dont sack him but move him to the side. Skills/kicking coach to outhalves comes to mind. Bring in experienced head coach to shake up every other aspect of set up.

People on here need to be realistic - Eddie O'Sullivan may not be the best coach in the world, but the best coaches in the world wouldn't come to Connacht in a million years. I personally think that he is an excellent coach with a proven track record.

Everyone agrees that Eric is a legend, but he was involved with the previous setup which obviously didn't succeed, and we are in the midst of a terrible run, which must have player confidence at an all time low. For me, I think we're getting very close to the point where Eric should either offer to leave, or be asked to.

EE should not be sacked, you have to take into account the contract issue, focus on resourcing amenities/ ground and not the squad this year and the huge turnover of players and the "gelling in" or lack of of the new players (v inexperienced on the whole as well)as well as HEC not giving us any "easy" games to break up this streak, EE and the board should be held to account next season. This is what my shrink in beverly hills told me...... :sick:

We cant afford top quality players or even attract them never mind a top quality coach

I strongly feel the Eddie O is not the right man for the post. He is desperate for a job at the minute and as any comes available he is in the paper saying he is interested.

He has been turned down for a number of jobs in the Pro d12 and the Premiership. I feel it would be a step backwards for Connacht.

If things are going to change it is a top quality coach we need. Eddie won silverware with the greatest crop of Irish players and at that only won triple crown.

When in tough circumstances like he was with USA there were no major advances made, and it is for this reason I personally feel he is not the man

Lads i was so delighted when EE took charge he was the right man at the right time and i think a lot of what has happened in the last 2 seasons as in the 2 yr contracts and so on is down to his commitment and badgering of the Connacht higher etchelons and the IRFU.
BUT the wheels have seem to have come off a little this season not expected though with our first choice TH OH Winger Hooker and none of those positions being properly replaced apart from Reyneke.
Would EE be better off as team manager with Eddie O as coach??
Eddie has silverware with Ireland and has the experience and might draw a few of the players like Stringer some sort of 10 or somebody that can kick and a decent TH.
I think EE is a great servant of Connacht Rugby and he should be here as we move forward but not as Coach.

If your good enough your old enough is a good philosophy when you can put young guns in beside seasoned professionals and its always easier to put a young lad on the wing or in the backs where the physical stakes arent as great.
Would love to see Layden or Boland given a run now that Tuohy is out for a while. Can either kick?
We were close but no cigar in a good few matches but were Elwood to start playing 2-3 younger lads in some games we could be beat out the gate.
How's Maguire doing? Id have expected him to have got more game time by now.
And Sean O'Brien has been known since he was playing U20's with Ireland. He was always a beast. Unreal physical for his age and I dont think Connacht have anybody like him in the academy.

Sack no, relieved of coaching duties yes, it's not just the current run, we were very lucky to win the games we did win. But also when he was with Bradley we had very good forwards and rubbish coaching in the backs. He is very important to rugby in Connacht but not as a coach, if he took a year off and headed south to learn the trade it would do him no harm or Connacht Rugby. Besides I would have hoped he would be man enough to drop the excuses and recognise the harm that is currently being done to the image of the team and the team itself so sacking is not the solution.

Changing the team and picking teams to win specific games is all fine when you have a good squad but with all the injuries and a small squad isnt possible.
The lads coming in are not good enough and as the losses mounted Elwood became under more pressure to pick his first fifteen.
Leinster can make these changes because there are some quality players coming through dying to get a run out. We dont have the luxury of giving Jamie Heaslip and Sean O Brien a few weeks off even allowing for the Irfu player resting lark.

Why not? Because we're winning so many games right now we don't want to ruin the streak? You talk about the likes of Sean O'Brien etc a guy who was basically unknown up until 2 seasons ago but was put into the team because if your good enough your old enough a philosophy we should embrace.

