Listening to the craggy podcast, KK actually a lot less raging than I was expecting, don't think he was happy with the referee at all though he chose his words carefully speaking about it(must have seen the video of Pat with the laptop out...:lol: ).

Absolute thumping for Ospreys today against second string Glasgow at the liberty. Some bookies now have them at the same odds as Zebre and Kings.
Blues probably in for the same treatment when they go to Scotstoun next week so hopefully Connacht can get back into the automatic qualification spot as long as the performance in Parma is something like the second time last season and nothing like the first or third times.
I would also be very pleased indeed if Scarlets could do a number on Cheetahs and it would also help if Kings can continue the momentum from their double bonus point today and beat Edinburgh - we might need that home advantage play-off yet ...
A lot of our fate depends on those four games Ospreys have yet to play against Connacht and Blues.

Mark Mostyn wrote:

RoadRunnerR1 wrote: Being polite, our attack was static and totally predictable but if i'm being honest with the exception of Farrell and Ahki (when he Finally came on) that back line looked clueless. Even Tiernan looked almost disinterested and resigned himself to running into the Cardiff defense all night long without the slightest bit of variation to his game plan. If it's clearly not working, then change it.
We were lead to believe that the whole robotic rigidly sticking to the same game plan (Whatever that might be) was gone and KK was encouraging them to see opportunities and play what's in front of them. Either this team doesn't understand how or they're just not seeing the opportunities that are clearly there game after game. Barring the Munster game, their physicality and competition at the breakdown have been terrible which begs the question, if they could do it for the Munster game the why not the rest. It would seem to me there's a major problem with the attitude of some of the players week after week.
Ahki didn't do anything miraculous for his run that led to the try. He just ran around the Cardiff defenders using some reasonable pace and footwork but above all he used the hand-off. These are basic skills not some never before seen magic, and a hell of a lot easier and more productive the just running straight into the opposition time after time hoping for the best. Even Tiernan has given up using his trickery and invention in favour of the blinkered bull run. There's a time and a place for it but if it's all you can do then it's very easy to negate.
And when the time comes to do the grunt work and take the ball into contact, for god's sake drop your shoulder, get low and fight for every meter possible. I don't wish to single out any one player but James Cannon seems to constantly carry the ball too high into contact and ends up being driven back behind the gain line. And he's not alone in this.
The Connacht mantra is "Front up. Rise up". It's about time this team had a serious look in the dictionary to see if they can rediscover the meaning of these words and get back to being the team I really believe the're capable of being.

If you go back and read old interviews with Matt O'Connor he talked a lot about removing structures and encouraging players to play what was in front of them. We all saw how that worked out. Carolan had a similar mantra when he was with the u20s, they looked lost and clueless most of the time. I think Irish players really struggle without a structure. If you go back and rewatch Friday's game you'll see players clearly not knowing where to run and getting lost on first phase possession. I don't think our problem last year was that we were too structured, it was that the structure had been figured out and we needed to adapt it.

Yea I totally agree there has to be structure and a game plan. But when your game plan clearly isn't working week after week, players need to take responsibility and use their initiative as did Ahki against Cardiff. He just looked up and saw was was in front of him and then he trusted his own ability and made the break. And equally Farrell read what was happening and ran a lovely supporting line. I felt the rest of the team were a couple of seconds slower in their thought process and Farrell did well to keep possession and not give a way a penalty before the cavalry finally arrived. Players like Tiernan, Healy, Kelleher and Ade are more than capable of playing this heads up rugby and making regular line breaks but they're not doing it. There will always be space to exploit but if you're not looking, you won't see it.

The space for the back 3 has to be created by the guys inside. I think we really missed Bundee's creative ability, he doesn't get half enough credit for the space he creates for our wide men.

RoadRunnerR1 wrote: Being polite, our attack was static and totally predictable but if i'm being honest with the exception of Farrell and Ahki (when he Finally came on) that back line looked clueless. Even Tiernan looked almost disinterested and resigned himself to running into the Cardiff defense all night long without the slightest bit of variation to his game plan. If it's clearly not working, then change it.
We were lead to believe that the whole robotic rigidly sticking to the same game plan (Whatever that might be) was gone and KK was encouraging them to see opportunities and play what's in front of them. Either this team doesn't understand how or they're just not seeing the opportunities that are clearly there game after game. Barring the Munster game, their physicality and competition at the breakdown have been terrible which begs the question, if they could do it for the Munster game the why not the rest. It would seem to me there's a major problem with the attitude of some of the players week after week.
Ahki didn't do anything miraculous for his run that led to the try. He just ran around the Cardiff defenders using some reasonable pace and footwork but above all he used the hand-off. These are basic skills not some never before seen magic, and a hell of a lot easier and more productive the just running straight into the opposition time after time hoping for the best. Even Tiernan has given up using his trickery and invention in favour of the blinkered bull run. There's a time and a place for it but if it's all you can do then it's very easy to negate.
And when the time comes to do the grunt work and take the ball into contact, for god's sake drop your shoulder, get low and fight for every meter possible. I don't wish to single out any one player but James Cannon seems to constantly carry the ball too high into contact and ends up being driven back behind the gain line. And he's not alone in this.
The Connacht mantra is "Front up. Rise up". It's about time this team had a serious look in the dictionary to see if they can rediscover the meaning of these words and get back to being the team I really believe the're capable of being.

