reality is we havent the pulling power to attract the quality of a sob or bod. thats why players not getting a game are targetted. if we had the pulling power we wud target players of that calibre make no mistake about it. they wud also be iq because ofthe rules of the irfu.

It doesnt happen rossie no matter how much a province would want a player, o gara (in prime) to leinster, bod to munster whens the last time you ever heard of another provinces best player being recruited by a rival province, except! for connacht..

its a fair point to say that but for injuries John Muldoon, Frank Murphy and Gavin Duffy would still be starting.
In Ireland in general we are a bit conservative about giving a player gametime at a young age but with the game becoming increasingly physical, some talented players just can't stand up to the physical demands of pro rugby.

We are beyond conservative considering donnacha ryan is 30 and still considered a newbie by the media paul marshell is 27 now i think its barmy, seems to run rife through the physcology of most irish coaches, it will get us nowhere imo.


Anyway happy new year to everyone! hope 2013 is a great year for ye all and for connacht rugby

Its a fair point to say that but for injuries John Muldoon, Frank Murphy and Gavin Duffy would still be starting.

However, at the start of the season there was no-one shouting too loud for Henshaw to be included and when he did get his first few runs it was in the centre. (which I believe long term might be his best position)

Players will react differently to pro rugby. Eoin McKeown's talent was clear a couple of years ago but its not an exact science as to when to bring lads through. Some can hit it off straight away others not so.

In Ireland in general we are a bit conservative about giving a player gametime at a young age but with the game becoming increasingly physical, some talented players just can't stand up to the physical demands of pro rugby.

reality is we havent the pulling power to attract the quality of a sob or bod. thats why players not getting a game are targetted. if we had the pulling power we wud target players of that calibre make no mistake about it. they wud also be iq because ofthe rules of the irfu.

id agree i was delighted at jhw and white signings, parks/faloon were a step up aswell, like you id want a couple of high quality players, but right now our best players who are stepping up to the plate are the academy young guys who lets face it are in the team by accident! if duffy wasnt injured he would be playing fullback still, id say murphy would still be starting at scrum half only for injury aswell i think that speaks volumes. considering the postion we are in the league shouldnt we be saying lets see if the rest of the academy lads are just as good rather than persisting with swift/o conner/muldoon or doing the same switches and substitutions at the same times week in week out. The academy guys also dont have any inferiority complex like some of the recruited journey men

+1

As you say quality over quantity will make the difference. Thats why I was pleased with this seasons recruiting. White, Harris Wright, Faloon, Parks, Poolman have all shown that they are good additions to the squad rather than the previous seasons recruitment where a lot of duds were brought in. I'd rather 5 or 6 more good signings than clearing out the likes of Swift, Muldoon, Duffy and replacing them with lesser quality.

id agree i was delighted at jhw and white signings, parks/faloon were a step up aswell, like you id want a couple of high quality players, but right now our best players who are stepping up to the plate are the academy young guys who lets face it are in the team by accident! if duffy wasnt injured he would be playing fullback still, id say murphy would still be starting at scrum half only for injury aswell i think that speaks volumes. considering the postion we are in the league shouldnt we be saying lets see if the rest of the academy lads are just as good rather than persisting with swift/o conner/muldoon or doing the same switches and substitutions at the same times week in week out. The academy guys also dont have any inferiority complex like some of the recruited journey men

Some of these gaps can be filled through the academy, many can't.

id agree if we are unable to recruit quality players in certain positions and the academy cant fill the void then no sense in letting guys go but id try and do it in that order

I find it absolutely sickening to hear fans from other provinces talk about connacht players like that (and they do, more often than they care to admit)

other clubs will always pursue good players as will supporters speculate re same. isnt that what we are doing here?

Ya it was pretty annoying not the same as trying to recruit a guy who is not playing week in week out for his province, more like we should be honored they consider one of our players worthy of taking not a jot of thought that he might want to play for his own province, love to see how they'd react if we "decided" we'll take bod and o'brien cos there not so bad. Some neck of their supporters

i know that but my point was that as connacht struggle to keep players when others come into the market they need to be innotavive and sign the ones they really want to keep earlier.

the transfer fee is coming. bath have reportedly offered a 6 figure sum to dragons for toby falataeu to get him for next season and some french team similar to leicester for castrgiavani.

all the more reason to keep them signed up.

rossie wrote: its connacht who will be foolish if they allow their best players into the final yr of their contract. this imo is where macca was lost. if he had been offered a 2 / 3 yr contract extention on termms offered now or similar this time last year he would prob have signed as it gave him the security he was after.

