Connacht Squad 2017-2018

Harsh enough on Boshoff. The chap got injured having played well and has since lost his father and had to take some personal time. Hes back in training now. He should be given the chance and some time to play and get comfortable.

I think Boshoff will come good. It's been a difficult start for him but fingers crossed he gets back for the final games. We'll definitely need him for the play-offs..

Betty Swallocks wrote: The continuing selection of Carty at 10 has been incredible. It's known he's not good enough and yet he continues to start. The Boshoff experience has also been very disspiriting. Essentially he has three games to show if he can contribute or not. That's where our problems lie - 10 and the lack of direction.

Fast twitch wrote: Could any available outhalf (within our budget) thrive in our system? Are there dummy runners shielding the playmaker or pass receiver? Does the playmaker have deep and flat options to pass to? Do we employ more than one playmaker to keep the defence guessing? Does the pass to the playmaker allow time to feint a kick to keep the defence honest?
Now that teams have figured us out would AJ McGinty be any better?
You're right Dobby it's not good enough, but the team are not giving Jack or Steve a chance with the slow get man and ball passing that was on display on Saturday.
This team took a beating from Leinster all night and rarely inflicted any pain on their playmakers.
I'm not going to mention the intercepts thrown to guys wearing high viz, and 3 players can hold their hands up there.
Team failure not one player/position.

I was at the Leinster game. They seemed to live offside for most of the game. Some of the passing from Connacht was brilliant and we could well have given away another two intercepts.
The two intercepts were killers and the gimme try after we tried to work it out of our 22 after the kickoff hurt. Thats the game just there.
The plan was great for last year. We have changed some of the pivotal players and its not as efficient.
Watching the game live it was crying out for a few kicks downfield or grubbers in behind to keep them more honest.
This was much of Leinster seconds and we struggled.
Were thread bare in a couple of positions and its a shame that so many players are being stockpiled in Leinster rather than heading west.
It disappointing that Lam hasn't been able to add to the game plan this year to keep teams guessing about us.

One thing I cannot wrap my head around is how deep and lateral our 10 plays. I was blaming Jack for it earlier in the year but I think it's a coaching issue. When the 10 is first receiver (as opposed to forward) a lot of the time he will take the pass from the scrumhalf standing still, and shovel on a pass. This is so pointless, teams can just drift out and shut us down in midfield. There's a reason no team anywhere plays like this.

I really don't like what we're doing with the ball, we went through endless phases on Saturday going sideways or backwards, and didn't create much apart from a few moments from Tiernan which led to the tries. Leinster had to work so much less to score tries.

I have full faith in the players and think we'll improve a lot next year, I'm just struggling to see how we're going to score enough to win an away playoff game, never mind our issues in defence.

We'll see just how much of a shadow selection that was for Leinster when they announce their team for Clermont. There are only 4 of Saturday's 23 in with a realistic chance of starting - Byrne, McGrath, Triggs and Van Der Flier - so like it or lump it we got humped by the Leinster second string.

There's a lot of debate on whether it's the gameplan, or our 10, or whatever, but this line from an Independent article stuck in my craw - "Eoin Griffin lamented the fact that he could hear opponents actually calling out Connacht's own attacking ploys". It seems we know what's wrong (we're too bloody predictable and the opposition have "prozoned us to death", to borrow Steve Coppell's oneliner) but we don't know how to fix it.

I was really concerned by some of the commentary from Lam after the game, especially regarding the Ronaldson intercept. I don't care if the guys outside him should have let him know not to throw the pass because Byrne was blitzing outside him - if you can't see the 6 foot 3 lad in the dayglow Arsenal away kit from 1993 then you need a HIA. That sort of "the system will save us in all circumstances if we just stick to it" verges on cargo cult coaching. Sometimes it feels like we're more concerned about executing the orders from Battalion HQ than about looking at what's where on the battlefield in front of us; if everyone's in the right place making the rights shapes we think we'll get our reward.

www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/connacht-...n-side-35627982.html

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Don't agree at all, they problem is that when you play Jack at 10 you are limiting your options in attack to pass/kick which he does pretty well, but he gets visibly gets deeper when pressure mounts when up against a good rush defence making it easier to defend out wide.He has a limited run game that only appears when we are either absolutely bossing sides or when he gets flushed out of the pocket he consistently drops into under pressure ...

If you want to fix a defender they first have to believe that you offer some sort of threat in attack. The brilliant cross kick for Poolman's try apart, he really didn't influence the game.
But it wasn't because we didn't have possession, he just doesn't demand possession like a Sexton or even an AJ does. Certainly in AJ's brief time at 10 I believe he got his hands on the ball more..

The threat AJ posed with ball in hand forced defenders to focus on him and created space for those outside him. by standing deep Jack doesn't force defenders to make any decisions so they can ignore him and push up hard in midfield. He did execute a few smart kicks and if he could do so more often defences would have to think twice about rushing up so aggressively in midfield.

For me Crosby should have been on for at least for the last half hour...ten minutes was absolutely pointless...
If Keane is getting full 80min videos of our games ahead of his arrival, I don't see Jack starting next season.I really dont...

Maybe the new coaching staff will be able to get more out of him, he's still young. It's discouraging that after nearly 5 years and 80 caps a guy who left Leinster without making an impact can come in and arguably look better than him (not a slight on Corosbie I'm a fan)

I'm absolutely gutted that Lam has decided to go, but also pissed of that he's doing a bit of cherry picking from our coaching team for Bristol's benefit before he goes which despite any official reassurances to the contrary is disruptive. Guys who are planning to run the show in Bristol for early summer are doing work on it now, not in a couple of months time...

