Defence? What defence? We can't even spell defence

There's a number of factors that are causing major issues and the defense is definitely one of them. Our defense this time last year was not fantastic, and if you look back on highlights videos from the early rounds you see similar mistakes and missed tackles happening, which were gradually wiped out of the team as the season progressed. (eg: )

The difference between then and now is that we could outscore teams, using a really strong maul and good handling in the backs to score quality tries. Both of these options seemed alien to Connacht at the weekend.

The lads on craggy podcast made the point that our rucking is also nowhere near where it needs to be and that took a lot of pressure off the defense and provided a hugely valuable counter attacking platform - that's also gone.

Its possible that the loss of Bell leading to McPhillips promotion has left a video analysis gap open, but this part of the prep has always been a team effort, all the players talked about using their ipads to personally prepare for the games. Same with tackle technique, yes coaches play a part but players need to take personal responsibility for not poor technique.

Evil_g wrote:

salmson wrote: And while we'll always browse in the bargain aisle, this summer our signings were of the poundshop variety.

Apart from the capped Springbok outhalf and the most promising back three player produced by the Leinster academy since nobody can remember when?

salmson wrote: One cancellation is bad luck, two looks like bad planning.

One cancellation by the other party is bad luck. Two cancellations by two other parties is bad luck.

salmson wrote: On the omnishambles, I'm not just referring to the friendlies that weren't. Ruane has made a lot of noise about getting a fit for purpose stadium, and delivered nothing as yet.

So by omnishambles you're referring to the failure to deliver a stadium preseason? Because this would have helped out defence?

salmson wrote: I'm hoping to be proved wrong as regards branch/CEO, but I'm not expecting to be.

Two and a half games after winning the pro 12 on a shoestring? Wow. Just wow.

We are all fans of the team. With that said, it should be ok to question and be critical of things when they are not going well. No need to jump on anyone who is critical.

Ok, steady on. I didn't say I'd lost faith in the team or the coaching staff. I identified 3 areas that hurt our defence - attitude (which I think everyone including the players acknowledge ), player shortcomings (which may be addressed when our injury list stops looking like MASH) and the branch/preseason/onmishambles.

On that last - maybe it is bad luck that two games were cancelled, but if you get dumped by multiple girlfriends, at some stage a smart person says what have they got in common - me! There are at least 5 clubs rumoured to have pulled out of games. One of those is a basket case - Grenoble - and another of those is a provincial rival with every interest in shafting us. Well played to them if (if!) they did. We could have arranged a game with a tier 2 national team like Glasgow did v. Canada last year (they played against their As in a return this summer) or organised a game with an English Championship side who'd actually be grateful. Of course the hard luck story is possible, but given it didn't happen to anyone else, we need to look at where we dropped the ball. There is as yet no acknowledgement that we could have done better, much less that we're trying to improve.

On the signings side, you're probably right, we've been spoiled signing Super rugby winners in the last few years, and up to this summer we haven't lost players we wanted to keep either since McCarthy 3 years ago. However remember most of what you hear about how broke the Irish provinces are is smoke. At the Pro12 launch day Howells of Dragons was telling anyone who'd listen that Connacht's playing staff budget is nearly twice his. Figures presented to Galway City Council last year back this up and indicate our budget is in the region of 15 million annually.

Finally on the stadium - of course I didn't expect a stadium to magic itself into existence in a few months. But Ruane's May presentation led me and others to think that an announcement of a master plan and timescale was imminent. 3 months later we have threatened the dogs with a laughable relocation to Terryland and failed to get a roof on our temporary stand for our first home game.

I've been attending Connacht games for 15 years or so, so I have realistic expectations. But off the field we seem to be making lots of noise about not very much, in a way that reminds me of the bad old days. That's more concerning than 2 bad results.

salmson wrote: And while we'll always browse in the bargain aisle, this summer our signings were of the poundshop variety.

Apart from the capped Springbok outhalf and the most promising back three player produced by the Leinster academy since nobody can remember when?

salmson wrote: One cancellation is bad luck, two looks like bad planning.

