salmson wrote:

RogueXV wrote: Didn't Reynecke come on as a project player? I can see him getting one more year

He most certainly did not. We have 4 NIQs and 2 "projects" - Rodney and Poolman. And it's not like he'd ever get near an Ireland jersey, unlike, say White.

Can't remember ever hearing of him playing for SA at top level. What rules him out of becoming IQ at end of next season?

Assuming Connacht Eagles are in the B&I cup next year (I don't know why they wouldn't be) then we can't afford to be dropping a dozen or so players unless there are plenty of replacements coming in. I don't think its likely that all the academy players waiting in the wings are on the same level as Buckley, Marmion and Henshaw even though it would be great if there were even a few more on that level.

We don't need to keep a bunch of guys on salary just to play a bunch of A games for us. We brought in AIL lads to play for us before when we were short and we can do that again if needs be. The point of the A games is to give our younger lads experience at a higher level. Keeping the likes of Anderson who'll never break into the first team but will draw a wage that could be used to get a better player and hold a position on the Eagles that an up and comer could be put into to gain valuable experience is pointless.

RogueXV wrote: Didn't Reynecke come on as a project player? I can see him getting one more year

He most certainly did not. We have 4 NIQs and 2 "projects" - Rodney and Poolman. And it's not like he'd ever get near an Ireland jersey, unlike, say White.

Assuming Connacht Eagles are in the B&I cup next year (I don't know why they wouldn't be) then we can't afford to be dropping a dozen or so players unless there are plenty of replacements coming in. I don't think its likely that all the academy players waiting in the wings are on the same level as Buckley, Marmion and Henshaw even though it would be great if there were even a few more on that level.

I think Carty is developing nicely and should get more gametime next season.

Ah You, Loxton, McCrea, Anderson and Grace I'd get rid of.

Jarvis I'd keep but he needs to be given one position and given proper gametime in it otherwise he could become a jack of all trades and master of none.

Healy and Murphy I'd at least like to start a game and see how they do at this level before writing them off.

Gannon I'd keep for the reasons above. As for Reynecke it depends who we get in.

Borders no.2 wrote:
Prop: Rodney will be gone. The new management team have enough to deal with without trying to make a pro rugby player out of him.

If Rodney is still around next season we will know for sure that he has something on someone high up on the Board

Hooker: Adrian Flavin has been a great servant but seeing him selected for the A side last week perhaps means his time is up. I'd look at Reynecke too. I might give him a year contract rather than losing two experienced hookers at once but is he justifying a NIQ spot? We should be on the lookout for 2 replacements imo but IQ options are hard enough to come by.

Didn't Reynecke come on as a project player? I can see him getting one more year.


Out Half: Nikora or Jarvis to go? Nikora is probably the more balanced player at the moment but Jarvis has much more potential for improvement but has yet to consistently show it? You'd hope Jack Carty would take over as backup no.10 during next year obut in the meantime, a backup no.10 capable at this level is needed as Dan Parks is unlikely to start every game next season.

Have to think if Jarvis was going to be around next season he would have been given some starts with the Eagles. You never know what a new coach might decide, but I'm figuring Carty will be moved up. He'd be exactly one of the reasons for bringing Parks in

Devils own wrote:
Just my opinion but i would cut lose mcrea, loxtan, rodney, tj, flavin, gannon, murphy,nikora, healy..

Interesting.

Prop: Rodney will be gone. The new management team have enough to deal with without trying to make a pro rugby player out of him.

Hooker: Adrian Flavin has been a great servant but seeing him selected for the A side last week perhaps means his time is up. I'd look at Reynecke too. I might give him a year contract rather than losing two experienced hookers at once but is he justifying a NIQ spot? We should be on the lookout for 2 replacements imo but IQ options are hard enough to come by.

2nd Row: Mike McCarthy is off, Dave Gannon probably too but we need to be careful here as while Swifty will be around for another year anyway I'd imagine his role should be as much for his presence around the dressing room as anything. We should be looking at 2 or 3 new options here.

Back Row: TJ Anderson is a goner. I'd imagine Eoghan Grace too even though he has captained the A side.

Scrum Half: Frank Murphy and Dave Moore both off for me.

Out Half: Nikora or Jarvis to go? Nikora is probably the more balanced player at the moment but Jarvis has much more potential for improvement but has yet to consistently show it? You'd hope Jack Carty would take over as backup no.10 during next year obut in the meantime, a backup no.10 capable at this level is needed as Dan Parks is unlikely to start every game next season.

Backs: McCrea and Loxton are both probably off. Haven't seen much of Healy but I'd imagine he'll head back to AIL.

