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5 years 5 months ago #63670

swift4prez wrote: This result is not far from the Saracens result, losing 64-6 and they missed about 8 conversions. Ospreys had 20 players injured, they got a squad around 45 players, which means they had around 25 fit professional players.
This was a poor poor performance. Its the same mistake KK made last season. F'king chopping and changing the team each week.
I believe the words Nigel used on the Craggy Island podcast was for the Sale game was that players were given a 'Tactical rest'.
A rest from what? Have you ever heard a player say he didn't want to play, that he wanted a rest. No! If a player has taken a knock then he should be rested.
Even a few season ago even Rodney Ah You hit something like 20/22 games. If he can do it, anyone can.

After the two wins against Ulster and Bordeaux, only 8 players made the starting 15 for the sale game. Delahunt, Carey, Fainga'a, Copeland, Blade, Niyi. Cannon moved from 4 to 5 and Godwin moved from 11 to 12.
After the 'Tactical rest' vs Sale, no surprise only 6 from that starting 15, started against Ospreys tonight. Buckley, Dillane, Farell, Niyi, ToH and Boyle moved from 6 to 8.

You might be thinking 'Oh we might of gone back to the team that won against Bordeaux. No! Only 6 from tonight started against Bordeux.
Last 3 games we started 26 different players. Its not like we started our best team against Bordeaux and Ospreys, and sent completely different team to Sale. As above shows, we made 7 changes and 9 changes. How are these players meant to gel. We have a nice squad, we can add 2 players here and there and they will click into place but not half a team every week.

I'd love to know who Nigel and the coaches are resting these players for? Could they not survive the Sale game, Ospreys and Dragons before having 3 weeks to rest?!
Are we resting players to beat Leinster, Munster and Ulster?
Are we resting players for when we make 2 trips to France in Challenge Cup where me might already blown our chance to get out of the pool?
Are we resting players so instead of fighting for a semi final in Pro14 we are fighting for 3rd spot? (already a gap opening)
Or are we resting players for when April arrive, we have Zebre away, Cardiff at home and Munster away so we can sell a few season tickets?

I'd really love to know what we are resting players for at the expense of losing games.

Just pick the bloody best team, pick the guy who's killing it at training. Only rest a player if he needs it.
I don't care if we signed a player and if he never wears the senior jersey. If he's not the best player available, then he shouldn't be on the pitch. He has his chance at training to show the coaches. I'm not aiming that at any player. I don't care what age he is, where he's from, what he done in past just give Connacht the best chance of winning by picking the best team.


Player workloads are managed based on data we have no idea about as fans. Also, players (Anthony Watson for one) have come out and said they want to play less games. Rotation is a part of rugby, it’s not an excuse for poor performances.

Last edit: 5 years 5 months ago by Mark Mostyn.
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5 years 5 months ago #63671

Just to put things into perspective, taking the games thus far it could be argued we threw away 9 points by either sloppy defence and/or an inability to convert chances.

3 points v Glasgow/Ospreys
1 BP v Scarlets/Ulster
and a case could be made that we should have managed a LBP v Leinster

This brings us back to a position much like last season where we weren't losing games by much but we were still losing them, the likes of the Cardiff games Edinburgh at home are a few that spring to mind. While I still believe we are in better shape than last season we need to actually start putting this potential into results or we're going to be back in the CC next year wondering should we be focussing on the league or what again, we seem not to be able to get the most out of our 2nd string players anymore, and lots of young players have regressed in the past couple of seasons. Dragons game now becomes huge and anything other than 5 from that is a real disappointment.

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5 years 5 months ago #63672

Wonder how long it will take for the players to oust friend once he tells a few home truths like KK did????????????????

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5 years 5 months ago #63673

we shouldn't overreact. We were poor but the pack shows he has the potential to get the upper hand. The whole back-line failed IMO

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5 years 5 months ago #63674

Yesss no BP for Cardiff. No BP for Treviso either. European dream still on (7th overall)

Last edit: 5 years 5 months ago by connachta.
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5 years 5 months ago #63676

connachta wrote: Yesss no BP for Cardiff. No BP for Treviso either. European dream still on (7th overall)


Talking about fighting for 7th spot in October is depressing. Connachta you might be right, it might be reality because as a team we haven't performed.
Andy Friend has said that he's in both (Pro14 and Challenge Cup) to win.
To win the Challenge Cup we got to make the quarter final. Winning the group looks unlikely, and were 5th in getting one of 3 best runner up. Not ideal.
To win the Pro14 we need to make semi final. Top 2 in the conference. We are already 7 points behind the Ospreys for second place, with both Cardiff and Munster chasing them down too.

Not much will be made of the Dragons on Saturday as that should be a 5pointer. Dragons are a very poor team with a very poor coach. When we come back after the break and have 2 games in South Africa, if we get 9+ points against those two poor teams, then we might be on the right track. Currently we would be lucky to finish 7th and that Heineken Cup spot

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