I'd never be in favour of a ref being booed off. Its an absolutely horrible job and I wouldn't do it for all the money in the world. Honestly when George Clancy is ref there is a sense that you are subconsciously waiting for him to screw us over as that's our experience of him.

However, we self-destructed last Friday as we have done so often this season, blaming anyone but ourselves is stupid.

However, after every game on here if there's even the mildest criticism of refs we get this impassioned defence of refs regardless of how good or bad they've been.

Ultimately if players/coaches don't deliver they pay for it by being dropped, lose their job or reduced contracts and while they might get clapped off after the game by whatever supporters remain ultimately they get put under the microscope by their employers.

Let's be honest the lads at Connacht aren't like Premier League soccer players, in a few years when they retire they won't have enough money to ride off into the sunset, they will be faced with having to hit the real world in their early 30s. Also let's be honest given the hits going in in the modern game in 15 or 20 years time most of these lads will all be crocked for playing the game they love.

For most refs it's a sideline to their full time job. I have no doubt they are in general very professional in how they go about their business but I contrast what I imagine the Connacht team meeting tomorrow morning will be like for someone like Craig Ronaldson compared to what some of the refs would face for their performances from their employer and I don't see the same level of accountability for mistakes made.

Glad I was gone just before the final whistle blew.

Listen, Clancy this and Clancy that is total nonsense. I am no fan of poor refs but once a decision is made, have to move on.

We beat ourselves PERIOD. We were poor PERIOD. If this continues into next Saturday, we will be beaten PERIOD.

Let's get behind them for one mighty afternoon next Saturday and get through a European Semi-Final. It's what we have to do.

This is the scenario I cant get my head around.

Player 1 makes a mistake that costs us the game, were annoyed but clap him off the pitch with lots of heads up lads better luck next time.

Referee makes a mistake that costs us the game and he gets vilified and personally abused coming off the pitch.

Where's the difference ? neither set out to make a mistake yet they are treated so differently .

Clancy isn't everyone's cup of tea, personally I thought he had a good enough game, the Team of three and the TMO worked well together and thats something thats not apparent to the average supporter, there is constant chatter between them all during the game and at HT .The TMO will check lots of stuff on the run so to speak without the ref having to go through the whole TMO procedure.

As Ive said before, The decision you want and the correct decision may be two different things entirely.

Hearing the booing and the personal abuse that was hurled at the ref on Friday embarrassed me.
As a ref and as a Connacht supporter this has no place in our game. We had come so far over the last few years where we treated the refs with respect and then we had the spectacle of friday night where "supporters" waited to abuse the ref and then didnt even wait to clap off the teams.

Its only a few idiots that are doing it, but they tarnish all our names with their antics.

I know Clancy didn't have a good night on the whistle last night but he did not deserve the abuse he got coming off the pitch. That is embarrassing for the Province. We lost, it sucked, show some class.

Edit: spelling

There are 3 certainties in life . The sun goes up , the sun goes down...and George Clancy will screw us in a heart beat. That, not withstanding, how naïve are we . It wasn't amateur hour, that would be kind, more like amateur 80 min . The first try made us a laughing stock and rightly so . So ... what now ? Suggest the Clan table Quiz on Wednesday...beer Sat v Gloucester ...shout our heads off and hope for the best.....and beer!!

Deary deary me. Wow, to piss away a game like that is putrid. To hand the opposition (who weren't great) a 12 point head start with two block down tries is STUPID!! Don't think Gloucester would be too worried with what they saw tonight - maybe it's all part of KK greater plan - fool the opposition. I know I said a few months ago here that Connacht should concentrate fully on the Challenge Cup but I didn't think they'd take me THAT literally:) Very disappointing.

But Griffin , Roux and few others looked like they hadn't see a rugby ball in 3 months

In fairness how do you concede a try after 17 seconds ???
Some good play but gave away some cheap pens Roux especially, Jack done well some good kicks to the corner when the conditions took a turn.
Clancy was his usual self a brutal ref, Edinburgh were offside all night and how he pulled SOB for the clash of heads Is still a mystery to me.

That’s the most frustrated I’ve been after a game for quite a while.

Don’t think Edinburgh would have won that game if Nigel Owens was reffing. I think they knew that and played the ref accordingly, as good teams should.

I thought our systems worked quite well, our attack was as dangerous as it’s ever looked against a decent team and our defence was for the most part aggressive and comfortable. We lost due to individual errors, be it indiscipline, handling errors, or poor decision making. He tries hard but Roux is painfully brainless, I cannot fathom how he comes out of Irish camp, and the intense focus on discipline that comes with it, and give away an entire Joe Schmidt team’s worth of penalties.

While it’s nice to see that their systems are starting to click, the coaches have to take the blame for their use of the bench.

I cannot emphasise enough how much I hate pre planned substitutes. Carty was playing absolutely brilliantly, he was threatening the line, passing well, making good decisions on when to kick and then executing to perfection. Then he’s taken off on 60 minutes for Ronaldson, who has been playing very poorly at ten recently. I thought the more obvious sub to make was Ronaldson for Griffin, and Farrell to 13. Also I’m not sure how Roux was left on for so long when he was giving away penalties left right and centre.

Really poor finish once again, to lose two consecutive games in the final few minutes is a real kick in the teeth, the bench came on and we went backwards massively. Carty was controlling the game really well, then Ronaldson comes on and had a negative impact, the only player that should have been subbed early in Roux (who just had a mare tonight) stays on until the thing is more or less over. We've thrown away quite a few points in the last 10 in games this year which is so frustrating. In fairness we performed well for large parts and there's a lot of positives to be taken but once again I'm left thinking that if we could just close out games and win the games we should be winning we'd actually have been in a position to challenge for the knockouts in the league. Our defence held strong at times but then we gave them two really soft tries which is unforgivable. Better performance needed next week but signs we're not too far off. Handling another area that really needs to improve.

Martinclanconroy wrote: Anyone no what time gates open tonight got no email

I'd guess 90 minutes before kick off

Any chance the six nations and triple crown trophys will be making an appearance tonight?

Anyone no what time gates open tonight got no email

O’Brien at 8 and McKeon at 6 makes absolutely no sense to me.

www.connachtrugby.ie/irish-international...e-to-face-edinburgh/

(15-9) Tiernan O’Halloran, Niyi Adeolokun, Eoin Griffin, Tom Farrell, Matt Healy, Jack Carty, Caolin Blade, (1- Denis Buckley, Tom McCartney (Capt), Finlay Bealham, Gavin Thornbury, Quinn Roux, Eoin McKeon, Jarrad Butler, Sean O’Brien.

Replacements (16-23): Dave Heffernan, Denis Coulson, Dominic Robertson McCoy, James Cannon, Eoghan Masterson, James Mitchell, Craig Ronaldson, Darragh Leader.

Back to the league again after the internationals, Roux appears to be released back to us for the game Friday. I was also wondering if anyone is heading down from the Sligo/Charlestown direction, a lift would be well rewarded. Hopefully we can get a big win against a strong performing Edinburgh side, who'll surely have some of their big players back too.