One cancellation by the other party is bad luck. Two cancellations by two other parties is bad luck.

salmson wrote: On the omnishambles, I'm not just referring to the friendlies that weren't. Ruane has made a lot of noise about getting a fit for purpose stadium, and delivered nothing as yet.

So by omnishambles you're referring to the failure to deliver a stadium preseason? Because this would have helped out defence?

salmson wrote: I'm hoping to be proved wrong as regards branch/CEO, but I'm not expecting to be.

Two and a half games after winning the pro 12 on a shoestring? Wow. Just wow.

Thats fair enough Salmson, but from what ive heard one team pulled out as they needed to ease their players back into winning ways and were afraid of losing to us (im reading between the lines here after hearing a few pre season podcasts) and Im not sure why the other team pulled out.

As regards the stadium, if you have ever dealt with Co Cos , planners and developers I can tell you its a long slow process as they operate at a different pace to the real world. On top on that you are dealing with the Dog crowd who have their own agenda and will have their own timeline.

We'll agree to disagree on that point. One cancellation is bad luck, two looks like bad planning. How many other teams had one cancellation, never mind two?

On the omnishambles, I'm not just referring to the friendlies that weren't. Ruane has made a lot of noise about getting a fit for purpose stadium, and delivered nothing as yet. And while we'll always browse in the bargain aisle, this summer our signings were of the poundshop variety. I'm hoping to be proved wrong as regards branch/CEO, but I'm not expecting to be.

Just one point on the "pre season omnishambles" .

It would seem that all of the blame is being laid at Connachts door. We dont know that to be true. Afaik two other matches were organised and the opposition pulled out.

Im no apologist for the branch but they cant be held accountable if a third party let them down. Id imagine that these things are planned well in advance and are hard to organise at short notice when everyone else has their own plans made.

We've had a dedicated defence coach in the past, afaik the coaching staff sizes are the same across all the provinces and you break up the jobs as you see fit. Munster are the only province with a designated defence coach, at Leinster McQuilkin was defence coach, Lancaster is his replacement but his title is senior coach.

You can get tied up in titles, it's my understanding Pat is the main defence coach at Connacht, and obviously the video analyst and skills coach would feed into that. Having been promoted from video analyst McPhillips probably has less responsibility for defence than last year.

In summary I think the issues are preparation (that falls at the CEO's door after the preseason omnishambles), attitude, and a couple of players just not being up to standard.

RonanL wrote: I believe I'm right in saying we don't have a defense coach. Do the other provinces? I'm not asking in a "poor old connacht" way, just curious to know if it's the done thing or not.

In any case, it's pretty obvious that our defense is pretty weak at the moment. Pat Lam and Mul both spoke after the Zebre game about individual errors, which is fair enough, but how do you stop those? Is it concentration? Lack of trust in the guy beside you? Physicality? I have no idea.

One, potentially unrelated note. I was chatting to Johnny O'Connor randomly last weekend in Galway. It seems he has moved back to Galway full time. He was very pretty cagey when I asked him if he was coming back to Connacht in some capacity, but time will tell I guess.

Do you think the loss of Andre Bell is having a significant impact ( without being disrespectful to Conor McPhilips). I assume as back coach he would have had a significant input into the defensive plays.

I believe I'm right in saying we don't have a defense coach. Do the other provinces? I'm not asking in a "poor old connacht" way, just curious to know if it's the done thing or not.

In any case, it's pretty obvious that our defense is pretty weak at the moment. Pat Lam and Mul both spoke after the Zebre game about individual errors, which is fair enough, but how do you stop those? Is it concentration? Lack of trust in the guy beside you? Physicality? I have no idea.

One, potentially unrelated note. I was chatting to Johnny O'Connor randomly last weekend in Galway. It seems he has moved back to Galway full time. He was pretty cagey when I asked him if he was coming back to Connacht in some capacity, but time will tell I guess.