been a breath of fresh air but in fairness he was under a lot less pressure than Eric was. Eric kickstarted the environment that Pat came in to, one where Connacht were no longer going to accept any auld ramaish form the IRFU

The innate Conservatism in the NH is driven from the top of their organisations, whether it's historically successful Clubs/Regions or National teams. Boards (and sometimes fans) at both levels tend to pressurise incoming coaches into running with the style of play that has been historically successful.

We got a close look at this in action fairly recently with Munster where even with a 68% win ratio under Rob Penny there was a reluctance to embrace a new style of play that Munster need to move towards as their Golden Generation one by one retired. Their success a few years back in many ways has become a millstone around their necks as an organisation, they've built a Stadium for a successful team, the fans got used to winning year on year with the Golden generation and struggle to accept that things need to change and adapt as other teams do .

They're not alone either plenty of examples from across the water over the years too Bath,Leicester, Wasps, Toulouse, etc have all had long periods of success which in fact ended up inhibiting them adapting or embracing change to a greater or lesser degree...

Irish coaches have felt the pressure of the Accountants in ensuring Ireland's World Ranking is sustained at a certain level which ensure a steady money stream, it's a risk adverse attitude and too many coaches are ok with compromising themselves or not rocking the boat if the financial rewards are decent enough.

It's going off topic, but I think that what showed through performances during the World Cup and through the Six Nations and domestic competitions are how poor the coaching standards have been across the Northern hemisphere over the past 10 years. Coaches favoured conservatism and the will of power to win games.

The fallout from the World Cup (e.g. post Argentina hammering) had a lot of media demanding that the game here had to change in order for us to grow. But once the domestic and european games got back on track, all that talk died away until Connacht started the run in to becoming Pro 12 champions. It is no coincidence that a well coached. skills focused team was as successful as they were.

I continue to be shocked that the New Zealand philosophy of playing heads up, open, positive rugby seems to be some kind of unicorn when it is spoken about up here. Graham Henry shouldn't really have to be quoted as saying once Leinster start to be able to run straight while passing left and right, things will improve for them. That statement alone says a lot about many teams and many players in Europe. And it comes back to lazy and poor coaching over years.

We are blessed to have the coaching structure we have. Having said that, I do think if Schmidt does finish up at the end of his current contract, Lam will be one of two favourites imho for the coaching role, along with Les Kiss. Whether Lam will want the role though is another point.

Evil_g wrote:

dobby wrote: Interesting listening to graham henry on the 6 one news tonight. Agreed with what he said. Rather than players simply moving left or right the ball gets moved.

Wow, this [strike]radical new thinking[/strike] worthless PR stunt must be what Canterbury ambassador Robbie Henshaw's PR handler's had in mind when they advised him to continue sticking the knife into Connacht two weeks ago .

“It’s great to be involved with guys I’ve played with in the Irish set-up as well and to be involved with them seven days a week. It’s going to be unreal and it can only benefit me, it can only kick me on as well.

Connacht did a lot for me over the years as well, skills-wise and development-wise as well, but hopefully now I can get to that next level as well and I’m in the right set-up to get there.”

Even just for me, the change needed to come. I’ve been there a long time, I needed the change for myself as well and to go and get experience from guys who have got to that next level.

“I love a challenge, I want to keep improving my game. I’ll never settle to not improve my game so I think that’s one of the reasons.

“I need to be pushed by other guys, that’s one of the things that you need to improve.”

#NextLevel #ScoreMoreTries #Drones

ok henry is crap. apologies.

you don't like it, i liked it.

dobby wrote: Interesting listening to graham henry on the 6 one news tonight. Agreed with what he said. Rather than players simply moving left or right the ball gets moved.

Wow, this [strike]radical new thinking[/strike] worthless PR stunt must be what Canterbury ambassador Robbie Henshaw's PR handler's had in mind when they advised him to continue sticking the knife into Connacht two weeks ago .

“It’s great to be involved with guys I’ve played with in the Irish set-up as well and to be involved with them seven days a week. It’s going to be unreal and it can only benefit me, it can only kick me on as well.

Connacht did a lot for me over the years as well, skills-wise and development-wise as well, but hopefully now I can get to that next level as well and I’m in the right set-up to get there.”

Even just for me, the change needed to come. I’ve been there a long time, I needed the change for myself as well and to go and get experience from guys who have got to that next level.

“I love a challenge, I want to keep improving my game. I’ll never settle to not improve my game so I think that’s one of the reasons.

“I need to be pushed by other guys, that’s one of the things that you need to improve.”

#NextLevel #ScoreMoreTries #Drones

it seems darragh needed a new operation on his hand

Interesting listening to graham henry on the 6 one news tonight. Agreed with what he said. Rather than players simply moving left or right the ball gets moved. Much along the lines on how AJ distributed last season. Not trying to blow the connacht trumpet, but it will be interesting to see if the new PRO12 season will see teams trying a new playing style. Could be a very interesting season. Are we looking at a potential seismic shift in how northern hemisphere rugby is to be played?

The series of injuries he's had since breaking his shoulder in 2014 are in the 'hope his youth allows him to fully heal' category, they seem to be being careful with him since the shoulder was mis-diagnosed, he's just had terrible luck.

edit: That was about Darragh L

just watched a replay of the last SA game. It raised the hairs on the back of my shoulders, or were those hairs on the back of my neck? God we have refs and tmos unwilling to make any decision. Its such a simple decision. Its duty of care. So you didn't mean to do it. And that counts? Le Roux nearly finished TOH's career. No matter how well meaning Le Roux was he nearly killed the guy. Does somebody have to be dragged unconcious off the pitch (as in first test) before a red card is issued. This dangerous play must be stopped and stopped immediately. And the only way to do that is say its not allowed. Instead its allowed under penalty. Shocking TMO, shocking referee. I was amazed that Jackson didn't even bother to check if Tienan was ok at any point before or after checking with the TMO. He didn't give a crap about the player's welfare. It was astounding

RonanL wrote: Does anyone know what the story is with Darragh Leader's injury? I saw on social media that his hand seems to be back in a cast.

Heard he had to have surgery again, not how serious but even with minor surgery you be looking at 6 weeks (that time line is pure speculation based on medical reports read in media )

RonanL wrote: Does anyone know what the story is with Darragh Leader's injury? I saw on social media that his hand seems to be back in a cast.

No idea on this. But contrary to salsom's viewpoint (as far as i know) all connacht international players will be available for first game of the pro12 season