Every rugby team lets their players into the last year of their contract. Not just Connacht.

This is because:

(1) the injury/retirement rate of players and the attendant shorter contract length

(2) the lack of a cash transfer market i.e. players being transferred while under contract (and therefore both the lack of player value amortisation on the balance sheet or a boost to the balance sheet when a player signs on for a longer period)

(3) in some cases some (England international, standard provincial contracts in Ireland) or all (Irish central contracts) the money for a players contrcat comes from the same source

This is a conflation of soccer economics with rugby economics.

I was thinking about possible signings when i remembered this guy:

www.quins.co.uk/rugby/harlequins_rugby_u...6&includeref=dynamic

Peter Browne he's Irish Qualified, a second rower and just about to hit his peak (he's 25) and at 6'7 and a little over 116 kgs would add beef to our pack. All we have to do now is persuade him to leave Premiership toppers Harlequins...

I also like a guy called Thom Daly who plays for Carlow Rugby Club. He's in the Leinster Sub-academy at the moment and can play 10,12 and 13. He's 6'3 and 15 stone at only 19 year of age with great hands and he kicks for Carlow. Apparently it was a toss up to see if him or Adam Bryne would get on the Leinster Bench the last few games. Offer him a development and throw him on the wing for the first season the boy's got pace.

David Buldring who I mentioned earlier got picked for his Super 15 team this season starting. Knew that he was good.

its connacht who will be foolish if they allow their best players into the final yr of their contract. this imo is where macca was lost. if he had been offered a 2 / 3 yr contract extention on termms offered now or similar this time last year he would prob have signed as it gave him the security he was after.

this time nxt year we have to nail down the players mentioned before other clubs can talk to them. thats the only way connacht can keep them in the short to medium term.

other clubs will always pursue good players as will supporters speculate re same. isnt that what we are doing here?

Devils own wrote: id let go immediately players who are clearly not of the standard needed murphy, healy (was dire), grace, swift (died after 30 minutes), gannon, pod, jarvis, even dare i say it the likes of muldoon, duffy, etc are in effect not good enough for elsewhere i hope the coach does a major clearout..i was sickened to hear leinsterfans saying they should take henshaw and marmion off connacht as if we were a buffet, but in reality those players and possibly 1 maybe! 2 others that can compete at the required level. Quality over quanity will make the difference.

I find it absolutely sickening to hear fans from other provinces talk about connacht players like that (and they do, more often than they care to admit) but at the same time I would think henshaw and marmion foolish if they come to contract renewal time in two years and Connacht are still playing like they have the past month or two. Its up to the team and club as a whole to move up a level otherwise we will continue to lose talented players like that who deserve recognition and to have a chance of wining silverware.

Devils own wrote:

connachtexile wrote: Fogarty plays for Aurillac Rugby in France if he wanted to come fair enough. He's good around the loose and a good scrumager but his throwing...

Not sure about Dineen. Him and Fifita are very similar and while Dineen might be more skilful I'd rather the likes of Tadgh Leader being promoted and been McSharry's understudy or even Jack Carty played at 12 to bring him up fast and learn on Parks shoulder.

Would get rid of Frank Murphy he's been plagued with injuries the last two seasons so it's time for him to go. Moore to if Walsh is good enough then congrats he's now third choice.

We need two second rows at least and I'd hold on to Gannon just cause of the lack of IQ's in that area.

Would also like us to really give are younger guys more of a shot. Yes Marmion and Hemshaw have come through and that's the point, lets give Layden, Heffernan, Marcus Walsh and Co. a chance to show what they can do. I've been really impressed with the quality of our academy graduates the last few season under Carolan and we should push more guys through rather than bringing a journey man who was a reject at some other province.

Well said exile, many of the names mentioned are simply that rejects harsh but true, how can anyone expect us to accomplish great things. promote the talented connacht academy players first, then if we have to look outside..then it has to guys that are currently actual real talent but happen to stuck behind bigger names at present.
mcallister, mcgrath, nagle, marshell, ruddock, jordi murphy, (think dineen isnt a bad call)..decent backs are harder to leinsters number 23 adam byrne looked decent in cameo on friday

id let go immediately players who are clearly not of the standard needed murphy, healy (was dire), grace, swift (died after 30 minutes), gannon, pod, jarvis, even dare i say it the likes of muldoon, duffy, etc are in effect not good enough for elsewhere i hope the coach does a major clearout..i was sickened to hear leinsterfans saying they should take henshaw and marmion off connacht as if we were a buffet, but in reality those players and possibly 1 maybe! 2 others that can compete at the required level. Quality over quanity will make the difference.

