I thought the bottom of the barrel was the draw against Treviso at home years ago. That was the most septic and heartless performance I'd seen. Until Friday. I haven't looked for any interviews but we need to hear something said. What is it with us and Italian teams? Did we not prepare for the whole week? Because everything was off. Did must of the lads that played get told they are being let go? Because they played like they didn't want to be there. There are zero positives from this game. We've gone so far backwards this season its almost unbelievable

After last nights travesty I feel sad for myself, sad for my friends who stand beside me and sad for anyone who cares anything about Connacht Rugby. That was pure muck and we deserve much better than that. Also which moron thought it was a good idea to constantly remind us that tickets were selling out fast for the Gloucester game while we were going down in flames on the pitch! It beggars belief.......

RoadRunnerR1 wrote:

Mark Mostyn wrote:

Betty Swallocks wrote: I thought it couldn't get any worse after the away performance against Zebre, but how wrong I was. I've said this before but just what is KK bringing. We need to look at the coaching here as well. Jesus.......it would nearly make you wish for Bradley or EOS to return and I never thought I'd say that!

You have to look at the unit coaches as well.

Agree totally. Despite having a solid scrum, we haven't had a functioning Lineout or Maul (defence or attack) since Dan McFarland left.

Our backs got the most column inches in 15-16 but our maul was brilliant as well, I remember we beat the Scarlets at home with three tries straight from mauls.

Since the players are fair game I don’t feel bad saying that I don’t think Wilkins, Carolan, or Duffy are doing a great job at the moment. And I don’t think Keane has a cohesive vision under which to draw the resources available to him.

I saw Pat as a facilitator, he set the overall vision of the team and used his charisma to motivate players and bring the best out of a very talented team of unit coaches.

I’m not sure what Keane’s vision is and I don’t think he has the same quality staff available to him.

Mark Mostyn wrote:

Betty Swallocks wrote: I thought it couldn't get any worse after the away performance against Zebre, but how wrong I was. I've said this before but just what is KK bringing. We need to look at the coaching here as well. Jesus.......it would nearly make you wish for Bradley or EOS to return and I never thought I'd say that!

You have to look at the unit coaches as well.

Agree totally. Despite having a solid scrum, we haven't had a functioning Lineout or Maul (defence or attack) since Dan McFarland left.

Betty Swallocks wrote: I thought it couldn't get any worse after the away performance against Zebre, but how wrong I was. I've said this before but just what is KK bringing. We need to look at the coaching here as well. Jesus.......it would nearly make you wish for Bradley or EOS to return and I never thought I'd say that!

You have to look at the unit coaches as well.

Zebre actually have a decent run-in. Blues, Ospreys and Dragons at home and Treviso away. They have an outside chance of a Champions Cup spot now.

Betty Swallocks wrote: .....it would nearly make you wish for Bradley or EOS to return and I never thought I'd say that!

Bradley did return. Quite successfully as it happens

I thought it couldn't get any worse after the away performance against Zebre, but how wrong I was. I've said this before but just what is KK bringing. We need to look at the coaching here as well. Jesus.......it would nearly make you wish for Bradley or EOS to return and I never thought I'd say that!

And there were signs up about buying season tickets from 1st March !!! Have to think twice about that after the most disgraceful performance I have ever seen in more than twenty years supporting Connacht . This is bottom line just not acceptable and someone or somebody must stand up and take responsibility for this disgrace - it hurts me to say that . I could write for hours but just one thing , why oh why did Jack not get a chance in second half ??

Del87 wrote: Any positives anybody?

Lot of positives if you were a Zebre supporter. They had game plan sorted against us and they defended well (against our very limited attack) We contributed in strengthening their belief and gave them oxygen by our lack of imagination and horrific lineouts.
They were unlucky not to get a 4 try bonus point.
The far better team won, fair play to them.
Hope Gaffney's injury wasn't too serious.

First of all fair play to Zebre. It's fair to say the final score flattered us which sums up how bad we were but they were the only team playing cohesive rugby tonight. They could have won by another couple of tries. They've beaten us 8-0 this season and have beaten us 3 times in a row now.

When you're losing without a bonus point twice to Zebre, to Dragons, losing at home to Cardiff, drawing against a thrown together Worcester team in a vital game it's not good enough.

From our viewpoint I've seen some terrible stuff over the years but that was probably the worst ever performance I've seen from a Connacht team certainly at the Sportsground. I don't think anyone comes out of that debacle with any credit. We were sloppy from the off and got what we deserved. The only part of Connacht's performance that functioned to any degree was the scrum. We just never really looked like breaking them down similar to in Parma.

Really though this defeat is symbolic of bigger problems within the setup. If you exclude the wins against 2nd string relegation threatened sides in the Challenge Cup, bar maybe the Ulster game and patches of one or two other games watching most of Connacht's games this season has been painful.

When Pat Lam was here the first season had a lot of disappointing nights but you could see what we were trying to achieve and there were nights it did come together. I've watched us all season I honestly don't really see where we are going. We are relying on a moment of inspiration from one of our bigger players and if that doesn't happen we plod along aimlessly until we turn the ball over. For me the league season was over the day we lost at home to Cardiff but after tonight it's firmly dead and buried.

We are really devoid of leadership and that has been shown so many times this season. For me there's no leadership in the pack. The lineout once again was a shambles, even the ones we won weren't really ball you could work off. The rolling maul is an absolute mess both offensively and defensively.

I don't want to list out names but we have a lot of players who are just not up to it and need to be let go in the summer. It's not nice having to let go any players but if we are to return to some level of respectability there needs to be big changes.

On a separate point, hopefully Ciaran Gaffney isn't too badly hurt. His return to Galway didn't last long unfortunately. Good to see Rory Parata back too. Still think he's a much better option than a few of the backs we have in our squad at present.

I'm sure we'll lift it for Gloucester in the Challenge Cup and if we get a few players back it'll give us more cohesion but in terms of the bigger picture I'm very worried that Connacht is heading back to the bad old days again.

Del87 wrote: Any positives anybody?

Scrum functioned well enough. Sean O'Brien played a full 80 back from injury (and fair play to him for coming down to the Clan Bar after the whistle). Careys injury didn't seem too bad. Rory Parata shows the good word the Connacht academy does.

That's about it.

I always try and see the positives , but I'm finding it very difficult. We showed a lack of imagination, basic errors, handling poor.

Zebre and Bradley had their homework well done, especially in the lineout, and they deserved every point they got. You could tell that the win meant something massive to them.

This one stings.

No sugar coating that, losing to Zebre at home is beyond embarrassing. No disrespect to Zebre they deserved their win but based on Connacht's performance KK probably should turnover half the squad at a minimum. Very depressing.

Any positives anybody? Brain dead. Had hopes the half time would be used to cop players on. Was space in behind never exploited. Line out was atrocious. The double. Jaysus wept.

Shockingly bad and here was me thinking we may have a chance of winning the challenge cup after that i would go as far to say we haven't got a hope in hell

That was as bad as it gets. Looked clueless. Ronaldson is a nice 12 but he is a very poor 10. Blame has to lie with KK, we found out ronaldson isnt a good enough 10 3-4 years ago. Would like to look for positives but it is hard to see what connacht are trying to do to stretch teams. I don't think the players know either. Positives: we can park the league and focus on Europe