Dan parks would be a great signing but why would he come to us?

Leadership and kicking

if there is a chance of parks coming here we must grab him wit both hands on a 2 yr contract. he is leagues all time points scorer by long way which is precisely what we need. if we cud put him beside stringer what a diff that wud make.

Porterbelly wrote: Dan Parks was mentioned in the Times this morning as a name that's floating around as a possible recruit

Jayus I hope not, bring back Mark McHugh I don't care if he is 45 and cannot run, the man could kick and fight for the jersey.

Dan Parks was mentioned in the Times this morning as a name that's floating around as a possible recruit

I see no problem in signing munster players. however i still think we need to replace the 4 dat left last year. So on the wish list Fogarty(or ideally get henry back) a solid 9 and 10 stringer and maybe stauton. then a bit of leadership in the pack M O'Driscoll or get browne back. Get f. carr back and b, stanley over and a tight head prop and we're sorted

Connman wrote: Yes, I would consider it, get more People to watch us, i.e. a half decent player coming on loan for 3 months then I'm all for it!

Still not convinced on this. I played football, so I'll take correction on this, but I would have thought the specialisation of positions in rugby would make integrating players over such short periods quite difficult? I played all ten outfield positions in football (and yes, utility player is shorthand for poor in more than one position) but that couldn't happen even in junior rugby (though there is a poster on this site called "prophalf", so, again, I may be corrected).

Yes, I would consider it, get more People to watch us, i.e. a half decent player coming on loan for 3 months then I'm all for it!

I think as long as we put time restraints such as 3 month has to be the minimum and 12 months the maximum but I am in favour of a loan system. There's been years here in the past when we've been hit hard with injury that we'd be crying out for a player or two in certain positions.

its_phil wrote: I'm not against a loan system unless it is abused like in the English Premier League by teams like Bolton who build their teams around the loan player and are left destroyed the season after.

Perhaps have it structured so that the team receiving the player on loan has first option to extend the loan by a further year if it's going well?

I'm not against a loan system unless it is abused like in the English Premier League by teams like Bolton who build their teams around the loan player and are left destroyed the season after.

Take for example McKinley before he had to retire who would have been a great case for a loan. A one year loan, negotiated in summer when Leinster, Connacht and McKinley assess all options and look at squad, 4th choice outhalf at Leinster becomes first choice here. McKinley gets a year of HC and Rabo and fills a gap. Elwood goes on the hunt for an outhalf whos contract is then up at the end of the season lines him up and replaces the Mckinley gap with a full out-half. McKinley has experience under his belt, Leinster get a better player (at least I believe so), and Connacht stop a gap short term and bring in a new guy.

The loan system is good as well as it only places players on one year deals rather than having to award two year contracts to useless journeyman.

I mean I dont want lads who have never even played a Senior rugby game, but the type who get a few games here and there, will do a job and are solid. I'm not looking for the guy who can do a cartwheel between two tacklers and does a backflip to touch down the ball!!just a guy who will make tackles, kick his goals and makes his passes.

Robbo wrote: There's zero point in bringing in say a 20 year old lock or back row with shag all Pro12 experience for 6 months and expect him to hit the ground running.

Exactly. Either they're no use in the period of the loan, or they're brilliant and their parent club wants them back pronto.

Maybe I'm Pollyanna on this, but I think we only need a medium term solution until we get our youngsters into the team.

One way of doing this could be if the IRFU set up a 7s team and attached it to Connacht. You could have 16 7s contracts, with the understanding that the 7s tournaments had first call for these players. Half of these (plus say 4 AIL players picked on form) would be needed for each 7s tournament, while the other half remain (and bulk up our squad). Of course you'd need something like 0.5 to 1 million for wages and maybe half that again for other costs, so unlikely....

Interesting. So it was more Munster didn't want to lose him rather than he didn't want to move to Connacht?

Fair enough. Didn't know that.

Frankie Sheahan was floating a similar loan system in the Rugby Paper last week. Conveniently, the players he thought that would benefit most were those that he manages but that's human nature for you.

I think that if you're going to be bringing in players on short deals, from a Connacht point of view, they'd want to be experienced heads who will be able to drop in, have the experience and know what's required. There's zero point in bringing in say a 20 year old lock or back row with shag all Pro12 experience for 6 months and expect him to hit the ground running.

ummm, wrote: To elevate his writing to another level what Quinlan needed to do was to give an honest answer to why he didn't join Connacht last year.

Quinlan was contracted through to the end of last season on a 2 year deal(2009/10 & 2010/11). His coming here in a dual playing/coaching role in the summer of 2010 was contingent on Munster releasing him from his contract, which they understandably refused to do.

I was disappointed in the article, very little substance in it, and as you say a loan system might be good for the players who need game time, but it wouldn't be good for us in the long run.

I used to be in favour of a loan idea, but it's clear that we need a consistent squad to achieve consistency on the pitch.

To elevate his writing to another level what Quinlan needed to do was to give an honest answer to why he didn't join Connacht last year. What were his reasons and how do those reasons translate to other players and the countries view of Connacht rugby as a whole. But I was sad to see we didn't get that kind of honesty from him.

Seemed as good a place as any to post this link (Alan Quinlan on Connacht's catch-22):

www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/1221/1224309338090.html

Personally I don't at all buy his "loan" suggestion, you can't chop and change a squad every 6 to 12 months (as we are proving this year).

We have tons of young talent coming through the underage system.

Rather than spending big money on speculative foreign signings, we need to be focussing on the academy, on bolters from the AIL (like McSharry, and the 4 boys who left last year), and on getting 3 or 4 big and/or experienced names - Stringer, Gopperth, White, Ruddock, Browne being just a handful of the players who are availabel next summer - to help us through the next few years until our underage success starts to fully bear fruit.