I'd agree in terms of getting rid of squad players who have proven they won't be of the required standard. However, we need to be very careful with recruitment and departures. This group is at a crucial point in their development.

For the first time ever we have a steady stream of home grown players coming through and we need to get the maximum return possible from these lads. We have the guts of a reasonable 20+ players now and major changes in the squad is not whats needed with new management coming in unless we know we can get better and more experienced performers elsewhere. There are a number of players who will / should be off but letting go of the likes of Swift / Muldoon / Duffy at this moment would be a regressive step imo.

While Swifty is pushing on his presence around the dressing room in itself is huge as he's a leader. Its no coincidence that as his performance died Leinster took over. With Mike McCarthy going he is valuable to keep for at least a year in terms of the transition. I would recruit for 2 first team players on the basis that Swifty would be a squad player who we know could do a job in certain games. We are not overstocked with proven 2nd row options and looking at Leinster and Ulster, their options are very limited also so its a competitive market.

As for Muldoon and Duffy they have been part of the lifeblood of the team for a number of years. Henshaw & Layden, McKeown & Heffernan are / will come through but the experience of the two lads is crucial in terms of the transition from old team to new team and lead by example in terms of what the new management wish to achieve.

Swift, Muldoon, JOC, Duffy will be phased out in the next 1/2/3 years but in the meantime they have a big role to play in the short term.

There is plenty of room for improvement with the players departing:
Prop (x 1)
Hooker (Possibly x 2)
2nd Row (x 2)
Back Row (x 2)
Scrum Half (x 2)
Out Half (Possibly x 2)
Centre (x 1)
Wing (x 3)(Possibly give one of these departures into bringing in another forward)

As you say quality over quantity will make the difference. Thats why I was pleased with this seasons recruiting. White, Harris Wright, Faloon, Parks, Poolman have all shown that they are good additions to the squad rather than the previous seasons recruitment where a lot of duds were brought in. I'd rather 5 or 6 more good signings than clearing out the likes of Swift, Muldoon, Duffy and replacing them with lesser quality.

Some of these gaps can be filled through the academy, many can't.

connachtexile wrote: Fogarty plays for Aurillac Rugby in France if he wanted to come fair enough. He's good around the loose and a good scrumager but his throwing...

Not sure about Dineen. Him and Fifita are very similar and while Dineen might be more skilful I'd rather the likes of Tadgh Leader being promoted and been McSharry's understudy or even Jack Carty played at 12 to bring him up fast and learn on Parks shoulder.

Would get rid of Frank Murphy he's been plagued with injuries the last two seasons so it's time for him to go. Moore to if Walsh is good enough then congrats he's now third choice.

We need two second rows at least and I'd hold on to Gannon just cause of the lack of IQ's in that area.

Would also like us to really give are younger guys more of a shot. Yes Marmion and Hemshaw have come through and that's the point, lets give Layden, Heffernan, Marcus Walsh and Co. a chance to show what they can do. I've been really impressed with the quality of our academy graduates the last few season under Carolan and we should push more guys through rather than bringing a journey man who was a reject at some other province.

Well said exile, many of the names mentioned are simply that rejects harsh but true, how can anyone expect us to accomplish great things. promote the talented connacht academy players first, then if we have to look outside..then it has to guys that are currently actual real talent but happen to stuck behind bigger names at present.
mcallister, mcgrath, nagle, marshell, ruddock, jordi murphy, (think dineen isnt a bad call)..decent backs are harder to find leinsters number 23 adam byrne looked decent in cameo on friday

id let go immediately players who are clearly not of the standard needed murphy, healy (was dire), grace, swift (died after 30 minutes), gannon, pod, jarvis, even dare i say it the likes of muldoon, duffy, etc are in effect not good enough for elsewhere i hope the coach does a major clearout..i was sickened to hear leinsterfans saying they should take henshaw and marmion off connacht as if we were a buffet, but in reality those players and possibly 1 maybe! 2 others that can compete at the required level. Quality over quanity will make the difference.

Fogarty plays for Aurillac Rugby in France if he wanted to come fair enough. He's good around the loose and a good scrumager but his throwing...

Not sure about Dineen. Him and Fifita are very similar and while Dineen might be more skilful I'd rather the likes of Tadgh Leader being promoted and been McSharry's understudy or even Jack Carty played at 12 to bring him up fast and learn on Parks shoulder.

