I agree with the Green Dragon, we should never get to far ahead of ourselves that we think that we can obtain instant success. We are what we are. People are fooling themselves if they think we can get a quick fix.

EE is Connacht through and through, personally, I do not think that anyone will tell him that he has to go, he will know himself. He wants what is best for Connacht more than anyone. The only way to get long term success is to build from the bottom up and in that respect we have improved. Our academy is the key for me. Last years 20's success was huge and the amount of players that we are getting on international teams is increasing and looking consistent. We do not have the amount of young players to choose from as others but we are going about it the right way.

The budget that we have will never allow us to compete with others but if we have our academy players coming through then that is the conveyor belt that we need. It is hard to produce the required number of players but it is the way forward for me.

The real hard task for me will always be holding on to the good talent until we can produce enough good players to be consistent and competitive in competition. The likes of TOH who is as west as they come, produced through our system, will want to see others coming through as well. He has ambitions to play at the top international table, we will struggle to give him that shortly. Get the rest of the lads in the squad as soon as they are ready. The Eagles are the breeding ground, I would rather see as much home grown talent as possible and keep building. EE has to keep us going with out squad and keep looking to be new boys to come in. I do not see anyone (including EOS) improving on Eric at present.

sea_point wrote:

connachtexile wrote: We've been fairly dire this season and things aren't exactly looking up. Is EE & Co. to blame for all of it? Should he go next season? And if so who would you like to replace him? A veteran coach with experience who will steady the boat like Rob Penney or a young gun with something to prove like Joe Schmidt (when hired)?

Ok so which signings are you going to cut from the squad to be able to afford a Penney or Schmidt, because both would earn significantly more than the highest paid player in Connacht...? And if the answer is no one and there is no Denis O'Brien to bump the salary who on Eric's money are you going to get that will be significantly better?

All very well suggesting a clear-out, but be careful what you wish for because you just don't know what the alternative is.

Well said sea_point, the Branch is not awash with finacial backers and unlimited resources for a restructure, the squad we have at this moment in time is probably the best we have had in years.
Look at the injury list and tell me that we would not have turned Glasgow over on friday night !!! were many injured players available for that game !!!
While we are on the subject of Glasgow, Eric had to make a lot of changes to the team not only throuigh injury but also if you read a lot of posts on this forum Fans were calling for certain players to be dropped and replaced for bad performances. As far as I am cocerned the youngsters that came in did us proud.
Looking at the team selection before friday's game, most of us would have taken a bonus point or a ten point margin,(most were predicting a good thumping)the boys were right in it up to the last ten minutes and could have come away with that bonus point, they did in fact come away with that 10 point margin.
Some posters on this forum are talking about culling this player and culling that player !! in my opinion we have to persevere with them as they will only get better with more game time. It's time to take a reality check, we are where we are and there are no quick fixes, calling for coaches or players heads is out of order, this is only my oppinion (and we all have one of them) !!!!!

connachtexile wrote: We've been fairly dire this season and things aren't exactly looking up. Is EE & Co. to blame for all of it? Should he go next season? And if so who would you like to replace him? A veteran coach with experience who will steady the boat like Rob Penney or a young gun with something to prove like Joe Schmidt (when hired)?

Ok so which signings are you going to cut from the squad to be able to afford a Penney or Schmidt, because both would earn significantly more than the highest paid player in Connacht...? And if the answer is no one and there is no Denis O'Brien to bump the salary who on Eric's money are you going to get that will be significantly better?

All very well suggesting a clear-out, but be careful what you wish for because you just don't know what the alternative is.

If we are to change then a total clear out is needed. What is our strength and conditioning coach at when we' e all these injuries? What's our backs coach at when we can't get the ball beyond our number 12? What's our defence coach doing when we seem to have lost the ability to tackle? It looks like the lads are trying to cuddle the opposition to he ground at times.

What is our head coach at when he's leaving injured lads to play on when they can't walk, when he insists on playing completely off form players?

The only one that can feel anyways like he's doing his job is big Dan as we don't have many problems in the pack. However when a friend and I asked him after the Scarlets game what's going on that we're making so many mistakes he simply said "I don't know".

A total clear out is needed from top to bottom.

well the other three provinces are all going in a similar direction coaching wise for a reason and we are not! enough said.

We've been fairly dire this season and things aren't exactly looking up. Is EE & Co. to blame for all of it? Should he go next season? And if so who would you like to replace him? A veteran coach with experience who will steady the boat like Rob Penney or a young gun with something to prove like Joe Schmidt (when hired)?

Eric Out?? He is only there one year, a year where we lost Hagan, Carr, Cronin and Keatley....Come on give him a chance!

Here's a thought why don't we get a lad like Roly Meates down to do a session with our TH's every now and again or hire the lad on a 'consultant' basis? Jamie Hagan for one swears by the guy and I've never heard a bad thing about the guys teaching. We can't afford the staff Leinster have but we could get a lot of the guys on a semi-permanent basis.