If you go back and read old interviews with Matt O'Connor he talked a lot about removing structures and encouraging players to play what was in front of them. We all saw how that worked out. Carolan had a similar mantra when he was with the u20s, they looked lost and clueless most of the time. I think Irish players really struggle without a structure. If you go back and rewatch Friday's game you'll see players clearly not knowing where to run and getting lost on first phase possession. I don't think our problem last year was that we were too structured, it was that the structure had been figured out and we needed to adapt it.

Bazzo wrote: Sorry but there was a big more than reasonable pace and footwork to that Ahki break. If it was that simple we'd see wingers beating 4 men all the time, he showed great acceleration on the outside, strong fending and excellent footwork imo.

You're missing my point here. I'm not taking away from Akhi's performance, I'm simply trying to point out that what he did is not super human. His pace was good but by no means exceptional, and the evasive footwork and the fend off are tools that are in every other Connacht players (backs at least) tool box also. The problem is they choose not to use them, instead choosing to constantly run up blind alleyways and hope for the best. Ahki looked up, saw what was in front of him and did the SMART thing. His execution was excellent as was the trail running of Farrell. I believe this Connacht team is full of very good players who for reasons unknown choose not to play smart. I really believe that players like Tiernan, Ade, Healy ect. are more than capable of identifying holes in opposition defenses and using their own pace, footwork and yes even a fend off or three to exploit the space and make line break after line break. This in turn would tend to push back and slow down the oppositions defensive line and I believe would help negate the high speed high intensity line speed that's been killing us since we won the Pro12.

I don't think he was consistent at all to be honest.

On the refs performance, he had s good game, was consistent and clear in his decision making.

Just because the decision he makes doesn’t suit us doesn’t make it wrong.

We made far too many basic errors and that’s what cost us, defensively we were weak for their tries.

Sorry but there was a big more than reasonable pace and footwork to that Ahki break. If it was that simple we'd see wingers beating 4 men all the time, he showed great acceleration on the outside, strong fending and excellent footwork imo.

Being polite, our attack was static and totally predictable but if i'm being honest with the exception of Farrell and Ahki (when he Finally came on) that back line looked clueless. Even Tiernan looked almost disinterested and resigned himself to running into the Cardiff defense all night long without the slightest bit of variation to his game plan. If it's clearly not working, then change it.
We were lead to believe that the whole robotic rigidly sticking to the same game plan (Whatever that might be) was gone and KK was encouraging them to see opportunities and play what's in front of them. Either this team doesn't understand how or they're just not seeing the opportunities that are clearly there game after game. Barring the Munster game, their physicality and competition at the breakdown have been terrible which begs the question, if they could do it for the Munster game the why not the rest. It would seem to me there's a major problem with the attitude of some of the players week after week.
Ahki didn't do anything miraculous for his run that led to the try. He just ran around the Cardiff defenders using some reasonable pace and footwork but above all he used the hand-off. These are basic skills not some never before seen magic, and a hell of a lot easier and more productive the just running straight into the opposition time after time hoping for the best. Even Tiernan has given up using his trickery and invention in favour of the blinkered bull run. There's a time and a place for it but if it's all you can do then it's very easy to negate.
And when the time comes to do the grunt work and take the ball into contact, for god's sake drop your shoulder, get low and fight for every meter possible. I don't wish to single out any one player but James Cannon seems to constantly carry the ball too high into contact and ends up being driven back behind the gain line. And he's not alone in this.
The Connacht mantra is "Front up. Rise up". It's about time this team had a serious look in the dictionary to see if they can rediscover the meaning of these words and get back to being the team I really believe the're capable of being.

Not good enough - AGAIN

Marmion/Crosbie + Mitchell/Deegan on the bench next week should be possible. The rest of the main 23 is stable, we can absorb that change

Magpie wrote: I feel for Griffin, but he looks all lost. Blade is not consistent enough.

The ref did alright, the Williams yellow was cumulative, he had given away several petulant penalties and the ref had enough.

The attack will improve when we a few more creative players return..., but what was really worrying was that our defensive structure that was serving us well the last few games was totally abandoned. Healy will do well to keep his place for much longer, he is offering nothing out wide an his defense is becoming an issue.

Defense was shocking. Anytime Cardiff ran at our 9/10 channel they got got rewarded hugely. Crosbiie & Mitchell looked a bigger & better half back pairing than our starters.

Honestly I could write an essay about how poor I thought the officiating was in that game, but I won't. It's a rookie ref on his first game, he made a lot of strange decisions and some, frankly, blatantly wrong calls but hopefully he'll improve with experience and the performance review. Fourth official should be put out to pasture for making such a basic error in a simple job with Williams though...

Anyway, all that aside I think blaming the refs for losing that game would be a total scapegoat, not good in enough in a very winnable game for us IMO.

Borders no.2 wrote: 9 minute sin bin for Nick Williams at the end summed up an entertaining but poor standard spectacle. Extremely frustrating performance. Ponderous in attack. Poor exit strategy. Defensively we looked like conceding at every turn. If we'd beaten them in Galway this result would be easier to stomach but it's an upward struggle from here. Must win the next 4 during December to keep us alive in both competitions.

Yep, on a minute and a half before he should have been.
Shouldn't be missed in a televised game..

Given how bad we were for large portions of the game I'll take the two points. The game was there to be won as some have said as is often the case when we go to Cardiff but we never look anyways comfortable against them. More concerning than the score was the static receivers and the relatively easy time Cardiff had in defence. Our maul was improved on what I saw of earlier games this season but if it was functioning to the level of a couple years ago we could have had four tries from that alone, which is definitely required if we're not going to score tries from creative plays.