Luke Fitzgerald was 18 when he made his Leinster debut so why can't guys like Layden and Boland who can both play wing not be given the same opportunity? Apparently the Leinster staff had a hard-on for the two Connacht second rows (Qualter and ?) during the Leinster Development vs Ireland U20 game. If those two guys were wearing blue shirts they'd both be given at least some game time to see what they can do and familiarize them with the level in the Rabo 12.

It would be great alright to see more of the young lads and let them show what they have. TOH got a good few games when he was in the early stages of his development contracts so it would be good to see the younger lads blooded. There are certainly a few lads in there like Qualter that could be first teamers in maybe 2 years time.

Changing the team and picking teams to win specific games is all fine when you have a good squad but with all the injuries and a small squad isnt possible.
The lads coming in are not good enough and as the losses mounted Elwood became under more pressure to pick his first fifteen.
Leinster can make these changes because there are some quality players coming through dying to get a run out. We dont have the luxury of giving Jamie Heaslip and Sean O Brien a few weeks off even allowing for the Irfu player resting lark.

In the wake of the loss at the weekend, I logged in here with a view to starting this exact thread, but I decided against it until I had time to calm down! I'm calm now, but I still think Eric should be under a lot of pressure at this point. 13 in a row is one thing, but I felt we were very lucky to win a couple of the games we have (Dragons in particular), and we have put in a lot of brutal performances along the way to our current position of 13 losses in a row. Granted, we have had a few decent spells along the way too - Harlequins/Gloucester away and Leinster at home being the most memorable, but we didn't win any of those games, and this is a results business.

I agree too that we don't have the players we need to compete every week, and we have a long injury list, but we have the players to expect a win every few weeks at least.

I know a lot of people will disagree, but if we had the opportunity to replace Eric with Eddie O'Sullivan, I'd jump at it.

While I started this tread it doesn't mean I want EE gone yet rather I am wanted a place for us to discuss the manager rather it being piecemeal over a bunch of topics. While I agree with some of the very good points made in favour of EE there is alot he could do better. For example people say this is a 'development year' fine then lets start seeing young guys get a chance like Layden, Connelly, Boland, Maguire and Carty among others. He could start bringing them in slowly and rest this 'tired team'. The simple fact is EE has a small squad because he thinks he has. For the first time ever we have an academy bursting with talent that is begging to be utilized yet he's using the same 22 over and over again. That is bad management of resources and is neither good for the team or the players. It's also hugely damaging to guys on the fringes i.e. Grace who want gametime to prove themselves. If he doesn't start fixing pretty bad flaws in his management then I really am going to start calling for his head.

I usually voice my personal opinion on facebook/connacht however finally got registered on here. I agree with you Eastcoast up to a certain point . Connacht Rugby have a basket full of problems that we all know about and often talk about , and maybe one day a lot of these problems will be resolved only to be replaced by others , life don,t ya just love it!! Anyhow we can talk about excuses for ages and one you said Eastcoast is very good "a tired team" , this we do have . This is one of my points . Clever man management comes into play here .There are games we play that we want to win , games we can,t and games we should .So take this formula make decisions and bloody forget about focusing on a game by game basis . Our small injured squad does not allow us the luxury of thinking we can win each game we play . With honesty and a properly devised plan you tell your players this game maybe , not a hope, we will , rotate the players accordingly , some get rested ,some get crucial game time, others get what they need . End result . All the squad benefit ,and a few games are won along the way. This is how I would do it . Make the best of what I have , be honest and most of all , biuld a squad of players who want to be in no other team but CONNACHT

Wouldnt sack Elwood. He is learning but its not easy with having to field the same lads so much, injuries and squad numbers.
Were not a bad side but we are better than last year with more young players coming through. The players are in the pipeline but we are a bit short this year and probably for next year.

The key difference this year from all the others is we are in the HEC, not who the coach is.

Our losing streak would have been a lot less if we were playing semi-amateur cannon fodder in the Amlin, so the argument isn't that Bradley won a game from time to time, but we were in a position to have easy games from time to time.