Diom wrote: Personally I think we either persist with EE and his team or we do a full clearing. I'm not saying that that should be done but if we were to see it happen it should be a clean start for the new coaching team. Moving EE to kicking coach while bringing in a new head coach is a recipe for absolute disaster.

EOS would be a good coach I think. At least he would have had experience of coaching in varied environments. People pointing to his USA record will do well to remember that they actually did alright under him and his main complaint was that players were not available, and that is pretty valid for a coach used to professional full-time players.

The one thing that MUST happen, is that Connacht need to hold onto Carolan, and get some of the coaches from the more successful AIL clubs in Connacht to buy-in and get their input into the team. We need new ideas.

I am for a full clearing!
The backroom staff are essentially status quo minus bradley!

nothing has changed in the last 8 years,
After the whipping in Aironi Connacht rugby facebook page to the second of the final whistle were touting the tickets for the Quins game!
I mean really,do they not have the realisation of the punter in the street that actually feels like crap when our team loses and really thought this season might bring SOME differences!
(Yours truly)
We are going backwards at a rate of knots and anyone that says any different I would like some of what they are smoking! SVP

PS give carolan the job maybe he would let some of the young talent play!!!

gaillimhabu wrote: One or two mentioned that that we need to hold onto Carolan. I don't know anything about him but he is mentioned as a skills coach on the connacht website.

Looks to me like our basic skills are lacking i.e. handling. Kicking for goal too but that is probably more speciliazed.

Anyone care to elaborate what work he carries out specifically.

He leads the academy, and coached the U20 team that wiped the floor with the other provinces this year.

One or two mentioned that that we need to hold onto Carolan. I don't know anything about him but he is mentioned as a skills coach on the connacht website.

Looks to me like our basic skills are lacking i.e. handling. Kicking for goal too but that is probably more speciliazed.

Anyone care to elaborate what work he carries out specifically.

Personally I think we either persist with EE and his team or we do a full clearing. I'm not saying that that should be done but if we were to see it happen it should be a clean start for the new coaching team. Moving EE to kicking coach while bringing in a new head coach is a recipe for absolute disaster.

EOS would be a good coach I think. At least he would have had experience of coaching in varied environments. People pointing to his USA record will do well to remember that they actually did alright under him and his main complaint was that players were not available, and that is pretty valid for a coach used to professional full-time players.

The one thing that MUST happen, is that Connacht need to hold onto Carolan, and get some of the coaches from the more successful AIL clubs in Connacht to buy-in and get their input into the team. We need new ideas.

There's to many good points to go recap so I'm not going to. My biggest problems with EE's management at the moment are:

1. Has ran are key players into the ground so when a big performance is needed or we have a chance at a victory their to tired to go that extra gear and win.

2. Losing has become a habit and he doesn't seem to know how to turn it around. Bernard Jackman in his book talked about how Bradley used to on and on about a defeat while in Leinster they'd talk about the pro's and cons of a lost game were they went wrong then draw a line under it and move onto the next game. Even getting a sports psychologist in for a few sessions could help.

3. Playing players out of position. Ok at the moment we have injuries so thats some excuse but last week he played Kearney at 6 and McCarthy at 5 silly things like that have happened all season. Play a player in his optimum position and you'll get his optimum performance.

4. Hasn't given fringe players or youngsters there chance. This can be poisonous in a dressing room when some players know no matter how hard they train that they'll never be picked because the coach doesn't like them for some reason. Case in point Grace.

Don't get me wrong EE has good points to but these ones are so glaring and worse fixable that if he continues he'll have coached himself out of a job.

I was against the hiring of Eric when Bradley left. He wasn't a significant enough change, had no experience as a top man and presided over a backline that was consistently at or near the bottom in the league in terms of scoring trys. But the branch has made its bed and should lie in it for at least another season. Eric needs to be given a fair crack at the whip and it would be very difficult to say he was getting that going on the past season and a half. The departure of Hagan, Cronin, Carr and Keatley combined with the havoc the imposed one year contracts had on the squad has put him at a disadvantage. He has certainly made mistakes IMO, but in order to judge the man as an effective coach it would take a third season in charge.

Unconvinced either way.

We can discuss it until the cows come home but there's zero chance of Eric getting the sack barring some outside intervention.

its_phil wrote:

sea_point wrote: [
If he's that good and given he's coached at the highest echelon (International Rugby), how come there aren't teams clamouring all over his ass to sign him up given he's been back on the market for ages now?

Because he resigned in November, there were no jobs available! Everyone has their coach for the season appointed at that stage. Theres only two jobs made available so far and thats at Sale and Biarritz. Biarritz need a French speaking coach who understands their culture and he's the favorite for the Sale job. The Ospreys job is up for grabs too but he wont get that with Gatland as coach of Wales

He wont coach at international level again imo unless its for Italy imo.

Dont forget Edinburgh where they chose Bradley because he was a better people person.

I still believe he should not be considered as it would be a step back

I am still firmly behind Eric though, even though it is going to be 16 losses in a row