Comments now deleted - think it may have been some ribbing that context was lost on?!

phatguerilla wrote: Aly Muldowney had strong thoughts on instagram :S

What did he say?

Aly was on the books at Grenoble the same time. Maybe stems from then.

In any event he's our new Forwards Coach and we need to get behind him. Aly Muldowney is a club legend, but we don't need any sniping from the sidelines from ex players before the guys even starts FFS!

Hope he can teach them how to defend a maul...

Any thoughts on our new Forwards Coach - South African Dewald Senekal, ex of Stade Francais?

I'd say there's a good mix of all the factors. Obviously there's a huge financial impact cause of covid, and you would think that lads that are in situ but at end of contract would be looking for similar terms (both money and term). If the branch couldn't offer them that at the moment, happy to try their hands elsewhere. Both lads seemed to very much leave the door open to a return in the future.

Looks like it's not within his control who is coming in either, promoting from below.

It will be very revealing who comes in as Forwards coach, but I wouldn't expect it to be anyone not coaching in Ireland currently, especially after all the money spaffed at Munster on Larkham/Rowentree and co.

Not sure that the squad are getting new voices though, which I had thought was part of the rationale...

CONNACHT RUGBY COACHING TEAM 2021-2023
Andy Friend – Head Coach
Peter Wilkins – Senior Coach
Mossy Lawler – Assistant Attack & Skills Coach
Colm Tucker – Defence & Forwards Technical Skills Coach
TBC – Forwards Coach

t.co/zqmHBq0i6z?amp=1

To lose one coach may be unfortunate, to lose two looks like carelessness.

I wasn't particularly happy to see Carolan leaving, I thought he has done a good job in his various positions but understood his position that 25 years is a long long time with a single province.

But now I see Jimmy Duffy also leaving, citing much the same reasons? the Carolan press release said he told them in advance this would be his last contract but Duffy's decision seems to have been a surprise. Maybe I'm expecting a lot but if I knew one coach was going to leave in 2021, I would perhaps contract the other to the following year to avoid this potentially happening, or is that naive?

Its sad to see two guys who have given so much to Connacht leaving, but without meaning to be callous, are there any positives to Friend potentially bringing in a new backroom team that he's selected himself? Is he going to be able to pick the best team possible during a pandemic?