Would get rid of Frank Murphy he's been plagued with injuries the last two seasons so it's time for him to go. Moore to if Walsh is good enough then congrats he's now third choice.

We need two second rows at least and I'd hold on to Gannon just cause of the lack of IQ's in that area.

Would also like us to really give are younger guys more of a shot. Yes Marmion and Hemshaw have come through and that's the point, lets give Layden, Heffernan, Marcus Walsh and Co. a chance to show what they can do. I've been really impressed with the quality of our academy graduates the last few season under Carolan and we should push more guys through rather than bringing a journey man who was a reject at some other province.

The squad needs to be streamlined since there are a lot of passengers here right now. I don't see how Rodney Ah You, TJ Anderson, Mata Fifita, Dave Gannon, Matt Jarvis, James Loxton, Mark McCrea, Dave Moore, Brian Murphy, Miah Nikora, Paul O'Donohoe and Ethienne Reynecke can help Connacht get to the level we feel they're capable of playing at. There are others like JP Cooney and Matt Healy who I'd need to see more of before casting them aside.

My fantasy, realistic shopping list would be as such:
Sean Henry
Connacht lad and plays in a position where we aren't strong.

Dennis Fogarty
Has his faults but is powerful around the park and a would be a good foil for Jason Harris Wright.

Damian Browne
Has done well at Leinster and plays in a position we need to strengthen.

Tom Hayes
With Mike McCarthy leaving and Mike Swift nearing the end of his career, we need leadership in the second row.

Peter Stringer
Could be a very useful mentor for Kieran Marmion.

Andrew Goodman
Can cover 10, 12 and 15, which makes him a great squad player should Nikora, Jarvis and Fifita not be around.

Chris Cochrane
We lack quality depth at winger.

Apart from that, let the new coach work with the younger players in the squad and give him a year to identify weaknesses himself.

Denis Fogarty, no thanks. Certainly would help in terms of ball carrying ability but while our lineout mightn't be top quality put him there and we might as well just hand the ball to the opposition hooker. I know he's gone to a Div 2 team in France and seems to be doing ok but really don't think bringing him in would be a positive step.

I think Reynecke will probably be kept. I would like to see him move on at this stage but considering he'll be IQ in another season may be kept. Flavin will probably be off alright.

2nd row. I'd agree with you there.

Half Backs: Unfortunately POD is here for another season. Dave Moore will be off. Frank Murphy must go at the end of the season. There are no circumstances under which I believe he should be kept on. May sound harsh but all our squad must be pulling their weight if we're to have any chance. Maybe have a look at Cathal Sheridan, don't know a huge amount about him but he's not going to be getting major gametime at Munster anytime soon. If we were really stuck, with Sale likely to go down, Cillian Willis might be an option to return as backup even though I know he didn't seem to leave on good terms before but it'll be a new management setup.

Backs: Carr would be great to have back. Cochrane is being strongly linked. Dineen might be a decent call. I'd be happy with maybe 1 good ball carrier in the centre but I think the main concentration has to be on 4 or 5 additions in the pack and 1 or 2 at half back.

we are heading into the funny season now where players can openly talk contracts so this is connachts shopping list for 2013/14.

A. Hooker- Keep JHW. Look to sign one of Denis Fogarty, Tom Sexton or Sean Henry in that order. Reynecke to be released imo. He hasnt done enough to warrant another contract.(if cronin comes great but id doubt it)

B. 2nd row- Use NIQ here and bring in one of Browne, Nagle, Flanagan etc. keep Gannon to supplement Kearney and Swift. Give Qualter a dev contract to see how he does.

C. Half backs- who to share scrum half with Marmion. id let donohue and More go. Moore was taken off v cross keys after 20 terrible min and his replacement( Marcus Walsh) was excellent. He deserves consideration when looking at scrum half. The elephant in the room is Frank. Do we keep him to help these young lads. There may not be any better iq scrumhalves available.
Nikora imo is the Plan B flyhalf and not the back up one. He cant imo play Parks game so should only be a plan b option with 20 left. We either go after a Mckinney or Reid type to back parks up or promote Carty. Im not sure hes ready. imo he lacks menatal stamina at this time.
D. backs- id go after Dineen of Munster. hes a very good player who can play 12,13 and wing. hes mainly a 13 though and a good one at that. Bring back carr. hes going nowhere at leinster and he knows it.
Thats a significant bit of business if they can achieve anything like it. thats my 2 bob anyway.