To be honest, I think our backs have demonstrably gone a long way backwards this season, they never look like a cohesive unit and I can't remember any particularly inventive set plays or anything, so it might be best for everyone that McPhillips continues his development as a coach elsewhere.

Right now, (and I know it's almost tantamount to heresy) I'd nearly be happier to have a caretaker coach in place for the remainder of the season, if it meant that Crosby was utilised more.
I'm really very concerned about Keane's late arrival, part of Lam's success was based on the fact that he was out of contract and came in three-four month before he was due to take charge and had the opportunity to get a full handover from Eric and get the lie of the land...another disrupted pre-season and season start like last year would be an absolute disaster...

That's a big worry for sure, at least there'll be less turnover of first team players this summer.

Still a bit peeved at the media coverage of the game, Leinster A/Shadow Squad etc (they had ten Internationals starting ffs...

It was definitely a second string team, I think talking about internationals is deceptive, like Dom Ryan is capped but he's well down the pecking order these days, same with Kirchner, Reid, Tracy, Ross, and even Ruddock to an extent

And I don't believe Finlay is fully fit at the moment but with the injuries all the way down to our Academy at Prop, he's playing through the pain...

Absolutely agree, I think Finlay and Denis have dropped off a good bit from last year, which I think is as a result of having to play so much due to their backups being injured or not trusted. Finaly has played 58 games since the beginning of last season.

We badly need some of these back before the playoff games (Tom McCartney, Ronan Loughney, Conor Carey, Ultan Dillane, Nepia Fox-Matamua, Peter Robb, Stacey Ili, Matt Healy, Cian Kelleher.), and hopefully Botha is in a place where he can offer something to the run in too (I'd understand if he wasn't though)...[/quote]

Re: Jack, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that he has shown in the past that he is capable of playing the way we would like to see (ie, attacking the gainline, variation in plays, shorter kicking behind opposition for oncoming runners) in addition to what he's already doing well. We saw that in the Gloucester playoff game where he was pretty exceptional, but I would be hard pressed to think of another game he has played as good in (for the whole game) since then.

We got a glimpse of what the following season would be like, many players played out of their skin most of them continued in the same vein, but was that just a one off game for Jack that he might not reach more than once or twice a season if he continues to mature?. Could it be that the arrival of AJ and then Boshoff killed Jack's confidence? Did his ongoing issues with placekicking (important but surely not absolutely essential to his job in open play) affect his mindset during the rest of the game?


What I'm more certain of is that the freak injury he sustained certainly has had a long term effect and set him back close to a year. Added to that he returned to fitness when the rest of the team was on a decline and its no wonder that some performances have been below expectations, but as the fly half we do look to him to make things happen, to take control of the game, to get players moving as he sees fit.

phatguerilla wrote: Re: Jack, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that he has shown in the past that he is capable of playing the way we would like to see (ie, attacking the gainline, variation in plays, shorter kicking behind opposition for oncoming runners) in addition to what he's already doing well. We saw that in the Gloucester playoff game where he was pretty exceptional, but I would be hard pressed to think of another game he has played as good in (for the whole game) since then.

We got a glimpse of what the following season would be like, many players played out of their skin most of them continued in the same vein, but was that just a one off game for Jack that he might not reach more than once or twice a season if he continues to mature?. Could it be that the arrival of AJ and then Boshoff killed Jack's confidence? Did his ongoing issues with placekicking (important but surely not absolutely essential to his job in open play) affect his mindset during the rest of the game?


What I'm more certain of is that the freak injury he sustained certainly has had a long term effect and set him back close to a year. Added to that he returned to fitness when the rest of the team was on a decline and its no wonder that some performances have been below expectations, but as the fly half we do look to him to make things happen, to take control of the game, to get players moving as he sees fit.

God, I really would hope that a fully fit Boshoff would be starting a majority of the games. Jack has shown glimpses of very good play but I'm not sure he has ever demonstrated the consistency needed to be a starting #10 at this level. He's a competent backup especially if Connacht are on the front foot.

Have to agree. In attack you constantly have 5 or 6 players (Backs & Forwards) standing still looking around for someone to pass to rather than trying to take on responsibility themselves to break the line and make something positive happen.
I understand and agree with Pat's mantra that it's better to find a way round rather than run into but the fact is that everybody in the Pro12 has figured out last year's game plan and how to counter it and Connacht have simply stood still and failed to adapt their attack to counter the rush defence.
There is not enough work done in the midfield to make the hard yards and suck in defenders and the ball is going wide too quickly where defenses are aligned giving the wingers absolutely no space to work in. The ball goes from side to side with little or no ground gained until it's spilled or lost in the breakdown and it's backs to the wall defending more often than not with the defensive line not properly set and highly vulnerable.
I'm not a fan of cliche's but two that have always stood the test of time are 1) In rugby you earn the right to go wide and 2)Tactically, if you just standing still you're going backwards.
Just an opinion but I see this as a complete failure in the coaching structure and singling out individual players for blame is just not right. I for one cannot wait for this season to finish and believe that KK and whatever new players and coaches he adds will bring us a long way back to the kind of rugby we were playing last year.

Thornbury signs on two year deal.

www.connachtrugby.ie/thornbury/#ConnachtNews

Nice one.