That would leave us with a lot of recruitment to do but time to cut our losses on some of the fringe players anyway.

I don't we are that well fixed at hooker. Harris-Wright has been a success story in recent weeks and looks like he will do a good job for us but after that Adrian Flavin is probably coming to the end this season and is Reynecke going to be held onto with NIQ spots more badly needed elsewhere? Don't know enough about Kevin O'Byrne but I'd imagine its unlikely he'll be an option for next season. You need 2 quality players in this position and a decent 3rd choice as backup.

While I'd have Cronin back in a heartbeat, and the IT article opens the door a tiny bit, it's worth noting that the Independent is a lot less convinced that it's a possibility.

Cronin – who has been linked with a return to Connacht but now looks likely to sign a new contract with Leinster – was introduced to the fray very early on Saturday following Strauss' injury.

He won't be going anywhere.

connachtexile wrote:

Just my opinion but i would cut lose mcrea, loxtan, rodney, tj, flavin, gannon, murphy,nikora, healy..

Can we really afford to let Gannon go? We're short on 2nd rows so letting a IQ 2nd row go doesn't make sense to me. Not this season coming at least.

As for the Cronin interview it struck me as pure agent talk. He's been given a script to read and he's saying the right things to the media to keep Leinster guessing. Hope I'm wrong but I doubt it.

Ya your right we would be light but i just think we need keep aiming higher but if we got Ben marshell, Nagle etc plus one or two of our lads from the academy step up I would be far happier.
while he would be a good addition we don't need Cronin back and like you said he is only trying to strengthen his bargaining hand at Leinster, we should nip in a recruit marshell or jack mcgrath

Just my opinion but i would cut lose mcrea, loxtan, rodney, tj, flavin, gannon, murphy,nikora, healy..

Can we really afford to let Gannon go? We're short on 2nd rows so letting a IQ 2nd row go doesn't make sense to me. Not this season coming at least.

As for the Cronin interview it struck me as pure agent talk. He's been given a script to read and he's saying the right things to the media to keep Leinster guessing. Hope I'm wrong but I doubt it.

JHW is doing just fine and will only get better smarter player than cronin and his darts are better. so if cronin wants to return well and good but he shouldnt think he would just walk back in the first team. mccarthy is a big loss but its time to bring in connacht guys like heffernan, carthy, qualter, gardiner, conneely. Then Integrate a few quality foreigners(sister provinces players) into a young connacht team backbone.

Just my opinion but i would cut lose mcrea, loxtan, rodney, tj, flavin, gannon, murphy,nikora, healy..

Bring in quality from a few of these guys
jordi murphy, ben marshell, paddy mccallister, ian nagle, philip donnellan

Thanks for the painful memories BN2. Though I have to agree with OS on Keane, if he's the worst than Connacht are not doing too bad at scrumhalf. I guess it wouldn't be fair to put Conor McPhillips in the list at 9 since it was down to Bradley trying him out of position. I also have some sympathy for Slemen as he was part of that merry-go-round that Bradley had going with Warwick and McHugh switching between flyhalf and fullback with the occasional stop at centre.

Poor Chris Keane! I always liked his honest endeavour.

We all have our own idea of our worst ever side but here's my shot at it.

1 John Lyne
2 Frik Venter.
3 Rodney Ah You
4 Ryan Strudwick.
5 Pieter Myburgh.
6 Eric Peters
7 Andrew Gallagher (Struggling at 7 so will stick Andrew Gallagher in here)
8 Ezra Taylor.
9 Chris Keane
10 Tim Donnelly
11 Mike Roberts
12 Mel Deane (2nd time around)
13 Andrew Mailei
14 Alipante Tuilevuka
15 David Slemen

RogueXV wrote:

connachtexile wrote: Annnywaaay. Getting back to the real rumours Apparently Chris Cochrane would be a real asset for us. One of the lads on the Ulster site described him as us getting another Fionn Carr. He's just the type I like. Ambitious (not happy to wait behind Gilroy, Bowe and Trimble) has an eye for the tryline and his nickname is 'Ghosty'. Sweet.

I don't know anything about this lad, but I'd be thinking long and hard before I left. Not sure how quickly Bowe will be returning and if this Cochrane does have a nose for the tryline he should be pushing Trimble for game time sooner rather than later.

In my head I was confusing Cochrane with Chris Farrell a Big Unit in the centre with good hands and pace who made a decent enough impression at U20 RWC in SA.

Cochrane is 24 today, and frankly he should be hitting his straps with Ulster now if he was anywhere Fionn's level. With what we have currently, I'd be happier to to see Fionn return than for us to sign another unproven AIL standard winger...